OSX Lion, first thoughts (Additional thoughts updated 7/22!)
First thoughts, OSX Lion is amazing. Love it. Here is a short list of features I like and features I’m currently not a fan of. Let me know what you think of it!
Pros I’m enjoying
- I love the new desktop setup, simply drag an app to a new ‘desktop’ and it clears the clutter of all your other open apps. This isn’t a new feature, but a lot easier to manage in Lion. You can also click and hold the icon in your dock to set which desktop it associates with when you open it.
- Any open windows can be resized at any corner, or edge. Handy!
- Mail now looks more like it does not he iPad, which is a great change! I’m disliking the change from the way it used to be though.. Only because its going to take a bit to get the hang of the new setup..
- I’m a huge fan of the new iCal look! Again its similar to the iPad version. Will take some more time to get used to the changes, but they are good. They year view is a nice addition, I wish the days were color coated by the event type that was occupying the date though.
Cons I’m disliking at the moment
- Airdrop is a tool to transfer data from computer to computer wirelessly (without wifi!). Sounds great? Well its not compatible with my laptop.. Apparently its too old (MacRumors Forum) something to do with the airport card its using. Doesn’t matter, I still have my flash drive to get files from machine to machine, probably still a lot faster than transferring wirelessly.
- I’m not a huge fan of how they changed the default scroll actions on your mouse. Its an easy fix, but not fun. By default you can scroll between your desktops with two fingers. This was extremely annoying with my workflow, so I had to uncheck that straight away. Also if you use the magic mouse, and are use to the two finger swipe to go back in your browser history you will have to change it from a one finger side swipe to two (disabling the desktop swipe at the same time. Sorry, can’t use both at once.) I’m interested to play with the MagicPrefs software to see what is possible with the mouse now! Previously on SnowLeopard I used this software to override the default magic mouse settings and make my own actions and swipes.
- There are a few compatibility issues though, not major but a few I’ve been pointed to. Here is a link to Adobe’s page on known issues, and some remedies to solve. Another site (Roaring Apps) devoted a page to quite a few apps and if they will work or not natively on OSX Lion.
- As far as I’m told, ProTools is not compatible at all with OSX Lion, I don’t use it so I’m not 100% on what exactly doesn’t work and how long they will take to resolve the issue. Contact Avid Technology on twitter to inquire on the fix, though they say its coming ASAP. (Update: They just sent me compatibility alert on twitter)
Thats it for now! I’ll probably add more pros & cons as I find them. I’ve got a lot of exploring to do, and a lot of getting used to new features..
Leave a comment on what your pro & con list is from OSX Lion!
—- UPDATES—-
7/20 12:55pm
- Pro: There is a spelling check/auto correct feature, again, very similar to the auto correct on the iOS system. I love this feature because I drink too much coffee and have crazy fingers when I type. I also think I can type faster than I really can, so I make a lot of mistakes.
Con: It is unfortunate though that because of features like this the ability to spell correctly, while not using a computer, will become a much larger issue than it currently is. I’ll be the first to admit that I abuse spell check and need to spend more time thinking about proper grammar.. - Pro: There is now a dictionary built into the system along with the dictionary app. Simply right click on a word, hit ‘look up __’ and the definition pops up!
7/22 6:03pm
- Con: The dropbox app is currently now working correctly. Before there were green checks to show you what has uploaded, these are now gone. The ability to invite users to the folder by simply right clicking on a folder is also gone. Hoping for an update from the app soon! Data is however syncing through the servers and you can invite people from the website just fine. I liked the fact that I could see, in folder, exactly what has finished syncing and what has not.