At WWDC 2015, Apple unveils the latest Mac OS X: El Capitan -- or 10.11. All you $99 devs can download it now. The rest of us plebs can get the beta next month.
After the slowdowns caused by Yosemite, it's aimed at doing things faster. It also has a few new features (although some wags are making inevitable comparisons with Windows and Chrome). Yes, parts of it seem strangely familiar, such as split-screen tiling, natural-language search, and tab pinning.
But fanboi-fighting aside, what's Richi's favorite feature? Tinder-style gestures for your email. Swipey-swipey!
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers sing, "Oohh la-la la-la la-la-la." Not to mention: An important PSA…
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment.
Nathan Olivarez-Giles is... easy for you to say:
Apple’s latest version of OS X won’t look much different. ... But it will have plenty of features that Mac users should enjoy. At [WWDC], Apple announced OS X El Capitan, named for the landmark vertical rock formation in Yosemite.
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Apple said El Capitan will offer noticeable speed improvements. ... Spotlight will use natural language to find documents, weather, sports scores and other information. ... There are also features like the ability to mute audio from websites with a click. ... A new “split view apps” mode automatically displays two apps side-by-side...like the snapped apps mode in Windows 8.
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El Capitan is available to developers today [and] through a public beta in July. MORE
If you like gallery articles, you'll love this melange from Tim Moynihan:
A new feature in Mission Control lets you display all your open windows cleanly with a simple swipe or move some of them to a new, clean desktop space.
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Pinning a website drops a little chiclet with its logo on the far-left side of Safari's tab bar.
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People love Evernote for a reason, and now the new Notes app baked into the Mac does some similar tricks.
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Metal isn't just for iOS anymore. Game developers will be able to tap into future Macs' GPUs thanks to Metal for Mac.
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When you're busy pruning your email...OS X now acts a lot more like iOS. ... Swipe right to mark your messages, and swipe left to kick those emails to the curb.
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Maps has goodies for everyone who uses public transportation, including directions involving transfers and directions based on your target arrival time.
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In...El Capitan, the mouse pointer swells up like the Hulk when you wake up your machine, so it's plainly visible. MORE
And, as you hoomans say, Kyle Russell is all ears:
Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi took the stage to debut the update, focusing on upgrades to Spotlight, the operating system’s built-in apps, and window management features.
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El Capitan also picks up some windows management features that might look familiar to Windows users. For instance, dragging windows to the sides of your desktop will auto-fill that side of the screen.
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Federighi surprised the audience with an announcement that the Metal API...will be included in OS X. Apple claims it’ll bring 10x gains to rendering performance. MORE
So David Pierce imagines what Ferengi really wanted to say:
"In OS X El Capitan, we took the cool things about Windows and made them like the same exact thing but on Mac!" MORE
Meanwhile, Shaun Nichols lists some developer goodness:
The key points...without all the usual dreadful hype:
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El Capitan: Yes, OS X 10.11 is really called that. The successor to Yosemite...will be a free update for Yosemite users.
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Swift: Improved performance and error-handling as well as a move to open source.
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Xcode 7: Apple's developer studio has a gauge alerting you if your iOS app is using up too much battery power, a tool for pinpointing where in your source code a crash happened, and other bits and pieces. Apple has also rolled its developer programs together: you can now subscribe to OS X and iOS programming resources for $99 a year, rather than $99 for each. MORE
Wait, what? MildlyTangy has this brainfart:
Apple developers have to pay licenses to Apple to write programs and apps?
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Oh. My. *******. God.
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What discourse goes through your mind to justify this when you are forced to pull out the credit card? [How does] the cognitive dissonance gets resolved in your minds? MORE
And Finally…
A cautionary tale: Don't **** with El Capitan [You're fired -Ed.]
You have been reading IT Blogwatch by Richi Jennings, who curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites… so you don't have to. Catch the key commentary from around the Web every morning. Hatemail may be directed to @RiCHi or itbw@richi.uk. Opinions expressed may not represent those of Computerworld. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. E&OE.