Apple Unveils Mac OS Lion, MacBook Refresh

For those wanting a sneak peak at Apple's next OS, Sean Michael Kerner reports on the debut appearance by this big cat.

After weeks of speculation, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) today officially announced an updated lineup of MacBook Pro notebooks including Intel's Thunderbolt I/O, technology.

The new MacBooks aren't the only new release from Apple today. Mac OS X Lion, the next generation of Apple's operating system: Apple's Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is now available as a developer preview. Lion provides a number of new features to Mac users including a new dashboard interface called Mission Control. Mission Control seeks to unify the desktop experience and give users a view of everything running on their Mac.

The process of starting applications is also getting a boost in Lion with the new Launchpad. According to Apple, Launchpad will make it easier to both find and launch applications. Lion also includes a new Wi-Fi file transfer feature called AirDrop to help make it easier for users copy files wirelessly across Macs.

Lion is currently available as a developer preview, with the final version expected to be generally available this summer.

Read the rest about Mac OS Lion at InternetNews.