The Lion Roars

With all the buzz and importance attached to mobile devices – iPhones, iPods and iPads – the regular desktop and laptop machines have largely been forgotten until now with the latest release of the latest computer operating system, Lion or Mac OS X 10.7.It is available only to Intel-chip computers from the last 2 years or so and is downloaded instead of being installed from a disk. This is probably the way software installs will go in the future as it gives the seller more control and omits the need to physically ship DVDs, CDs and packaging.Lion brings a few changes to the way we use our computers, broadly along the lines of how we interact with them. As with the mobile devices, finger gestures are more common with options to swipe, scroll and rotate file using the Trackpad on a laptop and a Magic Mouse or better still Magic Trackpad on a desktop.We are looking at the future here as we move data around in a more tactile way as opposed to clicking with the mouse. It is something that you get used to very quickly: it feels right and if you use an iPad or iPhone you will be right at home. As well there are some nifty features such as Auto-Save of documents and Resume where the computer starts up with all the windows open exactly as you left it last time. All in all a good move forward.But its not for everyone! Some older applications won’t work but anything in the last year or os should be OK. Check the compatibility in the link below. And of course older computers won’t run it at all and there is a minimum of 2GB of RAM required which means that more is better…Apple Video intro:http://www.apple.com/au/macosx/whats-new/#video-lionWalt Mossberg:http://allthingsd.com/20110720/mossberg-lion-review/?refcat=personaltechnologyGuardian review:http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/20/mac-osx-lion-reviewCNet Review:http://download.cnet.com/Apple-Mac-OS-X-Lion/3000-18513_4-75454201.html?tag=contentBody;topStoriesApplication compatibility:http://roaringapps.com/apps:table