By Dave Bailey 31 Oct 2011
Verdict:
The new features in Lion [Mac OS X 10.7.1] make it a worthwhile upgrade for Mac users. The main added feature in the October 10.7.2 point upgrade is access to Apple’s iCloud, allowing users to upload, download and sync media content, such as music, photos and videos, to this public cloud storage from other Apple devices, such as the iMac and iPad, and also from Windows PCs. Features from Apple’s iOS have also made it into Mac OS X Lion, such as overlay scroll bars, Launchpad and Mission Control, and users should expect more iOS features to creep into Mac OS X and vice versa.
Pros:
Provision of iCloud public storage; native support for Thunderbolt connectivity
Cons:
The overlay scroll bars (from iOS) are sometimes hard to grab using the MacBook Air’s trackpad; multi-touch gesturing sometimes didn’t work for us when using certain gestures.
Apple's Lion operating system was originally launched in June as Mac OS X Lion v10.7.1, but has been upgraded this month to version 10.7.2, adding many new features, and also updating the OS with a host of security improvements.
This is the eighth iteration of Mac OS X. The OS release before Lion was Snow Leopard (v10.6) [see picture].
Apple says the upgrade includes 250 new features, with one of the biggest ones being access to the company’s recently launched cloud storage system, iCloud.
iOS and Mac OS X share a common code base (C++) so it’s easy for Apple to lift features from iOS and drop them into Mac OS X. In Lion there is a spillover of features from iOS, such as better multi-touch trackpad gesturing.
We reviewed Lion on the 11in model of the new MacBook Air, which has second-generation Intel Core i7 processors and Apple’s implementation of Intel’s Light Peak technology, Thunderbolt.
Lion also has built-in support for Thunderbolt hardware and does not need the firmware updates that Snow Leopard required to work properly.
Install
The version of Lion installed on the MacBook Air when we received it was 10.7.1. We checked for software updates, and apart from an iTunes update from v10.4 to v10.5, there were two updates to Lion [see picture].
The most important update is the 785MB Mac OS X update, an actual point release of Lion just three months after its initial launch.
The major reason for this update is to enable Apple’s iCloud, which allows Lion and iOS 5 users to use the cloud to store content and synchronise it across multiple devices.
The second update is a 452MB fix to Lion’s Recovery [OS re-installation] feature, addressing an issue with Find My Mac when using a firmware password.
In use
So how does Lion compare with Snow Leopard? Well, running them side-by-side you’d be hard pushed to notice specific user interface differences, but there are significant differences in the feature sets, and a large number of security fixes.
The only problems we had with Lion was using the new overlay scroll bars, and in some of the new multi-touch trackpad gesturing.
The new overlay scroll bars are thinner than before, and also only appear when the cursor moves onto pages that require scroll bars. After a time the scroll bars disappear and it can be hard to get them to reappear and grab them.
The rest of the new features, such as iCloud access, Launchpad, Mission Control and the ability of applications to use the full screen performed well.
I have recently joined the mac world - and I'm using a macbook pro which came with Lion. I find the multi touch gestures work like a dream, and are far more intuitive than I expected them to be.
I always do scrolling via the multi-touch, using two fingers, and so have never needed to use the overlay scroll bars.
Posted by: David Campion 23 Jan 2012
OK, it's a fair cop guv, I should've maybe gone a bit deeper into the common Darwin Framework which Cocoa expands on to provide the touchy-feely iOS functions. I'm assuming that providing you select the right base SDK and target, decent C++ coding would allow easy feature and App migration, but maybe only App Store app developers and Apple's programmers could define how easy.
Posted by: Dave Bailey 03 Nov 2011
"iOS and Mac OS X share a common code base (C++)"
Er... What? Where did that come from? Perhaps you meant Cocoa?
It's true that Darwin, the Unix base on which both iOS and OS X are built, is programmed in C/C++.
But if the only thing in common between a pair of OSes is that they are programmed using C++, that doesn't mean you're going to be able to easily share code between them. What makes it easy for Apple is that most of the software stack underneath the GUI layer is more or less identical across OS X and iOS, namely Darwin + Cocoa.
Posted by: Harry 02 Nov 2011
Have your say on this article
Related Reviews
Review categories
Staff are increasingly using their personal devices for work. Productivity may increase as a result, but the trend brings with it security risks
Case studies from large organisations across all sectors
... And rich media, and flexible working, and peaks in traffic ...
Upcoming Events
Join us for this Computing web seminar, in which the Head of BI at the Co-operative Group Nick Colebourn will be explaining just how he reigned in the Group’s sprawling database estate and how significant savings were realised and data quality improved as a result.
Date: 31 May 2012
Time: 11:00 AM
Live June 13th 11:00am: Register now. During this web seminar we will be looking at the sorts of incidents that can bring data centres grinding to a halt and what can be done about them.
Date: 13 Jun 2012
Time: 11:00 am
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. ITHound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports
