Mac Os X Lion Review

 X Lion

Gadget Mobile Technology: Mac Os X Lion Review - Apple has released Lion, the latest version of its OS X operating system for desktops and laptops. Shane Richmond reviews it.

Apple last updated OS X two years ago with the release of Snow Leopard. That version of the operating system that runs Apple’s desktop and laptop computers focussed mostly on performance improvements and ‘under the hood’ tweaks. Lion, released today, is a different beast; it has more than 250 new features and some of them will change significantly the way you work with the operating system.

Between Snow Leopard and Lion, something important happened. The iPad, dismissed by many as a gadget that nobody needed, proved to be enormously popular. So popular, in fact, that Apple has brought some of the features of the iPad operating system, iOS, back to the Mac. This ‘iPad-ification’ of the Mac is most obvious in LaunchPad, a new feature that displays all the applications on your Mac on an iPad-style grid. You can even create folders and pages of apps, just as you can on an iOS device.

Experienced users may ignore LaunchPad. I had to remind myself to use it during my time testing Lion. If I want an app that isn’t in my dock, I habitually use Spotlight. However, this isn’t a feature for power users. It’s a cleverly-targeted feature for those whose only experience has been on an iOS device - an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. Thinking of moving from an iOS device to your first Mac? LaunchPad makes everything look a little more familiar.

If LaunchPad is the part of Lion that most looks like the iPad, there are changes right across the new OS that bring the feel of the iPad. The iPad, and other iOS devices, are touch-based experiences, obviously. A new range of multi-touch gestures in Lion brings some of that experience to the laptop and desktop.

There are two-finger gestures - swipes, scrolls and taps - that work within apps and three-finger gestures that work between apps. Swiping three fingers upwards reveals another new feature: Mission Control. It shows everything that’s running on your Mac on one screen. It’s a super-charged version of expose and it’s much more useful. I’ve been using it constantly.

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