When the previous Mac operating system came out, the price was slashed to a very reasonable and affordable $19.99 for Mountain Lion. With the price so low it was expected that OS X Mavericks would be similarly inexpensive. However, Apple dropped a bombshell at its San Francisco press event when it revealed that the latest version of its Mac software would be a completely free download.

While it's not a complete overhaul of the operating system like many PC users saw with the release of Windows 8, which recently got it's own micro-upgrade to 8.1, it's still a significant change in Apple's software and brings more than 200 exciting new capabilities to Mac devices.

According to PCWorld, Mac has taken a pair of apps from iOS and has ported them over to Mac OS X Mavericks. Maps and iBooks are making their way onto the new operating system, each of which has been significantly improved and optimized for the software.

The Calendar and Safari apps also received a redesign and a speed boost. The company has worked out many issues to improve multiple display support and notifications as well as tabbed searches for the Finder window.

Users can now get notifications in the top right hand corner of their screen that will allow them to interact and keep track of what's going on in certain web pages and applications without having to waste time and your computer's energy by opening those apps completely or having to leave the app you're currently working in.

Many of the new features are an effort to improve the battery life and hardware strain on your device. For example, the new system will know to allocate energy resources to only the graphics that are being displayed on your screen. If you're running a website with a lot of graphics and you put another page over it, so that the graphics can't be seen, no longer will your computer waste energy trying to run and display those features.

OS X Mavericks went live as a free download from the Apple App Store on Tuesday. It experienced some startup issues but should be available for anyone who wants to experience these new features.