We just returned from the MacWorld 2011 conference and expo in San Francisco, where we attended various conference sessions. One of our favorite sessions was on OS X Lion, the next version of OS X after Snow Leopard—both what Apple has told us is coming, and what we hope will be included.
The session was presented by Adam Engst of TidBITS, the premier Mac weekly newsletter (celebrating its 21st year in business). If you don’t subscribe to TidBITS and you want to keep up with the latest Mac developments, I definitely suggest you subscribe.
Here are a few things we know will be included in OS X Lion:
- Mac App Store (already available with Snow Leopard)
- Multi-touch gestures on the trackpad
- Launchpad to see applications in a grid, much like on iOS devices
- Full-screen mode for applications
- Mission Control for control of Dashboard, Expose, and Spaces
And some things we are curious about, re OS X Lion:
- Is this OS X 10.7? Or is Apple moving away from version numbers?
- What will the price be? Leopard was $129 and Snow Leopard was $29.
- Will there be better integration with iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod)? Easier file transfer and easier sync would make a big difference in usability.
- Will Time Machine have more options (offsite backup, better file updating) and will it be more reliable?
- Will security be improved?
Another concern: The release date for Lion is promised for Summer 2011—but is that realistic? Usually Apple will release the new code to developers many months in advance, so they can be sure their applications will run on the new OS. Apple hasn’t released any new Lion code to developers, however, which is not a good sign. So does that mean Lion will be delayed?