Have you met OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion

System OSX has come a long way since it’s first iteration back in March of 2001.

Since then we’ve seen Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and now Mountain Lion.  What’s new?  Well for starters you can look for Mountain Lion to continue Lion’s trend of merging the iOS system and the OSX system.

Launchpad brought app launching capabilities that replicate those seen on the iPad, for example, the scrolling direction of Lion mimicking that of the iPad. Additional perks, include the notification center making it’s way to Mountain Lion, along with the Notes app and Reminders app.

The messages app which apple introduced for the iOS with the last update has allowed iPad users to text iPhone and other iPad users.  Soon after that release, Apple released a beta version of the iMessage app for the computer.  For the first time this unified messaging applies to all Apple devices from iPad, iPhone, iPod touch to Macs.  With Mountain Lion, iMessages will be finalized and released as a full-fledged app.

You can also look forward to a feature called “Gate Keeper” which promised to keep your Mac even more secure from viruses and spyware than ever before.  We also heard about a system wide dictation capability being added (much like on the new iPad and iPhone 4S), as well as system integrated Facebook, and Twitter integration

Above and beyond all of those features, the biggest one is the deep level integration of iCloud.  When Lion was released, iCloud still didn’t have the kinks worked out, but now it’s been a year, MobileMe is a thing of the past, and iCloud is humming along beautifully.  Mountain Lion has been built from the ground up to take total and complete advantage of all of iCloud’s true capabilities.  So get ready for a whole new level of integration and synchronisation between all your devices, all your apps, and all your data.

Mountain Lion will be released in July for the paltry price of $19.99. I for one am all in and excited for the upgrade! For more detailed information about the release, or any of the features discussed above, click here to go directly to Apple’s Mountain Lion page.

Category: The Mac Whisperer