OSX Lion - Make way for the King

Steve Jobs says that the Lion has been inspired by their efforts with iOS, resulting in an expanded use of multitouch gestures, an emphasis on iPad-like full screen applications and an App Store for OS X (which will also be coming to Snow Leopard). The Launchpad application launcher will give an iPad-like grid of icons allowing you to create iOS-style folders for applications and finally the all-new Mission Control will offer a unified view of all open windows, apps and dock. Expect the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system; Lion to roll out in the summer of 2011.

The Mac App Store

Like the iPhone and iPad, soon Mac users will find the best place to discover and buy new apps made just for Mac, right on a Mac. The Mac App Store will offer the possibility of browsing and purchasing apps. And it simplified installation means you just click once, and your new app is downloaded, installed and ready to go.

The Launchpad

The Launchpad aims at providing instant access to apps like the iPad. Clicking on the Launchpad icon will make open windows fade away, replacing the screen with an elegant, full-screen display of all the apps on your Mac. Swipe to see multiple pages of apps, and you can arrange apps any way you like by dragging an app icon to a new location or by grouping apps in folders. Downloaded apps automatically appears on the Launchpad.

Full-screen apps

On the iPad, every app is displayed full screen, with no distractions, and Mac OS X Lion does the same for the desktop allowing you to bring an app to full screen with one click, switch to another full-screen app with a swipe of the trackpad and swipe back to the desktop to access multi-window apps. System-wide support for full-screen apps makes them more immersive.

Mission Control

Mission Control provides a powerful and handy new feature with a comprehensive view of what’s running on your Mac. It offers a bird’s-eye view of Expose, Spaces, Dashboard and full-screen apps – all in one place. With a simple swipe gesture, the desktop zooms out to Mission Control, where you can see open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of full-screen apps, Dashboard and even other Spaces, arranged in a unified view. And you can get to anything you see on Mission Control with just one click, making you the master of all you survey. Must be how Steve Jobs feels after every Apple product launch.