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Posts tagged with "lion"

iWork Update: Resume, Full-Screen, Auto Save and Versions in Lion

Apple just released an update to the existing iWork suite, bringing support for several new features in OS X Lion: namely, Apple enabled full-screen mode, Resume and auto save, as well as Versions for all the iWork apps when used on the new OS. Currently the update is only showing up with the Software Control panel, but we expect the Mac App Store versions to receive the update soon. Apple indeed mentions Mac App Store, Software Update and Standalone Installer in this support document.

Changelog:

All iWork 9.1 applications

Adds support for Mac OS X Lion, including:

  • Full-Screen
  • Resume
  • Auto Save
  • Versions
  • Character picker

More details available on the OS X Lion page.

  • Improves Microsoft Office Compatibility

Keynote 5.1

Adds new builds:

  • Anvil
  • Fall Apart

We’ll update this story with screenshots of the new features for iWork 9.1 as we get more information.

Update: The updated iWork apps are now available on the Mac App Store: Pages, Numbers, Keynote have all received the latest update for the standalone versions. Read more

OS X Lion: Installation Guide, Boot Discs and Q&A

Apple today released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and it is the first release of OS X to be distributed primarily through a digital channel. That digital channel, the recently released Mac App Store, is the main way in which Apple is selling Lion.

To help you (or perhaps a family member or friend who may need a little guidance) with the various installation methods, and how the Mac App Store changes things, we’ve prepared the following post. In this article we include a step-by-step guide for the typical Lion upgrade process, explain what the new Recovery Partition is, how to make your own bootable Lion Installation media, how to do a clean Lion installation and a helpful Q&A section.

So jump after the break to see the full article and learn more than you would want to know about the Lion installation process.

Contents

To make things as simple as possible we have split this article into several sections so you can jump right to the section you most want/need to learn about. So as a side note to those who wish to read the whole article, be warned some parts and information is repeated multiple times.

  1. Introduction to Mac App Store Distribution of Lion
  2. The Simple Upgrade Installation (from Snow Leopard)
  3. The Recovery Partition, What Is It?
  4. Making Your Own Bootable Media
  5. The Quasi-Clean Installation
  6. The Completely Clean Installation
  7. Q & A

Read more

A New Cat to Tame: OS X Lion Review

Coming into this Lion review, I think the first thing you’d expect me to say is that Lion is a transitionary version of OS X that begins the process of converging with iOS. At a first scratch on the cat post, this is the conclusion that we may immediately jump to as we glance across the changes made. We focus too much on the Launchpad, complaining about what seems to be obvious handholding without looking deeper into the underlying enhancements Apple has made for everyone across the board. OS X Lion may be influenced by a lot of smart interactions discovered in iOS, but it doesn’t feel nearly as limited as initially perceived. It is one of Apple’s goals to provide consistency across all of their platforms, but OS X is still of its own design.

Lion is exceptionally well done. Consistency, the user experience, and improvements to the user interface aren’t a nod towards iOS, but rather a nod towards Apple’s future. Much attention was paid to making the Finder easier to navigate, the interface more fluid, and the desktop more accessible than ever before. Lion fixes and improves upon the previous version of OS X just like every other version did. The fundamentals never change. Instead, concepts are expanded upon and built out in new, delightful ways. With Apple’s recent innovations and discoveries being made on iOS, it only makes sense that they’d implement much of what they’ve learned into their desktop OS.

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Apple Releases OS X Lion, USB Thumb Drive Coming at $69

As widely expected, Apple released the next major version of OS X, Lion, on the Mac App Store today. The new OS is now available at $29.99 as digital-only download and is propagating through all the international App Stores at the moment of writing this.

You can download OS X Lion here. OS X Lion Server is available as a separate add-on here.

Lion is a major upgrade to Apple’s desktop OS that introduces over 250 new features and blends several typical desktop UI elements with design concepts and implementations first explored on the iPhone and iPad. Indeed, at the “Back to the Mac” event in October 2010, Apple described Lion as “OS X meets the iPad”. The Launchpad, for example, is a new way to install, organize and launch apps that’s heavily inspired by iOS’ Springboard, which lays out app icons in a grid against a default background with possibility of creating, moving, and deleting folders. Mission Control, a new way to manage app windows, combines the best elements of Snow Leopard’s Exposè and Spaces to create a new experience that unifies windows, desktops and full-screen apps in a single, easy to use interface. Lion brings hundreds of changes and subtle refinements, most of them delightfully added throughout the whole operating system in apps like iChat and System Preferences, others immediately visible like “All My Files” and “AirDrop”, two new Finder features to browse all documents and share files locally with others, respectively.

Lion brings new functionalities and APIs that should make users and developers alike excited to try out the new OS. For instance, developers can enable the new Automatic Termination and Resume APIs in their applications to make sure the “state” of an app is always saved upon quitting, and resumed on the next OS boot or app launch. This behavior can be reversed, but it’s enabled by default to put the emphasis on an operating system capable of saving your work and “app state” without you even thinking about it – app state means anything from open windows to position on screen and mouse cursor. Similarly, the new Auto Save when combined with Lion’s Versions will allow you to never worry about “saving” a document again, and have the OS perform continuos versioning in the background that you can access from a new Time Machine-like UI. Versions allow you to restore a document’s previous changes and edits from any point in time since you first created it.

Lion is a milestone in Apple’s desktop OS history, and we’ll have a complete review, as well as a detailed installation guide, in a few minutes on our site’s homepage.

Update: In the official press release, also embedded below, Apple confirms that Lion will be made available on a USB thumb drive at $69 for users without broadband access.

Mac OS X Lion is available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion is the easiest OS X upgrade and at around 4GB, it is about the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Users who do not have broadband access at home, work or school can download Lion at Apple retail stores and later this August, Lion will be made available on a USB thumb drive through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) for $69 (US). Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and is available from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

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Apple Releases Migration Assistant Update Ahead of Lion’s Launch

At the Q3 2011 earnings call, Apple confirmed OS X Lion is coming tomorrow on the Mac App Store. As noted by MacRumors, a few minutes before the call started Apple pushed an update for Migration Assistant to Snow Leopard users, fixing an issue that prevented the correct transfer of personal data and apps from a Snow Leopard computer to a Mac running Lion.

This update addresses an issue with the Migration Assistant application in Mac OS X Snow Leopard that prevents transfer of your personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion.

The lightweight update can be downloaded now on Snow Leopard from Software Update, or directly from Apple’s website.

Lion Signage Appears At Italian Retailer Ahead Of Official Launch

As reported by Italian website Macity [a Google translation is not possible as Macity seems to have pulled the article before we could generate a link, Google cache here] the first promotional material for OS X Lion has been set up in advance at Italian retail chain Euronics in Taranto, at the Mongolfiera shopping mall. Whilst recent rumors have pegged the new OS for a Wednesday launch (tomorrow), Apple hasn’t confirmed any official release date, nor did they authorize retailers to showcase signage ahead of the much anticipated launch. It appears, as Macity reports, that employees at Euronics wrongly set up the signage before the rumored launch date, as machines spotted in the electronics section of the shopping mall haven’t even been correctly updated for Lion (they’re still running OS X 10.6.6, whilst 10.6.8 is a requirement to update to the new OS).

The signage touts Lion’s biggest new features such as multi-touch gestures, Launchpad and Mission Control. The banners say “Now on every new Mac”, reinforcing speculation that new computers will be released shortly after the new OS, running Lion by default as a rumor previously claimed. The banners also encourage users to try out Lion, heavily promoting with photos the various multitasking gestures enabled in the OS.

According to recent reports, Apple has shipped hard drives containing Lion to retail stores so that employees can install the OS on store floor machines. Others also report “overnights” are planned later today to train retail staff on Lion, and change in-store promotional material for the (alleged) launch tomorrow morning. New MacBook Airs (as well as new Thunderbolt-equipped Cinema Displays) are expected to launch alongside Lion as well.

Fantastical Adds Lion Support, And We’re Giving Away 10 Codes

Fantastical is a calendar assistant that works with Apple’s iCal and the popular third-party BusyCal software, allowing you to quickly creates event in your default system calendar with plain English. Thanks to a built-in natural language parser, Fantastical lets you write down something like “Get a new MacBook Air tomorrow at Apple Store at 5 PM”, and see the sentence becoming a new event with all the necessary fields already filled in your calendar. And because Fantastical directly plugs into calendar accounts configured on your Mac, you won’t need to enter your information again.

Fantastical 1.0.3, released today, adds full Lion compatibility and a new Lion-only feature that allows you to swipe with two fingers to move between months in the calendar. The animation is really nice, and reminds me of Safari’s new feature for navigating webpages with a two-finger swipe on Lion. Among various bug fixes, Fantastical also adds a new color menubar icon preference, a last-selected calendar option, and several parsing engine fixes.

You can read our initial review of Fantastical here, and buy the app from the Mac App Store. However, the Flexibits developers have been kind enough to offer 10 promo codes to celebrate the next major release of OS X with MacStories readers, so if you’re interested in the giveaway jump after the break for the full details of how to enter. Read more

Sparrow 1.3 Brings Lion Support, Interface Changes

Sparrow started out as a minimal, Tweetie-like email experiment for Mac back in October of last year and, following the success of the public beta, eventually evolved into a powerful desktop solution to access Gmail and IMAP email accounts using new interface concepts inspired by iOS apps, Mac gems like Twitter and Reeder, or other changes previewed by Apple in Lion. As we reported in our previous coverage, the latest big update to the app, Sparrow 1.2, went as far as adding social support with Facebook integration,  Gravatar support, and more.

Sparrow 1.3 was approved yesterday, but the developers had to quickly pull it from sale as a critical bug that caused the app to crash was discovered. After apologizing for the technical error and uploading a patched version for non-Mac App Store users, the team announced a fix had been already submitted with the request of an expedited review from Apple. Personally, I updated to Sparrow 1.3 yesterday and didn’t experience any issues, but I decided to hold my coverage until the promised fix would be available on the App Store – more importantly, the entire app had to come back on Apple’s servers as the developers pulled it to make sure no one would install a “buggy” version. Read more

What Does An Image Leak Suggest About Next Week?

 

Over the past few weeks, a number of “leaks” from Apple’s supply chain and retail operations suggested the company was on track to launch the next major version of OS X, Lion, alongside new Macs this week, more specifically yesterday, July 14. According to the rumors, Apple was gearing up to unveil new MacBook Airs, Mac minis and white MacBooks all featuring updated Sandy Bridge processors from Intel and Thunderbolt connectivity. Whilst rumors about Lion immediately sounded fairly accurate as Apple seeded the “Golden Master” version of the OS to developers on July 1 (unless major issues are discovered, the GM version usually matches the public release’s build number and codebase) and the company said at the WWDC Lion would be available in July, speculation about new Macs generated from a series of factors that had been capturing the interest of the tech press since February. Read more