Apple : Tutorial: 10 things to do after installing OS X Lion |
- Tutorial: 10 things to do after installing OS X Lion
- Buying Guide: MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: which is right for you?
- Week in Tech: It's a Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac world
- Apple sells 1m copies of OS X Lion in first day
| Tutorial: 10 things to do after installing OS X Lion Posted: 22 Jul 2011 06:00 AM PDT  Mac OS 10.7 Lion is finally here and like most Mac users you'll be installing it at some point over the next few days, if you haven't done so already. Since it's only £21 it's a bargain, so there's really no reason not to (unless you have an old Mac with a pre-Core 2 Duo processor, of course). It goes without saying that you should backup your Mac before downloading and installing Lion, but once you've installed Lion what should you do next? Before we start, a word of advice for anyone who has just downloaded the Lion installer, but not actually started the installation. Stop! Copy the Install OS X file that you'll find in your Applications folder to an external drive, so you don't have to download it again on all your other Macs, too. At 4GB it's a hefty download, so you can save yourself some serious time with this tip. Remember, you can't do this after you've finished installing Lion, because the installer file is removed, so do it now and thank us later. We found the installation itself to be quick and painless, and once Lion is up and running you're ready to take it for a spin. Just be aware that Spotlight will be indexing your Mac for the first half an hour or so, and this can slow things like animations down a little bit. So, if Lion feels a bit sluggish don't write it off quite yet - things will definitely improve once the indexing has finished. We've previewed all the new features of Lion before, so we won't list them all here. Instead let's go through the top 10 things you need to do first in OS X 10.7 Lion. 1. Reverse 'natural' scrolling Coming from Snow Leopard, the first thing you'll find really confusing about Lion is the scrolling direction. In an effort to unify OS X, its desktop operating system, and iOS, its handheld operating system, Apple has changed the default behaviour of the scroll wheel (or ball) on your mouse. Instead of scrolling the page up when you scroll your mouse wheel down (a system that we've been using since scroll wheels were invented), it now scrolls the page down, in an effort to mimic what happens when you swipe down on an iPad with your finger.
SCROLL AWAY: Turn off natural scrolling to get back to the way things were Apple calls this 'natural scrolling'. While this might be fine for the 'post PC' generation, for the rest of us it feels distinctly unnatural. The good news is you can change things back to the way they were by changing one simple setting. In System Preferences go to General and untick 'Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating'. 2. Fix Mail's appearance Next, let's look at Lion Mail. It's a definite upgrade to Snow Leopard's version of the program - you now get snippets in the message list, conversation view and a new column view. The downside is that with its new column view it feels more like Microsoft's Entourage than Apple Mail. If you miss the look and feel of the old Mail then don't worry, you can get some of it back. In Mail go to the Mail menu then choose Preferences and click on Viewing. Click on Use Classic Layout and boom! You're back in something that looks more like old fashioned Mail. Toggle the Show/Hide button on the Favorites Bar to add the finishing touches. 3. Update your applications Lion is here, but your apps are probably still living in the past. If you want Pages, Keynote and Numbers to make use of the new Versions feature in Lion (more on that later) then you'll need to update them.
UPDATE NOW: After you've installed Lion update your apps to get the most out of them There's a new version of iTunes that's optimised for Lion, too. To get all this good stuff on your Mac head over to Software Update in System Preferences and click Check Now, then download the updates. 4. Sort out your apps in LaunchPad One of the first things you notice about Lion is the striking new icon for LaunchPad in the Dock. It produces a screen full of your application icons, mimicking SpringBoard, the Home Screen of iOS. It's multi-screen too, just click and swipe left to move to the next screen of apps. It's a useful feature, but far from perfect - for a start it displays an icon for everything in your applications folder, including all the stuff you don't want. Your first thought will probably be, 'how do I delete icons from here?'. The answer is you can only delete apps that were purchased through the Mac App Store. To remove them click and hold on any icon and they'll all start to wiggle, the apps you can delete will now have a small x in their top left corner. The only way to remove the other icons is to delete them from your Applications folder in Finder.
START IT UP: Launchpad is useful, but lacks customisation features One alternative to deleting apps is to create a folder in LaunchPad of all the apps you don't want displayed. Just drag one unwanted app and drag it on top of another unwanted app. A new folder will be created. You can rename the folder to anything you like by double-clicking it's name when the folder is open. 5. Expand windows from all corners This is a great Lion feature that's worth checking out immediately. As OS X users we've always been used to only being able to expand the size of a window by dragging on the bottom right corner. Lion changes all this - you can drag any corner of an open window to resize it, or drag the edges of the window to expand it in that direction. 6. Check out new desktop backgrounds Nothing says your running Lion better than a great big picture of a Lion stamping its authority all over your desktop. Think about it - unless you change you desktop background into something Lion-related how are you going to gain bragging rights over all your Snow Leopard-running pals?
ROAR: Nothing says 'I've got Lion!' quite like a great big feline on your desktop Head to System Preferences, Desktop and Screen Saver and click on Desktop pictures - you'll see the new Andromeda Galaxy background, which Apple uses in a lot of the pictures on its website, and of course, there's an actual picture of a Lion you can use as a desktop background there as well. 7. Add a new space Lion changes the way Spaces works on your Mac. Previously you'd had a Spaces settings panel in System Preferences. This has now been replaced by Mission Control. Mission Control is actually one of Lion's strongest features - essentially taking the idea of Exposé (an easy way to access all your open windows) and turning it into something even more useful that enables you to switch to new Spaces without touching the keyboard. In Mission Control move your cursor to the top right hand corner and you get the option to add a new Space. Once you've added a Space, Ctrl or right-click on any application icon in your Dock to force it to open in a particular Space. 8. Go full screen - and get back out! Full screen apps offer a better, distraction-free, way of working. At the moment it's mainly Apple's apps, like Pages, iPhoto or iTunes that go full screen, but we're sure third-party apps will offer full screen options soon. Load up Safari and try it out by clicking the arrow icon in the top-right corner of the app. Unfortunately it's not immediately obvious how you get back out of full screen mode. There are two ways to do it. Either press the Escape key on the keyboard, or simply move the cursor to the top of the screen. The traditional Apple menu bar will appear with an option to revert back to standard windowed mode. 9. Marvel at versions Versions is a very useful new feature of Lion - it combines with Auto Save to enable you to go back to any previously saved version of a file you've got open. It only works in compatible apps, and again, right now that limits you to Apple's apps, but other will soon follow.
LOOK BACK: Step into the Time Machine-like interface of Versions to see previous versions of your documents You can try it out in Text Edit or Pages - open the program and start to type something and save it. You'll notice a small triangle next to the document name at the top of the program window - tap this and you enter a Time Machine-like interface that enables you to skip through previous versions of the file. 10. Shut down! We're so used to having to shut down all our applications before we shut down our Macs that we don't give it a second though, but with Lion all that changes. You'll notice a new tickbox entitled 'Reopen Windows when logging back in'.
END OF PLAY: The new shut down screen gives you the option to start up your Mac exactly as you left it If you're running Lion right now hit Shutdown, then restart your Mac with this option ticked. You'll find that it starts up exactly as you left it, with this very web page you're reading now open in your web browser ,so you can keep on reading where you left off. That's pretty impressive. |
| Buying Guide: MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: which is right for you? Posted: 22 Jul 2011 04:05 AM PDT  When Apple released a new MacBook Air in time for OS X Lion, it also took the chance to cut the white MacBook from its line up. This leaves buyers with a choice between the MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. But if you're after an Apple laptop and were thinking of getting the white MacBook, which is right for you now? The MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros have some quite significant differences, so we've put together the following guide to help you decide which will fulfil your needs. If you decide the current Apple range isn't right for you, also check our top 20 laptops list here. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Price The new MacBook Air range starts at £849 for the 11-inch, 64GB model, with the 128GB model coming in at £999. The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at £1,099 for the 128GB version, with the 256GB version costing £1,349. The MacBook Pro range starts at £999 for the 2.3GHz 13-inch version, while the 2.7GHz model will cost you £1,299. The 15-inch models cost £1,549 and £1,849 for the 2GHz and 2.2GHz models respectively. The 17-inch model costs £2,099. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Processor All of Apple's laptops now use Intel's Sandy Bridge processors, so this means the latest Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs. The MacBook Air's CPUs are all dual-core regardless of whether you've got the 1.6GHz, 1.7GHz or 1.8GHz model, but they're Hyper-Threaded, so they have four virtual cores. The 13-inch MacBook Pro also features dual-core CPUs, but they're a lot more powerful, running at 2.3GHz or 2.7GHz. These are also both Hyper-Threaded, like the MacBook Air's, giving you four virtual cores. The 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro feature quad-core CPUs at 2GHz, 2.2GHz or 2.3GHz. Again, these are Hyper-Threaded, giving eight virtual cores. All of the CPUs on both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines feature Turbo Boost, so can clock beyond their given speed in certain circumstances.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Graphics The new MacBook Airs feature the new integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 graphics chip, which is the same as in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. In our 13-inch MacBook Pro review, we noted that this GPU was surprisingly capable for gaming, but this is likely to be diminished in the MacBook Air because of its less powerful processor. The 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models come with dedicated GPUs from AMD, with up to 1GB of video memory. This makes them far better for gamers, or those using GPU-accelerated software, including Final Cut X and Motion 5. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: RAM The new MacBook Airs feature the same 1333MHz DDR3 RAM as the MacBook Pro line, though the cheapest 11-inch MacBook Air only features 2GB, while all the other MacBook Air models match the MacBook Pros by having 4GB as standard. However, the MacBook Pros can be configured to have up to 8GB of RAM, while the Airs can't be increased past 4GB.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Screen The 11-inch MacBook Air has a resolution of 1366 x 768, while the 13-inch MacBook Air offer 1440 x 900. This is actually higher than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which features a 1280 x 800 screen. In fact, the 13-inch MacBook Air's resolution is equivalent to the 15-inch MacBook Pro's, which is also 1440 x 900, which could make the MacBook Air more desirable for photographers and designers than the 13-inch MacBook Pro. That said, the MacBook Pro can be configured to have a 1680 x 1050 screen, while the 1920 x 1200 screen on the 17-inch MacBook Pro bests all the others. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Storage The MacBook Air range uses flash memory SSDs, making it extremely fast to turn on and to wake from sleep mode. It also helps to make it power efficient. The cheapest 11-inch MacBook Air offers 64GB of storage, while the more expensive 11-inch model offers 128GB. The 13-inch models offer 128GB or 256GB of storage. The MacBook Pro models all feature hard drives as standard, starting from 320GB in the 13-inch to 750GB in the 17-inch model. These can be configured for larger drives though, or for faster hard drives or even SSDs up to 512GB. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Battery life The 11-inch MacBook Air is stated to offer up to five hours of battery life in real-word use, while the 13-inch MacBook and all of the MacBook Pro models are stated to offer up to seven hours of use. How you use them will obviously affect this – playing games using the MacBook Pros' dedicated GPUs will causes a severe reduction in battery life. Unlike the MacBook Pros, the MacBook Airs are designed to offer lengthy standby battery life, lasting up to 30 days without being turned off, which could be an advantage for those who won't get a chance to plug in their laptop that often.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Size and weight The 11-inch MacBook Air is considerably smaller than any of Apple's other laptops, but still offers nearly a full size keyboard. It measues 17mm at its thickest point when closed, and weighs 1.08kg. The 13-inch MacBook Air is the same thickness as the 11-inch model, but is wider and deeper. It weighs a little more, at 1.35kg. The MacBook Pros are 24mm thick for the 13- and 15-inch versions, while the 17-inch is 25mm thick. They're all a good deal heavier too, with the 13-inch model weighing nearly twice what the 11-inch MacBook Air does at 2.04kg. The 15-inch weighs 1.54kg, while the 17-inch model is 2.99kg. This all makes the MacBook Airs far easier to carry around with you, but it has come at the cost of storage space, and processor and graphics power. MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Ports The new MacBook Airs feature two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone port, an SD card slot and a Thunderbolt port. This enables them to connect to the new Thunderbolt Display to add more I/O options. The 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros both have two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, Gigabit Ethernet, an audio line-out an SD card slot and a Thunderbolt port. The 15-inch model also has a line-in jack. The 17-inch model adds another USB 2.0 port and swaps the SD card slot for an ExpressCard slot. All of the MacBook Pros feature a DVD drive, while the MacBook Airs don't have any disc drive at all unless you buy the SuperDrive add-on, so if you want to watch DVDs, you should take that into consideration.
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| Week in Tech: It's a Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac world Posted: 22 Jul 2011 02:19 AM PDT  If you're not an Apple fan, we've got bad news for you: pretty much all the tech news this week revolved around the Cupertino corporation. There was a brand new OS, some brand new computers, a whole bunch of rumours and some truly staggering numbers - and those numbers might just show us the way computing is heading. That's what columnist Gary Marshall reckons, anyway. With Apple reporting yet another record financial quarter, Marshall noted that "iPads are already outselling Macs... by a factor of two to one. Factor in Apple's staggering iPhone sales and the growing importance of the iPod touch [and] it's clear that Apple is a mobile device firm first and a computer firm second." It's not just about Apple, though. It's about all kinds of mobile devices. "In 2002, the number of PCs in the world reached 1 billion. That took twenty-one years," Marshall says. "After just four years, the combined sales of iOS and Android are nearing the half-billion mark already... this isn't the end of the PC. It's the rebirth of the PC." New MacBook Air and Mac Mini While iPhone 5 rumours continue to spread around the net, we had more solid things to think about. Apple killed the popular white MacBook for everyone but educational customers, which is the end of an era: it was the last bit of kit Apple made in pure white, and its demise prompted teary-eyed MacFormat editor Graham Barlow to declare that "I'm sorry to see 'Apple white' removed from Apple's Mac line-up." The end of the white MacBook makes the new MacBook Air the entry-level Mac laptop, and there's a new Mac Mini for those of you who don't need mobility. The revised Mac Mini is faster and prettier than before, and it comes without an optical drive. "Those DVD makers must have really upset Apple somewhere along the line," Patrick Goss writes. Apple clearly believes that the era of the optical disk is coming to a close, and it's putting its operating system where its mouth is: the new OS X Lion is download-only, although you'll be able to buy a pricey USB stick later this year. However, the OS has hardly got off to a slow start - 1 million copies have already been downloaded. As you'd expect from us, we've catered for every conceivable OS X Lion need: we've got a hands-on Lion review from someone who discovered that Lion killed their pricey Logic Pro music software; we have a tutorial showing you how to get the best from multi-touch gestures; we have an in-depth guide that tells you everything you need to know, including how to get your Mac ready for the update, and we're keeping an eye on which applications have been upgraded to take advantage of Lion's new auto-save and file versioning features. So far that list includes Apple's iWork suite, which was updated last night. So is Lion the mane event, or a cat-astrophe? We think it's the former, and not just because it costs just £20.99 for every Mac you might own. However, it might be well to heed our warning: "if you're using non-Apple kit or older software or hardware, we'd recommend checking for compatibility before hitting the App Store." If you rely on anything to get your work done, make sure it's compatible. As if that wasn't enough, Apple also launched the world's cheapest monitor. Only kidding: it's £899. But what a monitor it is: twenty-seven inches of Apple Thunderbolt LED Display with a FaceTime webcam, speakers, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, USB 2.0 and a free horse. We're lying about the horse. |
| Apple sells 1m copies of OS X Lion in first day Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:44 PM PDT Apple has announced that one million copies of the Mac OS X Lion operating system have been sold in the first 24 hours since launch. Lion, which is the eighth iteration of the revolutionary OS X format, has become the fastest selling operating system in Apple's history, the company said in a press release. "Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic," said marketing head Phil Schiller. "Lion is a huge step forward, it's not only packed with innovative features but it's incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we've ever made." Download-only The speed of uptake can no doubt be attributed to the new download-only mechanism, with Lion exclusively available on the Mac App Store in 123 countries. Users no-longer have to traipse to the nearest Apple Store in order to pick up a physical disc and can install from the comfort of their armchair. An attractive price point of just £20.99 surely helped too. Lion, which landed on the Mac App Store yesterday boasts 250 new features, including a host of multi-touch gestures and native full-screen apps. Other highlights include the new Mission Control feature which showcases everything you have open on your Mac, Resume which saves your last activity in apps even when you restart the computer, and Versions which backs-up your documents every time you save. |
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