Several websites are reporting that Apple stores are preparing for a new product launch on July 14th, namely the new Mac OS X Lion operating system.
Both 9to5mac and MacStories have spoken to Apple retail store employees who have been told to prepare for an “overnight” on July 13th. When Apple stores plan an overnight, it means that employees come in after closing hours to be trained up on new products and prepare the store (advertising etc) for the new product, which is usually released the next day.
Though OS X Lion will be a digital download only via the Mac App Store, Apple will still be advertising it in store as well as offering Genius coaching on the new OS. Customers may also be invited down to the store on the 14th to download their copy of Lion with the help of an Apple Store Genius.
Rumours of a Macbook Air refresh are also stepping up a notch, with many Apple sites such as 9to5mac believing the new Macbook Air range will be available on the same day as OS X Lion. The new range of ultra-thin Macbooks are expected to include Apple’s new Thunderbolt I/O port for ultra-fast data transfer, as well as new 400Mbps NAND Flash memory which will mean much faster reading and writing of data.
Mac OS X Lion will retail for $29.99 or £20.99 and is roughly 4GB in size, so ensure you’ve got a good connection before starting the download.
Will you be getting OS X Lion on July 14th? Let us know what you think of Apple’s new OS by adding a comment below or tweeting us @Gadget_Helpline.