In the Back to Mac event on Oct 20, Apple revealed iLife ’11, a new Macbook Air and the next generation of Mac OS X: Lion.

Mac OS X Lion is the 8th entry in the OS X series after Snow Leopard. Releasing in summer 2011, Lion boasts innovations Apple pioneered in iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system that powers the iPod Touch and iPad) and brought to the Mac lineup.

Mac App Store


The App Store is confirmed to be coming for the Mac as well. After more than 7 billion apps downloaded by iPad and iPhone users, Apple has decided to bring hugely successful App Store to the Mac.

All of your favourite apps in one place. Products from Apple like iLife ’11 will be on the store, as well as games and other apps. Apple is really making a push for gaming on Mac platform after the success of app store games on the iPad and iPods.

Working exactly like on the iPad, apps downloaded for the Mac will install automatically. Searching for updates to existing apps is a cinch too.

Launching in 90 days, the Mac App store will be pre-installed in Lion and will also be available for Snow Leopard in 3 months.

Multi-Touch Interface

With Lion, Apple has taken a huge stride towards conforming all 3 of its platforms (iPhone, Macintosh, iPad) to be multi-touch capable.

Instead of touching the screen on the Mac like the iPad, users will be using the trackpad to swipe and pinch. Lion is fully designed for multi-touch interfacing with support applications complementing it like iLife ’11.

Launch pad


One click of the Launchpad icon on the dock and your open windows will fade away, replaced by an iPad like desktop on your screen, allowing for easy access to applications, unlike the current cumbersome folder for apps.

You can swipe to see different pages of apps and they can be rearranged or grouped to your preferences just by dragging them to their respective positions.

Mission Control


The simplest way to describe Mission Control is that it’s like Spaces and Expose merged together. Using it, you can see a “bird’s eye view” of everything going on on your mac. With one click, you can go to any application or space you want.

Full Screen Apps


Following the iPad’s format of having every application be full-screen, Lion allows for fullscreen display for all its applications. One click brings the app to full screen, a swipe switches the full screen app with another app, and another swipe brings you back to the desktop.

Oh, have I mentioned that apps auto save and resume when launched, just like on the iPad?

That’s all Apple had to reveal about OS X Lion, we’ll likely hear more about it when the release date draws closer.