Apple's new OS X 10.11, called "El Capitan," doesn't bring truly major improvements, but does add a number of notable features.
El Capitan will officially roll out this fall, but a preview is already available to offer a glimpse of what's on the table.
"With OS X, it's simple to do amazing things and delightful to do all the everyday things. OS X El Capitan builds on the groundbreaking features and beautiful design introduced in OS X Yosemite, refining the experience and improving performance in lots of little ways that make a big difference," touted Apple. "OS X El Capitan—it takes the Mac experience to new heights."
As previously mentioned, OS X 10.11 El Capitan doesn't include major design changes, but a few tweaks here and there aim to improve the overall experience and performance through a number of neat features:
- Split View
Split View, as the name itself suggests, allows Mac users to run two apps simultaneously on the same screen, displayed side by side, for easier multitasking. Whether you browse the Web on Safari and have a document open to note what you find, Split View will make it easier to work on two tasks at once.
- Space Management with Mission Control
With the new Mission Control, OS X 10.11 El Capitan now makes everything more streamlined, allowing users to see and organize their running apps in an easier and more convenient manner. With just a single swipe up with three fingers, or by pressing F3, users will see all windows on their desktop quickly arranging themselves in a single layer of zoomed-out app previews.
To easily find the program you're looking for, Mission Control also arranges all windows in the same relative location, even if they're overlapping on your desktop. To get some breathing space on a crowded desktop, users can also drag windows to the top of the screen to drop them into a new desktop space.
Another neat feature, meanwhile, will make your cursor easier to find in case you can't see it on the desktop. Shaking our finger back and forth on the trackpad will make the cursor bigger so you'll be able to spot it more easily.
- Spotlight
Apple also added some neat improvements to Spotlight with its latest El Capitan, making it smarter. Spotlight will now offer information about weather, sports, transit, stocks and more, and users will also be able to find a file via Spotlight by using their own words to search, as the software now understands natural language. At the same time, users will also be able to resize the Spotlight window and move it around the desktop.
With OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Apple improved the full-screen support, as well as the swipe gestures in its Mail app. Users will be able to enjoy an improved full-screen view that lets them handle all email conversations at the same time, allowing for extra efficiency. It's also easier now to add suggested events to the calendar, add suggested contacts, or manage your inbox simply by swiping right to mark an email as read/unread or left to delete it.
- Notes
The new Notes app in OS X 10.11 El Capitan is now more powerful than ever, adding some neat new features that make it easier and more convenient to use. Notes now allows users to turn a list into a checklist in no time, as well as add photos, videos, URLs, or map locations to their notes.
As expected, iCloud will make sure all notes are up to date in the cloud, synced across all of your devices. At the same time, users can also take content from other apps or from Safari and easily save it to Notes. To do so, simply select Share and save the items to existing or new notes.
Also among the highlights is the ability to see all attachments saved in your notes simply by accessing the new Attachments Browser. This way, users can quickly found a photo, for instance, without having to find the specific note in which they saved the image in question. Clicking an item in the Attachment Browser will automatically open its note.
- Photos
Photos also get a treat with El Capitan, adding support for third-party editing tools. This means that users will be able to download such tools from the Mac App Store and access them in the Photos app.
Moreover, Photos also enables users to manage their library more easily, allowing them to add locations to images or Moments, tag people in Faces more quickly thanks to a streamlined workflow, or sort through albums and contents by date, title and other factors.
- Safari
Apple also upgraded its web browser in the latest OS X El Capitan, as Safari now boasts new built-in tools to deliver an enhanced experience. Safari now allows users to keep certain websites open and easily accessible with Pinned Sites, or quickly mute the audio from a tab without having to find the tab in question.
AirPlay, meanwhile, allows users to stream video content from a Web page directly to their HDTV for extra convenience.
- Maps
Maps finally gets public transit information with the latest OS X El Capitan, allowing users to get around more easily around cities they don't know. Maps now includes built-in maps and schedules for public transportation, as well as directions for getting from one location to another.
Entering a destination in Transit, for instance, will prompt Maps to suggest the best routes, complete with details on routes and directions. Users can also find directions or select a route on Maps on their Mac and send the information to their iPhone to receive stop-by-stop directions on the go.
- Metal
A new graphics core technology called Metal delivers an enhanced performance for games and apps, allowing them to get nearly direct access to your Mac's GPU. According to Apple, system-level graphics rendering is 50 percent faster with Metal, as well as 40 percent more efficient.
The new OS X El Capitan also adds improved language support, better performance, enhanced graphical experience, and faster performance across the board.
Conclusion
In other words, OS X 10.11 El Capitan brings a slew of minor improvements over Yosemite, but these welcome changes should make everything better, faster, and more convenient. Apple will refine the software even further, but it already looks quite promising.
