Apple has announced that OS X El Capitan, the latest desktop operating system release, will be available today as a free update for Mac users.

Building on the features and design of OS X Yosemite, El Capitan contains updated window management, apps, Spotlight search and performance improvements, claiming to be more responsive and fast than Yosemite.

Apple’s Craig Federighi said: “El Capitan refines the Mac experience and improves performance in a lot of little ways that make a very big difference. Feedback from our OS X beta program has been incredibly positive and we think customers are going to love their Macs even more with El Capitan.”

El Capitan offers a Split View and a streamlined Mission Control, making it easier to organise open windows by presenting them in a single layer. Users can create a new Space to spread out work when the desktop gets too crowded.

Spotlight has been improved to allow users to look at stock prices, weather, sports scores and schedules. Spotlight’s allows search using ‘real language’ for example; ‘Email from Seán from February’ or ‘Document I worked on two days ago’.

In Association with

Apps

Safari has a Pinned Sites feature to keep favourite sites open and a mute button to turn off audio from any tab. Smart Suggestions in Mail recognises events and names and now has the swipe to delete feature that iphones do. It is also possible to open multiple emails in full screen.

New photo features include the ability to edit locations, batch change descriptions and use editing add-ons.

A new Notes app has the ability to drag photos, videos and files into a note, and add content from web pages and map locations using the Share menu. An attachments browser allows you to organise attachments easily.

System Performance

OS X El Capitan is more responsive than its predecessor. Apple’s Metal graphics technology accelerates Core Animation and Core Graphics to boost system level-rendering by up to 50% and efficiency by up to 40%. Metal is said to deliver faster draw call performance for a more fluid games experience.e

El Capitan has improved language support, including a new Chinese system of characters and automatic Japanese Hiragana to written Japanese function.

OS X El Capitan is available as a free update starting September 30 from the Mac App Store. El Capitan supports all Macs introduced in 2009 and later, and some models introduced in 2007 and 2008.