It is likely that there are going to be a lot of reviews about Mavericks, including some ridiculously in-depth ones. I’ve been using it since the first beta, so here are my assorted thoughts on the first non-cat version of OS X.
## Calendar
The new calendar is much improved over the ones of years past. The biggest addition for me is the ability to list travel times. You can set a meeting from 1p-2p, and additionally specify that it will take you 1 hour to get to the meeting. The travel portion is then reflected on your calendar, as is the actual meeting time.
The down side to the feature is that it doesn’t sync with iOS, or account for travel time *after* your meeting. So while your calendar will show that it takes 2 hours to get there, the calendar will have no indication of how long it takes to get back.
I would love for a little more Apple magic in this space. Specifically why can’t I define places and have Apple tell me the travel time. So I could define my Office, client office A, client office B and the calendar then assumes I will always be at my office, unless otherwise specified. So if my day is: office, client A and then client B — the calendar shows the travel time from my office to client A office, then tells me if I have time to come back to the office, or if I should travel to client B office right away (and that time), then assumes I head back to my office afterwards. Sounds complicated written out, but I see no reason it would be complicated in practice once default locations are setup.
So Calendar is a net positive, but the travel time addition is rather half-assed.
## Contacts
I keep all my contacts in Apple’s Contacts app. Traditionally this app looked like a book and following that tradition I loathed the app. This version of the Contacts doesn’t look like a book, and actually looks worse.
Contacts is easily the worst app that ships with Mavericks and that statement takes into account the Calculator app — an app that probably has never been updated.
## Maps
This is actually a fantastic addition for someone who does’t use Google. With the added bonus of easily sending a route, or map view to my iPhone. I really love having Maps as a part of OS X.
This is going to be really handy for those moments when you need to run to a meeting, but you don’t know where you are going. It used to be: get directions on your phone while still on wifi, then go. Now you can use a real keyboard, grab the directions quickly, shoot them to your phone. Way better.
## iCloud Keychain
I used it, but didn’t like it. 1Password is a far superior choice.
## Get It
[Mavericks is free][1], so I see no reason to not install it if you Mac is supported.
[1]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mavericks/id675248567?mt=12