Since the passing of Steve Jobs, WWDC gradually became a major event for Apple to announce its latest operating system and new development kits for developers. While OS X Yosemite feels just so yesterday, Apple has already announced its new desktop operating system – meet OS X El Capitan, and according to Wikipedia, it is named after a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, so it makes sense this time that Apple isn’t introducing something as big as OS X Yosemite last time, however you can still bet there are some cool features on Cupertino’s new development.
Better Multitasking
OS X has always been decent when it comes to multitasking, while Microsoft has ripped Apple off multi desktop in Windows 10, Apple has in return, ripped Microsoft of its Split View, which lets you split two apps in a 50-50 display mode in a single display. There’s also a minimal improvement to Apple’s app switcher – Mission Control – in which active apps are displayed in a more streamlined layout and users are able to simply drag and drop them into a new desktop without manually adding a new one. Last but not the least, if you have a 4K display and can’t find that little mouse cursor, you can simply shake your Magic Mouse and the black cursor will get larger for you to notice it.
Metal makes apps and gaming graphics better and smoother
Metal was first introduced back in iOS 7, the graphics API promises better graphics with support for the latest OpenGL standards and uses the A7 mobile chip efficiently, which eventually results in even better graphics effect in games when compared to Android. Bringing Metal to OS X is going to be a killer feature for Macs that do not have discrete graphics, and this will enable iOS developers to Mac versions of their graphical apps or games and when this happens, Intel’s much hyped HD Graphics might be able to show some true potential in terms of graphical performance.
Verdict
While OS X El Capitan might not be a significant update from its predecessor, the two points we mentioned above are sufficient enough to be Apple’s next big desktop OS update, while some might argue that most of its new features are in fact stolen from Windows, the true update lies in the core of operating system itself rather than just usability, and these improvements could actually enable Apple’s new entry level hardware or older devices work even better without much muscle.
