Apple announces OS X El Capitan operating system for the Mac

Apple’s new OS X El Capitan operating system, introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, will make the Mac faster and even easier to use thanks to a range of new features.

The focus on the follow-up to OS X Yosemite is to provide an enhanced user experience with new abilities as well as improved performance.

Users will see more fluid graphics along with faster opening of documents, PDFs, emails and images.

OS X El Capitan continues the recent tradition of Apple naming its OS X versions after Californian landmarks including surf break Mavericks and Yosemite National Park.

El Capitan actually gets its name from a rock formation within Yosemite National Park.

Here are the top new features of OS X El Capitan

SPLIT VIEW

You can already run plenty of apps on the Mac but now with El Capitan you can fill your screen with two apps at the same time.

So now, for example, you can have a document open next to a website your using for research or an email open beside another document.

And you can do this without having to re-order your open apps or resize your windows.

And getting back to your desktop is just a swipe away.

SAFARI

We’ve all got our favourite sites that we browse on Safari and instead of having lots of tabs open, users can now pin their favourite sites to the left side of the tab bar.

These pinned sites will still stay active in the background so will be up to date when you go revisit.

MISSION CONTROL

Staying on top of your work and keeping track of all of your open windows is now even easier with OS X El Capitan’s updated Mission Control.

With a swipe users can see all of the open windows arranged on the desktop and even create separate desktops for each of your tasks just by dragging it to the top of the screen.

NOTES

The new Notes app in OS X El Capitan lets you do a lot more to create richer and more powerful notes.

Now you can add links, pictures and videos and also create checklists and have access to all of that information on any other Apple device through iCloud.

MAIL

Sorting your emails and keeping your inbox under control just got a little easier with new gesture controls.

Now with the trackpad, it’s possible to swipe left to delete or swipe right to mark as unread.

Mail will also be more intuitive and can also detect events and invites and add them to your calendar.

SPOTLIGHT

Spotlight has also had a boost with OS X El Capitan and now puts even more information at your fingertips like weather, stocks, sports results, web video and transit information.

You can also search in your own words. For example, you can type in “documents I worked on yesterday” or “presentation I worked on last week”.

OS X EL CAPITAN BETA PROGRAM

OS X El Capitan will not be released for a few months but Apple will once again offer users an opportunity to get their hands on it next month by signing up to the Beta Program here.