Apple WWDC 2011: Key takeaways on Mac OS X Lion features

Apple presented the latest Mac operating system OS X Lion which has a plethora of features including AirDrop, Auto Save, and Mission Control and the best thing about the software is its extremely low price.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is the keynote speaker at Worldwide Developers Conference 2011, a five day event which is being held at Moscone Center, San Francisco.

Steve Jobs presented iOS 5, iCloud and OS X Lion on Monday June 6 2011 before a crowd of developers, reporters and investors who attended the event.

Steve Jobs took the centerstage amidst thunderous applause.

Below are the key takeaways from WWDC 2011 (Day 1)

9.56 am - There is an announcement: Ladies and gentlemen, the presentation will begin shortly.

9.57 am - A short selection of musical numbers begin playing

10.00 am - Music plays

10.01 am - Music dies down. A thunderous applause welcomes Steve Jobs. He's looking healthy.

10.01 am - Steve Jobs IS ON STAGE.

10.02 am - Someone in the crowd shouts out loud: I love you! Jobs replies It always helps, I appreciate it very much.

10.03 am - Steve Jobs thanks the crowd for coming. We've got an awesome morning together this morning. Thank you for coming so much, he says.

10.03 am - We're going to talk about three things today. If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of our products, the software is their soul, Jobs says.

10.03 am - Jobs says Today we're going to talk about software.

10:05 am - Jobs, looking a bit tired (?), hands the mike to Phil Schiller, senior vice president (worldwide product marketing) of Apple Inc.

10.06 am - Schiller speaks on Apple's latest version of Mac operating system OS X Lion

10.06 am - The Mac is doing incredibly well, our customer base continues to grow, Schiller says.

10.07 am - Schiller says Mac is performing better than PCs. The Mac is kicking ass, he says.

10.07 am - PC market has shrunk by 1 percent while the Mac has grown by 28 percent

10.07 am - Mac sales have outpaced industry sales every quarter for the past 5 years.

10.07 am - PC sales are 27 percent, MAc sales are 73 percent

10.07 am - Macs are Great not because of hardware, but because of software.

10.07 am - Schiller shows how OS X has evolved over the past 10 years

10.07 am - Where do we take it next?

10.08 am - Schiller says OS X Lion has 250 new features!! But only 10 features will be shown today

10.09 am - [1] Multi-touch gestures. Pinch, swipe, zoom - you get them all in OS X Lion just as you did in iOS

10.09 am - [2] Full Screen Applications No longer small thumbnails

10.09 am - The apps are now shouts out loud on your face

10.09 am - A swipe gesture helps you rotate between full screen apps and your desktop

10.10 am - [3] Mission Control

10.10 am - the best feature of Lion!!!

10.10 am - Safari UI revamped. Looks clean with no scroll bars. Works with gestures.

10.10 am - Gestures allows you to swipe through entire Safari history

10.10 am - There's also new special space for your dashboard widgets

10.13 am - Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, is showing off iPhoto
A swipe here, a pinch there

10.14 am - Photo Booth UI is amazing

10.14 am - New effects like Dizzy animates birds circling over the head

10.14 am - Craig jokes: That's the most important feature in Lion.

10.14 am - Other features include targeted facial enhancements

10.15 am - Face detection effects are cool too.

10.15 am - In case you're wondering how to get to Mission Control - it's three finger swipe up on trackpad

10.17 am - [4] Mac App Store

10.17 am - It beats Best Buy, Wlamart and Office Depot for your PC software buying needs

10.18 am - The Mac App Store has become No.1 software channel to get Mac applications

10.18 am - Mac App Store is doing very well. Many developers' revenue have doubled

10.18 am - Mac App Store is built into Lion (yay!)

10.18 am - IAP is also available in Mac App Store

10.18 am - New features are push notifications.

10.18 am - Built-in sandboxing for testing.

10.18 am - Updates are faster (from now on whole app will not require to be downloaded during update)

10.19 am - [5] LaunchPad

10.19 am - Similar to iPhone home screen.

10.19 am - Multiple screens possible.

10.19 am - All your apps will now show on home screen

10.19 am - You can rearrange it or group them in folders

10.21 am - [6] Resume

10.21 am - The feature is not just limited to apps.

10.21 am - It is systemwide

10.21 am - resume feature in Lion will bring you to exactly where you left off

10.21 am - Useful when you have to restart your system when you install software or something.

10.21 am - [7] Auto Save Yay!!!

10.21 am - Lion will automatically save frequently what you're working on.

10.21 am - A VERY USEFUL thing!!!

10.21 am - Why didn't PCs think of that??

10.21 am - Possibly the most useful and important feature of Lion

10.21 am - You can also lock a file to prevent it from being auto-saved

10.22 am - [8] Versions

10.22 am - Like auto-save.

10.22 am - Saves all versions of the file you're working on

10.22 am - It's automatic. Very efficient. It only stores the differences in each file

10.22 am - And when you want to share a file, it only sends the latest version of the file.

10.22 am - A Time machine-like interface also allows you to see all the versions of the file, stretching back into space.

10.22 am - You can also copy-paste between versions and make any version the current one.

10.22 am - The Time Machine stuff is VERY COOL!!!)

10.28 am - [9] AirDrop

10.28 am - VERY CONVENIENT way to move files between two computers

10.28 am - sort of Wi-Fi based peer-to-peer file moving utility. Auto discovery and setup. Confirm to send and receive files. Fully encrypted transfer.

10.28 am - You can find AirDrop in the Finder

10.28 am - AirDrop will let show you a list of people you can share files with

10.30 am - [10] Mail

10.30 am - Mail (?)

10.30 am - Wow! Brand new interface.

10.30 am - Now there are 2-3 column view.

10.30 am - Works in full screen.

10.30 am - Good. Optimized for reading Mail

10.30 am - Has search suggestions. Prompt for searches.

10.30 am - Search people, subjects, etc

10.30 am - What you search for becomes a search token.

10.30 am - And yes, you can have more than one token.

10.30 am - Message threads are there with color coding

10.30 am - Can search based on dates and subject lines even !!!!!

10.30 am - Till now Mac OS X came on an optical disk

10.30 am - From now, it will only be available in Mac App Store

10.30 am - Make sure to have a fast Internet connection

10.30 am - Lion weighs a whopping 4 GB to download

10.30 am - (That's one fat lion!!!)

10.30 am - Works on all authorized Macs (sorry, no pirated copy!)

10.37 am - Price?

10.37 am - Earlier it cost $129

10.37 am - And now, it is only $29.99 (Whoa!!! That's how much they save by not making a physical copy available)

10.37 am - Developers' preview is available today

10.38 am – Customers will get their hands on Lion not before July.