Apple iOS 8, OS X 10.10 Syrah Already In The Works While iOS 7 Still In Its Infancy And Mavericks Yet To Come

Although Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS 7 is only a few weeks old and the upcoming OS X 10.9 Mavericks is yet to be released, rumors are rife that the company has started work on the next versions of both operating systems, dubbed the iOS 8 and the OS X 10.10 Syrah.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple made the nightly builds of OS X 10.10 Syrah available for its employees in early September to get it installed for internal testing. The report said that Syrah is currently in the initial stage of development and the current builds of the software are almost similar to the Golden Master version of OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

The 9to5Mac report also said that page views to its website from computers running OS X 10.10 have increased in recent days.

“We’re told that OS X 10.10 has seen approximately 30 seeds so far in development. For comparison, the first OS X Mavericks Developer Preview was build 476, while the first OS X Mountain Lion and Lion Previews were build numbers in the 100s range and 400s range, respectively,” according to the report.

Rumors have it that the new OS X 10.10 Syrah will feature a new design across the system, which will be inspired by the iOS 7 user interface and iCloud.com.

As for the iOS 8, very little information is available about the iOS 7’s successor. However, there is no dearth of speculation about the platform’s features, such as significant feature enhancements to the Maps feature and a new car-finding feature.

Apple seeded the Golden Master build of Mavericks to its registered developers last week, indicating that the software is ready to be rolled out to the public.

According to earlier reports, Apple may release Mavericks sometime in late October. The previous two major OS X updates -- OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion -- were launched on the same day after an earnings release. And, if Apple follows a similar pattern with Mavericks, then the new OS may be released after the company announces its fourth-quarter results, which are scheduled for Oct. 28.

Mavericks brings a number of new features and enhancements, such as App Nap, superior multiple-monitor support, faster Safari, standalone Maps and iBooks apps, a redesigned Calendar application and power-user features in Finder among others.