It’s easy to get annoyed with all the new updates that are coming out for your smart phone, your apps, and your computers. Sometimes there are so many that it gets you wondering what the point is to all this upgrading. The thing is, upgrading is good for your tech. It helps to protect your computers from viruses, helps with security, and enables you to use your equipment to a more productive degree. The best part about upgrades is that they’re free! So, if you’re working on a Mac and you haven’t upgraded to the OS X El Capitan yet, we’re here to convince you to get moving on it!
Meet the Captain – Apple’s latest desktop operating system
El Capitan, which is named after a large rock formation found inside Yosemite National Park, is simply a refined version of OS X Yosemite. This is Apple’s gift to you: a refined system and improved performance – how can you say no to this upgrade!?
El Capitan is Apple’s clever marketing name for OS X version 10.11, the latest and greatest update for your Mac’s system software. Launched on September 30, 2015, El Capitan can be downloaded straight from the Mac App Store. If your Mac is running Snow Leopard (v10.6.8) or later, you can upgrade directly to El Capitan.
App Attack
Sure, people are wary about upgrading their computers particularly when it comes to apps. If an app you love is incompatible with the new version, you lose it and all the hard work you did. It’s definitely worth checking with the makers of any apps you rely on before upgrading— but most will post compatibility information on their websites. For those apps who are lagging behind in their updates, if you wait a little while, their new versions are probably underway. Shop around and you might find new Mac apps that are even better for you.
Slick and Secure
One of the most notable security improvements in El Capitan is the feature called: System Integrity Protection. Sounds impressive? It is. This incredible protection hinders the ability for malware to hijack your Mac by pretending to be a user with admin privileges. Remember that El Capitan is a stable update, but you should definitely back up your system on a hard drive and in the cloud before actually installing it. That way you’re protecting yourself.
Split View
If you have a large screen the new Split View feature is awesome. By adding an extra dimension of utility to your full-screen view, you can split the space between two applications, one on the left side and one on the right, side by side. If you click and hold on the green plus/maximize button in a window’s title bar, you’ll be prompted to choose which side of the screen you’d like that window to be placed on. Then Mission Control activates on the other side of the screen, letting you choose any of your currently open windows to use as the first window’s split-screen buddy. Not only is it fast and cool, but it’ll make you work more efficiently.
Notes
You know how everyone pretends that they don’t use notes?! Well the jig is up! Yes, there are a million better apps out there that out-perform notes at, well, note taking. That said, Notes is already installed on every mac and iOS device so it makes more sense to use it. Give it a chance! With iOS 9 and El Capitan, Notes has received a major upgrade. With the new Notes you can stick a range of different files–PDFs, images, even videos–into a note. Play around, you’ll be surprised at what the upgraded version of Notes is capable of.
Smile for the camera
It’s amazing what the new Photos can do with the El Capitan upgrade. For instance, with the new upgraded version of Photos, you can:
- edit images individually and in batches
- add location information to either a single photo or an entire batch
- can batch-change titles and other information
- sort albums by date and title
- use editing extensions to transform images
Photos is a great alternative if you don’t want to delve into the realm of Photoshop and the challenges it produces for editing your images on the fly.
Improving performance
While El Capitan has a lot of new features you’re bound to notice, there’s plenty happening under the hood that you might not realise, but you are benefiting from. For instance, Apple’s brought Metal to the schoolyard, it’s new graphics technology, and is using it to replace the old OpenGL technology. Many of Mac’s key graphics frameworks, including its Core Animation and Core Graphics, now use Metal rather than OpenGL. This all sounds very complicated but the end result should be that the Mac interface should feel snappier, and video should run faster.
Apple claims that apps launch faster in El Capitan, and that switching between apps is faster, and opening and moving around in PDFs in Preview is faster. And as for gamers, games in particular benefits from the switch to Metal—graphics wise. Even Adobe has committed to using Metal in a future update to its Creative Suite, which will no doubt improve performance on existing Mac hardware.
Mac Hardware Requirements
These Mac models are compatible with OS X El Capitan:
- MacBook (early 2015)
- MacBook (late 2008 aluminium, or early 2009 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (mid-/late 2007 or newer)
- MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer)
- Mac mini (early 2009 or newer)
- iMac (mid-2007 or newer)
- Mac Pro (early 2008 or newer)
- Xserve (early 2009)
If you’re seriously considering going for the upgrade but you’re unsure where to start, be sure to give us a call. The update is free, and as you know, the best things in life are free! But seriously, the El Capitan update exists to serve you, bringing you the most important security and stability fixes for your computer. In addition to the peace of mind you’ll get from the added security, you’ll also receive a bunch of exciting new features and updates to your existing apps that you use daily.
Whatever you do, don’t be scared. The update has been created by Apple in order to help you. It’s stable, free, and easily installed with nearly no intervention. you have nothing to lose and everything to gain: speed, security and functionality await you, all you need to do is click! As your tech experts, talk to us about how we can help you upgrade. Your concerns are our concerns, so get in touch today so we can upgrade your tech and get your mac working better, faster, stronger, harder!
Further Reading:
http://www.apple.com/nz/osx/?cid=wwa-nz-kwg-mac
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/os-x-el-capitan-hands-on/
http://www.imore.com/upgrade-el-capitan
Videos:
http://www.imore.com/upgrade-el-capitan
http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-software/os-x-el-capitan-mac-review-3613524/