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 in OS X, you can enable a hidden feature in Time Machine that allows you to backup your Mac to a non-native volume, including Networked Attached Storage devices, network volumes, or even a Windows PC. This is generally best for advanced Mac users, as it must be enabled through a defaults command string, let’s walk through it.

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Did you know that you can quickly quit out of an application from the Dock of Mac OS X? And did you know that you can also force quit out of an app in Mac OS X by using the Dock icon too?

Perhaps not well known, but the Dock of Mac OS can function as a task management tool of sorts by using a key modifier and icon trick, letting you quit and forcibly exit out of applications that are actively running.

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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.

If you use your Mac at night or in the dark, you need to do your eyes and brain a favor by downloading Flux. The idea behind Flux is simple; when the sun is down you shouldn’t be staring at the immensely bright computer screen, whose intensity is made to emit as much light as possible and practically mimic sunlight. Instead, your displays lighting should become warmer and softer, mimicking the lighting in your room.
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Benchmarks of the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh are coming in, and they are incredibly fast. Maybe incredibly fast is an understatement:

• The new top of the line MacBook Pro 2011 is faster than the existing Mac Pro desktop
• The new ‘low-end’ base MacBook Pro 2011 13″ model is just as fast as last years top-end MacBook Pro models

Below are some GeekBench scores for the MBP 2011 refresh… to put these numbers in perspective, my MacBook Pro 13″ 2010 with 8GB RAM and a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo scores a 3128 in GeekBench:
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Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will support the TRIM function for SSD’s, this should significantly boost the lifespan and performance of SSD drives. Hints for support were first discovered last year by Anandtech, but now HardMac has confirmed that support is included in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview.

TRIM is important because it allows the operating system to notify an SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use on the drive, allowing them to be wiped and written over more efficiently. Without TRIM, an SSD drive can become gradually slower over time as blocks that were once in use become slower to write new data over.

Somewhat lost in the hubbub of the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh and Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Developer Preview was the launch of FaceTime HD, which is now finalized and available for all Mac users to download from the Mac App Store. The new version supports 720p video calls, but in order to make 720p calls you’d need a Mac with an HD camera (like the new MacBook Pro’s), otherwise you’ll maintain the current VGA quality video.

FaceTime costs $1 now? I thought it was free? What gives?
While the beta release of FaceTime was free, the final release of FaceTime costs $0.99. Apparently charging for FaceTime is due to an accounting requirement (MacGasm explains this if you’re interested), but I think it also serves the purpose of getting Mac users familiar with downloading apps from the Mac App Store. I say this because I think the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will be available as a paid download through the Mac App Store, but this could just be wishful thinking on my part too.

Get it now from the Mac App Store for $0.99 (direct link)

Mac OS X Lion debuted to developers with a gorgeous wallpaper of Mt Fuji in Japan as the default desktop background picture.

Well, who wouldn’t want that gorgeous picture on their Mac?

We know a few of our readers wanted the Fuji wallpaper out of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, so here it is in high resolution glory (2560×1600).

Click for the full version, it’s a rather large 5MB JPEG.

Just save the picture to your Mac desktop and set it as usual. It looks really great.

You can also get the gorgeous Mac OS X Lion space galaxy wallpaper from Versions if you want it.

Thanks for sending this in S.E.!

The entire MacBook Pro lineup has had it’s first refresh of 2011. The specs and and prices for default builds are as follows:
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Apple released a Developer Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, included are many features that were seen in the October “Back to the Mac” event, in addition to several new ideas.

Highlighted features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Preview

Many Lion features are borrowed from iOS:

• Launchpad – iOS style app launching and folder management
• Full-screen apps
• Mission Control – Encompasses Dashboard & Expose as a super window manager
• Gestures & animations – extensive multi-touch support
• Auto-Save
• Versions – built-in version control of all documents, in an interface similar to Time Machine
• Resume – saves your Macs last state after reboot, all apps, sites, and documents included
• Mail 5 – very similar to Mail on iPad
• AirDrop – instant wireless document transfers
• Lion Server – now built into Mac OS X Lion, no longer a separate OS

The Developer Preview requires a 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor or newer, and you must currently be running 10.6.6 in order to download the preview release.

Downloading & Installing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview

If you’re a registered Apple Developer, go to Mac Dev Center to download your copy of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, it weighs in at a hefty 3.6GB.

Each installation of Mac OS X Lion seed requires a redemption code from the Mac Dev Center, preventing unauthorized users from running the developer release software.

Want to hide the Mac menu bar? You can do that and set a few more options to automatically hide and show the menu bar with a free utility called MenuEclipse, the end result is pretty similar to the way you can automatically hide and show the Dock. In the screenshot above, I have the menubar completely hidden, but it will activate if I move the cursor over the menu bar.

If you rely on the menu bar often, hiding it from view isn’t the most practical thing in the world, so instead you can give it a subtle shade that automatically dims when it’s not in use. Below is the Mac OS X menu in the dimly “hidden” mode, but it’s still visible:

The effect is actually closer to auto-dimming and auto-highlighting of the menubar, since the menu bar shades and then brightens again when you hover over it with your cursor. Below is the screenshot of when the cursor is over the menubar, which brightens it up to be usable again:
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