Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Preview
Seven months after Apple launched OS X 10.7 Lion it is announcing the developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. The update includes big new features including Notification Center, AirPlay mirroring, and iMessage. Yes, More iOS features making it to the desktop. Continue after the break for a rundown of new features.
Notification Center
iOS users will recognise this feature straight away. Notification center will allow you to get notifications for an email, instant message, a friend request, a calendar alart, and much more right on your Mac, just like you would on your iPhone or iPad. Notification banners appear on your desktop and disappear after a short time frame so they don’t interrupt what you are currently doing. Swiping to the left will bring up all notifications in an ordered list.
Messages
iMessages leaps onto Mac so you can now keep the conversation going. The app allows you to send unlimited messages to anyone on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or ipod touch running iOS5, bringing the messaging system to all Apple devices. You can send photos, videos, contacts, and documents and even group message. Messages are even encrypted so they are safe and private. Messages for OS X is available now in beta for Lion users, you can grab it here.
Reminders
Reminders helps you get things done and you can organise them into lists such as Groceries, set due dates and alerts and more. It also syncs through iCloud with your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Notes
Notes lets you keep track of anything you want. The Mountain Lion version lets you add photos, images and attachments. You can also use the share button to send your notes to friends with Mail or Messages and pin importnat notes to your desktop so you remember them. Notes you write on your Mac will also appear on your iOS devices.
Game Center
A much requested feature, Game Center, is coming to the Mac. Game Center lets you get a multiplayer game started with your anyone, check out leaderboards, rankings and earn achievements. You can also discover new games based on the ones you and your friends play.
Share Sheets / Twitter
Share Sheets let you share content and appear in many Mountain Lion apps. You can send links from Safari, send notes via Mail and Messages and post photos to Flickr. You can also tweet all sorts of content including links, photos, and more with the tweet Sheet.
Airplay Mirroring
Airplay Mirroring comes to the Mac. It will let you stream what’s on your Mac to your HDTV via Apple TV. Useful for sharing a videoe on your TV or to present to a conference room.
iCloud
iCloud integration in Mountain Lion has been improved. Sign in once with your Apple iD and iCloud autmatically sets up across your Mac. iCloud will keep your mail, calendars, contacts, documents, and more up to date on every Apple device you own.
Wrap-up
Apple is adding a ton of new additions to OS X and is bringing iOS to the desktop even more with every update, and I’m loving it. More things to cover about the new version and we will update once we have had a good look around at them.
Apple hasn’t said how much Mountain Lion is going to cost, but again, it will be distributed only through the Mac App Store in the Summer.
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