Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Apple : Updated: OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

Apple : Updated: OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

Updated: OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

Posted:

Updated: OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

Mac OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

Apple has today released details of its next-gen OS. Dubbed Mountain Lion, it's the follow-up to OS X 10.7 Lion and prior to that Snow Leopard and Leopard.

As such it's full name will be OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Let's make one thing clear - this is not a mega update to Mac OS X. But what's striking about Mountain Lion is how much further towards iOS Apple is taking its desktop OS - Mac purists will be rightly concerned that Apple seems to be moving its operating systems together to a point where they will converge, but for the rest of us a unified OS is a tantalising prospect.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing in a statement when Mountain Lion was first talked about back in February.

OS x mountain lion

At WWDC 2012, the company's head of software engineering Craig Federighi was keen to point out that the new OS would have 200 new features but talked about several key ones we already knew about; this wasn't that big a reveal for the new version of OS X and so, from a Mac perspective, the OS was overshadowed by the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

There will be system-wide sharing to various services including Flickr and Vimeo, Facebook integration and Dictation plus Power Nap and Game Center.

Dictation enables you to dictate text anywhere you can type, while Power Nap, keeps the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air (second and third generation) up-to-date while it sleeps. Power Nap automatically refreshes Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Photo Stream, Find My Mac and Documents in the Cloud, and when plugged in, downloads software updates and backs up your Mac using Time Machine.

Here's the full rundown on Mountain Lion's features and details:

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: release date

We have learnt the OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion release date is July. It'll be available via the Mac App Store for $20 in the US, so expect £20 to download it in the UK. As with Lion, it'll be a Mac App Store download only.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: iOS integration

The new OS incorporates a number of features right from iOS - we had some in Lion of course, but Mountain Lion includes reminders, notifications and Twitter integration as well as Messages, Notes (separate, not within Mail) and Game Center.

Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your Apple devices.
These all sync to iCloud, as does your gaming record in Game Center. More importantly, the arrival of Game Center in OS X means you can play iOS users in the same game. Apple has demoed cross-platform gaming with Reckless Racing - expect many other games to follow suit.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: iOS terminology

One of the most striking things about the new OS is how Apple is renaming everything on its desktop OS to fall in line with iOS. So iCal is now called Calendar, while Addresss Book has become contacts, for example.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: iCloud integration

Apple says Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. Whatever that means.

Well actually what it means is that Mountain Lion will use your Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime and Find My Mac.

And iCloud will also sync Documents across your devices - any changes are pushed across all your Apple kit so documents are always up to date. Apple has also announced a new API to help developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: iMessage

There's also a Messages app that takes the place of iChat, allowing you to continue conversations started on Mac on any iOS device. iMessages will work much as they do on iPad. Again, messaging is unlimited between Macs and iOS devices.

You can include attachments, photos and HD video, and iMessages appear on all devices. iMessage also includes group messaging, delivery and read receipts, typing indicators and secure end-to-end encryption.

This includes high-quality photos and videos, while the Messages app will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. The continued support for the later is especially pleasing.

OS x mountain lion

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Notifications

Mountain Lion also nicks notifications from iOS. Again there's a Notification Center that provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps.

And, just like in iOS, you pull it across from the right of your desktop. Developers will be able to bake in support for this in their own apps.

You can choose to temporarily suspend all notifications when you want to work or watch a movie.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Safari

Safari now gets the ability to search right from the address bar, just as you can in Chrome and Firefox. There will also be tab syncing between your devices via iCloud plus more multitouch gestures.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Share Sheets

A new feature, called Share Sheets, is supposed to make it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Sounds like a clipboard to us. However, it enables you to share various types of content with whoever you choose. The interesting thing here is that Apple has partnered with Flickr for photos and Vimeo for video.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Twitter and Facebook integration

And, of course, there's Twitter and Facebook. Both services are integrated throughout Mountain Lion so you can sign on once and tweet directly from all your apps including Safari, Quick Look, Photo Booth, Preview and third party apps.

OS x mountain lion

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: AirPlay mirroring

Following on from other attempts at computer-based wireless displays, such as Intel's WiDi, Mountain Lion introduces AirPlay Mirroring. You'll be able to mirror your computer screen on a TV wirelessly, though you'll need an Apple TV to connect through. There's 720p HD support (although other systems do support 1080p, Apple TV doesn't) and supposedly amazing realtime response rates for gamers using the mirroring app.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Gatekeeper

Think there's no need for security software on a Mac? Think again. Apple has introduced a new security feature called Gatekeeper that allows for personalised security settings, working as a kind of safety net for less confident users by offering a setting that allows the Mac to accept only software downloaded from the Mac App Store.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for developers

Apple says it has created hundreds of new APIs for OS X 10.8. As well as that iCloud Documents API we talked about earlier, the Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

There's a new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCL and implements GLKit from iOS 5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps.

What more is there? "Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks," says Apple.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for Chinese users

China is now a massive market for Apple. And as such Mountain Lion introduces new support for Chinese users, "including significant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidu search in Safari."

Apple has also announced easy account setup for some of China's biggest email service providers including QQ, 126 and 163.

Chinese users can also upload video via Share Sheets directly to video websites Youku and Tudou, and while we like Twitter, there's system-wide support for Sina weibo.

Apple finally launches rear-protecting Smart Cover for iPad

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Apple finally launches rear-protecting Smart Cover for iPad

It has taken a while, but Apple has finally launched a version of its Smart Cover that protects the rear of the iPad.

The new sheath, which will fit iPad 2 and 3, appreared on the Apple Store when it re-launched after WWDC and features a polyurethane back plate to prevent scratches and minor dings.

The case comes in six different shades (light and dark gray, blue, green, pink, and red) and, naturally, features the same folding methods that allow a number of viewing and typing-friendly positions.

If you want a little extra protection, as well as the magnetic sleep-and-awake mechanism, you'll need to fork out £39.99 ($49.99). However, it does come with free laser engraving. Whoop.

WWDC overflow

Unsurprisingly the Smart Cover reveal wasn't deemed important enough for a mention during a bumper, fast-paced, yet almost excruciatingly long keynote address at this year's WWDC.

Apple fans were greeted with new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models and a brand new hyrid next generation MacBook Pro category, which also brings a Retina Display into the mix.

On the software side of things, we saw the full Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion software revealed, as well as the first look at iOS 6, complete with Facebook integration and a brand new homebrewed Maps app.

Apple quietly launches new Mac Pro

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Apple quietly launches new Mac Pro

The new Apple product announcements didn't end with the WWDC keynote. The company has also rolled out a new Mac Pro desktop computer.

And you can see why Apple chose note to dedicate precious minutes during the lengthy, which included new MacBook Air models, MacBook Pro models and a Retina Display next generation MacBook Pro.

The new desktop titans remain mightily impressive, but it's only a minor spec bump. The basic model now features a 3.2GHz quad-core Xoen processor, 6GB RAM and a 1TB hard-drive.

Further up the scale, the processor is upped to a pair of 2.4GHz six-core processors, which comes with a whopping 12GB RAM and the same 1TB hard-drive.

If you want to go for the Mac Pro Server edition, you'll get s 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon chip with 8GB RAM and two 1TB hard-drives.

Slight spec bump

So what we really have is a speed increase and very little else.

The new Mac Pro family will set you back £2,049, £3,099 and £2,449 respectively and they're available to buy now.
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