Recently Apple released the upgrade to Mac OS X with the newer version Mac OS X 10.6.7 snow leopard, and the plans for launching the version 10.7 is on its way. The new Mac OS X Lion has new concepts and features and Apple has a very attractive tagline too “The power of Mac OS X. The magic of iPad”. This tagline clearly shows that the new Mac OS X will have something to do more with the touchscreen, or touchpad.
Two days back it was the 10th birthday of Mac OS X, and everyone was hoping that Apple would release this newer version on it’s birthday but unfortunately it didn’t happen. Now, what I predict is that the Summer 2011, that Apple is advertising would be the June of 2011.
Following is the list of new and updated features of Mac OS X Lion:
- Address Book now uses an iPad-like user interface
- Auto Correct – Auto correct now behaves much like on iOS devices, even displaying an iOS like popup box.
- AirDrop — Mac-to-Mac file sharing.
- Auto Save — As in iOS, documents in applications written to use Auto Save will be saved automatically so users don’t have to worry about manually managing their documents.
- FaceTime comes bundled with Lion.
- FileVault now offers full disk encryption added security with XTS-AES 128 data encryption. Support for FileVault on external hard drives has also been added.
- Finder redesigned.
- Folder Merging — Unlike previous versions of OS X, one can now merge files under two folders with the same name. A prompt will appear asking whether one wants to replace or keep both files.
- iCal has an updated user interface, with support for a full-screen view.
- iChat support for logging into Yahoo! Messenger. Users can audio- and video-chat with other iChat users using their Yahoo! accounts.
- Launchpad — An application launcher that displays an iOS-like icon grid of installed applications.[6] It will feature the ability to make multiple pages and group apps into folders which function the same as folders in iOS.
- Mac App Store — An application store built in the image of the iOS App Store. Like in iOS, it will provide ways for shoppers to discover apps, one-click installation of apps, and one-click updates of all or selected installed applications. Despite being announced as a future feature of Lion, the Mac App Store was released for Mac OS X Snow Leopard on January 6, 2011 as it was bundled with the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update.
- Mail 5 – Uses an iPad-like user interface, has a fullscreen-optimized view, uses chronological “Conversations” to organize messages,[6] and supports Exchange 2010.
- Preview gains several features, including full-screen support and the ability to sign a document just by holding a signed piece of paper up to the camera.
- Profile Manager — Allows profile-based management of iOS devices and Mac OS X Lion.
- QuickTime re-incorporates some features from QuickTime Pro. New features cited include Copy/Paste, Insert Clip, Crop Video, Rotate Video, Resize, Trim, and more Export options.
- Recovery Partition — Apple has introduced a recovery partition that includes utilities generally found on the OS X discs. This partition will allow the user to restore their computer to its original factory state.
- Resume — Applications resume in the same state when re-opened as already seen in iOS.[6] Because of this, the Dock no longer visually indicates whether an app is currently running or not by default – the original behavior can be restored in the Dock section of System Preferences.
- Safari with full-screen mode and the new WebKit2 layout engine.
- Server — Mac OS X Server is now bundled with Mac OS X, rather than being a separate version of the OS.
- System Information — This feature is a re-design of “About This Mac” and has been completely altered with new views which display graphical information on displays, storage devices, memory usage along with other hardware information.
- Versions — Time Machine-like saving and browsing of past versions of documents for applications written to use Versions.
[Via: Wikipedia]
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