Apple reveals the next
version of its operating system coming to Mac computers later this year called
OS X 10.11 El Capitan.The update will be available via a public
beta release in July and will be downloadable for everyone — for free —
this fall.
This OS will introduce the ability to multi-task via two apps side
by side with a feature called Split View, in a move we've already seen
executed by Microsoft.
Apple's tagline for the event this year is "the epicenter of change,"
but the updates to OS X are more about performance enhancements and
fixes than anything else.
Features
Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federaghi introduced some of the new features in El Capitan.
finding the curser is now incredibly easy :
Do you shake your mouse, or rub the keypad to see the curser? Now when
you do that the curser enlarges momentarily so there is no missing it.
Safari gains a new option :
Safari gains a new option to ‘Pin’ sites you like to
the left corner of the screen. Pinned Sites makes your favourite sites
easy to find - they are always accesible from that left hand corner. (We
aren’t sure that’s really necessary, it’s a third way to store your
favourite sites, we already feel Top Sites and Favourites do the same
thing!) One new feature that got a cheer from the audience was being able to quickly identify which site is playing audio and close it.
Spotlight :
now lets us write queries in our own words
- intelligently. So you can search for documents I wrote last July’
for example and find exactly that.
Spotlight also searches more places for even more useful results, including weather and sports scores, according to Apple.
Mail uses the same vocabulary :
you could for
example, search for “Mail I ignored from David” and it will show you
those emails you haven’t opened.
There is also a new full screen mode in Mail. When you are in the
Compose mode you can have multiple email’s open in tabs, you can move
easily from drafting one email two another - this works in a similar way
to the iOS version of Mail, with the original email minimising to the
bottom of the screen so that you can access the other email, and then
click at the bottom of the screen to bring the one you were writing
back.
Finder can also use these more real word searches :
you can ask to “Look at documents from last year at this time”, to see
the documents you worked on last June. This is a “great way to search,”
according to Federighi. We think it hints that Siri may be coming to the
Mac…
Another app in great need of an update, Notes, has gained text styling features for using it on the Mac. About time!
Desktop changes to OS X El Capitan
Federaghi also showed off some new ways of managing your desktop.
Currently when you have lots of things open you can use Mission Control
to view a minimised version of the documents and apps you have open.
There are some new ways to organise these windows coming in El Capitan.
The Spaces Bar makes it easier to create multiple desktops, for example.
There are some changes to Expose, now you can resize windows. You can access a new Full Screen Mode and then move into a Split Screen View
which automatically positions two apps apps side by side, using every
pixel of your Mac display. You can arrange your windows to suit - making
collaborating between different apps easier.
There appears to be a focus on Gestures in El
Capitan too, for example, new gestures include being able to do quick
actions like deleting a message in Mail. These new gestures are likely
to reflect the new Force Touch trackpad.
In terms of performance, Apple claims that: "El Capitan has tuned up the things you use every day, improving performance across the system."
According to Apple, there will be a 1.4x acceleration in app
launching, that it getting Mail will be twice as fast, and that it will
be four times as fast to open a PDF in Preview.
Apple claims: "El Capitan makes all kinds of things run faster — like accessing email, opening apps, or switching between them."
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