Today we bring you the first part of a series dedicated to what's new in Mac OS X Lion. We will go through the sections: Mission Control, Launchpad, system appearance and new graphical elements.
Mission Control
Exposure + Spaces + Dashboard ≤ Mission Control – This is how the equation expressing the relationships between the ways of managing windows and widgets in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion could look like. Mission Control combines Exposé, Spaces and Dashboard into one environment and adds something extra.
Probably the first thing that can be noticed is the nice sorting of active windows into groups according to the application. Its icon shows which application the window belongs to. When displaying all the windows in Exposé, all you could see was a cluttered bunch of windows.
The second interesting novelty is the history of open files of the given application. You can see that history either by using Mission Control in the application windows view or by right-clicking on the application icon. Doesn't this remind you of Jump Lists in Windows 7? However, so far I've seen Preview, Pages (with Numbers and Keynote this functionality is also expected), Pixelmator and Paintbrush work this way. It certainly wouldn't hurt if Finder could do this too.
Spaces, or the management of multiple virtual spaces implemented in OS X Snow Leopard, is now also part of Mission Control. Creating new Surfaces has become a very simple matter thanks to Mission Control. After approaching the upper right corner of the screen, a plus sign appears for adding a new Area. Another option for creating a new Desktop is to drag any window onto the plus box. Of course, windows can also be dragged between individual Surfaces. Canceling an Area is done by clicking on the cross that appears after hovering over the given Area. After canceling it, all windows will move to the "default" Desktop, which cannot be canceled.
The third integrated component is the Dashboard – a board with widgets – which is located to the left of the Surfaces in Mission Control. This option can be unchecked in the settings to turn off the Dashboard display in Mission Control.
Launchpad
Viewing the app matrix exactly like on the iPad, that's Launchpad. Nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately, the similarity may have gone too far. You cannot move multiple items at once, but rather one by one - as we know from our iDevices. The advantage can be seen in the fact that there is no longer a need to sort applications directly in their folder. An ordinary user may not care at all in which directory the applications are located. All you have to do is sort out their representatives in Launchpad.
System design and new graphic elements
OS X itself and its pre-installed applications also received a new coat. The design is now more sleek, modern and with elements used in iOS.
Guide to Mac OS X Lion - II. part – Auto Save, Version and Resume
Hello, please write in more detail "you can see the history either by using Mission Control in the application windows view or by right-clicking on the application icon". I can't find the first option at all. And I don't understand "right click" on the second one. Now, every time I long click on the application icon, a context menu appears.
I probably have a stupid question (I don't have a mac)
Does classic downloading work there, e.g. from uloz.to? or from share-rapid.cz?
I download a lot there and use their download program "SRDownloader" and they probably don't have a version for Mac...
Hi, the download works like anywhere else.
I don't know anything about RSDownloader. I personally use jdownloader http://jdownloader.org/ it is cross-platform, so you can run it on OS X, Win or Linux.
How about JDownloader? :) You also have it in Win, and it's the best solution in my opinion.
Hello, I use speed download to download from such services, not only is it functional and clear and these services can do it, but also when I download music, it immediately saves it to iTunes or to a playlist. For downloading larger packages, just copy the lines and you're good to go…….
If you want to download from SR for free, unfortunately - they don't have a version of SRdownloader for MAC OS X. So you're at a loss there :( With a prepaid service, jDownloader or anything else works.
Hi, I'm probably going to have a really stupid question, but I put road in the system preferences, but the system is still in English, am I doing something wrong? Thanks for advice…
Just log out and log in.
Move the road to the first position
Hello, I have a few questions that are not related to this topic, but I would like it if someone could answer me, preferably to my email: Denisko.Kelemen@gmail.com
1. Don't you know where you can buy or download mac games for example Assasins Creed and the like?
2. And what is the best program for opening .iso files on Win? I used Daemon tool, but I don't know if Daemon is also available on Mac, so I would like to know if anyone has experience with any program that would be an alternative to Daemon on Mac.
Thank you in advance for your reply :)
Ad 1) AppStore or Steam
Ad 2) DiskUtility
thank you :)
I have a question, can someone set up mission control so that the applications you launch there open in the same window when you start again, maybe I'm making a mistake somewhere, but I can't set it up...
I don't even have a macbook, magic mouse/trackpad, and I normally turn off the sliders in the settings...
And has anyone figured out whether it is possible in Lion to see all the windows of all applications on all desktops with the combination of "Exposé" and "Spaces Exposé" in Snow Leopard?
Unfortunately, it is not possible and it is not even possible to drag a window from desktop to desktop without switching to the desktop that contains the window.
So I have to say that I don't think Mission Control is such a big win. The previews of the surfaces are small, so one has to go through all of them before finding the right one that contains the window you are looking for. Another thing is that when the application has several windows, the stack of windows in Mission Control will not be expanded, so some windows will remain hidden in the background. In my opinion, quite a big minus!
I think so too, I'm quite used to working in spaces and here it doesn't work very well and that bothers me a lot :(
I wonder if there is any way to close the window in mission control.
I have 10 windows open and I would like to have a cross next to each window in mission control and the window can be closed directly from there. Can it be done? Thank you
I have an old macbook white, (touchpad still with one button) I can't use the touchpad to zoom, scroll or use the new functions of the X lion axis. Maybe it's time to buy a new macbook pro. or does anyone know how to set it up?
It's time for a new machine. Older trackpads do not support gestures.
I can mark iCal, which is in Lion, as a step completely outside. Ever since iCal was in Tiger, iCal has been losing functionality and deteriorating its usability. What is in Lion is the absolute top. It can no longer be used. I bought BusyCal today - which cost more than Lion. The sad result of Apple's innovation.
Kamil Mittner yes, even if we click on the apple in the finder with alt, instead of this Mac, there is detailed information about the system as before... and not the truncated one
Lion grossly disappointed me - it's made for Americans - stupid people - when everything is pre-cut, full of unnecessary animations...etc.
The first thing was that I immediately threw the launcher out of the dock and the second - I don't even remember the name - similar to spaces - but unusable.
Then quickly change the scrolling, set the background from snow leopard and finally call and have the old PC with win repaired. I will not use Lion, I will keep Snow Leopard on my laptop.
Hello, I have a problem with Leo, I switched yesterday. Despite the fact that I have already turned off switching between surfaces with 3 fingers, it still does not work for me in the browser (Chrome or Safari) to step back by dragging 3 fingers. Does anyone know how to restore this feature? Thanks