Apple announces OS X Nyan, beta available to developers now

Just weeks after announcing OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has revealed OS X Nyan. While this new version has the same features as the yet-to-be-released upgrade of Mountain Lion, Nyan sports a brand new look, with Nyan cat wallpaper and soon a fully reskinned OS X experience. While the design isn’t finished, Apple has released a version with the new features and a wallpaper which may or may not be changed in final release.

The new version will continue to merge Apple’s apps and features from the iPad/iPhone to your Mac, such as Messages, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Notification Center, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring. More features include a rainbow dock, rainbow top-bar, and rainbow themes for iLife, iWork and other software, such as iTunes. It’s insane, but also a reminder that Apple’s design is foward-thinking.

Tim Cook told The Verge that criticism for the new version of OS X is “just unfair” and that it will “not be changing anything.”

He also stated that “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”

The beta will be available via the Mac Developer Program from today, while it has a set release date for Summer 2012. It’s exciting to see that Apple can do no wrong. We love it. 5/5 Will buy again.

The full press release can be found below:

Apple Releases OS X Nyan Developer Preview with Over 100 New Features

CUPERTINO, California—April 1, 2012—Apple® today released a developer preview of OS X® Nyan, the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, which brings popular apps and features from iPad® to the Mac® and accelerates the pace of OS X innovation. Nyan introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay® Mirroring. Nyan is the first OS X release built with iCloud® in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. The developer preview of Nyan also introduces Gatekeeper, a revolutionary security feature that helps keep you safe from malicious software by giving you complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac. The preview release of Nyan is available to Mac Developer Program members starting today. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Nyan from the Mac App Store™ in late summer 2012.

“The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Nyan things get even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The developer preview of Nyan comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.”

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”

The developer preview of Nyan features the all new Messages app which replaces iChat® and allows you to send unlimited messages, high-quality photos and videos directly from your Mac to another Mac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. Starting today Lion users can download a beta of Messages from www.apple.com, and the final version will be available with Nyan. Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your devices. Game Center lets you personalize your Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone®, iPad or iPod touch®.

Nyan presents notifications in an elegant new way, and Notification Center provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps. System-wide Share Sheets make it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Twitter is integrated throughout Nyan so you can sign on once and tweet directly from Safari®, Quick Look, Photo Booth®, Preview and third party apps. Nyan also introduces AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV®.

More than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Nyan makes it easier than ever to set up iCloud and access documents across your devices. Nyan uses your Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime® and Find My Mac. The new iCloud Documents pushes any changes to all your devices so documents are always up to date, and a new API helps developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.

Gatekeeper is a revolutionary new security feature that gives you control over which apps can be downloaded and installed on your Mac. You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed.

Nyan also has features specifically designed to support Chinese users, including significant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidu search in Safari. Nyan makes it easy to set up Contacts, Mail and Calendar with top email service providers QQ, 126 and 163. Chinese users can also upload video via Share Sheets directly to leading video websites Youku and Tudou, and system-wide support for Sina weibo makes microblogging easy.

Hundreds of new APIs give developers access to new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X. The Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCL and implements GLKit, first introduced in iOS 5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps. Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch™ APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.