Apple announced today at their "Back to the Mac" event, that they are releasing a new Mac OS X, called "Lion".
Apple wanted to bring some innovations found in the iPhone and iPad, and bring them back to the Mac. One of of the new features is multi-touch, so Apple is bringing multi-touch to Mac OS X Lion. Apple has tried long to bring multi-touch to the Mac through trackpads and mouse.
The App Store will also be making an appearance on Mac OS X Lion. With downloadable apps, like Angry birds, you"ll be able to play games, browse apps, read books and many more. The Mac App Store will be separate from the iPhone, iPod and iPad store, but will be used just like it.
The store will feature free and paid apps, with the same agreement for developers (70/30). The Mac App Store will feature an update feature, checking to see if any of your apps are out of date, with automatic updating.
Lion will also include home screens, just like the iPhone and iPad. Having a few different desktops with icons across your home screen, so you can access your apps. The App Store will feature top paid, top free and many other categories like the mobile App Store has.
The Mac App Store also contains rating, comments and photos so you can see exactly what you"re about to buy. Launch Pad in Lion will bring a quick and easy way to launch your apps onto your desktop, without cluttering your view up. You can also create folders, just like on iOS 4.0.
Lion will bring full screen apps to the desktop, just like in iPhoto, so you can focus on what you"re reading or playing. With full screen mode, you want to find your apps and screens easier, well Lion is bringing a new feature called "Mission Control", where you can view all your opened screens with a single click, making it easier to open or browse through screens.
Apple plans on releasing Lion this summer. The Mac App Store will work on Snow Leopard, and will open in 90 days from today. Developers can submit applications next month.