Apple Opens Public Betas of OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9
Apple has released public betas of OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9. If you’re already enrolled in the public beta program, you can download them now. Otherwise, you’ll need to sign up. Please, do not install these on your main machines! Both are pre-release operating systems — many things could be broken, your favorite apps may not work with them yet, and you could even lose data due to corruption or crashes. Even though you can create a separate disk partition for El Capitan, something could still go wrong. Regardless, make sure you have a complete backup first!
To sign up, visit the public beta page and log in with your Apple ID. Follow the instructions for OS X or iOS to install the respective beta.
As we wrote in “Snow in Yosemite: Apple Introduces OS X 10.11 El Capitan” (8 June 2015), El Capitan brings performance and stability improvements, a Windows 7-style Split View mode, a tweaked Mission Control, Spotlight enhancements like natural language parsing, enhancements to Safari and Mail, a beefed-up Notes app, and more.
iOS 9 is a huge upgrade for the iPad, adding Slide Over and Picture in Picture views, as well as Split View for the iPad Air 2, along with other tweaks to make better use of the iPad’s larger screen size. iOS 9 also features a new set of features called Intelligence, which includes search suggestions, new Siri commands, and automatic actions based on your usage habits. Other changes include the aforementioned Notes upgrade, public transit directions in Maps, a redesigned Passbook called Wallet, and a new News app that aggregates content from numerous sources. Like El Capitan, iOS 9 also boasts a number of performance, stability, and energy usage improvements. For details, see “iOS 9 to Add
More Intelligence and iPad Multitasking” (8 June 2015).
Okay, very nice, but do we even NEED OS 10.11 just yet? Apple used to take a few years between OS updates, now it seems like every six months. Often there are some incremental changes, while a bunch of stuff gets broken or is made obsolete. And lots of other software then has to be updated. Is this just gamesmanship so Apple can keep having something "new" for the Mac?
Coupled with Apple's "policy" of not being able to easily roll back to an earlier OS, the constant updates cause as much trouble as they solve! Am I the only person bothered by this?
I've given up trying to get iOS 9 Public Beta on my iPad 3 after fighting for the last 4 days. First, I wasn't told you had to have iOS 8.4 installed before you can try to get 9.1PB. So after several hours, I finally had iOS 8.4 on the iPad, but then kept being stopped with iTunes 11 saying it was in "recovery Mode" and had to be "Restored". Installed iTunes 12.2 on an external Mountain Lion drive and tried again. Several hours later, iTunes 12.2 said that my iPad was in "Recovery Mode" and needed to be "Restored". That was it so I quit. BTW, iTunes 12 SUCKS big time!
Yes. I've stuck with Mavericks, and some days wished I never upgraded even that far. It cost me a fortune to update all my company software, and I am a one person shop. Not to mention downgrading programs like Pages, which actually declined in features and ease of use. I have returned to and will stick with Pages 4.2 until I hear otherwise.
When I saw the phrase "Windows 7-style", I shuddered. I have to use Windows Office for my non-Mac clients, but I have had nothing but problems with everything but Excel. Why would Mac want to imitate such a poorly designed operating system and related software?
I miss Steve Jobs.
The window-snapping feature of Windows 7 was actually pretty good. I've been emulating it with BetterTouchTool for years. I'm excited to see it officially come to the Mac.
unless you don't want them to snap, then it was a huge pain in the ass, typical of windoze.
It seems the focus here is on speed and stability, so here's hoping it'll fix more problems than it creates.
Love to hear if iOS 9 is better for the iPhone 4S, with better speed and user optimization choices.
I can't speak for the 4S, but I've been quite happy with it on my iPad Air. Your mileage may vary, of course.