Apple has had a busy Thursday morning with the official release of FaceTime for Mac, new MacBook Pros and as widely predicted, a first developer preview of the next-generation Mac OS X, Lion 10.7.

MacRumors is reporting that the first developer preview of Mac OS X Lion 10.7 has been set loose alongside the new MacBook Pro models. After being teased at Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event late last year, developers can finally get their hands on the next generation of Mac OS X and prepare their applications for the operating system’s official release this summer.

“Apple today released a developer preview of Mac OS X Lion, which takes some of the best ideas from iPad and brings them back to the Mac for the eighth major release of the world's most advanced operating system,” an Apple press release announced. “Lion features Mission Control, an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac; Launchpad, a new home for all your Mac apps; full screen apps that use the entire Mac display; and new Multi-Touch gestures. Lion also includes the Mac App Store, the best place to discover, install and automatically update Mac apps. The Lion preview is available to Mac Developer Program members through the Mac App Store today, and the final version of Lion will ship to customers this summer.”

And that’s not all -- Apple has also detailed some additional features of Lion, which should make for a long few months of waiting for many Mac users.

- a new version of Mail, with an elegant, widescreen layout inspired by the iPad; Conversations, which automatically groups related messages into one easy to read timeline; more powerful search; and support for Microsoft Exchange 2010;
- AirDrop, a remarkably simple way to copy files wirelessly from one Mac to another with no setup;
- Versions, which automatically saves successive versions of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, edit and even revert to previous versions;
- 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 saves your documents as you work;
- the all new FileVault, that provides high performance full disk encryption for local and external drives, and the ability to wipe data from your Mac instantaneously; and
- Mac OS X Lion Server, which makes setting up a server easier than ever and adds support for managing Mac OS X Lion, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices.

We’re certainly ready, how about you?

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