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The TechCrunch Guide To Apple's 'Back To The Mac' Event

Rip Empson @ripemp / 14 years

It was a busy day in Cupertino. Today, at Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event, Steve Jobs and Co. unveiled some big announcements for the Apple faithful. As expected, it was all about the Mac, which, it seems, will be getting a significant FaceLift.

One of the top headlines was news of the impending release of the new Mac OS X, 10.7—now officially known as “Lion” (what, not “Ocelot”?). Jobs says that Lion will essentially be the merging of iOS and OS X and expects the love-child to hit stores by next summer.

Beyond the hardware, the App Store is coming to laptops and desktops near you, although it won’t arrive for 90 days. Hang in there. The App Store, according to TC’s Devin Coldewey will “essentially replace the internet for getting applications. You just click and it installs through the App Store application just like an iPad app.” You can read CrunchGear’s round-up with pictures here.

Apple’s multiple facelifts to the Mac continued with the addition of FaceTime to the desktop. Beginning today, all FaceTime devices will be compatible with FaceTime for the desktop, which means that any iPhone 4 user can talk to a Mac, even in full-screen mode should you so choose. It’s available in beta now at Apple.com, but you should check out this video review by TC’s own John Biggs for a walk-through of FaceTime first.

The new MacBook Air was also unveiled at Mac-apalooza today, weighing in at a feathery 2.9 lbs, with a new glass trackpad and a 13.3” screen. Apple is also offering a 11.6″ version, which tips the scales at 2.1 lbs. Check out MG Siegler’s pics of the new Air here.

A few notable numbers were also spun into the announcements by Jobs & Co., including the fact that Apple’s iOS App Store has officially reached 7 billion downloads; the worldwide Mac install base is now just shy of 50 million users with Apple now controlling 20.7 percent of the U.S consumer market; not to mention: Apple sold 13.7 million Macs in FY2010, three times that of FY2005, and drew 75 million visitors to its stores last quarter.

For more in-depth TechCrunch coverage, check out our complete list of posts below: