Apple started off the month on a good note with El Capitan (OS X 10.11), the successor to Yosemite, after months of successful and positive beta feedback. Add the recent release of iOS 9, and Apple had a very productive start of the season. El Capitan is named as such because of Apple’s “captain”-like behavior with the improvement of OS X as a whole.
Users can expect some enhancements on many desktop apps. Apple seems to have done a lot of work on the basic speed and productivity of the OS, and many users would agree that basic operations have been executing faster. Improvements are visible in basic Mac apps, such as Calendar, Mail, Messages, and even browsers. Opening and even force quitting these apps have improved drastically in speed. Overall, Apple has buckled down on performance improvements as evidenced by many satisfied users. It would seem that the spinning beach ball of death will make less of an appearance in this update.
Some of the most interesting features include multi-window management and split view. Mission Control, one of Apple’s main desktop apps, has been revamped with a new Split View feature that resembles multitasking on various mobile devices, such as, conveniently, iOS 9, and Android devices. For those who have the popular split view app BetterSnapTool (myself included), this feature may either be annoying, or an improvement on the app. El Capitan also features the Cursor Locator, a neat little tool that allows the user to shake or wiggle the mouse and the cursor will increase in size. This will solve the problem of losing the cursor that many users experience.
Spotlight search has also been improved with more effective support for natural language input. This means users do not have to be as specific with search requests anymore, and can use everyday language to search. Examples of acceptable phrases include “events in December” or “pictures added today.” Along with those features, the OS features a “mute” button that can silence sounds from the Safari browser’s tabs currently playing sound. Mail also resembles iOS 9 with easier message management. Smart Suggestions is a new Mail feature that will recognize names and dates to be added to contacts and calendars more efficiently. El Capitan boasts these new features, and many more, for the price of “free” on the desktop App Store.
From first impressions, Apple has put a lot of thought into the creation of this OS update. It is crucial to the happiness of the user that everything works smoothly on a device. This is especially true with basic functions that can be very inconvenient to the user if they operate poorly. Also, as many Stevens students know, installing El Capitan may cause problems for visual arts & technology majors because there hasn’t been much testing with the software used on campus. Downloading this OS should be done carefully. El Capitan is currently free for update on any MacBook (Air and Pro included), late 2008 and later. Of course, remember to save some space and back up important data before installation.
