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Apple Starts Selling $69 OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

Any hope of a discount if we already purchased from the "App Store"?

This means I will have spent $100 on Lion if I buy this thumb drive, having already purchased it off the App Store, if there is no discount. Rats.
 
Still needs Snow Leopard?

So do I still need Snow Leopard to run a clean install? I don't see why I would....if the whole OS installer is on this little guy, why would I need to purchase both Snow Leopard and Lion?
 
Jerome Morrow said:
Yep. Since Installer is not set to look for Snow Leopard i see this just as standard safe guard Apple has put in. Nothing else.

You can install either version (download or USB key) to any supported Mac running any Mac OS X (Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard).
Click to expand...

Not exactly. You can install Lion from the App Store on a volume with no installed system, or with Snow Leopard or Lion already installed. You cannot install the App Store edition on a volume which has Leopard installed (and I assume the same restriction applies to Tiger or earlier). The installer won't let you pick that volume as a target.

We won't know whether this technical restriction also applies to the USB thumb drive edition until someone has tried. (I expect it won't work.)

The licence agreement for Lion says that the App Store edition requires Snow Leopard, therefore if you don't own Snow Leopard you are violating the licence agreement. The USB thumb drive edition is not mentioned in that document.

The Apple Store page for the USB thumb drive edition quotes a portion of the licence agreement:

"OS X Lion Software License Agreement
The OS X Lion Software License Agreement allows you to install and use the software for your personal, non-commercial use on all the Macs you own or control that are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard Server (a Mac Computer). Commercial enterprises or educational institutions can install and use one copy of the software for use either a) by a single individual on each Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls, or b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls (for example, in a resource center or library). You can also use the software in accordance with the terms of a volume or maintenance license (purchased separately). Full license terms can be found at http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/."

Based on that, the USB thumb drive edition has the same licence conditions as the App Store edition, which means that Apple expects Leopard and Tiger users to buy Snow Leopard in addition to Lion (either on the USB thumb drive or from the App Store) in order to comply with the licence.

Therefore the $69 price is partly the $29 licence cost of Lion, plus cost for the physical hardware (USB thumb drive), plus distribution expenses, plus a small profit margin. Apple's intention is to encourage most people to get Lion from the App Store.

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jdechko said:
The MacRumors article omits an important piece of information that 9to5mac.com, Thisismynext.com and macstories.net all reported (originally from 9to5mac.com)

If you install Lion with this USB drive, you will be unable to use the recovery partition. I guess it just doesn't create one during the install. Of course, the likelihood is that you have crappy internet and so you would always want to use the USB stick. It seems that if you want a physical backup of the installer, it's best to make your own.
Click to expand...

The Apple Store description says you can't use the Lion Recovery to reinstall Lion, i.e. it won't be able to do the 3.7 GB download from the App Store, presumably because you didn't buy Lion from the App Store, and Lion Recovery can only do the re-download if your Apple ID had already bought Lion from the App Store.

The actual Lion Recovery partition is almost certainly still there, so you will have Disk Utility, Safari, Time Machine restore and the other utilities without having to use the USB thumb drive. You will need the USB thumb drive to reinstall Lion from scratch.

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bwillwall said:
So does this mean that I could use this on as many computers as I want? If so then thats much cheaper than the download ppl... lol somebody get back to me with that?
Click to expand...

Both the App Store and USB thumb drive editions of Lion are allowed to be installed on all compatible Macs you own or control, for personal use. (Commercial use depends on how many people are using the computers in question.)

The licence agreement quote in grey at the bottom of the Apple Store page for the USB thumb drive edition applies to the App Store edition as well. The full licence agreement is here.
 
repeters said:
OK. Then why, when I used the "home brew" flash drive, did my 2010 MacBook Air download more files during the installation?:confused:
Click to expand...

It doesn't. I did an install from my book to an external HDD directly from the mounted image. When I saw the message about downloading additional files, I was curious and decativated airport on the book in the same instance, the message popped up. It installed just fine. Next I did a clean install of a mini with a home made USB installer. Booted from the stick, wiped the internal drive, got the same message about downloading additional files but this time WiFI wasn't even turned on in the first place. Installed fine again.

What's actually happening (I guess), is that the Lion installer copies the necessary files for the installation from the .dmg to the installation voume, before starting the actual installation procedure. As the installer is build to run from internet recovery, you simply get to see the same message that appears, as when there is no .dmg file with the necessary files and it must download them from the Apple servers and then copy them to the drive.
 
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Good move on Apple's part, although I think it would have been better to have offered this option from day 1.
 
Atlantico said:
Apple's drive is a ROM, and cannot be written on any more than a BD/DVD/CD.

Surely the drive on Amazon is a FlashROM, i.e. possible to write to - thus much more expensive.

Anyway, I still have all my floppy-disks from my C64, but all the cartridges are lost or broken.

Strange how disks are more durable in the end. I would have preferred a BD of the system (or DVD) simply because I have no idea where my pocket Flash-drives are and I know where my 10.6 install DVD is. :cool:
Click to expand...

The device is the same - it [Apple's] is just configured to appear as a RO device. It can be reconfigured using the appropriate tool (mentioned elsewhere in this thread).
 
question:

can we use this to do a clean install with new mac book airs,and mini's?

(note: making your own usb stick with digital dl doesn't work with new air's and mini's as there installed version of lion is newer then digital version)
 
Sankersizzle said:
i... i.... never thought of it that way.. :eek:
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it, the math is flawed.

If you buy a machine in 2010, it comes with Snow Leopard. That means you're not paying $29 for Snow Leopard; it's embedded in the cost of the computer.

So for those who DID NOT buy Snow Leopard off the shelf, it's $29 vs. $70 for this USB stick.

I do agree that this is targeted to people who never upgraded to Snow Leopard. For them and them ONLY, the price is right around where it needs to be.

For people who already had Snow Leopard and simply want to have physical media, it's a ripoff - given you weren't previously charged $70 extra to have the physical media...it was included in the box.
 
Lion USB thumb drive. Is it a con ??

Not really..

While i agree, its steep to pay just for a usb thumb drive and the os where as a more tech savvy user could pick up a Corsair for only $14 AUS and DIY, its the price you pay for not making a backup on either usb or dvd when you had the chance..

On the other hand, if Apple didn't remove the .dmg file after upgrade, this wouldn't be a problem.
 
gr8tfly said:
Not true, at least not with the dl version (which I would bet is the same). I've personally installed Lion on a blank partition with no problem from the DMG extracted from the dl (and Restored to a USB stick).
Click to expand...

Just because you can, doesn't mean you have a licence to do so. Apples license for Lion states you must have SL on the machine

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rodpascoe said:
You are having a laugh! You've never scratched a DVD but have had a FEW usb sticks go down!?!

You must be the unluckiest person on the planet!

To suggest that usb thumb drives are less reliable than DVD's is ridiculous. Of particular note is that home burned DVD's have a very limited shelf life as the material they are made of degrades within a short time.
Click to expand...

Nope, never had a DVD die on me, I take care of them.

That is my experience, but in saying that, I can make several copies of an item onto different DVD's and still be spending less than storing them on USB sticks. USB sticks are still too expensive
 
Fraaaa said:
Both Mac Mini and MacBook Air don't have ODD.
Click to expand...

They have USB ports where you can connect one. Really, a USB thumb drive, one that is Read-Only, hardly makes sense. It's quite a bit more expensive to mass-produce than a DVD.

This is obviously related to Apple's sudden aversion of all things optical, it has no economic basis at all. The machines one which you want to install Lion from this media pretty much all have an optical drive or access to one if need be. Pressed DVDs are cheaper to produce and much quicker to stamp out (a USB thumb drive needs to be written out each time, taking several minutes for each, while a pressed DVD is done in seconds).
 
centauratlas said:
I have a feeling that is a misprint carried over from the download requirements. You can make your own and install without 10.6.8 on the machine. It is doubtful Apple would make it a requirement on their own USB drive. The 10.6.x requirement was for the AppStore to function properly.
Click to expand...

Ever though it is a licencing requirement?
 
jfanning said:
Ever though it is a licencing requirement?
Click to expand...

Where did you find the text of this license for the USB thumb drive version ? I have yet to even see information on what's contained in the USB thumb drive, much less included licenses, etc..

EDIT: Are you going from the license included on the store's page ? Because again, that might just be a copy/paste botch job. Seems Apple made this USB thumb drive option as an after-thought and didn't put much effort in it. I guess we'll know for sure when someone gets their hands on the thumb drive itself.
 
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KnightWRX said:
Where did you find the text of this license for the USB thumb drive version ? I have yet to even see information on what's contained in the USB thumb drive, much less included licenses, etc..

EDIT: Are you going from the license included on the store's page ? Because again, that might just be a copy/paste botch job. Seems Apple made this USB thumb drive option as an after-thought and didn't put much effort in it. I guess we'll know for sure when someone gets their hands on the thumb drive itself.
Click to expand...

I got if from here. Apple has always made it's upgrade from the previous version, why would they change now? Just because you can install it, doesn't you are allowed to. for example, you can do a full install with the Windows 7 upgrade disk as well, doesn't mean you can are allowed to.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256?mco=MjQ1MzkyMDY
 
jfanning said:
I got if from here. Apple has always made it's upgrade from the previous version, why would they change now? Just because you can install it, doesn't you are allowed to. for example, you can do a full install with the Windows 7 upgrade disk as well, doesn't mean you can are allowed to.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256?mco=MjQ1MzkyMDY
Click to expand...

Read my edit : This might be the result of the same copy/paste botch jobs they did of the requirements (10.6.6 doesn't make sense unless you need the MAS).

Unless you have access to the license provided with the USB thumb drive, we won't know for sure if Snow Leopard is truely a requirement or not.
 
WardC said:
Any hope of a discount if we already purchased from the "App Store"?
Click to expand...
you're talking about apple here, good luck with that.

WardC said:
This means I will have spent $100 on Lion if I buy this thumb drive, having already purchased it off the App Store, if there is no discount. Rats.
Click to expand...
WHY?!?! just follow directions on this forum and make your own off a usb key, is the apple label worth $69+ tax?? Lol.
 
Lammergeier said:
Thanks for your input. I just have a funny feeling this is purely for Snow Leopard users to by-pass the App Store download.
I also think it's very wrong for Apple to not make it clear if this works from Leopard only.
A lot of people will want to know.
Click to expand...

Apple say it's for Snow Leopard only - so it probably is - if you want to upgrade, Keeping all your settings, apps etc. intact.

But if you back up the files you want to keep somewhere, then format your hard disk and start again from scratch, using the Lion stick to install the OS then it should work. After all, how's it gonna know your freshly formated hard disk used to have Leopard on it?
 
What a plonker

brandscill said:
Sorry Apple but this has to be the biggest joke ever. £55 for a thumb drive with lion on it!
Click to expand...

Clearly the writer is a plonker! It is a fair price for an excellent product but then, I guess, ee are moving into "slag off the successful" territory for any reason at all. Well done Apple. Great products and fair price.
 
colinwil said:
Apple say it's for Snow Leopard only - so it probably is - if you want to upgrade, Keeping all your settings, apps etc. intact.

But if you back up the files you want to keep somewhere, then format your hard disk and start again from scratch, using the Lion stick to install the OS then it should work. After all, how's it gonna know your freshly formated hard disk used to have Leopard on it?
Click to expand...

I hope your right. Apple has been seriously anal when it comes to Leopard users skipping Snow Leopard to Lion.

I remember on the Apple Store website prior to Lion "How to get Lion from day 1 - Make sure you have Snow Leopard"

Also to poorly quote Mr Jobs "You must upgrade to Snow Leopard"

Why the hell haven't Apple made it clear this is fine for users of Leopard to move to Lion? Rotten Ill-advised Apples.
 
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