The window that appears prominently lists which version you have, such as “OS X Mavericks Version 10.9.5.” Here’s how to find out which version of OS X your Mac is currently running: Click the at the top left of your screen and choose About This Mac.

MacBook Pro: 13-inch, Mid-2009 or newer 15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or newer 17-inch, Late 2007 or newer MacBook: Late 2008 aluminum or early 2009 or newer You’re in good shape if you have an iPhone 4S or newer, an iPad 2 or newer, or an iPod Touch fifth generation or newer. If your device can run iOS 8, Software Update helpfully offers to install it. On the screen that appears, if you tap Software Update, you see your device’s current iOS version. To see which version of iOS your device is running, fire it up, tap Settings, and then tap General. If you’re one of the billions who own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and the device is running iOS 8 or later, you’ll spot the same Photos icon on your home screen (unless you moved it, that is). Your Mac isn’t the only device that can have Photos fun-there’s a version of Photos for iOS, too. In that case, you can haul your Mac to the nearest Apple retail store, where they’re more than happy to upgrade it to the latest and greatest version for you. If you don’t have a high-speed Internet connection, updating your operating system can take a painfully long time and it may never fully download (say, if the connection times out). This chapter arms you with everything you need to know. As you’ll learn starting on Migrating from iPhoto or Aperture to Photos, there’s a fair amount of preparation you need to do in order to smoothly migrate from those older programs to Photos.

If, on the other hand, you’ve been in the Mac universe for a while and you’ve been using iPhoto or Aperture to manage your digital memories, there are some important things to consider before launching Photos. Feel free to skip everything else in this chapter and move to more exciting topics like importing your pictures and videos, which is covered in Chapter 2. This chapter also includes a wonderful strategy for managing Photos in a family situation ( Photos for Families) so that your Photos world doesn’t get out of hand. You’ll learn how to get Photos (if you don’t yet have it) and read an incredibly helpful overview of iCloud Photo Library ( Meet the iCloud Photo Library), the Apple service you can use to back up and then sync your Photos library onto all of your Macs and iOS devices. If you’re new to OS X or you’ve never before used iPhoto, then you can breeze through this chapter in no time flat.

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