Though consumers have been well aware of Lion, the latest name in Mac OSX releases, since the preview was publicly unveiled in late October, the countdown has nearly reached its halfway point, with a summer 2011 release scheduled for markets in the Northern Hemisphere. Lion will mark the 8^th major operating system release for Mac users, adding another big cat to the Apple animal kingdom. But will Lion truly do its name justice, marking enough improvement to declare itself the new “King of the Jungle?”A lot of buzz surrounding Lion centers around its parallels to Apple‘s mobile operating system. In short, Lion is expected to factor in a lot more iOS favorites, closer linking Apples wildly popular mobile devices with its home computing products. Users hope Lion will effectively merge the full functionality of your standard desktop or laptop computer with the simplicity and convenient user interface that has made Apple’s mobile device platform so revered. Towards this end:

• AutoResume When a particular app is closed out, when reopened it will continue from its point of last use.
• Hidden Scrollbars It may be subtle, but unless actively perusing content, scrollbars will not appear, only manifesting when in use.
• Launchpad Launchpad will look similar to iOS from an aesthetic standpoint, offering icon grids arranged in pages, just as you would find on an iPhone or iPad. It will also maintain the ability to create folders for grouping apps and creating new pages for more depth in organization, as in iOS.
• Mac App Store Similar to the App Store iOS users are already familiar with, this expanded version will still feature one-click instillations and updates while providing a means for interested users to browse apps for download based on relevance, price and popularity.
• More AutoSave Documents will save during the editing process, mitigating the need to manually save after changes.

Certainly not the only changes in store for Lion, hopefully a full stride in right direction relative to Snow Leopard, here’s to looking forward to the full release.