OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

OS X Lion is the next major release of the Mac operating system and includes over 250 new features that will transform how you interact with your Mac. Tap, swipe, and scroll your way through your apps using fluid Multi-Touch gestures. Full-screen apps take advantage of every pixel of your display. Mission Control gives you a birds-eye view of everything running on your Mac and makes it easy to navigate anywhere with a click. Launchpad gives you instant access to all the apps on your Mac. And a completely redesigned Mail app features powerful new search capabilities and groups messages into Conversations.

To upgrade your Mac to OS X Lion, you must be running OS X Snow Leopard. If you have OS X v10.5 Leopard, purchase OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard now and install it on your Mac. Then buy OS X Lion as a digital download from the Mac App Store. Learn more>

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2.5

Based on 136 reviews

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Purchase Information

$69.00

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Overview

Multi-Touch Gestures

  • Fluid and realistic animations make gestures feel natural and direct.
  • Tap or pinch to zoom in on text and images.
  • Swipe left or right to move from one page to another in an app or switch from one full-screen app to another.
  • Swipe up to enter Mission Control.
  • Pinch to access Launchpad.

Learn more about Multi-Touch Gestures

Full-screen apps

  • A new full-screen button takes an app window full screen.
  • Run multiple full-screen apps at the same time.
  • Switch between full-screen apps and your desktop with a gesture.
  • Apps stay full screen when you switch to another app.
  • OS X Lion includes full-screen Mail, Safari, Preview, iCal, FaceTime, Dashboard, Screen Sharing, and Photo Booth.

Learn more about Full-screen apps

Mission Control

  • Brings together Exposé, full-screen apps, Dashboard, and desktop spaces.
  • Gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything running on your Mac, allowing you to navigate anywhere with a click.
  • Exposé view shows all open windows on your desktop grouped by application.
  • Create and organize desktop spaces in Mission Control.

Learn more about Mission Control

Launchpad

  • A new home for all the apps on your Mac.
  • Apps downloaded from the Mac App Store automatically appear in Launchpad.
  • Launchpad automatically adds pages to accommodate all your apps.
  • Apps can be organized on multiple pages and grouped in folders.

Learn more about Launchpad

Mail

  • The widescreen layout displays the message list and selected email side by side in full-height columns.
  • The favorites bar gives you one-click access to your favorite mail folders.
  • Search suggestions dynamically present the best matches for your search.
  • Search tokens help refine search results based on people, subjects, mailboxes, dates, and attachments.
  • Conversations automatically groups related messages, displaying them in chronological order and hiding repetitive quoted text.

Learn more about Mail

Other great Lion features

  • Auto Save automatically saves your changes as you go, so you never have to worry about losing your work.
  • Versions keeps a history of your document as you work and presents it in a timeline you can browse.
  • Resume reopens an app exactly as you left it.
  • AirDrop is the simplest way to send files to anyone around you, wirelessly — no setup or special settings required.
  • Reading List in Safari lets you easily save web pages to read or browse later.

Learn more about Lion

Visit the Mac OS X Lion site

System Requirements

  • Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
  • 2GB of memory
  • OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
  • 7GB of available space
  • Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
  • Some features require apps developed to work with Lion.
  • Gestures require a Multi-Touch trackpad or Magic Mouse.
  • Some gestures are not available on Magic Mouse.

See all system requirements

AirDrop is supported on the following Mac models:

  • MacBook Pro (late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac mini (mid 2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card and mid 2010 or newer)

Language Support

Mac OS X v10.7 Lion is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Important Note

When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.

OS X Lion Software License Agreement
The OS X Lion Software License Agreement allows you to install and use the software for your personal, non-commercial use on all the Macs you own or control that are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard Server (a Mac Computer). Commercial enterprises or educational institutions can install and use one copy of the software for use either a) by a single individual on each Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls, or b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls (for example, in a resource center or library). You can also use the software in accordance with the terms of a volume or maintenance license (purchased separately). Full license terms can be found at http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/.

 

Ratings & Reviews

2.5

Based on 136 reviews

Write a Review

Most Useful Reviews

  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    1.0
    I miss snow leopard
    • Written by AH from Poway
    • Sep 10, 2011

    I like being able to re-size windows from any angle, but its hard to focus on the positives of this operating system when it has so thoroughly irritated me on a daily basis.

    - Inverting the mouse was an inconvenience I could change back in settings, no big deal.

    - All the familiar multitouch commands that I grew to love are GONE and replaced by new ones that I hate. There are no option to get back my multitouch 'swipes'! >:-( This is by far my largest gripe.

    - If you have hundreds of image files selected, and accidentally press CTRL-P (print) instead of it's neighbor CTRL-O (open), it will promptly begin printing hundreds of images without confirmation and delay, and it very hard to cancel this. I have to unplug the printer. It should at least say "Ok to begin printing 243 documents"? So everyone in the house doesn't wake up to you cursing at apple.

    Others have different problems, but for me its the little things that matter more.     …More

    825 of 1161 people found this useful

    Was this useful?

  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    4.0
    Nice upgrade but beware of iTunes 10.4.1 version incompatibility
    • Written by SP from Toronto
    • Aug 26, 2011

    Great improvements to the interface and multi-touch intactions.

    But after upgrading, iTunes on the Lion image was lower than the current iTunes package. The library couldn't be read and the library had to be rebuilt.

    All our playlists and meta data would have been lost had it not been for restoring the library file from the Time Capsule backup.

    While this issue will liekly be corrected in the future, before opening iTunes, run the Software Update process so that you don't have any backwards compatibility issues.     …More

    415 of 509 people found this useful

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  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    5.0
    There is a reason the Lion is king
    • Written by AL from Austin
    • Aug 16, 2011

    First off if you have a Magic Mouse the Lion supports new gestures which ups the Mouse value if you dislike third party software. The Ability to side swipe to new desktops and fullscreen apps is extremely uses full when multitasking and with two taps on my mouse I can start the Mission Control and see all that is going on on the system. Fullscreen works like a dream if you have a small screen too. Versions is a lifesaver if you have iWork so essentially you never have to worry about losing documents. Launchpad is pretty useful if you have a lot of applications to quickly sift throughout them. The new default new finder window displays Various documents in a oct of stacked album view like rows each row being an item like PDFs or JPEGs etc. Full hard drive encryption is a nice touch as well. I bought it on launch day and have experienced no problems thus far except the Yellow Pages and iTunes Player widget are no longer present there are many other nice touches done if you have any doubts I say try it at an Apple store or a friends and you will fall in love. …More

    438 of 621 people found this useful

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Most Recent Reviews

  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    1.0
    Don't upgrade to Lion if you don't have to
    • Written by LZ from Cranston
    • Feb 21, 2012

    I made the mistake of purchasing Lion the day it came out, and it is just not good. I haven't found a single one of the new features to be of use, and some actually get in the way of what I'm doing (ex. if my computer freezes and I have to reboot it with the power button, it opens everything that I had open before and there's no way of changing this).

    Additionally, Apple got rid of Rosetta support in Lion. This means that you can't run any of the old PowerPC applications anymore. You have to run a virtual machine with an older OS X to run your older apps. Where's the logic in that?

    Now they sell this overpriced USB stick with Lion on it for double the price of the actual OS...don't buy it.


    Upside: At least the buttons look better I guess.     …More

    11 of 11 people found this useful

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  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    5.0
    Excellent update
    • Written by CD from Hardin
    • Feb 20, 2012

    This update is amazing! I love all the new features that Apple has included with the update! They have really outdone them selves this time. I cant wait for the mountain lion update, it looks amazing. I had to update my office suite, but it was worth it MS Office 2004 is pretty old software. Change is awesome! Keep it up Apple! …More

    2 of 3 people found this useful

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  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive

    1.0
    Not quite ready for prime-time! Lion is just a cub.
    • Written by DZ from San Jose
    • Feb 19, 2012

    Sunday, February 19, 2012
    2:42:11 AM PDT

    Hello!

    I'm writing this review from a Mirrored-Door G4 running on Tiger 10.4.11. I love this platform so much that I have a network with three Mirrored-Door G4's and one G5. with all running Mac OS X 10.4.11

    I am telling you this because if you are like me with years and years of Mac experience (my first was a Mac 512K in about 1984-85), you are going to absolutely HATE LION.

    The main problems with LION center around the fact that the software engineers who wrote the application are not very creative or smart. I inherited LION on a new MAC PRO, I've ordered SNOW LEOPARD, and as soon as it arrives, I am by-passing LION up until such a time LION grows up.     …More

    5 of 12 people found this useful

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Questions & Answers

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Most Interesting

  • Do you still need to upgrade to snow Leopard before upgrading to Lion with the USB Thumb Drive?
    • Asked by MT
    • Aug 17, 2011

    9 Answers

    Best Answer

    Legally, yes, according to the OS X Lion Software License Agreement (part below) you need to have Snow Leopard license to purchase Lion, this is why it is cheaper. However what you download from the App Store and what is available on the thumb drive are considered "full versions". For example, I downloaded Lion from the App Store and burnt it onto a thumb drive myself. Then I did a "clean install" (or format and install) on my MacBook.

    The OS X Lion Software License Agreement allows you to install and use the software for your personal, non-commercial use on all the Macs you own or control that are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard Server (a Mac Computer). Commercial enterprises or educational institutions can install and use one copy of the software for use either a) by a single individual on each Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls, or b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that the enterprise or educational institution owns or controls (for example, in a resource center or library). You can also use the software in accordance with the terms of a volume or maintenance license (purchased separately).     …More

    • Answered by SO from Bathurst
    • Aug 17, 2011
  • Can I upgrade straight from Tiger to Lion using the USB?
    • Asked by AW from Brooklyn
    • Sep 3, 2011

    3 Answers

    Best Answer

    If your Mac came with Tiger there is a better than even chance that it doesn't even support Lion. Only Macs released in early 2007 (and the very first Mac Pro from 2006) are old enough to have come with Tiger, and "new enough" to support Lion.

    Post another question identifying your exact Mac (preferably the model number if you can find it on the label) and someone will tell you if it will be supported.

    And the answer, by the way is, no, you can't do a straight upgrade unless you already have Snow Leopard. Everyone else will need to either do each upgrade (Leopard, Snow, then Lion) OR backup, erase, do a clean install and then restore your data. Time Machine + Migration Assistant is generally what you use in that situation.     …More

    • Answered by DP from South San Francisco
    • Oct 27, 2011
  • Is it possible to upgrade straight from Leopard to Lion using this product?
    • Asked by BB from Blayney
    • Aug 16, 2011

    14 Answers

    Best Answer

    You cannot upgrade your existing installation, apps and user data intact, from Leopard - but you can erase & install a fresh copy of Lion using it. I suspect the Migration Assistant would have no problem migrating settings over from your old install if you were to, say, make a bootable backup of the drive elsewhere first, but I haven't done that. Migration Assistant has traditionally been more "forgiving" about the source data than actual OS install. …More

    • Answered by MO from Redford
    • Sep 28, 2011

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