Apple showed OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion off this morning at the WWDC Keynote, showing off what’s in store? Oh, and all this goodness will be available for only $19.99 to users of both Lion and Snow Leopard in July! Customers who buy new Macs from today on will receive free upgrades.
Mountain Lion has “Notification Center”: Notifications always appear in the same spot on your desktop and disappear quickly so they don’t clutter up your screen. Whenever you want to see all your notifications in one place, just swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad. And there they are, in a simple, ordered list. So you’ll always know what’s up as soon as it comes up.
As mentioned previously, Mountain Lion has iCloud built in, iCloud is how a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch work together. your mail, calendars, contacts, reminders, documents, notes, and more will be kept up to date wherever you use them. If you add, delete, or change something on your Mac, it also updates on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And vice versa. iCloud is automatic. Just sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is set up in all the apps that use it.
Documents in the Cloud: iCloud keeps the latest version of your documents on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. When you edit a document, the changes appear across all your devices.
Three new applications come with Mountain Lion, Reminders, Notes, and Messages.
Reminders: Make as many lists as you need and easily add to them. Set due dates and you’ll get alerts as deadlines approach. Set a location from your Mac, and your iPhone or iPad will remind you when you get there. Check items off your lists as you go and keep track of what you’ve completed. iCloud keeps your reminders up to date on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, so you don’t forget anything.
Notes: You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search. Use the Share button to send your notes with Mail or Messages. Pin important notes to your desktop so they’re easy to get to. And take them with you everywhere. Notes works with iCloud, so when you create or edit a note on your Mac, it automatically updates on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And vice versa.
Messages: Now you can send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5, too. Messages appear on your Mac and any device you use, which means you can say hi from your Mac and keep chatting on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are. Send photos, videos, documents, and contacts — even send messages to a group. You’ll see when your message has been delivered and when someone’s typing a reply. Turn on read receipts, and they’ll see when you’ve read a message. With end-to-end encryption, your messages stay safe and private.
Dictation: Dictation converts your words into text. It uses the built-in microphone on your Mac, so there’s no need to set anything up — just start speaking instead of typing. When you say “comma” or “exclamation point,” Dictation punctuates for you. The more you use Dictation, the smarter it gets. It learns voice characteristics. And it recognizes people from your contacts so it enters names accurately. Dictation supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, and Japanese.
AirPlay: Set it up with your Apple TV. You can show web pages and videos on your TV, view lessons in a classroom, or show presentations in a conference room. AirPlay audio streams the music, podcasts, and other audio on your Mac to AirPlay-enabled speakers.
Game Center: Apple says, “With the Game Center app on your Mac, you can play anyone on a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.3 Just use your Game Center account from iOS or create one with your Apple ID. Then sign in and you’re in. See all the games you’ve played and get one going quickly. Check out leaderboards and see how your high score ranks against scores around the world. Game Center recommends Mac games and opponents, so you can start a multiplayer game with your friends and even challenge people you don’t know.”
You can also post to Facebook and Twitter right from the app you’re in. Full integration.
Gatekeeper: Will help protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from. And it gives you even more control over which apps you install. You can download and install apps from anywhere on the web. You can choose to download and install apps from the Mac App Store — the safest place to find apps for your Mac. Or use the Gatekeeper default option, which allows you to install apps from the Mac App Store and apps from identified developers.
Apple says there are over 200 new features in Mountain Lion. To view them all, just visit the Apple website.
