14 DAY TRIAL // With Mac OS X Lion, Apple promises to bring its best thinking from the iPad and bring it to the Mac, and the redesigned iCal and iChat applications in OS X 10.7 Developer Preview 2 stand as testament.
Handed to select Apple programmers and customers last week, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview 2 packs some redesigned applications, one of which aims to become its iPad counterpart.
iCal, the standard calendar application that has been available in Mac OS X for as long as we can remember, is now at version 4.0 and features a new appearance and a new annual view.
Like with the iPad version of the app (where it is called “Calendar”), users are presented with a novelty "leather" menu bar, remnants of torn-away paper just underneath, and a new year view.
The year view is new both to iCal on Mac OS X and the MobileMe version of Apple's Calendar application.
Apart from these aesthetic changes, Lion’s iCal remains the same intuitive and useful calendar application that customers have come to embrace.
iChat previously separated a user’s contacts in different windows, based on the IM standard employed by each contact.
Aside from iCal and iChat, Mac OS X Lion brings a redesigned version of Address Book, which also complements the iPad version of the app with similarities on the graphical front.
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is slated to launch publicly this summer at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
For more coverage of Lion’s unique features and enhancements, visit the related links below, or hit up the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion tag.