Hands-On Look at iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan

At yesterday's WWDC keynote, Apple unveiled its next generation operating systems for Mac and iOS, introducing both OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9. We've done a hands-on overview of the two new operating systems, to give you a look at some of the changes that Apple has implemented.

With iOS 9, there are several underlying improvements that improve battery life and reduce the amount of storage space the operating system takes up, a huge benefit for users with 16GB devices. Siri's become more intelligent, and the whole OS has been updated with "Proactive" features that help you better manage your life.


A revamped search screen on the left of the home screen offers up a list of commonly used apps, favorite contacts, restaurant and venue recommendations, and important news, all available at a glance. Maps gained Transit directions, Notes has new features, there's a new News app, and we're finally getting a much-desired split-screen multitasking feature for the iPad.

And those are just the big changes -- check out our roundup of hidden features, too, and visit our iOS 9 forum to learn even more about the new version of iOS.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is named for a notable mountain within Yosemite, signifying its position as an update that builds on and refines the features introduced with OS X Yosemite. El Capitan includes improved window management features with a new Split view for displaying two full screen windows at once, plus it has an improved Spotlight search with natural language support, and updates to apps like Notes and Maps.


Safari has gained features like Pinned Sites and a mute button that can silence audio from any tab, while Mail supports new gestures and Smart Suggestions. Most importantly, El Capitan improves system performance, making many tasks on the Mac faster than before. It also includes Metal for much improved graphics performance.

Want to know more about El Capitan? Make sure to visit our OS X 10.11 forum, where members are discussing the new update and sharing many smaller changes that went under the radar.

El Capitan and iOS 9 are both available to registered developers, and Apple plans to provide them to public beta testers in July. A public release of both software updates will come in the fall.

Related Forums: iOS 9, OS X El Capitan

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
128 months ago
Hm, he looks like he's having a little too much fun panning around two apps at once.



Oh, yeah. Slower.

Attachment Image
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mabaker Avatar
128 months ago
The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!
Yes, and the entire Android OS is a shameless rip off of Apple iPhone OS, Symbian and Palm OS. Of course Android trolls will never ever acknowledge that because they were not even born yet. Aka not being part of the Church Of Google.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MikeyCopeland Avatar
128 months ago
The new slide out search is totally an Android feature!!
And totally an iOS feature prior to it being removed in ios7.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sirious Avatar
128 months ago
El Capitan is a mountain inside Yosemite National Park, so really the naming scheme is keeping in line with Leopard/Snow Leopard, Lion/Mountain Lion and now Yosemite/El Capitan.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
flowsy Avatar
128 months ago
The mute feature in Safari is nice but I'd prefer something that stops video from playing. Hate those autostart videos. Why mute it when you can stop the video and the processing that it uses.
At least Safari stops them from autoplaying in a new background tab. I love that feature and no other browser does that on OS X.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
roland.g Avatar
128 months ago
The mute feature in Safari is nice but I'd prefer something that stops video from playing. Hate those autostart videos. Why mute it when you can stop the video and the processing that it uses.

The best new "features" in El Capitan other than performance related improvements are the multitasking features that are already available with BetterTouchTool but it is nice to see integrated into OS X as well as the new mail tabs in Mail. The biggest problem with Full Screen Mail is when you are composing a draft and need to get to other info in another email (save draft, copy info, open draft) or when you need to drop in something (exit full screen, work side by side, pull in images or docs, send, go back to full screen).
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)