Apple Announces OS X Mavericks and It's Free

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Apple's OS X Mavericks hit Gold Master earlier this month and Mavericks was the first new product confirmed at today's event.

Craig Federighi took the stage after Tim Cook offered some updates on apps and iOS 7 and said the Apple software team wanted to give users a hardware upgrade through software. As such, Mavericks promises to increase battery life and compress inactive parts of memory (so you can run more applications without slow down). It also adds Open CL for integrated graphics, and a host of other new features including shared links, enhanced notifications, iBooks, notifications, a new improved Calendar app, and more.

The biggest piece of news about Mavericks is that it's free for some Macs going back to as far as 2007. Whether you're going from Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion, you can update to Mountain Lion for free starting today. 

Stay tuned for more on Mavericks!

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ssalim
    I wonder why they overprice everything else while this one is free?
    Reply
  • fatboytyler
    Is this a sign that Apple might start becoming less greedy? Nah, lets not get our hopes up.
    Reply
  • koga73
    Only reason it's free is because it only runs on their hardware so they have nothing to worry about. Windows on the other hand, can be installed on anything so it makes sense for Microsoft to charge for a Windows OEM license.
    Reply
  • Bolts Romano
    I quite disagree w people saying apple product is overprice, it is valid if we are in year before 2007. However If you compare spec to spec , meaning you compare the apple with premium notebook from Dell or Lenovo or HP you will notice they are actually have the same price.

    To certain extent i am questioning why Dell charging more than Apple

    Reply
  • womble
    Well you can't really knock them for OS X upgrades, always been pretty good value, and you don't say that about Apple everyday!
    Reply
  • _BigHead_
    Not trying to be rude, but in the last paragraph i *think* you made a typographical error.
    The article reads, "Whether you're going from Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion, you can update to Mountain Lion for free starting today."
    I think you meant to say, "Whether you're going from Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion, you can update to MAVERICK for free starting today."

    correct me if i'm wrong, sorry if i am. Just caught my eye.
    Reply
  • MANOFKRYPTONAK
    Wow, for FREEEEEEEEE!?!?!?!-Bed Time Stories. But seriously thats great for Apple users. I do believe apple is becoming much more competitive.
    Reply
  • milktea
    So Apple is trailing Microsoft in free OS upgrades.
    Wonder if Apple might some day put tiles on their start screens like MS did with Win8?! :D
    Reply
  • JD88
    So basically Apple "innovated" by finally adding some features that have been offered by Google and Linux for years...
    Reply
  • Cazalan
    And the upgrade adds quite a bit of capability compared to Windows 8. MS needs to take a lesson here and stop releasing crap people don't want.
    Reply