Apple’s OS X Lion USB stick now on sale

By Geoff Duncan August 16, 2011

Apple Mac OS X Lion USB stick — Image used with permission by copyright holder

For some Macintosh users, the download-only availability of Mac OS X Lion is no big deal: pay your $29.99 and let your broadband connection do all the work of pulling in 4GB of data. But if you don’t have a broadband connection—or anticipate needing to install or recover Lion while away from the Internet—that lack of an installable DVD version of Lion might be a serious problem. Apple is now shipping it’s solution: for $69, customers can buy an installable version of OS X Lion on USB media.

When Apple launched Mac OS X Lion in July, it promised a USB thumb drive version would be available in August.

One potential downside to the USB thumb drive version of Lion: it apparently can’t be used with the recently released Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, which enables users to create a bootable recovery partition on an external drive for troubleshooting and repairing Lion systems in the even anything should go wrong. With the USB-based version of Lion, customers will have to do their repair and recovery work with the USB-based Lion drive. Better not misplace it.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

I never knew I needed this mini Mac app, but now I can’t live without it

Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

Switching apps is something I do countless times every day on my Mac, so much so that I don’t ever think anything of it. That is until recently, when I discovered a new app that has me flipping windows in a new (and much-improved) way.

That app is called Quick Tab, and it’s designed to make app switching a little more painless. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve never thought of the traditional Command-Tab key combination as all that painful, but Quick Tab has swiftly shown me what I’ve been missing.

Computing

40 years ago today, Apple launched something as audacious as the Vision Pro

A classic Apple Macintosh shows a friendly hello on-screen.

Today marks 40 years since Apple released the very first Mac, upending the entire computer industry and sowing the seeds for four decades of success for the company. Dubbed the Macintosh 128K, the device was an unprecedented success for Apple, and it quickly became one of the most important Macs ever. It also has curious parallels to the company’s situation today.

It's easy to look back now with fondness at the impact the product made -- a familiar piece of tech history that still undergirds so much of our current technology. But at the time, it was the start of something new. A bold, risky, and unprecedented leap forward. It's hard not to make comparisons to the Vision Pro, which officially launches just next week. But will we look back in 40 years at the Vision Pro with the same kind of reverence? Perhaps, but only if Apple learns the right lesson from its own history.
A computing revolution
1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial (HD)

Computing

How to password protect a folder in Windows and macOS

A lock surrounded by keys.

You probably already know how to password protect your computer, locking out other, but if you know how to password protect folders you can safely let others use your computer without having to worry about your personal files being accessed. Whether it's sensitive banking info, that batch of embarrassing poems you wrote after your last breakup, or images for that mildly edgy YouTube channel you intend to make one day, it's all okay. With the following techniques you can lock your files away from prying eyes.

If you ever need help remembering passwords, consider these picks on our list of the best password managers.