Hands-On Look at iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan

[MacRumors]

At yesterday's WWDC keynote, Apple unveiled its next generation operating systems for Mac and iOS, introducing both OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9. We've done a hands-on overview of the two new operating systems, to give you a look at some of the changes that Apple has implemented.

With iOS 9, there are several underlying improvements that improve battery life and reduce the amount of storage space the operating system takes up, a huge benefit for users with 16GB devices. Siri's become more intelligent, and the whole OS has been updated with "Proactive" features that help you better manage your life.

A revamped search screen on the left of the home screen offers up a list of commonly used apps, favorite contacts, restaurant and venue recommendations, and important news, all available at a glance. Maps gained Transit directions, Notes has new features, there's a new News app, and we're finally getting a much-desired split-screen multitasking feature for the iPad.

And those are just the big changes -- check out our roundup of hidden features, too, and visit our iOS 9 forum to learn even more about the new version of iOS.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is named for a notable mountain within Yosemite, signifying its position as an update that builds on and refines the features introduced with OS X Yosemite. El Capitan includes improved window management features with a new Split view for displaying two full screen windows at once, plus it has an improved Spotlight search with natural language support, and updates to apps like Notes and Maps.

Safari has gained features like Pinned Sites and a mute button that can silence audio from any tab, while Mail supports new gestures and Smart Suggestions. Most importantly, El Capitan improves system performance, making many tasks on the Mac faster than before. It also includes Metal for much improved graphics performance.

Want to know more about El Capitan? Make sure to visit our OS X 10.11 forum, where members are discussing the new update and sharing many smaller changes that went under the radar.

El Capitan and iOS 9 are both available to registered developers, and Apple plans to provide them to public beta testers in July. A public release of both software updates will come in the fall.

Article Link: Hands-On Look at iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan

 

[bobenhaus]

The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!

 

[darnovo]

smallest thumbnail ever?

 

[roland.g]

The mute feature in Safari is nice but I'd prefer something that stops video from playing. Hate those autostart videos. Why mute it when you can stop the video and the processing that it uses.

The best new "features" in El Capitan other than performance related improvements are the multitasking features that are already available with BetterTouchTool but it is nice to see integrated into OS X as well as the new mail tabs in Mail. The biggest problem with Full Screen Mail is when you are composing a draft and need to get to other info in another email (save draft, copy info, open draft) or when you need to drop in something (exit full screen, work side by side, pull in images or docs, send, go back to full screen).

 

[flowsy]

The mute feature in Safari is nice but I'd prefer something that stops video from playing. Hate those autostart videos. Why mute it when you can stop the video and the processing that it uses.

At least Safari stops them from autoplaying in a new background tab. I love that feature and no other browser does that on OS X.

 

[fel10]

The little hair on the table next to the phone was distracting, lol

 

[mabaker]

The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!

Yes, and the entire Android OS is a shameless rip off of Apple iPhone OS, Symbian and Palm OS. Of course Android trolls will never ever acknowledge that because they were not even born yet. Aka not being part of the Church Of Google.

 

[Cam Johnson]

The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!

Hate to break it to you, but every company steals ideas from each other. It's part of the competition. I mean the new notes is kinda like Evernote. The news app is like Flipboard. They all take each others ideas and expound upon them.

 

[MikhailT]

The mute feature in Safari is nice but I'd prefer something that stops video from playing. Hate those autostart videos. Why mute it when you can stop the video and the processing that it uses.

Isn't this already a setting called "Stop Plugins to save power" in Safari's Advanced prefs? Or it doesn't work for HTML5 videos that doesn't require a plugin anymore?

 

[AlphaTeam]

Yes, and the entire Android OS is a shameless rip off of Apple iPhone OS, Symbian and Palm OS. Of course Android trolls will never ever acknowledge that because they were not even born yet. Aka not being part of the Church Of Google.

Everyone rips off everyone. Chrome has been doing the pinned tab and speaker on the tab for a long while now. (which was ripped off an extension) Keyring has had an app for your store cards for an even longer while. Oh ya...and a streaming radio service too.

 

[roland.g]

Isn't this already a setting called "Stop Plugins to save power" in Safari's Advanced prefs?

Yes and I have found that other sites still have found ways to auto start videos. I even have an AdTrap and they are really getting creative with video ads that auto play and circumvent the AdTrap.

 

[AngerDanger]

Hm, he looks like he's having a little too much fun panning around two apps at once.

Oh, yeah. Slower.

 

[Sirious]

They should have included Control Centre...

 

[SpiderDude]

If written was already ludicrous, spoken out loud with such accent "El Capitaoan" sounds even funnier.
LMAOing here.

 

[/dev/toaster]

I installed it on my 1st gen iPad mini last night and the performance was not any better than iOS 8. It's still very sluggish and very unstable. Crashed the OS twice during the first 20 minutes of use.

But yes, very common for a first build. This is why I only run first few builds on test devices.

 

[A MacBook lover]

Yes every company copies, but google is the Hooli of Silicon Valley.

 

[neuropsychguy]

the new notes is kinda like Evernote.

That was my first thought. It's a welcome change. I'll probably stick with Evernote mainly but with these changes to Notes, I have less incentive to branch out from Apple's offerings.

 

[Sirious]

El Capitan is a mountain inside Yosemite National Park, so really the naming scheme is keeping in line with Leopard/Snow Leopard, Lion/Mountain Lion and now Yosemite/El Capitan.

 

[jayducharme]

I like the new "nightstand" mode for the Apple Watch. I wonder why there's never been anything equivalent for the iPhone.

I noticed that in El Capitan, the dots underneath active apps in the dock have been enlarged. That's a welcome visual change.

 

[elgrecomac]

Am I the only one that sees Apple playing catch up with the MS Surface Pro? Side by side Multitasking....finally.

 

[johngordon]

The biggest problem with Full Screen Mail is when you are composing a draft and need to get to other info in another email (save draft, copy info, open draft) or when you need to drop in something (exit full screen, work side by side, pull in images or docs, send, go back to full screen).

That always bugged me as well. From the demo in the keynote it looked as though they have fixed that.

 

[happywaffle]

For God's sake, Apple hasn't called this operating system Mac OS X since 10.6. OS X Lion came out four years ago. Start calling it by the right name.

 

[afsnyder]

Am I the only one that sees Apple playing catch up with the MS Surface Pro? Side by side Multitasking....finally.

They did much more than that with the SlideOver feature is pretty cool!

 

[MikeyCopeland]

The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!

And totally an iOS feature prior to it being removed in ios7.

 

[autrefois]

With iOS 9, there are several underlying improvements that improve battery life and reduce the amount of storage space the operating system takes up, a huge benefit for users with 16GB devices.

From what I understand from the keynote, it's not the operating system itself that takes up less space, it's just the update to iOS 9 that takes up less space, right? Which is still a big thing for people who have less storage on their devices.

EDIT: A couple replies below (here and here)indicate things actually should take up less space.