News From Apple’s “Back To The Mac” Event

A few major announcements were made today, but the event was more of a preview of where Apple is going next year.

Mac OS X 10.7 (codename “Lion”)

The newest version of Apple’s operating system is coming next Summer.  The emphasis appears to be on usability with an emphasis on integrating Apps and multi-touch control.  The idea appears to be to bring more of the experience of the iPad to the desktop and laptop Apple products.

There was also a brief mention about Mission Control.  Apple is hoping to group a lot of the functions of the OS X into an easy to use/manage central interface.

Speaking of Apps

Apps are coming to Macs within 90 days.  Allowing apps to run on your iPhone, your iPad, and your desktop/laptop is very promising.  Playing Angry Birds on your desktop would be a real treat!

MacBook Air

The MacBook Air has been updated and it looks great.  The original MacBook Air has seen an upgrade with a much longer battery life and the addition of an extremely fast solid state hard drive.  The SSD should greatly enhance the battery life, reduce noise, and reduce heat.

A smaller 11” MacBook Air was also announced with a starting price of a very reasonable $999.

New iLife ‘11 Update

Apple’s iLife has seen an update as well.  Generally, the updates are mostly just tweaks and slight interface changes, but all the changes add up to a much nicer experience.  Plenty of videos showing the changes can be found here.