10 Main Features of Apple’s Mac OS X Lion

Apple just released Mac OS X Lion which, by the way, is already available for download.  The cheap $29.99 upgrade fee is enough to convince current Mac users to upgrade to the new OS but if you want to know what you will get if you choose to upgrade, I’ve listed here its 10 main features.

Multi-Touch Gestures

Multi-Touch gestures have been enhanced in the new Mac OS.  It is now more intuitive and direct.  Apple has implemented more fluid gesture responses, including rubber-band scrolling, page and image zoom, and full-screen swiping.

Full-Screen Apps 

One of the best features of Mac OS X Lion is systemwide support for full-screen apps.  Now you can use every inch of your screen’s real estate. It supports multiple full-screen apps and Apple has made it easy to switch between full-screen and desktop views.

Mission Control

Mission Control is sort of a bird’s-eye view of everything on your system.  It shows full-screen apps, Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces.  With a single swipe on the trackpad, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control.

Mac App Store 

Apple brought the App Store concept to the Mac OS X Lion.  With Mac App Store, you can browse and download free and paid apps.  New apps install to Launchpad and the Mac App Store informs you when updates are available.

Launchpad 

All your apps in your Mac are in Launchpad.  It gives you easy access to the app you need with just one click.  You can arrange your apps, group them together in folders, or delete them using Launchpad.

Resume 

Resume is a very useful feature.  It lets you restart your Mac and return to what you were doing.  The apps you close will reopen right where you left off.

Auto Save 

Another useful new feature is Autosave.  It saves your work automatically so you don’t have to worry about saving your work at every step.

Versions 

This feature is a heaven sent.  Apple knows how hard it is to keep multiple versions of your work and get lost in the process.  Mac OS X Lion does everything for you wonderfully. Versions charts the history of your documents, taking snapshots in time, and displaying them side by side with the latest versions.  You can restore a previous version, or copy and paste from old versions to new ones. Simply beautiful.

AirDrop 

Sharing files wirelessly without Wi-Fi? That’s possible now with AirDrop.  It allows you to send files to anyone around you wirelessly without need for a Wi-Fi network.  You just need to click the AirDrop icon and your Mac searches for AirDrop users within about 30 feet of you.  To share a file, you just drag and drop.

Mail 

The best feature of the new Mail (Version 5) is Conversations.  It presents messages from the same thread in a timeline showing each communication as it was sent while hiding redundant text.   You can also view your mail in widescreen view featuring a full-height message and a message list that includes snippets.