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Apple's new operating system OS X Lion is available for download today at the Mac App Store. For a modest $29.99 and the amount of time it takes for your Internet connection to digest a 4 gigabyte download, you'll have all of Lion's 250 new features. But is it worth it? As we've highlighted before, the Lion update is Apple's new foray into bringing the swiping, pinching interface experience of a tablet to the PC. But as some reviews of software show, that's not always a good thing. Here's how tech experts are slicing the pros and cons of OS X Lion.
Upsides
For Lion's complete list of features, see here. Here are the ones getting singled out for special praise in today's product reviews.
Multi-touch functionality The iPad's signature swiping and pinching comes to the PC and MSNBC's Rosa Golijan is a big fan. "You can swipe up with three fingers to view Mission Control and see every open window on your Mac. Swiping to the side with three fingers, on the other hand, will let you switch between full-screen apps," she writes. "Two fingers are all that's needed to scroll up and down through documents and websites or to swipe through content as if it's part of a book. A quick two-finger tap or a pinching gesture will let you zoom in and out on whatever's on your screen. All of these gestures may sound complicated, but after using Lion for a brief while, you'll find yourself not even thinking about them." TechCrunch's MG Siegler was equally impressed with the new feature. "Swiping comes into play in the latest version of Safari within Lion too. You can now seamlessly swipe back and forth between webpages to peek at other content. It’s one of those tiny attention-to-detail features that makes Apple products, Apple products."