Apple announces OS X Mavericks at WWDC

Apple is switching from its decade-long practice of naming its Mac operating system updates after big cats. Instead, it's paying homage to the geography of its home state.

Apple software head Craig Federighi says the next version of Mac OS X will be called "Mavericks," after an undersea rock formation that produces big waves near Half Moon Bay, California.

The new operating system will extend battery life and shorten boot-up times, Federighi told the audience at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The system improves support for multiple displays and imports the "tab" concept from Web browsers to the Finder file-organizer.

The software update will include "iBooks" for the first time, giving people who buy e-books from Apple a way to display them on the computer screen in addition to the iPhone and iPad. Competing e-book vendors such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble have cross-platform applications already.

There have been nine OS X versions named after big cats. The latest was "Mountain Lion," released last year.

"We do not want to be the first software release in history to be delayed by a lack of cats," Federighi joked.

He said the new software will be out in the fall.

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