El Capitan, Mac OS X‘s newest operating system, will be released on Wednesday morning. Everybody who is on Yosemite should upgrade immediately, because this update brings a wealth of refinements and new features that, while on the surface may not seem like much, amount to a much more enjoyable experience of OS X.
These new features include what is probably the best thing to happen to computing since the mouse and keyboard: That’s right, the Taco Emoji is included in El Capitan.
Other new features include an updated window management philosophy, Spotlight getting some needed upgrades and Notes finally being something more than just the digital equivalent of a note pad.
Split-view is now a thing (in full screen mode), so two separate application windows can snap to each other, and application windows in mission control will no longer be stacked on top of one another, meaning Apple is returning to the window management control of old, where things were easy to find and didn’t make you want to pull your hair out. Last but not least, you can drag any window you want to the title bar to move it into a different desktop space or initiate full screen/split-view mode.
Siri still doesn’t have the same role on El Capitan that it has on iOS 9 or the role that Cortana has in Windows 10, but Spotlight has been upgraded. The search tool now has basic internet functionality, so you can use it to get info on weather, sports scores or stocks, and hopefully that train keeps on moving down the right path. It would be amazing to see a Spotlight/Siri tool capable of connecting to the internet-of-things, so you could ask if your front door is locked or tell it to turn on the air conditioning in your car. One day.
Last but not least, if you’ve upgraded to iOS 9, you’ve seen a couple of the new changes that Notes has in store, but on El Capitan, they really come to shine. Notes now has a Finder like three-panel-window set up, meaning you can put now different notes into different folders. Formatting has received a big upgrade, with bulleted or numbered lists, and you can now insert photos or other attachments directly into a note. In short: It’s not quite Evernote or OneNote, but it’s getting pretty close and it’ll be interesting to see where Apple takes this idea.
Also included in the update: pinned tabs for Safari (If you use Chrome or Firefox, you know how fantastic they are), public transit directions for Maps, some upgrades for the Mail app and Photos now allows third party app extensions.
The El Capitan update can be installed on Macs introduced in 2009 or later, and some select models that were introduced in 2007 and 2008.
Apple released the second beta of the upcoming OS X El Capitan update for developers earlier today if you absolutely cannot wait.
