Well, it's been several hours since Apple's latest press conference ended, and so far we've seen a few things out of the Cupertino labs. Three main things were unveiled today: iLife '11, Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion," and the next generation of MacBook Airs. What do you think about all of it?

My opinion on the new iLife suite and the new MBAs are neutral, but Lion's got me riled up. From what I've heard and seen on Apple's website, Lion seems like they're trying to force some concepts that should stay on a mobile device and put them onto a desktop/laptop computer. An Applications folder works well enough for me in tandem with Spotlight; I don't need a springboard or "Launchpad" as they call it. Maybe I don't want some apps to be fullscreen; whatever happened to the concept of "multitasking?" Maybe we don't want a walled garden for our Mac apps or Apple raking in 30% of our earnings for the apps that we spent many hours working on and debugging. Maybe we just want our Macs to remain Macs, not some horrible conglomerate of iOS and OS X.

At the very least, give us alternatives. Let us turn off those new features in System Preferences. Let us customize our Macs with third-party alternatives that can replace the core functionality of these new iCandy addons (heh, get it? iCandy?). Give us theming options for OS X, and by this I mean full UI customizations (default font, icon sets, window design (oh wait they're moving to full screen nvm) and system sound replacements that don't require knowledge of the delicate inner workings of OS X to change).

However, Mission Control looks like a good idea. Nice to see they're remembering Spaces here.

Also, MULTITOUCH. I'm running my Snow Leopard on a 2008-era MacBook that doesn't have support for all of those fancy swiping, pinching and zooming functions. Why alienate those people who have computers that don't support multitouch? Last time I checked, many people don't have enough money to buy the latest and greatest hardware every time they release some superficial new feature that probably won't affect our workflow but will suddenly become a core feature of the OS (multitouch. I mean, two-finger scrolling on a MacBook (Air/Pro) is basically all it's good for. Unless you're actively zooming in or out/rotating an image in Preview, I don't see what the point is in it). My computer at the time of purchase cost upwards of $2000 and several months after I got it Apple put the new multitouch trackpads into the revised frame. I'm a student in high school. I can't afford to purchase a really expensive (albeit pretty) new computer every time they do a hardware revision.

Chances are I won't become a Windows convert anytime soon, but at the rate Apple's going with their desktop OSes, they might just make me one. iOS should NOT mix with OS X. That's my viewpoint.

Yes, I said that I don't like an Apple product. For the record, I am NOT an Apple purist. I run Windows. I use PCs. And Apple has me pissed off right now because of how they're completely f***ing around with an established ecosystem of Mac users who like how their Macs work, and NOT how Cupertino says their Macs should work. Just thought I'd put that out there.

The only thing that comes to mind as I read your report is...

"Nothing new, nothing exciting, same old Apple bullcrap."

Steve Jobs: "You don't need to multitask. Do one thing at a time. Like all Apple products. Heck, if I had my way, I'd make a single device for every function of the iTouch, so you'd have to buy multiples. Give me your money, I'm trying to be Bill Gates."

Why is pie liking every post on the forum

In my opinion, OS X doesn't really need to change apart from a few improvements. I have the old Leopard and I like it. I would probably like Snow Leopard better if I were ever able to use it, but I'm fine with what's good enough (and what you don't have enough disk space to upgrade from <_<). In a Windows sense (which I kind of understand more), I was stuck with XP ever since SP3 was released, and I like it, but when I got my laptop with support for Win7, I liked it better.

With the major improvements for Lion, I'm not too impressed. =/ Apple's becoming more well known for iPods and iPhones and all that stuff, and in my opinion Lion will just make the Mac less known under the iPod and iPhone popularity. At least we get a new OS X.

I thought the event was decent. I think the update to 4 GB of RAM in the MB Airs was long overdue and the flash storage option is definitely unique.

I keep holding off on getting my first Mac though they have had my attention for a while. I will wait until the Sandy Bridge processors get put in and wait for Solid State drive prices to drop before I finally pull the trigger.