Mac OS X Lion's Release Date: Likely July 15 With Chance of July 26

The much-speculated July 14 launch of Mac OS X Lion turned out to be a non-event.

Though Lion didn't roar as of yet, its snoring may not last so long anyway - the next rumors in line suggest Lion's launch as early as tomorrow, or all the way pushed back to July 26th.

July 15th?

A Chinese Mac site, MIC Gadget, is giving Lion's debut a hopeful date, July 15th. The site said Apple stores in China are planning overnights tonight. Overnights occur when Apple launches something new and retail management is prepped on the upcoming product. They also redo Apple's displays to feature the new product. Along with the Mac OS X Lion, Apple is reportedly set to release four Macbook Air laptops tomorrow as well.

July 26th?

Some sources claim that Lion will not see the light of the day this week. Arstechnica's John Siracusa said during his podcast on 5by5.tv that he had heard from a third-hand, fourth-hand source that Lion is not coming this week.

Apple blog 9to5 Mac said on Wednesday morning that Apple is planning on releasing new MacBooks and Mac mini's, as well as the ultra-thin Macbook Air. Apple will be releasing four new MacBook Air models. This includes two 11-inch models and two 13-inch models; both screen sizes will come in entry level and upgraded configurations, the report read.

According to Apple Bitch, Major US Apple reseller Best Buy has been out of online stock of the Mac mini and the MacBook for some time now but are stating that both models will be back in stock around the 26th July. In addition, Amazon.com, while appearing to have plenty of stock of the Mac mini, are out of stock of the white MacBook and are also citing the end of July for in stock dates for the polycarbonate laptop. Apple is tightly holding back the release of new MacBook Airs, Minis and white MacBooks till Lion rides on them.

July for sure.

Apple has remained tight-lipped on the release date only stating it will come sometime in July.

Ready Your Mac for Mac OS X Lion

Besides supporting Apple's new iCloud services, the Mac OS X Lion sports more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs.

The download will be $29.99 to upgrade from Mac OS X 10.6 to 10.7, at around 4GB in size. According to Apple, buyers are welcome to download the upgrade in any of its retail stores.

Before the upgrade, make sure you have already installed all of the Apple-specific updates released over the past month. Version 10.6.8 of the operating system contains tweaks that enable the digital download and upgrade process, a must-have in order for the upgrade to function correctly, said PCMag.com.

Lion can also be installed only on Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5, i7, or Xeon processors, according to Apple.

Nearly 400,000 units of the new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air, equipped with powerful graphic chips, Thunderbolt data port and Intel's ultra-low voltage Sandy Bridge processors, were reportedly ready for production since June. However, Apple wanted to wait for the OS X Lion to be built in the new notebooks.

Why Should You Get It?

Below is IBTimes' take on top 10 exciting features of Mac OS X Lion that make it a better choice for the customers.

Automatic Restoration

Mac OS X Lion Gold Master allows you to resume your application exactly as you left it. After quitting or shutting down the system when you come back again, you will find all the open windows, platters, panes, apps and even the cursor position and highlighted text as they were when you left. Mac OS X Lion merely pauses your system, and everything comes back when you restart the computer.

Reboot into Safari

This is a feature that turns your system into an internet kiosk. The Reboot into Safari can be found on the user lock screen. It allows unauthorized users to use the Mac only to browse the Web. In this mode, only a Safari window will appear and nothing else. When an unauthorized user browses web, the Safari browser will not show any of the bookmarks on the Mac.

Auto save

Mac OS X Lion Gold Master brings a complete auto save feature that keeps your data secure and version tracked. It automatically saves changes to your document. Auto Save in Lion adds the changes directly into the file so there's only one copy of the document on your Mac.

You can also easily lock a document at any time to avoid unintentional changes. Lion automatically locks the document two weeks after the last edit. When you try to make a change, it alerts you and asks if you want to unlock or duplicate the file.

AirDrop

AirDrop, a peer to peer Wi-Fi protocol between participating Mac computers, allows you to securely share your documents with others. To share a file you have to simply drag it onto a person's contact photo. After verifying that you want to send the file, it sends a request to the recipient. When the recipient accepts the request, the file gets transferred to the person's Downloads folder.

AirDrop creates a firewall between you and the person you are sharing a file with, a feature that prevents anyone from accessing your computer over that connection. It doesn't require any special settings.

Multi-touch Gesture

Mac OS X Lion Gold Master has multi touch technology that allows you to swipe through files and web pages quickly using your Multi-Touch trackpad or Magic Mouse. Thanks to fluid animations, the gestures have become more responsive. Mac OS X Lion also comprises new animations like rubber-band scrolling, zooming, and swiping.

Mission Control

Mission Control feature allows you to arrange your open windows, full-screen apps, spaces, and Dashboard. While a row of thumbnails across the top of the screen signifies Dashboard, desktop spaces, and full-screen apps, you can see an exposed view of the open windows on the lower part of the screen.

Now, you can add and remove desktop spaces right from Mission Control. You can also attach an application to a particular space or make it available in all spaces right from the Dock.

LaunchPad

LaunchPad makes it easier for you to access your installed apps. While the new apps downloaded from the app store will be added directly to LaunchPad, the user can also create a folder on LaunchPad to organize the installed apps. Each folder can hold as many as 32 apps. It creates full-screen pages to house your apps and adds new pages as you add more apps. You can easily move between Launchpad pages with a three-finger swipe.

iCal

The new look of iCal provides more room to browse and edit your events. The calendars list reveals itself only when you click Calendars. You can now easily add an event to iCal by simply entering a regular-language phrase and iCal will add the event.

FileVault 2

FileVault 2 makes it easier for you to secure data on your Mac by encrypting the entire drive. It encrypts and decrypts your data on the fly. It's also designed to bow out processor cycles to higher-priority user tasks like copying files or browsing. FileVault 2 uses XTS-AES 128 encryption to secure the data on your Mac.

Internet Restore and Utilities

A built-in restore partition allows the user to repair or reinstall Mac OS X Lion without the need for discs. It can be reinstalled on the system from recovery mode through a Time Machine backup.