The new Mac operating system, OS X Lion, is now available in the Mac App Store for just $29.99. However, is it worth upgrading to? Apple claims it will “change the way you use your Mac. One feature at a time.” That line alone makes me a little hesitant to drop $30 on a upgrade. It’s because I’m so used to Apple only offering one new feature to their products and then releasing another new product a month later with “new” features that should have just been included in the previous release. Anybody remember the first iPad and the video recording feature it had? Probably not. That’s because it didn’t offer it. Instead they released it later with the iPad 2. So excuse me if I’m a little hesitant in going out and wasting my money on another new Apple product.
Just for the hell of it, let’s take a look at what the OS X Lion offers to all the Apple fanboys that are lined up outside of the Apple store right now, even though it’s available for download via the Mac App Store. This is what Apple says are the key features of OS X Lion:
What’s New
Multi-Touch Gestures
The new operating system will transform the way you interact with your Mac, making it more intuitive and direct. Enjoy two-finger scrolling. Wait, doesn’t that already exist? Well, of course Apple does it bigger, offering even more multi-touch shortcuts, like pinch to zoom. What if you can’t pinch your fingers together to get in closer to the picture? Do not worry! Apple has you covered in their other feature, TAP TO ZOOM! So now you can tap or or pinch to zoom!!! Holy crap, sign me up!
Full-Screen Apps
Now introducing, full-screen apps that use every inch of your Mac display. Wait, wait…so you are telling me that I can view programs using my entire screen?! I can take advantage of every available pixel?! No longer will I be forced to see my background while running iPhoto or Safari? Aside from Windows already offering this, couldn’t I simply do this by enlarging the window? Or better yet, wouldn’t this have been a feature they should have included when the first Mac operating system was released. They are giving me the ability to scale my app to full screen—what a concept.
Mission Control
Bring together full-screen apps, Dashboard, and Spaces in one new feature that gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything on your system. This is just a fancy way to say, “We are going to clutter your desktop with all of the shit you have running on your Mac.” This is perfect if you are too lazy to simply click on a desktop shortcut to open a program, or if clicking the minimize/expand button is too straining on your index finger. Apple is all about making things simple for the lazy. If it wasn’t for Apple, real photographers would have to learn newer, more sophisticated programs like Photoshop or Lightroom to edit photos instead of iPhoto. Thank you Apple, for making everything more simple.
Mac App Store
The best way to discover apps for your Mac is now on your Mac. First of all, I believe this feature is already available for Macs, and I don’t really understand why they are advertising it as a new feature. Now you have easy access to browse and download thousands of apps that you can use right away on your Mac computers. Have fun throwing away your money on useless apps, like a digital lighter that you can’t use to light a candle or cigarette. Yea, have fun with that one.
Mail
*Sigh* Really…?
Auto Save
All I can say about this is: welcome to 2011 Apple. This feature has been around since 1995. I don’t really know if that’s the correct date, but I don’t understand how they can introduce this as a new feature when it’s been around since the dawn of computers.
I’m just going to stop there because that last “feature” is crap—pure crap. They claim there are over 250 new features. It’d be more accurate to say “250 features that have been around forever, but we are just getting around to it in order to get you to spend your money on a new upgrade.” The bottom line is it’s $30. I think it’s so cheap because it’s useless updates that should be available via a free patch.
