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Apple Releases OS X 10.11 El Capitan With Improved Spotlight Search, Enhanced Performance, and Revamped Apps

Wednesday September 30, 2015 10:43 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today released OS X 10.11 El Capitan to the public, making the newest Mac operating system available for free to Mac users around the world. OS X El Capitan went through eight developer betas before the golden master version of the software was released on September 9.

OS X El Capitan is still rolling out to users, but it can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store, and it will run on all Macs capable of running OS X Yosemite. Here is a direct link for the update: OS X El Capitan.

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Hands-on with OS X 10.11 El Capitan GeekWebGuides

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As an update complementary to OS X Yosemite, as the OS X El Capitan name suggests, the new operating system builds on the features introduced last year. OS X El Capitan focuses on improving user experience and performance.

OS X El Capitan looks like OS X Yosemite, but it includes a new systemwide font, San Francisco, and it introduces a new Split View option for Mission Control, allowing two full-screen apps to be used side-by-side. El Capitan includes an improved Spotlight Search and several new app features. Safari, for example, has gained Pinned Sites and a universal mute button, while Mail has new iOS-style smart suggestions.

Photos in OS X El Capitan supports third-party photo editing extensions from Mac App Store apps, Notes has new features, and Maps includes Transit directions. Under-the-hood improvements in El Capitan also make a number of apps and processes on the Mac faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.

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OS X El Capitan Hidden Features GeekWebGuides

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More information on OS X El Capitan can be found in our El Capitan roundup, which includes details on major features and some little tweaks that were added throughout the beta testing period. Discussion of El Capitan's new features is also taking place in our OS X El Capitan forum, and we encourage all of our readers to join in with questions and new discoveries.

Related Forum: OS X El Capitan

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Top Rated Comments

144 months ago

Queue the downloading now comments....

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Oblivious.Robot

144 months ago

Since no one else posted this yet..

Updated iPhone and iPad Air 2, will update Macbook tomorrow.
Good night everyone!

Attachment Image

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

144 months ago

Been on El Capitan for the last 48 hours. My favorite feature is how much faster and smoother everything runs with it being optimized with Metal. It's a noticeable difference. Enjoy everyone but don't expect to be blown away. I tried using the full screen features but so far, can't seem to break my current habits and workflow.

Some fun things to try and note:
• Auto-hide the menu bar - System prefs - general - hide
• Select a file and command+option+delete to bypass the empty trash step and delete a specific file
• wiggle your mouse to make it bigger for a second
• Dashboard is off by default - go to mission control system pref to turn it on if you want
• Beautiful new desktop backgrounds
• Safari - I use "command 1" "command 2" etc to go to my fav websites in the favorites bar. Now it's command+option+number. Go to safari - prefs - tabs to change it back.
• swipe to delete something in Mail

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

144 months ago

Stop downloading people! You're slowing my speed.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

144 months ago

Who in the world uses spotlight search. If you don't know where things are on your mac, give up.

Maybe the only thing you do with your Mac is surf the web and get emails, but others actually do some more complex things.

Spotlight for workflow? It's not that had to locate documents and applications on a Mac without spotlight.

Lots of things are not hard. It's not hard to add up a series of numbers, but a spreadsheet makes it easier.

It's not hard to find documents and applications, but Spotlight makes things easier. I guarantee that I could find things on my Mac faster using spotlight than you could without it.

It seems like you don't use Spotlight, you really should give Spotlight a go.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

144 months ago

I clicked download on the El Capitan page in the app store. No progress bar. How can I see what is happening?

Click "Purchased" on the top bar.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Read All Comments

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