Just over four weeks ago, Apple released the latest version (10.7) of its Mac OS X desktop and laptop operating system (OS), code named “Lion” writes technology blogger Dr. Thomas Hartley.

Having spent the four weeks using it almost every day I thought I’d review what I liked about the new OS and what could be improved.

What I Like

The first thing I want to talk about is full screen applications (apps). Lion now allows your apps to go full screen in a unified and consisted way. Furthermore, it moves your full screen app off to the side in a separate Space, away from your main desktop. In addition, you can use four fingers to swipe between desktops and full screen apps. This makes using and switching between apps a breeze.

I find that full screen apps have improved my productivity by allowing me to focus on my current task more easily. However, I can imagine that a novice computer user may find all the spaces and switching between screens a little confusing at first. This may put them off the feature; however, it is worth sticking with it in the long run.

Mission Control is Apple’s attempt to bring together Exposé and the aforementioned Spaces into a single option. It gives you fast access to all the apps running on your Mac. In addition, at the top of the screen it allows you to view, manage and access all your Spaces and full screen apps. This feature makes navigating to a desired window very easy indeed and is an improvement on Exposé.

However, when you have many apps open it becomes a little difficult to track down an app you might need due to the way Lion groups windows for each app. As with full screen apps, this might put off novice users.

Auto Save is another improvement in Lion that may initially seem small, but it has big implications for the future. This feature automatically saves a version (or snapshot) of your document every 5 minutes. It addition, it provides an easy way for users to review and change versions of their documents.

This inbuilt support for document versions means you never have to worry about saving or overwriting a document again. This functionality will definitely benefit novice users.

Room for Improvement

There are many features I like in Lion and I have discussed a few of them above. However, there is also room for improvement.

The first thing that could be improved is the mouse support for new features such as full screen apps and Mission Control. Their ease of use relies on TrackPad gestures (e.g. four fingers to swipe between full screen apps and spaces). With a mouse these features are less flexible as you have to track down a dock icon or a keyboard shortcut.

The LauchPad give you quick access to all the apps you can run on your computer. This is a nice feature; however it is not very configurable in its current state. You cannot easily remove apps that were installed before you updated to Lion and it includes many apps you won’t want to use often or at all, such as uninstallers. This makes LauchPad cluttered and much less useful than it could be.

Finally, the interface of the calendar and address book could be improved. The interfaces have been designed to represent real world calendars and address books. In general, this is a good idea, however in their present form they look very dated. In addition, the functionality of the applications does not emulate their real world counterparts (e.g. you can’t flick through the pages of the address book app); therefore, the real world design adds nothing to the use of the app.

In conclusion, Lion’s new features are definitely worth the upgrade price of £20.99, even if a few of them could do with tweaking and improving.

Have you upgraded to Lion yet? What are your experiences?