The next version of Apple’s flagship desktop operating system – dubbed Lion – will be available in the Mac App store for $30 this July.
As expected, during today’s WWDC keynote in San Francisco, Apple execs Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi highlighted a number of new features in Lion.
“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Schiller.
“The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”
Multi-Touch
Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion allows users to interact directly with content on the screen.
Intuitive new gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps.
Full Screen Apps
Lion’s full screen apps are designed to take advantage of an entire display for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos.
With a single click, an app fills the display and can be easily “swiped” from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces without ever leaving full screen mode.
Support for full screen mode will be offered in Mail, iCal, Preview, iPhoto, Photobooth, iMovie and iTunes.
Mission Control
Mission Control combines Exposé, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into a single unified experience for a “bird’s eye view” of every app and window.
With a simple swipe, the desktop zooms out to display open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of full screen apps and Dashboard, allowing users to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.
Additional features discussed by the Apple team include:
- Launchpad – Makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app with a single Multi-Touch gesture.
- Resume – Conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app.
- Auto Save – Automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work.
- Versions – Automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions.
- AirDrop – Finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.
