There will also be improvements to how OS X handles apps from the Mac App Store, thanks to new security levels and the addition of developer signatures, which allow the OS to alert you when you’re installing software from unsigned developers.Īpple also isn’t saying anything about bringing its virtual assistant Siri over to Mountain Lion, which for many would be reason enough to upgrade. Mountain Lion also adds Share Sheets, which will basically let you share files with services like Twitter, as well as AirPlay Mirroring, which can push whatever is on your screen to an Apple TV. Both companies are attempting to bring mobile elements to the desktop, but Apple is taking a more incremental approach (which, admittedly, it always has with OS X), whereas Microsoft is diving headfirst into new territory. It’s interesting to consider how Apple is approaching its new OS compared to Microsoft, which is fundamentally changing what a desktop OS can be with Windows 8.
Apple has kept OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Expect Apple to reveal more new features for Mountain Lion in the coming months, which will likely justify its standing as a whole new OS. Apple recently dropped the 19.99 fee for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, making the older Mac updates free to download, reports Macworld. But at the moment, it seems like most of its new additions could have simply been software upgrades to Lion. More than anything, the new Mountain Lion seems dedicated to unifying your experience between iOS and OS X with iCloud. Game Center, not surprisingly, will serve as the go-to spot for all of your games, and will also bring over leaderboards and achievements from iOS. It’ll be accessible from anywhere in the OS with a new two-finger swipe motion. Notification Center will wrangle together all of your application notifications in one spot, much like the popular program Growl. Powering synchronization behind the scenes in Mountain Lion is deeper integration with iCloud, which is now also featured on the OS X Finder. iMessage will let OS X users send free messages to iOS 5 users, and the conversations will also be seamlessly synchronized between mobile and desktop. Apple is also releasing a beta version of iMessage today, which replaces iChat for instant messaging functionality, for current OS X Lion users. The new OS will bring over iMessage, Reminders, and Notes from iOS, which will all synchronize with their mobile counterparts. Apple is also quietly killing off the “Mac” part of the OS X name.
Apple typically holds events to reveal new versions of Mac OS X, so the fact that the company quietly unveiled the OS today is yet another sign that this isn’t a huge release. For the most part, the new OS looks the same, but it also includes apps that first appeared on iOS, deeper integration with iCloud, as well as the Notification Center and Game Center from iOS.ĭevelopers can get their hands on Mountain Lion today in a preview release, but the rest of us will have to wait until this summer for the software.
Like OS X Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion (technically OS X version 10.8) is being positioned as a minor upgrade over last year’s Lion release.