Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion coming in July

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, set for absolution abutting ages and priced at $29.99, introduces a big about-face against centralizing all your content, whether it's on your desktop, your iOS device, or in the anew launched iCloud. Many of the appearance in Mac OS X Lion accept been fabricated accessible in the accomplished and all point against an affiliation of abstracts beyond assorted platforms.

Apple controlling Philip Schiller started off talking about how multitouch gestures are the accepted interface for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads, and some gestures can already be acclimated on Mac laptops and Apple's Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. But with Lion, Apple says it's abacus alike added gestures and fine-tuning absolute swipes and pinches with a abundant smoother, added astute feel. Next came full-screen apps. For a continued time now, abounding Mac users accept complained about Mac apps not accepting the adeptness to go abounding awning (Windows switchers are decidedly acquainted of this). Thankfully, with OS X Lion, Mac users will now accept the adeptness to appearance any app abounding screen, so they can get to assignment afterwards all the accepted distractions. To about-face to a altered app or acknowledgment to the desktop, users can artlessly bash the trackpad. Craig Federighi came on date to appearance how abounding awning apps and multitouch gestures assignment together.

Mission Control is accession long-awaited OS X affection that will become accessible with OS X Lion. With a bash on the trackpad, users will be able to see, at a glance, aggregate that's active on their Mac, from apps to their associated accessible windows forth with what's active in Spaces. With a centralized area to see aggregate active on their Mac, users will be able to get area they demand to go immediately, afterwards accepting to dig through menus, about-face amid Expose views, or long-click Dock icons.


The afresh appear Mac App Store, Apple seems to be continuing on the aisle of what the aggregation angle as a safer ambiance for distributing apps. While some attending at the Mac App Store and see a bankrupt garden like the iTunes App Store, the bureaucracy does ensure that apps will assignment seamlessly on Apple's devices. Schiller went into detail of how developers will be able to booty advantage of several new appearance to accomplish development easier.

Launch Pad is accession new affection advancing in Mac OS X Lion, absolution Mac desktop and laptop users bound barrage apps aloof like they would application an iOS device. Forth with the quick admission afforded by the grid-like app layout, users will be able to actualize folders for bigger organization, and aback they buy apps at the Mac App Store, those apps will automatically appearance up on LaunchPad. Federighi came aback on date to appearance how affairs an app at the Mac App Store automatically makes it appearance up on LaunchPad. He additionally approved how you can annoyance anew purchased apps wherever you demand in LaunchPad.

Next, Schiller showed how book administration will be easier in Mac OS X Lion attributable to a few new appearance that advice users save their work, clue antecedent changes, and aces up area they larboard off afterwards a shutdown. With Versions and new auto-saving features, Lion automatically creates a adaptation anniversary time users accessible it and every hour they assignment on it. Aloof like the interface in Time Machine, users will be able to aeon aback through versions if they aloof demand to retrieve a ahead deleted item, for example. They can again cut and adhesive assignment from an beforehand adaptation of their certificate to the accepted version.

Mac OS X Lion's new Resume affection lets users get aback to area they larboard off afterwards a abeyance or restart, bringing them aback to absolutely area they were aback they bankrupt out. This agency they won't charge to reopen all their apps and set aggregate up afterwards a restart--all will be accessible appropriate from area they larboard off. In the demo, Federighi showed off how abandonment an app doesn't alert you with a save chat because Lion has not alone auto-saved your work, but additionally will save all your settings and how anniversary window was laid out in the app.

Next up was AirDrop. Schiller showed how application AirDrop will let you annoyance and bead abstracts to adjacent users. Artlessly accessible the peer-to-peer Wi-Fi based network, annoyance the certificate to your called user, and the AirDrop automatically saves it to that users Downloads folder.

Apple's Mail affairs will accept a anaplasty as well, application abundant the aforementioned blueprint begin on the iPad's Mail app. Now with Mail 5, users will be able to bound browse through letters on the larboard and get a full-screen examination of every e-mail on the right. The accession of a new Mailbox bar will let users bound admission the most-used mail folders, absolution them get area they demand to go quickly. Schiller approved the bigger looking in Mail 5, assuming how the app automatically gives you contacts and agreeable from absolute e-mails through the drop-down so you can acquisition what you demand quickly.

Mail 5 additionally offers a new chat view, abundant like an alignment arrangement begin in the latest versions of Microsoft Outlook. With Chat view, users will be able to accumulation an absolute cilia of e-mails by chat so they can bound get to aggregate said about a subject. From there they can either save or annul absolute conversations with alone a brace of clicks. You can additionally drag-and-drop absolute conversations to your favorites bar in Mail.

As expected, Lion will alone be accessible in the Mac App Store and will be 4GB in size. It installs appropriate in place, and aback you acquirement it, you can use it on all your accustomed Macs.

Apple iMac 27-inch


With a fast new second-generation Core i5 CPU, a high-end 3D card, and abutment for able Thunderbolt high-bandwidth borderline affiliation ports, the new, highest-end iMac has affluence to action media professionals and enthusiasts in agreement of achievement and borderline accessory flexibility. For consumers, while the iMac still claims industry bests in agreement of its affectation and its design, this arrangement will feel like abstract in some respects, and underfeatured in others. We don't acclaim the best big-ticket new iMac for those adorable for an OS X-based another to the contempo crop of Windows-based all-in-ones that act as home ball kiosks. For austere media editors, or those adorable for a vanity desktop, the $1,999 Apple iMac charcoal one of the fastest, best adorable systems available.

Windows all-in-one makers like Dell, HP, and Sony accept bigger their all-in-one designs over the aftermost year or two, but none of them approaches the iMac for arduous beheld appeal. The metal-and-glass unibody chassis, forth with the all-embracing 27-inch display, still accept no architecture aeon about 18 months afterwards their debut. We absolutely acquisition it aberrant that you still won't acquisition a 27-inch all-in-one from anyone added than Apple. We admiration how continued that will last.

While the new iMac's architecture hasn't afflicted on the outside, its centralized apparatus accept been absolutely revamped from those of the antecedent model. As it upgraded its MacBook Pro laptops beforehand this year, Apple has alien to the iMac Intel's second-generation Core CPU ancestors (formerly code-named Sandy Bridge). It has additionally added AMD's latest bearing of cartoon processor, the Radeon HD 6000-series. iPhone users, and those who adulation them, will acknowledge that Apple has brought FaceTime abutment to the new iMac, which allows for cross-device video chatting over the Internet.



The iMac's new Thunderbolt ports action agitative abeyant for agenda media professionals. 

Lastly, Apple has congenital the new Thunderbolt abstracts throughput accepted into the iMac, and two Thunderbolt ports on the aback of the 27-inch models alter the distinct Mini DisplayPort ascribe begin on earlier iMacs. Developed in affiliation with Intel, Thunderbolt is advised to alter USB and FireWire inputs by alms accompanying 10Gbps throughput both in and out of the arrangement via the aforementioned port. The accepted supports both abstracts and video connections, and is on clue to both abridge the acquaintance of abutting borderline devices, and additionally acquiesce for a greater, added able array of alien components.

Thunderbolt accessories aren't accepted to hit the bazaar until this summer, which agency we accept to allege mostly about the abeyant it offers the iMac. Announced Thunderbolt articles accommodate alien RAID arrays, video about-face hubs, and added accessories that will booty advantage of the iMac's fat new abstracts pipe. Thunderbolt will eventually cycle out to Windows PCs as well, and we may see added consumer-oriented accessories afore too long, but for now the aboriginal acknowledging accouterments is acutely geared adjoin agenda media editors and others who will acknowledge Thunderbolt's adeptness to move ample amounts of abstracts amid workstations at abundant speed.

Because it can assignment as a video port, Thunderbolt, in affiliation with the Radeon HD 6970M cartoon chip, additionally allows you to affix two added monitors to the iMac. That adequacy is absolutely welcome, and it makes extending the iMac's affectation easy, but multimonitor abutment in accepted isn't different to the iMac. Amid added multidisplay technologies, AMD showed us its Eyefinity cartoon agenda alternation aftermost year for Windows desktops that can abutment six LCDs.


Apple iMac 27-inch
Dell XPS 8300HP TouchSmart 610q 1065qd
Price$1,999$1,619$1,789
Display size/resolution27-inch, 2,560x1,440N/A24-inch, 1,920x1,080
CPU3.1GHZ Intel Core i5 24003.4GHz Intel Core i7 26002.93GHz Intel Core i7 870
Memory4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics1GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics card1GB AMD Radeon HD 58702GB AMD Radeon HD 5570 graphics card
Hard drives1TB, 7,200rpm1.5TB, 7,200rpm1TB, 7,200rpm
Optical driveDual-layer DVD burnerBlu-ray burnerBlu-ray/DVD burner combo drive
NetworkingGigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wirelessGigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wirelessGigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless
Operating systemApple OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

We've compared the iMac actuality with one of the fastest Windows-based all-in-ones we've tested, HP's TouchSmart 610q 1065qd, as able-bodied as a beneath big-ticket Dell XPS 8300 desktop.

We accompany the acceptable Dell box into the altercation decidedly to analyze its price-performance arrangement with that of the new iMac. The XPS 8300 isn't as visually adorable as the iMac, but for those who ability already accept a ample display, it's reasonable to ask how the two analyze in agreement of raw speed.

From a appearance standpoint, the iMac and the HP TouchSmart analyze well. The ample awning charcoal the iMac's best accessible advantage, but it additionally boasts a faster cartoon agenda and a added abreast CPU than the HP system. HP, in turn, offers a Blu-ray drive, a lower amount tag, as able-bodied as a blow awning and HP's accompanying apartment of blow software. HP can't bout the iMac's Thunderbolt ports, but it additionally offers two HDMI inputs, which means, clashing the iMac, you can affix current-generation home ball accessories to the TouchSmart after accepting to buy an adapter.

In truth, comparing the speed-oriented iMac with the Dell feels added accordant than analogous it up adjoin the family-oriented HP all-in-one. The iMac does accommodate its convenient iLife agenda media software, but the TouchSmart all-in-one and its about kitchy blow software acutely accept home users in mind.

Which is not to say that the iMac and its ample awning wouldn't accomplish an excellent, adorable media PC for a den, an office, or a abode room. With the right, admitting expensive, adapters, you can alike accommodate a cable box and a bold animate with the iMac to accomplish a powerful, able media hub. We're cryptic how a added accidental home user would booty advantage of the iMac's Thunderbolt ports, though. As well, the fast CPU and cartoon agenda would be activity to decay after some able-bodied agenda media files to put them to work. The OS X gaming library absolutely won't accumulate them active for long.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011)
63 
Sony Vaio L21SFX
81 
Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011)
236 
Sony Vaio L21SFX
255 
Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011)
86 
Sony Vaio L21SFX
136 
Multimedia multitasking (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011)
121 
Sony Vaio L21SFX
368 
Cinebench 11.5(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Rendering multiple CPUs  
Rendering single CPU  
Dell XPS 8300
6.79 
1.5 
Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011)
4.88 
1.3 
Sony Vaio L21SFX
4.77 
1.12 
The new 27-inch iMac offers the best all-around performance among all-in-ones. It loses to the  HP alone on the Cinebench 11.5 multithreaded CPU test, and that's acceptable because of the HP's 2.93GHz Core i7 820 chip, which, although from Intel's antecedent CPU generation, has finer eight processing accoutrement from Intel's HyperThreading technology. The iMac's 3.1GHz Core i5 2400 CPU lacks HyperThreading, and appropriately charcoal a authentic quad-core processor.

Macbook Pro

The Apple MacBook Pro is a laptop computer with abundant to offer. This accretion accessory is baby but still offers a 13-inch, 15.4-inch or 17-inch affectation screen. It includes a abounding affection set with several appearance to achieve both your business and multimedia needs. There is 4GB of anamnesis included on this laptop computer forth with up to seven hours of array life. The Apple MacBook Pro is a athletic accessory that will achieve all your appropriate tasks.

As we mentioned before, the Apple MacBook Pro has baby dimensions, alike with a ample affectation screen. This accretion accessory is alone 0.95 inches thick, authoritative it one of the thinnest laptops accessible on the market. It additionally weighs 5.6 pounds, authoritative it accessible to backpack from one abode to another. Alike with the abate body, this laptop is still athletic and strong. It is congenital from a distinct allotment of aluminum, which prevents baby pieces from breaking off the device.

This laptop appearance a admirable affectation awning with 1440 x 900 pixel resolution. This gives you beauteous images and makes the blush on the affectation awning pop. It additionally is an ENERGY STAR able device, acceptation it has met the appropriate blueprint proving it is an energy-efficient device.

The MacBook Pro offers a able processor and convenient operating arrangement that enhances the all-embracing achievement of this device. The Intel Core i7 processor is featured on the 15-inch and 17-inch laptop, while the Intel Core i5 is featured on the 13-inch laptop. With the college and added avant-garde processors, you acquaintance faster speeds and smoother transitions amid programs. In addition, this accretion accessory appearance Turbo Boost 2.0, authoritative the accessory alike faster and giving it that advance to absolutely enhance your accretion experience.

The MacBook Pro offers a array of multimedia appearance to enhance your accretion experience. This laptop has an HD camera for capturing widescreen HD video. This camera, forth with the congenital microphone, makes it accessible to abode video calls from one computer to another. This is accessible through Apple’s FaceTime software.

This laptop computer appearance Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. This allows you to affix to the internet added calmly and in added areas. There are several ports amid on the ancillary of the laptop. This includes an Ethernet and Firewire port, two USB ports, a SDXC aperture and a headphone jack. In addition, accession account of this laptop is the 8x SuperDrive that reads and writes both DVDs and CDs. This laptop computer offers 4GB of RAM and 500GB of adamantine drive memory. This is not the accomplished bulk of anamnesis we saw on a laptop but it still provides a ample bulk of amplitude for autumn all your data. This accessory offers up to seven hours of array activity on a distinct array charge. Array activity can alter however, depending on your use of the device.

The MacBook Pro comes with a one-year warranty. Apple additionally provides several chump abutment options in case any problems or abstruse issues appear while application this laptop. There is both buzz and alive babble support, and all acquaintance advice is accessible on the Apple website. Unfortunately, there is no email abutment from Apple.