Be prepared. Apple will start rolling out free upgrade of the newest edition – OS X El Capitan for your Macs, starting tomorrow 30th September 2015. El Capitan is based on Yosemite’s design & hence, you won’t feel much different from the surface but, there’re a few neat additions with tons of bug fixes packed into this new update.
Your Macs will get a revamp, hopefully also on the speed too. It’s one of those updates we saw during WWDC 2015 alongside iOS 9 announcement. And, after rigorous Beta testing, it’s finally ready for consumption.
Almost everyone can install this update because, all devices released after 2009 are eligible. I assume, the OS is optimized enough for all sorts of hardware combinations.
If you’ve been crying over the sluggishness on your MacBook Pro after Yosemite – guess, this should come as a rescue.
Check for download availability at: 1pm EST & 10.30pm IST
What’s New
Key Feature For New Experience
- In El Capitan, we no longer need to deal with stack of open windows. The improved Mission Control puts all open windows on single layer – making it lot easier for us to locate the one you need (or don’t need).
- Similarly, like we create a new screen on iOS device – you can simply drag an app window & create new Space (or desktop) to keep your work organized.
- Split View automatically puts 2 windows side-by-side so that we can work on both apps simultaneously.
- Spotlight is now much smarter & offers stock prices to sports scores. We can now search using natural language to find items on your Mac. A simple query like “presentation I worked on yesterday” will give you precise results of what you’re looking for.
- Improved built-in apps
- Pinned sites & quick Mute button in Safari. Of course, the much-needed one.
- Smart suggestions & swipe to delete messages in Mail
- Mail now recognizes flight numbers & package tracking IDs, so does the new Notes app.
- Batch descriptions & support for 3rd-party photo editing tools in Photos app
- Improved Notes app allowing drag & drop photos or PDFs from other apps, Create checklists & mark them as complete (same as iOS 9), etc.
- The new “San Francisco” font is another addition. It really looks good on iOS 9.
System Performance
Apple claims that El Capitan is the fastest & more responsive OS update ever (testing standard using i5 + 8GB RAM + Flash storage). Metal – new graphics technology – helps improve core animation & graphics performance by about 50%. Using full potential of the CPU + GPU, the draw call performance for more fluid gaming experience is improved 10 times.
EI Capitan has also got enhanced International language support including Chinese & Japanese.
It’s not clear why Siri is not integrated into the Spotlight despite an algo can understand naturally spoken/written language. The new OS X El Capitan has lot more to offer for people using iPhones & iPads. It learns from those devices & then stays connected without dependency on connecting with the iTunes.
OS X El Capitan will be available for download tomorrow depending upon where you live. In India, it should be available from 10.30pm on 30th September & at approx. 1pm in EST. Enjoy.
