Lion: Isn't it cute?

So Steve Jobs revealed some information of the next version of OS X: 10.7 Lion during the last Apple media event.

Lion brings some of the features developed within iOS 'Back to the Mac', as was the title of the event itself.

This was clearly an attempt to hit back at criticism that Apple are only interested in its closed world of iOS, part of the presentation even stated that if the Mac part of Apple was spinned off as another company, it would still feature on the Fortune 100 company list.

First things to note from the preview was the demo of 10.7 looked rather a lot like 10.6. We shouldn't read too much into this though, as I'd very much doubt that Apple would show us the new eye candy of 10.7 this early on. In fact we know they wouldn't.

They'res got to be some excitement saved for the real launch of it next summer. Next summer it will be though, so theres not long to wait.

Here are my predictions on what we'll get:

• The underlying architecture will stay the same. Snow Leopard was all about pruning code for speed. The core of OS X has been spring cleaned now to go forward, so don't expect any huge leaps. All that old PowerPC code has gone too.
• Expect more utilisation of 'Instant On'. I suspect we will be encouraged to turn off our Mac's even less in order to give that iPad/iPhone feel of immediacy.
• This is a point upgrade. We aren't getting OS X 11. So this jump is more Vista to Windows 7, rather than XP to Vista. Thank god.
• Colour is gone. Well Monochrome will rule. That's at least what some people think, given that all the coloured icons have gone from iTunes 10 and the icons of iPhoto '11 have been grey scaled.
• Expose will get better. Or at least be finished. It's pretty good so far, although in our opinion Drag and Drop could be improved.
• Spaces is finished. Instead your Mac will have endless 'Spaces' which are flicked through using a Multitouch gesture.
• The above rolls into 'Mission Control' - the 'Start Menu' of OS X. This is essentially the bastard child of Spaces, Expose, and the Dock.
• They've got to sort Finder out. Sorry its still not as good as Windows Explorer, even on Vista. Why can't I move with Cut and Paste? Why?

And what we have definitely been told is:

• As above: 'Mission Control' - the 'Start Menu' of OS X. This is essentially the bastard child of Spaces, Expose, and the Dock.
• Full Screen Apps: Hey its the least groundbreaking innovation we've heard before, but people have the option now and aren't we all used to not multitasking seeing our apps in full now.
• Multi-Touch gestures: This was really interesting. Steve essentially told us that vertical touch screens just aren't right. They become uncomfortable. So they've decided touch pads are the best way to do it. In other words, don't expect to be prodding at your iMac screen any time soon. (Problem is though, aren't we running out of fingers for new touch gestures? We'll need a trackpad the size of a car park.)
• Auto Resume: Yep another iOS idea. This works in iOS as you can't truly multitask. So it 'freezes' the app on say your iPhone in the background, 're-awakening' it when you go back to it. Why do we need this in a true desktop OS though? Well just to make life easier I suspect. It hardly does any harm does it. It will be interesting to see how its implemented. Will it mean you never open an App in a fresh state again?
• Auto Save: I think this has been as much inspired by Google Docs as iOS. The more we use cloud based apps, the more we get used to them saving everything all the time. For us. We don't even have to think about it.
• App Home screens: Just like we have on the iOS - pages of Apps in icon form. It'll be interesting to see how this is integrated with the Dock. Will they make the Dock more iOS-esque? Simplified? Or will it just provide display the Applications folder as an App home screen instead? Probably the latter.

and the biggie:

• Mac App Store: As Apple have described it, the 'Best place to discover Mac Apps'. No one saw this coming, but at the same time, surely it was inevitable. It does exactly what it says on the er iOS App Store tin: One-click downloads, Free and Paid apps, Auto installation, Automatic App updates. Interestingly Apps will be licensed to use on all your personal Mac's.

So there we have it so far.

Initially I felt a little underwhelmed by the announcement. Having looked back at the announcements a week or so later though I quite like the direction. If anything it will make the OS X experience more distinctive from Windows or Linux. Will Microsoft or Ubuntu (other Penguin flavours are available) look to take some of these features? Given they are probably heavily patented within iOS I doubt it.

I have one specific concern though that this could be the beginning of the end of OS X as a true OS. The more that iOS features are rolled in, then the more that OS X could be tightly controlled. How long until only Mac App Store apps can be used? Apple will obviously control the experience as tightly as they can if they believe its in our, er, best interests. If its in the best interests of their market share (and of course profit) then its inevitable.

Then again, full screen apps on the new 11.6 inch MacBook Air? Yes please Steve. Yes Please....