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| OS X Lion Features |
OS X Lion Features
- Launch Pad, an iOS-like app-launcher;
- Mission Control, an agglomeration of Mac OS X's Expos�, Spaces, and Dashboard;
- Full-screen apps, which override the long-standing windows UI model; and
- Auto Save, as its name implies, automatically saves changes in documents you're working on � but saves just the changes, not entire new files, thus speeding saves and saving drive space.
- Versions, presumably in concert with Auto Save, keeps versions of your working documents available for reversion.
- Resume (not R�sum�) reopens apps and documents in the same state at which you closed them � but only if those apps, in Apple's words, "have been developed to work with Lion".
- Mail version 5 will adopt significant chunks of the iOS version's look-and-feel.
- Finder Enhancements: AppleInsider reports a number of changes to the Finder, including iOS-style scroll bars, windows resizeable from any corner or side, the replacement of the disclosure triangles in a Finder windows Sidebar with mouseover-appearing Show/Hide clickables, and a new set of Finder-window file-viewing options, including views grouped by item type or various dating data.
Full-screen apps
Another feature that seems destined to be ignored by power users and beloved by the masses, Apple's pushing hard for developers to build full-screen app views for Lion. Switching an app to full screen opens it in a dedicated space by default, so you can quickly switch between the desktop and open full-screen apps with a three-finger swipe -- a move that mimics the multitasking gestures Apple's been testing in iPad iOS developer builds.
Mission Control
While Launchpad and the focus on full-screen apps feel aimed at the casual user, Mission Control feels like the exact opposite -- a feature only a power user could love. Multitasking and app management
One major change Apple's made in Lion is that running apps are no longer denoted by a little "light" in the Dock. Just like iOS, Lion is designed to manage system resources for the user, in an effort to make multitasking completely seamless. Gestures
Lion introduces a number of new multitouch system gestures that make using the OS with a trackpad much more natural and smooth. Swipes and scrolling
Three-finger swipes are everywhere in Lion -- a swipe to the left to switch between Spaces and full-screen apps, a swipe down to show app windows, a swipe up to show Mission Control, a swipe right to show the Dashboard space. Two-finger gestures have been slightly changed as well -- horizontal swipes now control back / forward in Safari by default, and scrolling is now inverted by default, as in iOS. There's also a new preference that basically rids the system of scroll bars if you're using a trackpad, instead showing an iOS style vanishing scroll indicator.
Versions and Auto Save
You might think of Versions and Auto Save as Time Machine for apps -- Lion apps automatically save changes to documents as you work, and then you can browse between saved versions using a variation of the Time Machine interface. AirDrop
One of Lion's niftiest new features is AirDrop, which allows quick and easy file transfers between WiFi-equipped Macs. Resume
App updates
Apple's redesigned a number of of built-in apps in Lion, and the iOS influence is readily apparent -- run some of these apps full-screen on an 11-inch MacBook Air and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference from an iPad.
New preferences and other changes
Lion has a number of new iOS-inspired options in System Preferences -- nothing major, but some are worth pulling out.
Other changes
Apple showcased the eighth and latest version of Mac OS X, named Lion. Apple has combined some of the features that they have developed for iPad, such as multi-touch gestures, App Store, auto save, etc., with OS X. Lion has several new features such as Mission Control, Launchpad, App Store, fullscreen apps, auto-save, Resume Air Drop and the new Mail 5 application.
Last week Apple released a developer preview of Lion on the Mac App Store and we couldn't wait to get our hands on it and try it on our MacBook Pro (2010 edition).
UI changes
We had issues with scrolling in the developer preview of Lion. While it worked perfectly with the built-in applications and Apple's own apps such as Pages, it worked haphazardly with third-party apps. Windows now pop-open, just the way applications pop-open when you launch them in iOS. The preview option has also been updated. Trackpad Gestures
Now it can be used for Mission Control or for dragging windows as well.
Launchpad
Launchpad is the new way to open applications on the Mac. launchpad
Mission Control
With Leopard, Mac OS introduced two new features to users, Spaces and Expose. Mission Control combines Spaces and Expose into one single entity.
Minimized windows aren't shown. You can move windows from one space to another, by just grabbing the application icon below the window and dragging all the open windows of that app into another space. If there are any full screen windows then they appear as a separate space with the application name below them. Full-screen mode
Just like the ability to resize windows from all sides, Apple suddenly realized that people also like to use their applications in fullscreen mode at times, so now apps like Safari, Preview, Mail, iCal and iPhoto can go full-screen (iPhoto can go full-screen even in older versions of Mac if you have iLife '11 installed). If an app can go full-screen you can see the icon in the top left corner of the window.
Full-screen mode has mostly benefited Preview, which can now show your images and PDF files in full-screen. PDF files appear in a two page layout in full-screen mode, with a sliding animation when you scroll between pages.
Auto Save and Versions
This functionality has now been introduced to Mac OS X. With auto save, applications will automatically save changes that you make in the document at regular interval. Unlike the auto-save feature in applications such as Microsoft Office, which create a new version of the file apart from the one that already exists and saves all the new data in it, Auto Save saves all the changes in the same file, thus saving space.
Mail 5
Lion includes a new version of Mail.
AirDrop
OS X Lion comes with a new file sharing feature, called AirDrop. This lets you share files with other Mac users with AirDrop over Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, we couldn't test this feature as we did not have another Mac with Lion installed.
Lion also comes with other new features, such as Lion Server, which is no longer a separate OS. There is no doubt that Lion is a definite improvement over Snow Leopard. The built-in Mac App Store is great and makes downloading apps for your Mac so much easier. There is a reason why Apple has released this developer preview, so that developers can start working on making their applications work well with Lion.
Who knows, by the time Lion comes out, most of the applications that we use daily would be compatible with features such as Auto-Save and Versions. Apart from Apple�s new Macbook Pro, another new thing came out and it�s the Mac OS X Lion. For those Mac OS users out there this may be quite interesting to you as we discuss the latest improvements in this new Mac OS X Lion.
Video: OS X Lion Features
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