One of the updates that is included on OS X Lion is the multi-touch trackpad. You can view mission control, switch between open apps, two-finger scroll, tap to zoom, pinch to zoom, and swipe to navigate. All of this can be done with the trackpad, no keyboard short cuts. Without OS X Lion, none of this was possible, you would have to use keyboard short cuts or go the long route and not use any short cuts at all.
Accessing everything you have open is made really easily with OS X Lion. Before OS X Lion, hot corners were what was made to access different apps easily on different desktops. Now with OS X Lion you can use Mission Control and you will have all of your apps open available for you to see. You can see all of your desktops and your dashboard that you have open and see what is in them. You can move different apps to different desktops and rearrange the order of them. By having Mission Control you can have a birds-eye view of everything running on your mac and it makes it easier to control apps.
When you download OS X Lion, the majority of your apps are updated. Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, iCal, iLife, iMovie and much more. You even get FaceTime meaning you can call and actually see other people who own an apple product such as Macs, Desktops, iPod touch, iPhone etc. Whether you FaceTime between a iPhone and a mac you can still use it. The updates within all of the apps makes them run faster and smoother than they did before. If you are using something like Microsoft Word, OS X Lion saves the document for you if you don't save it. Meaning if Microsoft Word quits and you didn't save your document, you will have a copy of it because it was saved by OS X Lion.
Security is a key point that you would want on your computer. OS X Lion prevents you from going onto sites that can pass on viruses. Even though Apples don't get viruses, prevention from these bad sites is safer because you stay away from the bad things out on the web. There is also parental control. If you are worried about your kids visiting any un-safe websites, OS X Lion can send you an update about what websites your child has been on.
Compatibility is a key component of all macs. By having a compatible computer, such as a mac, you can access windows and even move all of your files form a PC to a mac if you were thinking about changing computer companies.
Lastly, voice over is something that is new to the mac from OS X Lion. You can say commands to your mac such as:
- What time is it?
- What day it it?
- Open Safari
- Close Safari
- Hide Safari
- Go to apple.com
Those are just a few of the voice commands that you can say. This facilitates the blind or the people who can't see as well, because they will be able to hear the descriptions of what is going on in there mac. For example, voice commands can read this whole blog to someone by highlighting selected texts and pressing:
command - shift - s
You can choose the language and the accent of the reader by going onto System Preferences.
That sums up my review on OS X Lion and for more information on OS X Lion, visit:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is/
It costs $29.99 and the money is well worth it for what you get out of it. It almost feels like you have a brand new mac.
