![]() Want to find documents from April? Type “documents from April.” Need April of 2015? Add 2015 to the end of the sentence. Like most search functions online and off, Spotlight helps users refine results by date, file type, and other filters, but using those filters can be difficult and often requires memorization of annoying booleans such as “not” and “or.” That’s no longer the case. For El Capitan, Apple has found ways to improve it, but the new features don’t add as much to the experience as hoped. It makes the operating system more usable by negating the difficulties of the Finder - which I’ve always found inferior to Windows Explorer - and drawing in results from the Web when appropriate. The revision of Spotlight is my favorite addition to OS X Yosemite. As with the wireless features themselves, these extras work exactly as advertised, even when connected to a previously unused Wi-Fi network. These are important points not only from a general connectivity standpoint but because a number of OS X features rely on them, such as Continuity and AirDrop. Wi-Fi issues were a major problem for Yosemite, and I saw no evidence of them by the time this release came around. No problems with wireless connectivity or stability appeared during my time with the new operating system. The Air feels about as quick as a six month old Windows 10 laptop, the HP Spectre x360, that I use regularly. Though it is now several years old, the Air I used for testing 10.11 has an extremely quick solid state drive, and its Core i5 isn’t that far behind modern processors. I suspect the speed is an example of software leveraging the hardware. That’s a problem even the quickest Mac can’t dodge. ![]() Despite that, El Capitan ran like a champ. Documents and applications open within a few seconds, and animations look smooth, though OS X still suffers from occasional graphical hitches during its most elaborate transitions. My review was completed on a 2012 MacBook Air with a Core i5 processor and four gigabytes of RAM - far from cutting edge hardware. Such issues have stopped. In fact, it’s been weeks since I’ve seen the operating system, or any first-party software, crash or freeze (knock on wood).Īnd 10.11 does feel as snappy as promised. Still, Apple’s focus on performance and stability is a noticeable. Safari was a particular problem both in Yosemite and El Capitan’s beta, as it often crashed when asked to visit complex sites like Trello, an organization tool we use at Digital Trends to manage workflow. I can’t say I noticed a significant improvement, but perhaps it’s more noticeable with files larger than those I typically use.Įl Capitan installed and ran without a hitch on our three-year-old, barebones MacBook Air 13. Do PDFs really open “up to” four times more quickly than before? Maybe. Of course, that’s difficult to evaluate, particularly when Apple’s performance claims are vague. The lack of feature additions in OS X 10.11 indicates that performance and stability is the goal. El Capitan chooses to stay the course - but is that the right decision? Old Macs can apply Some might argue too wide, as many users complained that Yosemite was buggier than previous releases. Apple’s lead has grown wide over the last few years. El Capitan’s focus on refinement rather than big, headline features, only makes the situation worse.īut that doesn’t necessarily mean OS X has fallen behind. It is, relative to the yearly updates performed by Apple, a much larger leap forward, which makes it tougher for OS X 10.11 to stand out. Windows 10 has not only refined ideas that didn’t work but also added entirely new functionality. It meant Windows refined or changed features, while OS X gained new ones. That approach turned out to be more appropriate. While Redmond’s engineers tried to meld the desktop with touch, those in Cupertino happily refined the traditional keyboard and mouse experience. ![]() Fitbit Versa 3Īpple’s operating system has enjoyed some excellent updates over the last few years, and it benefited from Microsoft’s experimentation.
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