The latest version of Apple’s newest operating system, OS X 10.11 — also known as El Capitan — is set to be released tomorrow. It will be distributed through the Mac App Store, and will likely roll out in waves throughout the day.
Compared to OS X 10.10 Yosemite, El Capitan is a more evolutionary update. It offers fewer new features, and instead focuses on user experience and stability. Yosemite was great, but it also received a lot of user complaints about problems, including persistent Wi-Fi issues, that distracted from its many new features.
And on the feature front, Spotlight receives the biggest update with the addition of natural language search. Users can enter phrases such as “.doc from March,” to easily narrow down a search to only the most relevant results. Other major additions include a refined Mission Control view, and Split View, which makes it possible to use two full-screen applications side-by-side simultaneously.
Apple has also made tweaks to many of its first-party applications. Some are larger than others. One of the most important is the addition of Transit directions to Apple Maps — a feature also shared with iOS. However, the list of cities with access to these directions is currently limited. OS X fans will also enjoy the addition of natural language search to Mail, the ability to add media to Notes, and an easy way to mute tabs in Safari, among other additions.
Check out our full review for all the details. Of course, the update is free, so there’s no reason not to update — unless your Mac doesn’t support the new operating system. Thankfully, support is broad and includes:
- iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
- MacBook (13-inch aluminum or later)
- MacBook Pro (12-inch mid-2009 or later, 15-inch mid-2007 or later, 17-inch late 2007 or later)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
- Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
- Xserve (Early 2009)
If your machine compatible? Then prepare yourself. El Capitan is coming.
