Aside from my thoughts on how successful Apple has been over the past quarter, there is one thing that has always drawn me to take a bite out of that apple. That is OS X. How this OS evolved from a decade ago is amazing as a whole. The ease of use. The convenience. How resourceful it is. These are the perks of having a Mac. It does exactly what I want it to do in a laptop. During this past WWDC, Steve Jobs revealed his newest creation: OS X 10.7 Lion. Lion is an evolution of a fairly new Snow Leopard (which released back in August 09'.) however, Jobs pointed out that 250 new features were added 10.7. Now, you have to understand that a number of these new features are features that you may never use, or you are using, and you just don't know it. That number is simply there as a sales pitch. Regardless if you didn't buy into that, Mac users don't have too much of an excuse to not get Lion. For starters, it's $29.99 on the App Store. Compare that to the full retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate ($275.00). Even if you wait to buy the $69.99 flash drive version of Lion, you're still obviously paying less for more content (because there is MORE content that comes out of OS X...face it, fantrolls.).
Now, like Snow Leopard was when it released, I was underwhelmed overall. Not too much features stood out like it descended from the heavens. The interface was not significantly different either. Snow Leopard just made getting around my Macbook a little easier. Lion for me was more or less the same overall. These features makes my Mac sessions a little more easier, and maybe even fun, but I am sure that is going to fade away after the initial "woo! New stuff!" mentality subsides. Like I said, it's still no excuse to not get Lion. It will be better. It's not like when Microsoft released ME or Vista (initially) and took some steps backwards. Lion definitely took the experience forward.
The Default Lion Desktop
NEW FEATURES:
Before I move to the meat of this review, one thing worth noting is the fact that this version of OS X is iOS-centric. Some of the big features in Lion took a cue from iOS (like Launchpad). One of the big reasons if because the market is so saturated with iOS products, a lot of new customers to the Mac side are expecting to have their experience like their iPad or iPhone. This move started almost a year ago when they revealed iLife '11. All the apps had a feature to full screen the window into a iPad-like interface. The only thing missing was a capacitive screen. With Lion, they took it even further with the ability to full-screen every app. Shit, they even inverted the scroll gesture to mimic the scrolling on a touch screen device (disliked). Be ready to have the impression that your Mac is starting to morph into an iPad. Besides, with rumors like a "pro" version of the iPad, and their success with version 2 of the Air, I have the feeling that Apple is starting to shift their thinking on how to approach mobile computing. Be ready for shocking news when Steve announces that he is gutting the Macbook Pro line in favor of more iPads and Airs.
Mission Control
Mission Control combines Expose and Spaces and it neatly organizes your opened windows (expose feature) according to desktop (spaces feature). This feature is geared towards multi-tasking. A upward swipe of 3 fingers will bring MC up and you can move windows onto other display desktops or place it on a new one. If you swipe left or right with 3 fingers you can switch desktops on the fly or access your Dashboard. The movement is fluid, but more importantly, the combining of the prior two features is a smart move. Like I said, this feature makes an aspect of navigating and multitasking easier. Windows certainly doesn't have that out of the box.
Mission Control
Mission control with Preview running. When more than one window from programs are up on one Desktop, they're neatly organized and can be moved to another desktop whether there is one present or if you want to place on a new one.
Launchpad
Launchpad is an extremely iOS-centric feature. In fact, it's the same interface. All apps will show up in a very familiar fashion and they can be organized into folders. Again, this is a feature that just makes things easier to access. I kind of questioned the use for the Dock, however, with the actual app switch gesture now being used to switch desktops, the only real app switcher you have without using Mission Control is the Dock itself. Launchpad also nulled the idea of finding your newly installed app and dragging it to the dock. Launchpad is by no means a Dock replacement, but it's use are very welcomed.
Launchpad brings up every app on your Mac into a neat iOS layout and you can drag and create new folders to keep it organized
Resume...
...is a very nice feature! They took the concept of browser restoring and implement it for the entire OS. Basically, resume allows you to close your apps and reopen them right where you left off. You can even restart the computer and the programs you had running prior to restart will restore itself to where you left off. This ties in to the next two features
Auto Save & Versions
Autosave is pretty self explanatory. It auto saves your work much like the blogger app on this website. Not a big deal until you add Versions to the mix. Versions takes snapshots of the saved work you've done, and if there was ever a time where you needed to go back because you deleted something within the document that you needed, it's right there for the taking. This is also good for back to back comparisons of documents you created to see which one you like more. There is no need to manually revert to the previous state if it already saved it in Versions.
Screenshot of Versions in action (from http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/)
Air Drop
Air Drop a little interesting feature. The concept is file transferring with other Air Drop equipped Macs (pretty much, OS X Lion users) without a wifi network. The interface is extremely simple to use, and it consists of dragging one file to any other Air Drop user within a 30 foot radius. When the other user accepts the file, it encrypts and downloads to that users Downloads folder. Unfortunately, I couldn't test this feature because there is no other Lion user within 30 feet of me. I also heard that eventually, PCs will get in on the action as well, so look out for that.
Click for larger image.
Other Features Worth Noting
Do you suck at spelling? Moreover, do you not pay attention to the squiggly red lines that show up when you screw up words or names like Mahoghany (to be corrected as Mahogany...if know how to right click.)? Apple is here to save the day! The same autocorrect features you see on iOS and other mobile devices is now being used for Lion. On the flipside, I can see Lion being a little ninja and autocorrecting words that would just render your sentence awkward, or unintentionally naughty, so a friendly reminder to look what you post before you hit send, or submit.
Watch out! Autocorrect looks nice...until it becomes a ninja and ninji chops your emails.
-Take a look at the new Address Book. You're now able to link social network profiles onto your contacts. You can FaceTime anyone available for it from the Address Book as well as IM.
-Speaking of FaceTime, it now comes standard with OS X. It also supports the HD cams that are starting to show up on newer Macs and the new Thunderbolt Display.
-Another feature is more of a power-user feature, but you should know that it's there. This would be the update to the FileVault option. It now encrypts your entire hardrive with a XTS-AES 128 encryption. The initial process is suppose to be painless and non impacting so you can continue to work as it encrypting files. There is also another option that will make all of your data inaccessible (by encryption key removal) and wipes the data from the disk.
Drawbacks
It's great to have all these features. Who doesn't like features that you actually use? Unfortunately, Lion can bring out the age in a number of Mac's. I have the first unibody aluminum Macbook (late 2008 model). It has a Core2Duo CPU @ 2.0Ghz, 500GB Hybrid SS/HDD @ 7200 RPM, 4Gb DDR 3 RAM @ 1048Mhz, and a Nvidia 9400M GPU. As of yesterday, I am mostly no longer on par with newer Macbooks at the price that I paid for mine. They discontinued the white unibody Macbook and the Macbook Air's run Sandy Bridge i5 CPUs. While loaded moments were not noticeable when using Snow Leopard, It is noticeable for Lion. Especially on the original hard drive it was on (160Gb @ 5400 RPM). Even after a few restarts (as the Mob demands it), switching through desktops, and accessing resource light apps like Chrome were slower than Snow Leopard. Even after I installed this hybrid HDD, some programs were slow to load and were resource heavy (as the fan was spinning really loud). If you have a Mac like mine, or the earlier Intel based Macs, this is your warning. You either upgrade your components with more RAM, and a faster Hard Drive, or suffer with slowdown. Don't get me wrong. It's not excessive, but it is noticeable, and it looks like it can be annoying.
Conclusion
OS X 10.7 is a solid must have, and at $29.99, you really don't have an excuse to buy and download it. Apple didn't hit this out of the park, but rather deep within center-right field with the center and right fielder colliding with each other. This is a good buffer zone before Apple starts rolling out the new iPhone, Late year laptops and/or desktops, and maybe that "pro" line iPad (not iPad 3) that's been making a ruckus in rumor land.
Another view of Mission Control
The new Photobooth layout (and a staircase)
New iCal
New iTunes (in full screen mode)
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