OS X El Capitan

How to go into and exit Split View multitasking mode from within Mission Control on your Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 25, 2017

macOS has a nifty little productivity boost that makes it both easy and fun to run two apps side-by-side in your Mac's native full-screen mode.

This can be indispensable when focusing on specific tasks at hand while disregarding everything else, like online research and taking notes, or blogging and writing, or reading news while keeping tabs on your Twitter feed and so forth.

This mode, called Split View, is normally activated by dragging an app to either side of the screen by its window's upper left green button, and then choosing another app to fit the other half of the screen.

But the multi-step process is often a tad confusing for novice users, especially those accustomed to Windows 7's effortless window snapping. Thankfully, your Mac supports creating Split Views right within Mission Control, which in macOS has been tidied up and made clearer and more obvious.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to go, and exit, Split View just by dragging app windows inside your Mac's Mission Control.

Apple seeds OS X 10.11.2 beta to developers

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Along with the release of iOS 9.2 beta 1, Apple has seeded a new OS X beta to developers. The beta, OS X 10.11.2, comes with a build number of 15C27e.

It's only been 6 days since the public edition of the prior version of Apple's desktop OS, OS X 10.11.1, was released. Unlike today's earlier iOS update, Apple is being fairly mum about the contents of its new beta for El Capitan.

Apple releases OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 update with improved stability and more

Sébastien Page ∙ October 21, 2015

Following the release of iOS 9.1 and watchOS 2.0.1, Apple has also updated OS X El Capitan, bringing to software to version 10.11.1. This update doesn't bring much to the table in terms of new features, besides the addition of 150 new emoji characters.

Things you actually agree to by accepting El Capitan’s software license agreement

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

Like so many folks, I myself don't even bother reading through legal mumbo-jumbo in software license agreements and just click the 'Agree' button

A trained professional—lawyer and developer Robb Schecter—took it upon himself to read through Apple's end user license agreement for El Capitan to spell out any limitations in plain English so you don't have to.

You don't own El Capitan per se when you download a copy of the operating system from the Mac App Store: instead, you're actually borrowing it and Apple still owns it.

This shouldn't come as a surprise: that's how software has been distributed for decades. But, I doubt many people are aware of El Capitan's limitations pertaining to virtualization, business use and more.

How to create shopping lists, to-dos and other checklists in Notes app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 17, 2019

A much-improved Notes application is one of my favorite features of iOS and macOS. With it, you can now draw sketches with your finger, enrich your thoughts with photos, maps and web links—and even create a checklist of to-dos.

Checklists work perfectly for stuff like grocery lists, wish lists, quick to-dos and what not, and they're interactive so you can tick off individual items to mark them as completed. And with iCloud, changes to your notes are automatically pushed to all your devices.

In this post, we're going to demonstrate how easy it is to create interactive checklists in Notes on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac and iCloud.com.

Apple releases OS X 10.11.1 beta 4 to developers and public testers

Cody Lee ∙ October 14, 2015

Apple on Wednesday seeded the fourth beta of OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 to developers and public testers. The new build is available to registered developers via the Updates section of the Mac App Store or through Apple’s Developer Center. Public testers can also find it in the Updates section of the MAS, or via the public beta portal.

Apple seeds OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan beta 3 to developers and public beta testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 7, 2015

A third beta of what would become El Capitan's first major software update following the recent release of the operating system is now available to members of the Apple Developer Program and public beta testers signed for the Apple Beta Software Program.

How to send video wirelessly from your Mac to TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks owners of the Apple TV have been able to wirelessly mirror their Mac screen to the big screen TV with an AirPlay feature called AirDisplay. There was just one slight problem: you couldn't stream individual videos without mirroring the whole screen.

Apple has solved this annoyance with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which introduced richer AirPlay support permitting you to send video from Safari and other apps to the Apple TV.

Skype’s iPad and Mac apps now support new multitasking features in iOS 9 and El Capitan

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 1, 2015

Microsoft-owned Skype for iPad was refreshed in the App Store earlier this morning with support for new multitasking features provided by iOS 9. It's now easier to chat with friends on Skype while surfing the web, reading your email or running other apps in side-by-side Split View multitasking mode (requires iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 4).

In addition to Split View, Skype for iPad also supports Slide Over mode. Both instant messaging and voice calling are supported in Split View and Slide Over.

El Capitan’s Boot Camp has USB drive-less Windows setup, but not all Macs are supported

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 1, 2015

Boot Camp, the Mac's built-in software for dual-booting between OS X and Windows has been given some love in the new El Capitan software update and now features a slicker Windows setup that no longer requires a USB thumb drive, as discovered by Twocanoes.

Previously, Boot Camp required that the Windows installer be provided in the form of a USB drive or CD/DVD installation media. Now you can just point to an .ISO file, which significantly shortens the entire procedure for those who have purchased Windows as a digital download.

How to disable the mouse pointer shake gesture on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Have you ever woken your Mac up from sleep, and couldn't find the mouse pointer among the mess of windows and desktop icons. We've all been there before.

Starting with El Capitan, macOS is hoping to help out with that, courtesy of a brand new addition to the operating system. It's certainly not a headline feature, but macOS can help you quickly locate your mouse or trackpad pointer by simply shaking your mouse or swiping your finger back and forth on the trackpad in quick succession.

Watch our video inside to see how it works. We'll also show you where to go to disable the feature in System Preferences.

Quick roundup of major El Capitan features

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 30, 2015

El Capitan is here and with it arrive tons of under-the-hood improvements that will make your Mac run faster and your daily computing smoother than before. Even though El Capitan is a Snow Leopard-style release focused on speed and core OS improvements, it nonetheless packs a pretty punch when it comes to user-facing features.

From a more streamlined Mission Control and a smarter Spotlight Search to more efficient multitasking in Split View mode and an all-new Notes to perfected stock apps and iOS-style gestures in Mail, El Capitan is about refinements to the already great Mac user experience and little things that are worth getting excited about.

Here's a short overview of major new features in El Capitan.