I am excited for OSX Lion. I like that it is being sold through the Mac App Store because that will make updating my Macbook Air very easy. Like the next-gen Microsoft OS, Windows 8, OSX Lion is taking design cues from the mobile world. So exit the mouse and enter the magic trackpad. In Lion, documents will be saving constantly in a Google Docs like fashion where you can see all of your revisions. I am excited to see how Mission Control compares to Spaces and Expose. When I got my first Mac two years ago I was a big fan of Spaces and Expose, I dont really use Spaces anymore because I saw no real point to it after a while with Mission Control this could change, we will have to see. The other major feature I am excited to try out is AirDrop, this is the new peer-to-peer file sharing feature that is going to be built into OSX. I have to say that I am really happy that I have been holding out to purchase a DropBox subscription because now with AirDrop it looks like I may not need DropBox at all, again, We Will see.
iCloud
We had been seeing hints of iCloud for months. Then last week Apple confirmed its existence. Today they detailed what it is and how it will work. Its best feature is its price….. FREE. Unlike its predecessor MobileMe which was $99 per year iCloud is going to come with 5gb of free space for over-the-air syncing of your iDevices. Once again, just as I said with AirDrop above, I am happy I have not signed up for a DropBox subscription yet because with iCloud I will no longer need DropBox. Another nice thing that comes with iCloud is the ability to infinitely download anything purchased through iTunes. The ability to wirelessly sync all of my data across all of my computers and mobile devices PC or Mac is going to be great. Finally, there is an Music Matching service for $24.99 per year that will allow users to get all of their music up on iCloud no matter where they got it from. This is definitely something I will be signing up for when I have the money available. I have yet to figure out if the Music Matching and iTunes apps on iCloud will require that you keep the music on a computer if this is the case the service is not going to be very useful to many people.
iOS 5
There is a lot to talk about with iOS 5. The post-PC era is finally here in full force. I am really happy about the Notifications Center, Wi-Fi Sync, Airplay Mirroring, OTA Software updates, iMessage, Safari enhancements, Camera enhancements, and To Do List. Notifications Center and Wi-Fi Sync/OTA Updates are probably going to be my favorite two enhancements to the OS. I also love that there is going to be full twitter integration with the OS. Safari’s tabbed browsing and Instapaper-like reading list will defintely be great features though I am not sure how much use I will get out of the Reading list feature because while I have an Instapaper account I dont really use it.
Thats all for now, more to come on all of this.