Hey Guys! Welcome to Abinash Mohanty and Today I am going to share some of the new features of OS X Lion 10.7 and see whether should we really need that! Here I am putting down some of the?key features of OS X Lion from the Apple?and?my comments?underneath. Well, these are?just my comparisons?as per my observations so kindly checkout other blogs & reviews as well before upgrading. The following reviews are taken only from the productivity stand point.
I have upgraded to Leopard 10.5 (released on october 2007) from 10.4 Tiger (2005) after seeing the features that would increase my productivity. I have also upgraded to Snow Leopard (Released on June 8th 2009) after reading so many reviews and advantages of installing Snow Leopard. But I was not sure whether to upgrade for Lion OS X? 10.7 (Release Date July 2011) just for 250 new features.
So here we go…
1. Multi-Touch Gesture
Apple Says:Multi-Touch gestures transform the way you interact with your Mac, making all you do more intuitive and direct. Now an even richer Multi-Touch experience comes to OS X Lion. Learn more about gestures and animations
Comment: seems good for zooming, tapping or pinching on one particular image/website. The moment we have 100 pictures to zoom in/out or rotating clock wise or anti-clock wise on Preview App or on multiple websites as swiping, we really need to have a mouse to use. I see apple is trying to sync in between the ipad, ipad2, iphone and now with the Mac OS X Lion. Actually these features sometimes really annoying to look at the screen while tapping, swapping, zooming using your trackpad. These things really works well on the Touch Screen based (probably Mac would be planning for iMac 2, Macbook2 or MacBookPro2 in near future to get rid of such issues as design solution.
As per the users from production environment, design firms where you need to sit down with thousand of images and websites for crosschecking, i am sorry but this feature is not going to work that fast.
Suggestion: Good for New users but not that useful to Pro users.
2. Full Screen Apps
Apple Says: OS X Lion offers systemwide support for gorgeous, full-screen apps that use every inch of your Mac display. You can have multiple full-screen apps open at once — along with multiple standard-size apps. Learn more about full-screen apps
Comment: This is really a excellent feature that Apple came up with. I keep hearing this from many friends that where is the full screen feature on Mac (after coming out from a Windows Platform). This is a good feature as currently we have this Full Screen Slide show on Preview App to view the presentation in full screen but if it’s going to work on Mac Safari and rest of the apps such as iWork, iLife & Mail as well, this is really …really a nice thing.
I hope there should be a customization under System Preferences to Assign full screen feature to all apps or user defined. For an instance, I do not want my photoshop and such application to be opened as fullscreen. Also not majority of the people would love fullscreen for all the apps rather than a selected set of Apps.
Suggestion: Really a Good Feature to have but with a customization as explained above.
3. Mission Control
Apple Says: Mission Control brings together full-screen apps, Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces in one new feature that gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything on your system. With a single swipe on the trackpad, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control. Learn more about Mission Control
Comments: Well, after looking at the video I would say this is a Categorized version of our Snow Leopard “Show All Window”. Advanced users do not like to use command from Menu i.e for copy and paste they do not goto edit>copy and then Edit>Paste rather than use the shortcuts cmd+c or v.
The name “Mission Control” sounds very much serious but actually it is just a categorization of all your active apps clubbed together.
Suggestion: If you are using the ‘Show All Window’ feature then this is a way better to organize.
4. App Store
Apple Says: The best way to discover apps for your Mac is now on your Mac. Just like the App Store on iPad, the Mac App Store lets you browse and download thousands of free and paid apps that you can start using right away on all your Mac computers authorized for personal use. Learn more about the Mac App Store
Comments: I already have App Store after upgrading to 10.6.7 and I think this is a lovely feature than any other way to download apps. Secondly it does not create any temp folder (as it used to download all apps under ‘download’ folder) rather than update into the native app.
Suggestion: Yes, a good feature to keep in.
5. Launchpad
Apple Says: Launchpad is a new, full-screen home for all the apps on your Mac. Just click the Launchpad icon in your Dock. Your open windows fade away, replaced by a full-screen display of all your apps. Arrange your apps any way you want, group them together in folders, or delete them from your Mac with ease. Learn more about Launchpad
Comment: I only like the feature of “Grouping them into a Folder”. I guess for first user for Mac and with Lion, this is going to be really nice as he must have used ipad interface (probably), the interface is very much smiler to what we see on iPad or iPad 2 with swapping more apps etc. But for power users, do we really want to have those number of apps on the Mac? Power users always put their fav app on the dock to use them frequently or either type out from spotlight.
Suggestion: Not that useful for Production or Pro users, other wise its good to keep.
6. Resume
Apple Says: Now apps you close will reopen right where you left off, so you never have to start from scratch again. And when you install software updates, you no longer need to save your work, close your apps, and spend valuable time setting everything up again. Read More (http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/)
Comment: This is a new feature for all users. However, I do not want apps to reload my last document whenever i open this i.e I hate when my ‘keynote’ opens up with a default template, which is quite annoying. But as a feature as they mentioned “install software updates, you no longer need to save your work” is a good value addition.
Suggestion: If you are into Article Writing, Book publishing or creating huge presentation or documentation, it’s really good feature for you to keep.
7. Auto Save
Apple Says: It’s time to stop worrying about saving your work. Because now your Mac automatically saves what you’re working on so you don’t have to. Learn more about Auto Save and Versions
Comment: As I mentioned under ‘Resume’ Feature, the ‘Auto Save’ is also a very nice feature to keep.
Suggestion: Definitely a good feature to keep.
8. Versions
Apple Says: Versions is a new feature that charts the history of your documents, taking snapshots in time, and displaying them side by side with the latest versions in an easily browsable timeline. Learn more about Auto Save and Versions
Comment: Version is a good feature, i guess this feature has been brought from the ‘Time Machine’ where every activity goes inside as backup and restore. This is a better option than the ‘Time Machine’ to save only Files but take care of your HDD as it would be eating MBs to GBs later on.
Using ‘Versions‘ documents are quite recommended as it wont take much of space at a longer run. But if you are into 3D modeling, rendering and film production it would eat up your HDD very soon. Make sure you have plenty amount of Hard Drive Space before using this feature on.
Suggestion: Its Good, but take care of HDD Space.
9. Airdrop
Apple Says: Looking for a fast way to share files with people nearby? With AirDrop, you can send files to anyone around you wirelessly — no Wi-Fi network required. And no complicated setup or special settings. Just click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar, and your Mac automatically discovers other AirDrop users within about 30 feet of you. Read More (http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/)
Comments: I have not tasted this feature. So can’t say whether it would be able to work on cross platform because inside an office environment, there would be a combination of Macs as well as PCs and Apple says ‘other AirDrop users within about 30 feet’ sounds ‘thinkable’ to me.
Suggestions: I have been sharing files via Skype to MAC or PC and it’s damn fast if you are on the same network or lan. so i would not go for Airdrop. you can always give it a shot.
Suggestion: I don’t think it lasts for long but you can always give a shot.
10. New Mail
Apple Says: OS X Lion introduces a whole new take on email. Mail puts your entire display to work with a gorgeous widescreen view featuring a full-height message and a message list that includes snippets. Conversations presents messages from the same thread in an elegant timeline showing each communication as it was sent while hiding redundant text. Learn more about Mail
Comments: I saw the video and got to do some hands-on experience on pre release pack. It seems clean with full screen which is very well enough for manage clients, emails, to-to or notes precisely. The new mail conversation part (apple already have this feature of conversion trail on their first iPhone as Text message but now they are implementing on Mail) is also good just like gmail conversation. But we need to test couple of mail trail especially the moment we have got more than 20 mail conversation, will it gonna be slow down or scroll like a charm?
Suggestion: Seems to be a good feature with good interface to keep.
11. Refined Apps
Finder, iCal, iChat, Yahoo Messenger, Mail, Photo Booth, Preview, Quick Time Player, Safari, Screen Sharing, Character Picker, Text Edit, UNIX, Time Machine, Xsan
There are couple of powerful features are there like you can now resize your windows from any corners. Awesome!
Conclusion
Apple is known for their GUI, Class, Service, Apps & Product Value starting from Students, Faculties to Working Professionals around the world. Every product has it’s Pros when we buy it and we experience the Cons after using it. Installing or upgrading to Lion is not so difficult rather than ask and read reviews whether your current applications would be compatible with Lion or not. Working with just email or apps such as Facebook or twitter etc are really fine if you want to switch over but for working inside a product house, digital media with plenty of software files format we need check the compatibility and response before preparing for upgrade to Lion. If Apple expands it’s option for upgrade, I would choose only the few apps/features listed below those i need to upgrade rather than a full package at the moment.
My Wish-list from OS X Lion:
1. New iCal
2. Mac Mail
3. Auto Save
4. Fullscreen App (if I can assign to some Apps and not to all Apps)
5. Finder
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