Apple has been seeding various builds of OS X Mavericks 10.9.1 to beta testers and AppleCare employees for a few weeks now, and today the final shipping version has been made available as a totally free update for all Macs running the most recent version of Apple’s operating system, OS X Mavericks.

Offering bug fixes that ought to go some way to addressing some of the bigger complaints leveled against Mavericks, the update provides little in the way of new features with Apple deciding to work on what it already has available rather than risk introducing new bugs along the way.

According to the official change-log that accompanies the update, this is what you’re going to get:

Improved support for Gmail in OS X Mail, and fixes for users with customized Gmail settings

Improves the reliability of smart Mailboxes and search in Mail

Fixes an issue that prevented contact groups from working correctly in Mail

Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from speaking sentences that include emoji

Updates shared links periodically when open in the Safari Sidebar

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated work that has gone into 10.9.1 is the effort made to improve Mail’s compatibility with Gmail, something that was sorely lacking in the original point-o release. Those with customized Gmail settings ought to also see an improvement with Mavericks 10.9.1, which will hopefully go some way to making the app much more helpful to those already ties to Google’s email service. There are other Mail-related fixes involving smart mailboxes, too.

Fans of Emoji will be pleased to hear that a bug has been squashed that was previously causing VoiceOver to be unable to read sentences including the loveable little icons. It’s not an issue we ran into ourselves, but we’re sure someone somewhere will be doing a little pleased dance best now.

OS X 10.9.1 is the first major update to be released for Apple’s Mavericks operating system, and will certainly be the first of many. It’s available to download for totally free form the Mac app store best now, so even if you’re not a Gmail user or don’t use Mail to access it, we suggest you head on over to get the update downloaded and installed ASAP. Apple tends to not include all fixes in its change logs, so it’s always worth getting the most recent and greatest version for your Mac.

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