Accompanying the release Thursday of new MacBook Pros, Apple unveiled a developer preview of its next Mac OS X, version 10.7 Lion. The upcoming OS adds a variety of features from Apple’s iOS used on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
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With Google revamping its smartphone Android OS for the tablet platform in the 3.0 Honeycomb version, Hewlett-Packard touting how its new webOS works across smartphones and tablets, and Microsoft talking about how Windows Phone 7 supports various Xbox games, operating systems that share features across device platforms are becoming a key component of the next generation of operating systems.
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‘A New Generation’
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Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said the iPad has inspired a new generation of innovative features in Lion.
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Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, pointed out that, while iOS and Lion remain fairly distinctive from each other, Apple is moving what he called iOS’ greatest hits to the Mac.
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One of those features is the recently launched Mac App Store, which now offers one-click access to apps for the Mac, similar to the groundbreaking App Store for Apple’s mobile devices. In Lion, access to the Mac App Store is built in.
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With so many apps easily obtained, Greengart noted, those apps need a place to live so they don’t become buried in the Applications folder. Lion offers LaunchPad, which shows apps as they would appear on the home screen of an iOS device. And Mission Control merges Expose, Dashboard and Spaces to give an integrated overview of all apps and windows running on the Mac.
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‘Flourishing of Desktop Innovation’
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While the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad have touch-sensitive screens, Macs do not. But the new MacBook Pros released Thursday have larger touchpads, and Greengart noted that Lion will support a lot more gestures for navigation…