Although the latest OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 was just released 10 days ago, Apple has already issued an update through “Software Update” for it. Though short of being Developer Preview 5, or a release candidate, we did hear reports about a few notable changes.
The update, which brings the current build number up to 11A494A, brings several changes, including a new login screen, a lot more of their new “linen” look in a lot of places (which began to show itself in the WWDC demos of Lion).
The log-in screen, which can be seen above, is absolutely gorgeous, and now includes battery, WiFi, and time indicators in the upper right corner – the same place they’d be of you were logged in to Lion. Clicking the clock toggles between displaying the computer’s name, IP address, and build of OS X. See below for a more detailed shot of the new indicators.
Also reported is that graphical glitches that some users have experienced in the start-up screen have now been resolved. Apple has added a dark Linen background to Mission Control, and Mission Control has gained a new default gesture of an upward three or four finger swipe.
Other fixes include repairing an issue that sometimes resulted in missing Launchpad icons, and have mad some additional visual enhancements to the “About This Mac” box. See below for the differences between the new version and the previous version.
New display features in Mail.app have been spotted, adding a new option to display labels below each icons, as the icons were somewhat cryptic, and not everyone could easily figure out that, for instance, a paper airplane meant “send”. Apple’s also updated the Mail database.
In addition to the changes and bug fixes, there’s also a new bug, which disables two-finger swiping to navigate between web pages in Safari, but this can be remedied by going into the track pad preferences and setting it to a three-finger swipe instead.
