Mac OS X Lion includes more iOS style notifications on apps Dock icons. In this screenshot you can see them on the iChat app, showing how many unread messages are available.

There are a lot of neat features appearing in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (at least in the Developer Preview), and although some people are decrying the iOS-ification of OS X, there are some features that are undeniably useful regardless of the platform. I really like the iOS style notifications and they work really well in Mac OS X as evidenced by the enabling the options in the official Twitter for Mac client, so for me it’s great to see Apple adopt this with more apps.

Thanks to FB for the screenshot!

Remember all those iPhone Mini rumors that were later assumed to actually be about a cheaper iPhone? Apple’s COO Tim Cook has thrown some more fuel on the fire after a meeting with a research analyst about iPhone market share, as reported by Forbes. The most notable comment attributed to Apple’s COO is this:

Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning “clever things” to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be “just for the rich,” and that the company is “not ceding any market.”

A ‘lower priced offering’ would be in line with past reports by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that have mentioned a cheaper iPhone/iPhone Mini.

Many possibilities and questions remain, including whether or not a low cost iPhone offering will be announced alongside an all new iPhone 5, or if a cheaper model is going to just be the current iPhone 4 sold at reduced prices, which some rumors seem to suggest.

The comment about the prepaid market is also interesting. Currently, the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS can be converted to a prepaid phone rather easily just by inserting an AT&T pay-as-you-go sim card to make phone calls, and enabling data is just slightly more difficult. Offering an iPhone that is specifically intended for the pay-go market would be a bold move away from their current contract offerings.

The iPhone 5 is expected to be released in June at WWDC 2011.

Mac OS X 10.7 features a revised Migration Assistant utility that is aimed at new Mac users coming from a Windows PC. The utility works by installing a client app on the Windows PC which allows the new Mac to transfer data and settings from that PC over a network.

It’s not yet clear what exactly is transferred from the Windows PC to the new Mac, but presumably it would include traditional sources of Windows user files and data from My Documents, My Pictures, iTunes libraries, browser bookmarks, and more.

Lion’s new Migration Assistant was discovered and reported by AppleInsider, where the above screenshot is from.

As with other new features of Mac OS X Lion, it’s important to remember that while these features appear in the Developer Preview, they may or may not be included in the final released version of the operating system.

Those with Mac developer accounts can download and install Lion now, otherwise users must wait until this Summer for the public release.

Want to play Call of Duty 4 on your Mac without paying the $49.99 App Store price?

The price of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Mac on Amazon fluctuates, but it’s always cheaper than the $49.99 price from the Mac App Store. Today for example, it’s $24.95, that’s a 55% discount if you order the physical box and can wait a few days to play the game.

Are you patient enough for a good deal?

Using the command line, you can enable a hidden feature in Time Machine that allows you to backup your Mac to a non-native Networked Attached Storage device or even Windows PC.

Warning: this is an unsupported feature in Mac OS X and Time Machine, relying on this method to backup your data could be risky. Proceed at your own risk.

To get non-native drive support, launch the Terminal and enter the following command:

sudo defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Now you’ll be able to access non-native NAS volumes through Time Machine setup.

Don’t forget that this is an unsupported feature in Time Machine which is why it isn’t enabled by default, relying on this for your backups may not be the best idea. Apple probably chose to keep it unsupported for several reasons, but remember there’s always a potential for packet loss with network traffic, particularly wireless networks. Packet loss in the case of a backup could result in corrupted or missing data, so if you plan on using this feature you may want to stay on a wired ethernet network to reduce the chances of any transmission loss.

I tried this briefly and got the “Time Machine backup delayed” message, forcing a manual backup to resolve the error. It’s my strong recommendation that you’ll just backup Time Machine to a dedicated backup drive that is physically connected to your Mac, this is without a doubt the most reliable method. Nonetheless, if you’re in a pinch, it’s nice to know you can bend the rules if a situation requires it.

Thanks to Nick for sending this in!

Want to quickly Force Quit an app? You can do so with the Mac OS X Dock by right-clicking on any open application and then holding down the Option key. This will bring up alternate menu options including “Force Quit” instead of “Quit”.

You can also force quit apps with the task management utility Activity Monitor or by hitting Command+Option+Escape to bring up an app selector.

If you have an extra Bondi Blue, Flower Power, or any of the other candied iMac G3′s laying around, hey, why not turn it into a coffee table? Maybe you could put your iMac typewriter on it? Yup this is real, and yes of course you can buy one for £49.00 (not sure if they ship to the USA) from UK-based MacTechnology.

And while you’re at it, check out our other fun and quirky Mac stuff.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion includes media and video encoding tools directly in the new Finder.

You can access the video encoder by right-clicking on a movie file and then selecting “Encode Selected Video Files” as seen in the screenshot below:
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You guys asked for it, so here it is; the awesome space galaxy wallpaper from Versions in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview.

Click here or the image above for the full 1920×1080 version.

If you’re wondering, the original filename is “NSRevisionsBackground.png” and it’s from the Versions package, unlike the Mac OS X 10.7 default Fuji Mountain wallpaper that we posted yesterday which is found in /Library/Desktop Pictures/ in the Developer Preview.

The galaxy wallpaper is the background image in Versions, the new document versioning utility included in Lion that behaves much like a Time Machine for individual documents. You can see it in this screenshot from Apple’s Lion preview:
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It’s hard to imagine a nicer looking screen than the Apple Cinema Display, and it fits with this MacBook Pro 15″ and iPad perfectly. Makes you want one doesn’t it?

This great Mac setup is from the author of MinimallyMinimal.