Apple Mac OS X Lion available now in the App Store

For ‘developers’ willing to shell out $99 for an annual membership in Apple’s group of Mac OS app creators, Lion is old news already. But the rest of you can finally download Apple’s latest operating system — Mac OS 10.7 — by hitting up the App Store on your Snow Leopard (10.6.8)-equipped Mac, assuming it’s powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. From our experience with the pre-release version, the 4GB download could take over an hour, even on a high-speed connection, but once you have the installer in hand the upgrade process itself should be complete in about 20 minutes. As Apple previously announced, those with slower connections can also download Lion at an Apple retail store, and the company’s also now revealed that it will be offering it on a USB thumb drive as well, which will be available through its online store later this August for $69 (yes, that’s a $40 premium). We’ll be posting a full review of Lion later this week, but you can check out our hands-on preview for a sneak peek at Apple’s latest consumer OS in the meantime.

Mini Cooper Connected app adjusts music based on driving style, stops when airbags deploy

We’re always looking for excuses to get behind the wheel, so naturally the new Dynamic Music function in the Mini Connected app made us yearn for a chance to hit the road. Version 2.0 brings this headline feature to the iPhone, which includes exclusively-composed music that adjusts based on things like a compatible Mini Cooper’s “longitudinal and lateral acceleration.” In other words, the faster and crazier you drive, the more exciting the music becomes. So instead of having mom in the passenger seat begging you to slow down, there’s music that encourages you to do the opposite. The press release even references a “hallmark Mini go-kart feeling,” so you might want to make sure everyone’s buckled up before you plug in. Should anyone fail to do so, a new feature called Mission Control will let you know, also nagging about poor driving conditions. How’s that for a mixed signal?