Over 1 million users around the world have downloaded Apple’s OS X Lion, the operating system being hailed as a step forward in the merger of PCs and smart devices, in just 24 hours.
Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller said users are purchasing Lion faster than any other OS release in the company’s history.
“User reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” he said.
OS X Lion is available for download from the Mac App Store for AU$31.99. The 4GB download requires just 2GB of memory and 7GB of available space, and delivers over 250 new features.
The new OS incorporates multi-touch gestures, such as pinch zoom and swipe to switch between applications. It also features inverse scrolling, which allows users to scroll up to go down a page.
The Air Drop feature allows users to send files wirelessly to anyone around them, who also has the feature activated, making it ideal for business use. AirDrop uses peer-to-peer Wi-Fi between participating Mac computers and doesn’t require a wireless network infrastructure or base station.
Another much-lauded new feature is Resume, which ensures apps reopen where the user left off and Auto Save, which saves all files automatically every five minutes or during pauses. Auto Save’s Revert feature returns the document to its last opening state, and also creates a “version” which means users can view all versions in a stack, going back to an older version, or copy and pasting from one to another.
Lion’s Mail system is described as a “new take on email,” and boasts widescreen view, full height messages and a list that includes snippets.
Users need OS X v10.6.6 or later to upgrade to Lion, and must upgrade to the latest version of Snow Leopard first.
