The Ars Technica review: Learn what Lion is

Feature: Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica review
[Via Ars Technica]

Mac OS X 10.7 was first shown to the public in October 2010. The presentation was understated, especially compared to the bold rhetoric that accompanied the launches of the iPhone (“Apple reinvents the phone”) and the iPad (“a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price”). Instead, Steve Jobs simply called the new operating system “a sneak peek at where we’re going with Mac OS X.”

Behind Jobs, the screen listed the seven previous major releases of Mac OS X: Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard. Such brief retrospectives are de rigueur at major Mac OS X announcements, but long-time Apple watchers might have felt a slight tingle this time. The public “big cat” branding for Mac OS X only began with Jaguar; code names for the two earlier versions were not well known outside the developer community and were certainly not part of Apple’s official marketing message for those releases. Why bring the cat theme back to the forefront now?

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This is the most in depth review you will see for some time. It even has a table of contents and you can buy the ebook on Amazon for your ereader.

Lion on a thumb drive is a great idea

by Tambako the Jaguar

Mac OS X Lion will be available on USB thumb drive for $69 in August
[Via AppleInsider]

For those who want to have their copy of Lion saved on a physical medium, Apple will make the Mac OS X upgrade available on a USB thumb drive through its online store in August, but at a cost more than twice the price of the Mac App Store.

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My home DSL has degraded so far that I think it will take 1-2 days to download Lion.  I plan on stopping by an Apple store to use their network to download the program but having it on a thumb drive is a nice idea for those without a fast internet.

I’m supposed to be getting “up to 500 kb/sec”. I was getting about 270. Then that dropped to 180. Then to 90 and now I get about 75.

My phone company has no suggestions other than to get their high speed FIOS service, which involved them trenching my yard and potentially tear up the sprinkler system and stuff. And they can only guarantee a speed “up to” some limit, just like I have today.

I’ll probably get FIOS but I am not hoping they can actually deliver the levels they say. It’ll just be better than what I have now.