Apple has a brand new software update for MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iMac owners running the latest operating system. Late this morning, the company released the Mac OS X 10.11. The free software upgrade adds nothing new for users, but fixes some of the serious OS X El Capitan issues.
The OS X 10.11.2 update is currently rolling out to millions of users, all of whom own an Apple computer. Apple released the update at the same time as the iOS 9.2 update for iPhone users, the latest TVos updates for Apple TV, and a minor update for popular Apple Watch users. The update is free to download for anyone with an operating system installed.
The fixes make up the entire OS X 10.11. Apple states that the update “improves Wi-Fi reliability” and finally addresses an issue that some Mac OS users have reported on their machines. Also included is a fix that forces Handoff and AirDrop to work properly on Mac OS. Again, some users reported problems with both features after the initial launch of Mac OS X El Capitan.
Other fixes are mainly related to the infrastructure of Mac OS X El Captain. Importing photos from iPhone to iMac is now more reliable thanks to a fix made in this update to fix this issue. An issue that prevented email messages from being properly deleted from a Microsoft Exchange Account while offline was fixed with the OS X 10.11. That’s a huge number, as many companies use Microsoft Exchange to power their entire company’s email and calendar experience.
Finally, there is a fix for using the iCloud Photo Sharing library to import Live Photos taken with an iPhone. Apple only notes that these fixes make some “improvements”. There doesn’t seem to be any major bugs with this feature, just some issues with iCloud syncing what users have reliably captured. Live Photos are motion pictures captured by Apple’s latest iPhones along with standard images.
Altogether, the OS X 10.11.2 update will come as welcome news for anyone who has trouble running their Macs properly when the new update is installed. Mac OS X El Capitan is the latest update to Macs since Apple started giving owners of their machines free Mac OS upgrades. Once the update is installed, there will be no problem for those who continue to install the software upgrade.
OS X El Captain includes a number of minor changes for upgraders. For years, owners of Windows machines could use the mouse cursor to drag apps to the edge of their screen and automatically lock them there. Included in this update. Note, Mail, and Messages are also getting major updates. Notes now works and behaves like its iOS counterpart, the software works on iPhone. Added gesture support to Messages so users can swipe or schedule anything in their email inbox.
OS X Yosemite, the previous update for Mac OS users, did all the heavy lifting. It brought iPhone, iPad and Mac closer together by allowing users to send and receive text messages from any Apple device. It also included Handoff, a nifty way to wirelessly send things being worked on or looked at to different Apple devices.
Again, this update to OS X El Captain is free to download. Some users are reporting that their machines are not yet ready to allow them to download the software upgrade. Others have reported that they have already successfully downloaded and updated their machines. If everything follows Apple’s usual release pattern, everyone will have the software update ready to install tonight, tomorrow.
