When Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, one of the chief observations — and criticisms — was that its major new features were elements borrowed from the iPad and iPhone: full-screen mode, Multi-Touch gestures for switching between applications and spaces, Auto Save, Restore and more.

In my review of Lion (Personal Technology, July 22), I found annoyances with Launchpad and Mission Control. My disdain for Launchpad is still there — I never use it — but I've recently begun to warm to Mission Control, much to my surprise. Here's why:

My office setup normally involves my MacBook Pro connected to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I can reach the laptop's trackpad to use gestures, but it's inconvenient when I have my hands on the keyboard most of the time.

During November, however, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, www.nanowrimo.org). I find it more comfortable to do nonwork writing on the MacBook Pro by itself on the couch or in a chair, which puts the trackpad right there in my lap. To separate work and NaNoWriMo, I put my writing software, Scrivener (www.literatureandlatte.com), into Lion's full-screen mode and created a new space in Mission Control for tracking my writing progress and doing research in Safari.

I ended up using Lion's Multi-Touch gestures all the time: swipe three fingers up to enter Mission Control and choose a space or full-screen application, or swipe left or right with three fingers to switch between spaces. Mac OS X 10.7.2 removed a few Mission Control irritations, like being able to reorder the spaces in their left-to-right arrangement.

The same controls work on the iPad: swipe three fingers up to access the multitasking bar, or swipe three fingers left or right to switch between recent apps. It makes moving between the Mac and the iPad, which I do frequently, an easy process; I don't have to change my mode of thinking between "computer" and "iPad."

This is an example of how making the Mac and the iPad work together can benefit people who own both. ICloud is making great strides in this area, too, such as having to-do items in the Reminders app show up on all iOS 5 devices and in iCal on the Mac (or my preferred calendar, BusyCal, www.busymac.com).

ITunes Match, Apple's $24.99 per year music service, makes my entire music library available on my devices and computers without my having to store and sync all the tracks in advance.

And it makes me want even more crossover. One new-to-me app solves a problem that frequently made me grumble. Seamless (fivedetails.com/seamless) is a $1.99 iOS app that (when paired with a free Mac component) lets me transfer whatever music I'm listening to on my Mac to my iPhone or iPad, great if I'm enjoying an album at home and want to continue listening to it on the bus or in the car.

Another utility along similar lines is Handoff (handoffapp.com), also $1.99, which allows me to send items from a Web browser, such as a page, Google map, or phone number, to any of my iOS devices. For longer pieces, I still swear by the $4.99 Instapaper (www.instapaper.com), recently redesigned and better than before.

Some areas that I wouldn't have considered before as ripe for operating between devices now seem like gaping holes. IMessage under iOS 5 replaces SMS text messaging and adds the capability to nonphones, like the iPad and iPod touch, but now I desperately want it on the Mac. If Apple can make video conferencing work smoothly with FaceTime, I would hope it can easily handle iMessage.

Working with documents via iCloud is another example, although I suspect we're just on the precipice of functionality, waiting for upgrades to the iWork suite. A document created in the iOS version of Pages can be synced with iCloud, but pulling it down on a Mac currently requires a download from the iCloud website (icloud.com).

I know of some people who consider this type of interoperability Exhibit A for how Apple's products are intended to keep buyers in the Apple ecosystem — and that's fine by me. I get more work done, and enjoy doing it, when I can switch effortlessly among the tools I need.

Jeff Carlson and Glenn Fleishman write the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to carlsoncolumn@mac.com. More Practical Mac columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.