23 July 2011

10 Things I Love About Mac OS X Lion

1. Gestures
Ever get annoyed about having to press a button on the keyboard or click an icon to get to your favourite location or quickly switch to another work-related application to fool your parents, teachers, colleagues, or even your boss into thinking you are doing work and not mucking around on games like "Shoot Your Boss in The Head!"? I do. Everyone does! Now, with the flick of 2 fingers on your magic mouse or trackpad, you can do this so easily, nobody will be able to notice you playing games. DISCLAIMER: This article is only for educational purposes only, and if you are fired or expelled, please don't blame me.


2. Full Screen Apps
Full screen apps are a way to get rid of all those other distractions like the dock, top navigation bar and other toolbars within an app. It helps you utilise the space on your screen, especially if you have an 11-Inch MacBook Air. What I also love about this feature is that a fullscreen app creates its own space, so you can extremely easily switch between fullscreen apps, the desktop, dashboard and any other spaces you may have, just with the flick of your fingers. This brings me onto my next point:

3. App Store

I believe this was their first step towards merging iOS and Mac OSX. No longer would you have to download apps from the internet, from unreliable locations, store product keys etc. No longer would you have to resort to a 3rd party app like Bogeda. You would have every Mac App centered in one location...the Mac App Store. This is also the place where Lion and future operating systems will be downloaded from. Soon, Apple Stores will not be selling CDs and software, because CDs are old technology :P ...they will only be selling hardware. Imagine a day where an Apple Store doesn't sell software! That would be great, and I know that is where Apple is heading.


4. Autocorrect
I know most of you guys out there with iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads have had some pretty nasty experiences with autocorrect in the past. For example, say you're texting your mum and you mean to say "Wanna do some craft tonight??? :D" (Teenagers like doing craft too :P) but autocorrect makes you say "Wanna do some sex tonight??? :D"...your mum won't be happy and you will probably blame autocorrect and rage on Twitter, and Facebook about how iPhones suck and Apple should remove autocorrect. Well you have got to remember that Autocorrect only corrects incorrect words to the words you use most. Your fault. I, on the other hand think that Autocorrect is a great tool that allows you to save time and energy, resulting in more efficient work. This is a great feature in Lion, and it was upgraded from just a red squiggly line under a word previously in Snow Leopard.

5. Mission Control
Coming in at Number 5 is Mission Control. I mean, who wouldn't love Mission Control? It has everything a person would want when switching applications. With the click of a button (or more likely the movement of a gesture), you can get there, and organise your windows just the way you like, for quick application switching. I love it because it has merged spaces, expose and the dashboard in one sleek environment.

6. Sleek Login Screen
I didn't really like the look of the login screen on Snow Leopard, and strived to change it. I did change it, but only got as far as changing the background. But then came along Lion and with that came an awesome Login Screen. It is extremely relaxing on the eyes, and can is great when you want to use the Mac in the night when everybody is sleeping and no light is on, because in Snow Leopard, even on the lowest brightness setting, when I was logging in, the display was death of my retina (Slight pun intended xD). Apple have once again thought of their users rather than themselves.

7. ???
I couldn't think of anything for Number 7, so you can just watch this video:




8. Better Message Boxes
Snow Leopard had semi-good message boxes, with rounded buttons. That was OK, but I reckon they could've done better, and they did with the release of Lion. The currently selected button flashes blue and flickers to let you know which one you would choose if you were to press enter. It just appeals to me more, so I thought I should put this in at number 8.


9. Launchpad
Launchpad doesn't have much use for me, but it might have a great use for others, so I am sticking this in at number 9. Some might say it's just a fancy pansy Applications folder. They are absolutely right! It is just a fancy pansy Applications folder, but there's more to it. It is just like an enlarged iPad (It's funny because when the iPad came out they called it an "Enlarged iPhone without calling"). It is yet another step Steve Jobs has made to merging Mac OSX and iOS. The scrolling is just like an iPad. The deletion of icons is just like an iPad. The moving of icons to different pages is just like an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. In fact, if you are using Lion right now with a Magic Mouse, bring up your Launchpad and hold your Magic Mouse just like an iPhone in landscape, and swipe like you would swipe between home screens on an iPhone. it's really easy, isn't it? Like this, all us Lion users should get used to the way this works, because some day iPhones might be used as mice, and phones at the same time! Funny idea, huh?

10. Built-In FaceTime
Last but not least, Built-In FaceTime. FaceTime is a key part of all of Apple's products, and it should be integrated into the OS. There's no point in just having it in the App Store, because many people won't know how to navigate to the App Store and get an app. To have it built into the operating system is a really good step by Apple, because more people can connect and more people will get to know about it. I congratulate Apple on this as well.

Tell me what you think about this in the comments below and don't forget to share it!

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