OS X 10.7 Lion and Lion Server released. Available Now in Mac App Store

If you had today marked off on your Lion release day lottery card, congratulations! Apple has finally released OS X 10.7 Lion and Lion Server.

Before you do anything else, make sure you have a backup of your Mac; Time Machine is good, and adding a bootable clone is even better. You may have no problems at all with your upgrade, but far better to be safe than sorry.

Head on over to the Mac App Store to pick up your $29 upgrade now. Lion weighs in with a fairly hefty multi-gigabyte download, so allocate time for the e-only distribution to complete.

You'll also want to give yourself an hour or so for the upgrade process itself. Quite a lot of it takes place in a non-interactive "26 minutes left to install"-style mode.

For the cautious-minded, you may want to consider adding a Lion partition to your existing system. This allows you to keep doing work on your Snow Leopard system until your full set of work apps are completely validated on Lion.

Grab OS X Lion from the Mac App Store here and Lion Server here. If you don't have broadband access, you can download Lion at Apple retail stores. And in August, Lion will be available on a USB thumb drive through the Apple Store for $69.

Share your upgrade experience in the comments!

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Mac OS X Lion Available Today From the Mac App Store

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world's most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features, is available today as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

"Lion is the best version of OS X yet, and we're thrilled that users around the world can download it starting today"
"Lion is the best version of OS X yet, and we're thrilled that users around the world can download it starting today," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Lion makes upgrading a Mac easier than ever before; just launch the Mac App Store, buy Lion with your iTunes account, and the download and install process will begin automatically."

Additional new features in Lion include:

• Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;

• Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;

• Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and

• AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X Lion is available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion is the easiest OS X upgrade and at around 4GB, it is about the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Users who do not have broadband access at home, work or school can download Lion at Apple retail stores and later this August, Lion will be made available on a USB thumb drive through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) for $69 (US). Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and is available from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. Lion is an upgrade and can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs. Details regarding Business and Education licensing can be found at apple.com/macosx.

The OS X Lion Up-to-Date upgrade will be available through the Mac App Store at no additional charge to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-to-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchased a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and July 20, 2011 will have until August 19, 2011 to make a request. Additional information can be found at apple.com/macosx/uptodate.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.