One of the great features of OS X Lion would have to be Spaces which gives the user the possibility to have several desktops which can prove to be more than useful especially for those that are working in more than just one app and also in different documents.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

Let’s not forget that Spaces is also great for those that have just one display.

If you have several desktop spaces, most of the applications which are launched in a desktop space usually are dedicated to that space. One of the apps which you can use in order to manage the desktop spaces in OS X Lion is called Mission Control which can be launched from the Applications folder or the Launchpad. Once you open it you’ll notice two sections, with the main one occupying most of the screen’s center. It is called Expose and shows you the desktop of the Mac, helping you find the window you’re looking for on your computer. The desktop spaces are located on top of Expose and this is the places where you are able to manage Spaces. We have to mention that the available spaces look like thumbnails, with the first one being the Dashboard while the one next to it is the Desktop. If you want to add a new desktop by using Mission Control, you will have to move the cursor anywhere you want to the right of the aforementioned desktop thumbnail. Once you do this a pop-up that has a “+” symbol is going to appear in the screen’s upper right corner. After clicking on it, an additional desktop is going to appear. For deleting a desktop space all you have to do is move the cursor on the one that you want to get rid off and you’ll notice a circle that has an X on it which you have to press.

You might want to know that by holding down the Option button, that “X” is going to appear on all of your spaces, except of course for the Dashboard and Desktop 1. You also have the possibility of rearranging your desktop spaces by clicking and dragging them, with the exception of Dashboard and Desktop 1. We should mention that each of the desktops can have their own wallpapers. What you have to do is go to the desktop where you want to apply a different wallpaper and then modify it by accessing System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop. Another way of doing this would be by right clicking on the desktop and after that choose Change Desktop Background. With Mission Control you can create as much as 15 desktop spaces so in other words you’ll have 16 desktops and the Dashboard as well. You will still be able to add new spaces even if you create all of the desktop spaces available in Mission Control by accessing the full screen mode with an application. More about full-screen applications in the second part of the article where we will also talk about moving between spaces.
Crestor

In Transmit when you are doing an operation on one of the files, this will happen right away. If you delete a file then Transmit is going to remove it from the remote server. If you perform a double-click on a file or if you select it from an open dialog then Transmit is going to download and cache a version on which you will be able to work.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

Once you save it, Transmit will send the updated version on the remote server where it will replace the current copy. The downside of Transmit which is also the disadvantage of iDisk would have to be that the user’s interaction with the content is related to the broadband connection’s speed on which the user operates.

What this means is that if you want to do a double-click on a 50MB file in order to edit it then Transmit will make you wait until the file with the size of 50MB has been downloaded locally. The same situation applies for when you make a change to the file and save it as the updated version will be uploaded again. As far as Net Disk is concerned, just is just like iDisk but with the sync option activated. We should mention that this would have to be an extension of the Mirror feature in Interarchy and the user has the possibility to select if Net Disk will synchronize the modifications to the computer, from the computer to the server or in both ways. In most of the cases, the user prefers both so that it can simulate a real volume. It is important to note that when you will make a first Net Disk mount and have Both Ways or Download mirroring set in the Mirror Mode, the program is going to do a copy of all of the remote files and after this happens the changes will be synchronized back & forth. So, when you are saving on the Net Disk an updated file, this file will be saved immediately locally and Interarchy will uploaded in the background. Needless to say, Interarchy is not really recommended when you are operating with large files where there are involved lots of GB of traffic so for those situations you might want to consider Transmit.

In order to create a mountable disk in Interarchy you have to choose File > New Net Disk and after that select from the Protocol menu the type of connection. Next, enter the connection’s credentials. You should know that Interarchy is going to fill in the Local field on its own with the server’s name if no path has been set, or with the last directory if there is a path established. You are able to modify this by accessing Set and after that picking your preferred local folder. We recommend leaving Mirror Mode set to Both Ways. The final step is to click on Mount. For Transmit, choose one of the available connection methods, enter the suitable details and after that click on Mount as Disk. For unmounting the disk from the Finder you must access File > Eject “Volume Name” and after that press Command-E. You are going to view this drive in a Finder window from where you can hit on the Eject button or you can do a right-click on that volume and choose Eject.

The most significant advantage of iDisk from MobileMe was that it managed to provide an Internet-based storage which acted just like a mounted volume in the Finder.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

The user had the possibility to mount it, access it from just about anywhere and also transfer items to it. You can consider it as a more convenient type of FTP. The bad news is that MobileMe and iDisk will not be available anymore starting with the end of June, according to Apple.

Even though it wasn’t the best solution, many people have used it so since it will no longer be available, we must have a look at some of the alternatives offered. Right from the start we should mention that Apple provides the ability to mount several types of file sharing services, such as FTP and WebDAV straight in the Finder, but many users criticized it for not being flexible and robust enough. In addition, it doesn’t include support for two very popular methods of accessing files that are stored on a remote server (Amazon S3 and SFTP). For Finder-accessible access you might want to consider a storage system like Amazon if you have access to file sharing through a hosting company. For your own servers you can consider Panic’s Transmit which will set you back $34 or Nolobe’s Interarchy that costs $30. Both Transmit and Interarchy provide a connection to one of the many file-server protocol types that are available, along with support for several proprietary ones as well, to be treated just about the same as a regular Mac volume. The compute won’t know the difference while the programs handle the necessary protocol interaction in background, much like a regular AFP - Apple Filling Protocol volume. This would have to be a convenient alternative to the regular browser window approach in which the user can interact with the files via the lists that are in the program itself. Interarchy and Transmit can work with three of the most popular secured methods for a remote access: WebDAV over HTTPS - which is a popular way for extending the file service to a web server; SFTP - Secure File Transfer Protocol - commonly used by web hosting companies; along with Amazon S3 that at the moment is holding no less than 900 billion objects, including here web pages & images. These three protocols are entirely safe to use at home, at the office or on public networks. Needless to say, there are other methods which are less secure but these are recommended to be used only on trusted networks.

In Interarchy you can find several secure but less popular ways, while in Transmit you will need to install NuFS which is a tool that can make mountable volumes appear. We should mention that the programs have entirely different ways of approaching net disks, as Transmit will work much like the iDisk’s old default mode so you get a window within the file structure of the server path or remote shared server, but without syncing or downloading files locally.

Regardless of the operating system you are running on your computer you should perform a system backup on a regular basis just to be safe. If you have recently started using a Mac or if you have not made a backup up until now, you might want to get familiar with the built-in program which is cleverly called Time Machine.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

This is going to work with the Mac as well as an external drive in order to save precious photos, documents, along with other important files. Besides backing up your files, this software will also keep an accurate record of how the system looked when you have made the backup so it is quite easy to do a full system restore.

Prior to getting started you will want to make sure that the external drive you plan on using is compatible with the Mac. To do this you’ll have to format it with the Mac file format. You should know that Time Machine can be found on all Macs running at least OS 10.5 (aka Leopard). When you select the hard drive, make sure that you pick one on which you have plenty of space so there will be enough room for the backups.

The first step that you need to take is to connect your external drive via FireWire, USB or Thunderbolt. The Mac will most likely recognize the hardware so a pop-up window is going to appear which will ask you if you would like to utilize this external drive to perform a backup by using Time Machine. Once you click on Use as a Backup Disk, the process of performing a full system backup is going to start. You should know that the first time you do this it will take some time (several hours), but from there on the backups will take a lot less due to the reason that the drive is only going to update where there are new files. You should know that if this external hard drive remains connected to the computer all of the time, those scheduled hourly backups will be done in just a few seconds. Keep in mind that by default, in the menu bar you will notice a Time Machine icon which looks just like a clock that has an arrow that is running counter-clockwise. You have the possibility to prevent this icon from appearing if you fiddle with the software’s preferences as well as the System Preferences, whichever you like using.

If the software will not launch automatically, if you would want to set up a wireless Time Capsule or if you have several HDD options, you will have to perform a click on the Time Machine icon which is located in the menu bar. Once you do this a pop-menu is going to be shown and from there you will have to choose Time Machine Preferences, followed by a click on the button called Select Disk. Now, you’ll have to select the drive on which you will want the backups to be saved and after doing this you must highlight it and then click on Use Backup Disk. In the second part of the article we will be discussing about how to configure and customize the backups.