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Actually, that big "X" on the banner has nothing to do with the OS or any announcement, that's just masking tape put there by the workers to keep any Californians from mistakenly trying to rock climb it - just like keeping birds from flying into large windows.
 
I'M SCREAMING EXTREMELY LOUD IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW

*sells moto X and buys an iPhone again*

At least I have my iPad for iOS 8 betas.
 
And anyway, the mountain banner is obviously a bad shot of Devils Tower, from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and the focus on this new release will be on special features and apps to facilitate first contact with alien species.
OS X Mash Potato Mountain?
 
The big X on El Cap might just mean that it will not be called El Cap.

Or it might mean it will not be called Yosemite.
 
Why? Do you mostly decide what OS to use by how the name sounds? Should there be some sort of global name recognition contest to find names that don't make anyone feel uneasy about not knowing something? "OS X Great Pyramid of Giza" and "OS X Great Wall of China" are both a bit of a mouthful, though "OS X Stonehenge" has a nice ring to it.

I've lived in California all my life, and I had to go look up Mavericks to see where the name came from. A few weeks later, I happened across a surfing documentary that spent perhaps half its time telling the story of the Mavericks surfing spot, and it was quite fascinating. Learning things is fun. I didn't learn much from the name "Windows 7 Ultimate Home Premium Deluxe Sparkly Edition".

Apple is a global company now. Seems odd to focus on names that the vast majority of users cannot relate to. The big cat names made sense because they're universal. Mavericks and Yosemite are not. It's a minor detail but it does give an insight into the mindset of the senior management team. I know 90% of Americans don't have a passport but I would have thought Apple VPs were a little more enlightened than that.
 
Apple is a global company now. Seems odd to focus on names that the vast majority of users cannot relate to. The big cat names made sense because they're universal. Mavericks and Yosemite are not. It's a minor detail but it does give an insight into the mindset of the senior management team. I know 90% of Americans don't have a passport but I would have thought Apple VPs were a little more enlightened than that.

I think Yosemite is a lot more known than Mavericks at least.
 
A lot of the changes are behind the scenes. I use AirPlay with my MBP a lot. Finder Tabs. Integrated Messages. Notifications. Maps App. Much improved iPhoto. I'm starting to find AirDrop more and more useful. And the power savings are VERY noticeable, even when used on previous hardware. Mavericks nearly doubled the battery life of my 2010 MBA.

Look beyond surface changes.

You may find those things improve your experience which is great but other than Finder tabs, everything else you listed I don't use because it's not part of my usage pattern or the execution is terrible especially with AirDrop. As for battery life, it's more or less the same than what I was getting with previous versions of OS X. Maybe I'll get 15 min more but that's negligible and nothing to write home about.

At some point you just stop looking at new features unless they're really special (like we got today with iOS and OS X integration) as long as you have a stable OS and OS X has been stable for me since Snow Leopard all I need is a change in UI because that aqua/aluminum theme has just grew old and tiresome. I'm glad we got something new today.
 
You got Industry in there twice. Personally, I'm holding out for OS X Bakersfield.

Oops, sorry about that. We could always go the other way: OS X: Cupertino, Palo Alto, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, Brentwood Heights, Laurel Canyon, Bel Air, Marin, etc...
 
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