The 8th and the latest version of Mac OS X Lion i.e. version 10.7 has been released for public use. In a very dramatic style, Apple announced its newest operating system and not only that, Apple also didn’t shy away from calling it the “the world’s most advanced desktop operating system”.
According to Apple, 250 new features have been added in the latest version of the MAC OS i.e. OS X Lion 10.7. The OS has picked up quite a bit from the iOS and that makes you feel like using an iPad instead of a Macbook. The OS can be obtained in two ways: first, by downloading it from the Mac App store for $29 and second, by means of a USB flash drive install which is a little pricier at $69. Once downloaded the installation takes less than 20 minutes.
After installation, the first feature that grabs your attention is the inverted scroll, to add further surprise Apple calls it as ‘natural scroll direction’ (thankfully, the feature can be switched off from system preferences).
Two other features that will greet you when you boot up are Mission Control and Lauchpad. Mission Control will take a shot of desktop with all opened windows in the center of the screen, whereas, Launchpad will effectively transform your Mac desktop in to a mobile looking one. Another new useful feature is the ‘Spotlight’. In the latest OS, using ‘the spotlight’ search results will also include results from the internet (from Wikipedia and also dictionary results).
Applications like QuickTime and Safari have also been upgraded in the OS X Lion 10.7 upgrade. Many features like merging, exporting audio-only tracks, rotating clips, and recording a portion of the screen are the highlights of QuickTime. Safari has been given a performance and security update which fills up quite a few holes that existed in the earlier version of Safari.
Another feature of the upgrade is the multitouch gesture support. Apple integrated this in the ‘Finder’ and other proprietary applications. For example if you swipe three fingers from left to right, dashboard will appear. Though this is a good feature but sans two fingered scrolling and cursor control, the rest are not that useful.
Now arguments can be made on whether the OS is the ‘best till date’ or not; but features like AirDrop and versions are enough to keep you interested. If not them then at least one out of the 250 will catch your attention. Thus, with the modest tag of $29, it is a must buy.