Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is approaching and have gained more and more people's attention with its so-called 250+ amazing features. In spite of some limitation during the installation of Lion, it's still a good idea to upgrade to Lion days later. But do you know you actually needn't spend other $30 to get Lion but also can have a Lion experience? Here we first go through some information of the features that Lion will bring to us and see how we can achieve then for Free without installing Lion:
- Launchpad - as the name says, organize and launch applications.
- Mission Control - combines the Dashboard, Expose and Spaces.
- a feature called Versions to do auto-saves and auto-resumes.
- AirDrop for sharing files easier and more secure among Macs.
- multitouch gestures
- Built-in email client with updated interface and improved search capabilities in Mail.
- Full-screen mode of more apps similar to what iPhoto and iMovie now performs.
- One-click app installation.
To get these new features to your current Snow Leopard, you only need install several third-party applications and services existed. Here we go to how to get functions of Lion's Launchpad, Mission Control, systemwide auto-save, Versions, AirDrop, enhanced multitouch capabilities and new Mail layout without upgrading to Lion:
Launchpad
Snow Leopard uses the Dock as the main app launcher, which users can place frequently-used icons of apps, folders or docs for quick access. But if there are more and more items added to the dock, it automatically shrinks their icons in order to accommodate them all which really let us down. So how to solve this and get Launchpad feature in Snow Leopard? Here we can get:
Jump, working on OS X Leopard and later (including Lion), will pops up an overlay containing the selected applications for easy access, as well as commonly used folders and files. More applications having Launchpad feature: aLaunch , Berokyo, Dock Menus, iDock, Dock Spaces, DragThing and Quicksilver.
Mission Control
Mission Control combines those existing Mac OS X features in a single interface, such as full-screen apps, Spaces, Exposé and Dashboard. And this would give users a one-click view of all running applications, windows full-screen app views and Spaces. Which is also similar to iOS ability, with Lion installed, users can swipe through all these items with ease. So how to achieve this in Snow Leopard or earlier Mac OS?
Hyperspaces lets you have your own space on Mac by extending Apple’s implementation of Spaces. It enables you to assign custom desktop image to each Space for easily access and mark each Space by name or lable. This is very useful if you frequently siwch between different Spaces. The free version lets you customize up to 3 spaces without any restriction. This similar tools are SaneDesk and Switché.
Auto-save and resume
This function has already applied on iOS devices including iPhone, iPod and iPad, and this time, Apple offers it to Mac. Mac OS X Lion called this Versions which lets you to view all past iterations of a document or other file that you’ve made changes to. You may call it an extension of Apple’s Time Machine, which allows you to locate and restore files from a backup, at some point.
ForeverSave is a utility which enables you to choose which applications can auto-save and when they do. Like Lion's Versions does, ForeverSave also provides multiple versions of document so that you can turn back to desired version when it's necessary. Dropbox online storage service work, too.
AirDrop
Click the AirDrop icon on the Finder windows sidebar, you the will be presented a list of Mac users with AirDrop enabled who are connected to your network (does it mean other Mac also have to upgrade to Lion?). And this enables you to send a file by simply dragging it to one name in the list. Similar to Bluetooth but in a WiFi way?
DropCopy is a free app available for Macs running Snow Leopard, Leopard or Tiger. (It’s $4.99 if you need to install it on more than three Macs.) And this gonna meet your need of Airdrop.
More multitouch gestures
Mac OS X Lion would support users to act as with iOS devices with the multitouch gestures and visual responses to Mac OS X.
And actually, there are already several utilities available for getting your multitouch groove on in Leopard and Snow Leopard (but not earlier Mac OS X releases). MagicPrefs not only augment the existing swipe/pinch/drag gestures, but also add support for multiple-clicking. It also lets you automate a wide range of common tasks, such as copying/pasting, launching applications and switching Spaces using the Magic Mouse.
BetterTouchTool (free/donationware, currently in alpha) and Jitouch ($6.99) also work.
Mail improvements
This is really a good idea. The native email client in Mac OS X is pretty decent overall, which supports easy setup, multiple accounts, organization and messages search, as well as support for a range of mail rules or filters. And in the Mac OS X Lion, you can get a wide-screen approach having columns for all your accounts/folders as well as messages and a full-size display for a selected message, although this has been around in Outlook and some other E-mail apps like WideMail and Letterbox which do essentially the same thing: show up a column that displays much more messages and offers a larger message view for better reading experience.
RelatedMail and GrowlMail help too.
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