Need to know – OS X Lion

Roar power
Apple continues to converge its desktop and mobile operating systems with OS X Lion, adding over 250 new features that it hopes will win over Windows users. It hits the App Store in July priced £20.99.

Feline fine
Three quarters of the computers Apple sells are notebooks so it’s no surprise to find multi-touch front and centre in Lion. New gestures and fluid animations let you interact and control the desktop environment as never before, swiping new full-screen applications and web pages aside and tapping or pinching to zoom.

Mission possible
Mission Control is at the heart of this new king of the desktop jungle. Combining Exposé, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces, you can zoom in or out of desktop with a simple swipe, see thumbnails of apps and navigate anywhere with a tap. Launchpad makes it easier to find and launch apps.

Stopping and starting
Keep calm and carry on with Resume. This new feature brings back your applications exactly how you left them when you quit a package or restart your computer. A new Auto Save feature continuously saves live documents, while Versions lets you scroll back, copy and revert to previous versions of a file.

‘Sneaker net’ stomped
Sell your shares in USB flash key makers. Apple reinvents file sharing by building a wireless peer-to-peer network called AirDrop into Lion. Users can see other AirDrop members nearby, and then simply drag files and folders on to their icons to move files.

Pride in numbers
Other interesting features include a revamp of the Mail app with a new widescreen layout and global search. A Windows Migration feature shows Apple’s long-term goal: get people hooked on iPads, show how similar and non-threatening Mac desktops; and then make it simple to actually take the plunge.