10 New Features in Mac OS X Lion

Along with Mac OSX Lion, over 250 new features will be available in the new OS. Apple showed 10 main new features of Lion: multi-touch gestures, full-screen apps, mission control (unifies Expose and Spaces), iOS type Launchpad, system wide resume feature, Airdrop (peer to peer file-sharing), and a brand new version of Mail. These are just some of the main features Apple showed, but I am sure there will be more. We will go into more depth once Lion is released.

Lion Mac-App Store Only, $29.99 4GB Download

At WWDC 2011, Apple has announced today that Mac OSX 10.7 Lion will go on sale in July for $29.99. It will be bought in the Mac App Store, no more boxes/cd. The download will only 4GB which won't be bad, and will be able to install on 5 of your auth'ed computers. Developer preview will be available today after the keynote.

Icon for iCloud

Apple is hard at work in San Francisco's Moscone Center preparing for the Worldwide Developer Conference 2011 that will be held there next week. Apple Insider snapped some pics of them setting up the convention hall. Inside there is a huge banner that has Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud icons hung up. They usually do not show any of the banners till the day of the Keynote, but this one is public and easily seen. WWDC 2011 Starts on Monday. Let's see what Apple brings to us.

Apple Replacing Unibody MacBook Bottoms

Apple has started up a new program called the "MacBook Bottom Case Replacement Program", and offering to replace the bottom of any affected white unibody MacBook purchased between October 2009 and April 2011 free of charge. The issue is with the bottom rubber surface of the white unibody MacBook that may separate due to issues with the glue that was used. If your MacBook is affected, you've got two options to get yours fixed. Take it into an Apple Retail Store and have it fixed there or you can do it yourself by ordering the free replacement kit online from Apple complete with screws, a screwdriver and instruction. I say do it yourself.

Apple To Release A New Product This Thursday?

Things are definitely stirring up at Apple right now as Apple is planning something big for its 10th retail anniversary this Thursday the 19th. A solid source told BGR today of the following:

• There’s an overnight shift planned for around 10-15 individuals at each Apple Store to work from late Saturday all the way through mid-Sunday.
• During the overnight shift, it’s going to be required that employees lock cell phones in the main office. They will also have to sign an NDA with Apple.
• There are a wide variety of roles, we’re told, for the overnight shift. This includes all visuals staff, a manager, a business team member, a few Genius team members, one back-of-house employee, and a few generic Apple specialists.
• Apple stores have apparently already received hardware to install, and are expecting more hardware to come on Friday or Saturday. All materials that Apple stores have received have been instructed to be under lock and key until after close on Saturday night.
• Apple employees will be putting up black curtains at all stores so that people walking outside cannot see inside.
• Employees have had to download gigabytes of data from Apple corporate labeled, “training” in a password-protected zipped folder that won’t accessible to managers or anyone else until Saturday afternoon.
• Lastly, all Apple retail stores have mandatory meetings on Sunday, May 22nd. Most meeting are scheduled for the morning, but there are evening meetings as well.

Every time something like this happens, Apple releases a new product like the iPhone or iPad. Will we see the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S popping up in Apple's retail and online store this Thursday? It's not very likely. Apple will hold a keynote for the press when it will release a big product like the next generation iPhone and will send out invitations a few days ahead. There is still time for that though!

Main Hard Drive In New iMacs Can't Be Upgraded

 

According to OWC, Apple has changed how the main hard drive SATA power connector, and the firmware on the hard drive. The SATA power connector has switched from a normal 4-pin power to 7-pin power that combines temperature monitoring and some other kind of connectivity between the main board and the drive. Because of this you will not be able to upgrade the HDD yourself and half to go with Apple. If you try to replace with a 4-pin HDD it will cause AHT (Apple Hardware Test) to fail and not essentially boot, and cause the HDD fan's to spin at 100% speed. Let's hope this is something that they are testing and not moving to other lines of mac's.

Apple To Release Backlit Wireless Keyboard?

The latest rumor on an Apple product comes to us from the just released Thunderbolt-equipped iMac which apparently hints that Apple will release a backlit Wireless Keyboard, finally right? In the new iMac's system preferences keyboard settings, an option is found to enable "illuminate keyboard in low light conditions". This option was never available on past iMacs and Apple desktop computers. It's only available on Apple's portable 15" and 17" MacBook Pro. 

New Macs always bare an updates firmware and software which points to this actually being something very plausible. Once Apple releases the backlit Wireless Keyboard, a new software update will be available to other Macs in order to support it. A backlit external keyboard is a much asked-for product by Apple consumers.