Lion created to lure Windows users...

There's lots of Windows-only users that own an iPod touch, an iPhone or an iPad. Mac and iOS keep trading eachother new features—seems like iOS had an extra copy of it's Launchpad/Folders. Looks beautiful for fullscreen!

I think iOS users might get an iMac because it's starting to look and act like their upgraded iPod touch. (Not to mention the speed! Slide the fact away that the default browser on iPod is the best, but it lags) What was said in paragraph 6 of that article caught my eye as well. The author mentioned in his conclusion that he "doesn't want his family and friends to switch to Mac(or get one at that) for pointless eye-candy or superfluous features". Quite smart. But eye-candy and features. Quality over quantity. Content. I don't care, it's all awesome when they're sandwiched or...



...caked together, like this.

I share your concern but I think Apple has overall pulled it off pretty well appealing to iOS users / potential switchers & veteran OS X users (at least I can speak for myself).

I thought I'd never see the day that full screen mode would come to OS X, but the way Apple implemented this feature is actually not like you'd expect and slicker than full screen on any other OS. Most of all, it does not get in the way of Zoom, which IMO is superior and I will continue to use zoom 99% of the time. I agree fullscreen mode is useless but maybe to others like 13" screen users. Also apps like Mail take advantage of it by having more columns in the new layout which makes sense with wide screens.

I agree with the Launchpad comments. Not really excited at all about it. Seems redundant.

I really like the new gestures. Going back to Safari on SL is a bit painful IMO once you get used to Safari gestures on Lion. I like the new Mail app features. I was worried about losing aqua but understand a lot of users are bored of it. The new iOS scrollbars take it to a new level while eliminating some more aqua without adding a style that would inevitably resemble some other non-Apple/iOS scrollbars and probably not as nice as aqua which other OSes copy a lot. I like the automatic scrollbar look and the fact that they are mostly hidden since using gestures is better anyway.

I also like the idea of working under the hood in one release (SL) and then following up with a more UI centric update in the next release (Lion).

So in some cases I think Apple is a bit stretching the limits of overlapping features, but on the other hand they have consolidated exposé and spaces, for instance. Maybe at the next UI refresh they will consolidate a bit more having a gazillion ways to launch apps.

maclaptop said:

As long as there are no major comprises or "take aways", gimmicks or fluff, then I will probably be fine with it.

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I'd say they crippled a major feature already (Spaces), by taking away its random accessibility, and replacing it with sequential Spaces...

no one forces u to use Launchpad tho ... and i prefer the new Spaces, never used it on SL and just got used to it on Lion bc its now so easy. love the simple swiping but i guess it depends what u got used to

Interesting article, and it could be true. I've been a long time basher of Apple products overall. Die hard Windows user who'd been using and tweaking Windows since 3.1

It was a used iPod touch that got me interested in Apple products. Being in the web and graphic design business I decided last June to go ahead and purchase a MacBook Pro to give it a whirl. I was really impressed with the quality of the laptop compared to every other PC laptop I'd owned and looked at. That's what drew me in first.

Then I feel in love with the fact that things do actually just work.

My wife's favorite quote, I don't curse at my computer anymore.

One thing that I noticed in this article is that he was pretty heavy on the full screen mode bashing because he didn't need full screen apps on his 27" iMac. While that may be true for the 27" iMac, it doesn't hold true for an 11" Air, or a 13" MacBook/MBP/Air. I own a 13" MBP and full screen browsing in Lion is a very beautiful way to view some of my favorite sites.

DirtySocks85 said:

One thing that I noticed in this article is that he was pretty heavy on the full screen mode bashing because he didn't need full screen apps on his 27" iMac. While that may be true for the 27" iMac, it doesn't hold true for an 11" Air, or a 13" MacBook/MBP/Air. I own a 13" MBP and full screen browsing in Lion is a very beautiful way to view some of my favorite sites.

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Yeah you are right. And Apple is paying attention to the way more and more people are doing things.

More people are moving to mobile devices and laptops. The heavy or power user will always have a need for large screen real estate, higher specs, etc.

But the main stream average person, no longer buys that PC that sits in the living room. Now they purchase Laptops for every family member that they can all take everywhere, but for the most point, the devices still serve almost the same functions to those people.

And for a writer to bash fullscreen mode is nonsense. I can't count how many Mac Apps and writing apps there are that go full screen and provide you with distraction free writing environment.

I think the beauty of OSX, at least for me, is that it's incredibly accessible for new comers but is still very deep for experienced users. I've only used OS X since 10.4 (had a mac as a kid on OS 9) but it seems like a regular occurance with using OS X is the "Oh! I can do that?" moment where you discover a new feature or a better way to improve your workflow. I'm sure all but the most seasoned of OS X users probably stumble across new features from time to time - things like Apple Scripts and Automator that aren't exactly major selling features and a lot of OS X users probably never touch, but those that do discover them usually benefit from it.
I think that Apple is great at pushing out features for "most" people and then a lot of advanced users focus on that aspect and overlook how deep the OS actually is. So with Lion, a lot of people seem to focus on the iPad-ification of the OS in terms of the look and even some of the functionality (full screen apps, launchpad, scrolling, etc) but forget that it still has a lot to offer for the more advanced user (and on top of that, a lot of the new features like the lights on the dock or the reverse scrolling can be turned off... at least in the dev previews).
As an example for Lion, the one thing that I'm excited for is the inclusion of Server features in to Lion because I would love to explore all of those tools. I'm sure I won't be the only one who experiments with VPNs or basic web hosting. I doubt that the "average" user is too concerned about that and I doubt that Apple will really spend a lot of time selling that as a feature but - like a lot of the other advanced features - just because Apple doesn't focus on them for their presentations or shine a spotlight on them on their website doesn't mean that the OS is all of a sudden becoming some ultra-basic, limited-use OS for the computer illiterate.

mikekey said:

And for a writer to bash fullscreen mode is nonsense. I can't count how many Mac Apps and writing apps there are that go full screen and provide you with distraction free writing environment.

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Some of us don't get distracted that easily. And some of us need to have other apps or webpages open as reference as we write.

I can understand why some people prefer fullscreen, but I happen to think it is nonsense for Apple to be advertising fullscreen apps as one of the major new features of Lion.