I’m a big Google Services user but some of my friends and colleagues prefer Yahoo! I’ve written about how to integrate Google Services with my Mac, iPhone and iPad but I’ve remiss in writing anything about Yahoo! Enabling Yahoo! Services on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) is fairly straight forward.

System Preferences

The direct method for setting up Google services on OS X Lion is via the System Preferences. OS X Lion System Preferences has a new option called Mail, Contacts & Calendars under the Internet & Wireless section. Select it.

Mail, Contacts, and Calendars

If you are an iPhone or iPad owner this next screen shot will seem very familiar to you. To setup a particular service, click the Add Account… button and select the icon for the service. In this case, we are setting up Yahoo! services so select Yahoo!.

Once you select Yahoo! you will be prompted to add you Yahoo! username and password. The username should be you complete email address. After entering your credentials click Setup.

Once your Mac has connected successfully to the Yahoo! servers you can select the services you want to sync to your Mac. Go ahead and select all of them including Yahoo! Chat.

You should now be able to read your Yahoo! Mail via the Mac OS X Mail app, chat on Yahoo! via iChat, and your Address Book should start filling up with your Yahoo! contact. Launch iCal and you will see all your Yahoo! calendar details.

Cosmetically speaking the Mac App Store will be familiar to anyone who has used iTunes to purchase apps, music or movies. The only difference is the lack of a sidebar.

I browsed through the Top Paid and Featured app sections. Some of the titles will be familiar to those who have bought apps for the iPad.  Apple’s iWork software has been broken into it’s component pieces with each (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) available for $20. I bought Keynote to complement the version I have on my iPad. I also bought the Mac version of Angry Bird; a wildly popular casual game for the iPad and iPhone. Angry Birds entered the Top Paid the list on the first week in the Mac App Store.  I also downloaded an installed the official (and FREE) Twitter client app for Mac. I already had Twitter installed but apparently the Mac App Store app did not detect that.

Installation is quite easy. Just like on the iPad or iPhone I simply clicked the Purchase button (or Free button for free apps). Once I entered my iTunes username and password the icon changed to Installing which indicated that my apps was being downloaded and installed.

Once the installation completed, the icon changed to Installed and I noticed a bouncing Twitter app icon in my dock. I can see how having the app icon placed in the dock can help new users who may not be familiar with the Application folder but more advanced users may be annoyed. There is no way to change this behaviour.

The Mac App store app also keeps track of which apps have been installed and provides updates as they become available.  This is similar to how app updates are handled in iTunes.

Apple is offering the same generous licensing terms for Mac apps as with iOS apps. I can install apps purchase through the Mac App Store on up to five Macs in my home. Of course this is only possible if all of my computers are running Snow Leopard (or Lion when it is released). The Mac App Store app keeps track of the licenses. That means that for $20 I can buy Keynote (all of the iWork suite are available individual in the Mac App Store) and install it on my iMac, and the two MacBooks in my home. For $60 you can buy the entire suite. That’s a 50% discount over the packaged app. The loss of a physical disc does not bother me. I simply backed up my the app to a CD.

I also noticed that Mac App store prices are lower than buying them online or from Best Buy. For example, Pixelmator, a popular Photoshop replacement was just $29.99 when the Mac App Store but $99 online.  The developer has since announced that they intend to move all future app sales to the Mac App Store.  A positive sign.

I think the Mac App Store is a significant benefit to new Mac users (there numbers are growing) but experienced Mac users will find it useful as well. And we know it can only get better.

A DMG file is a sort of disk image file. Mac OS X opens these files and mounts them in a similar way to how it mounts USB thumb drives or external hard drives.

The format allows secure password protection as well as file compression and hence serves both security and file distribution functions. Its most common function is the distribution of software over the Internet. When opened, DMG files are “mounted” as a drive within the Finder.

When you download a DMG file from the web, Safari and other Mac browsers may open and mount the DMG file automatically, usually on the Desktop. New users think that the application is installed and run it from the icon on the Desktop. Of course when the Mac is shutdown or restarted the DMG file is unmounted. Users boot into their Mac and panic because their program has been deleted.

The proper way to install a Mac application from the DMG (or ZIP) file is simpler. Once the DMG file is mounted (double click the DMG file), find the application icon and drag it to the Application folder.

You will be prompted for the system admin user name and password.

Mac OS X will copy all the application files to the Application folder. That’s it. The app is now installed. To uninstall the app, drag the app icon from Applications to the trash can. Done.

Don’t forget to unmount (eject) the DMG file. You can do that from the Finder.