Aug 2, 2012

Tech News: Hear Apple Roar With OS X Mountain Lion

Apple recently announced the release of their latest version of Mac operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, 10.8. This is the ninth release in the OS X series following the OS X Lion, 10.8. Apple acknowledged the release during their fiscal 2012 third quarter release, which the company posted quarterly revenue of $35 billion and a quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion.[1] In the earnings report, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said, “We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” adding, “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this fall. We are also looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.” The OS X Mountain Lion features more than 200 new features and is available for digital download at a price tag of $19.99. Other features for the new Mac operating system include:

Notification Center – Consolidates notifications from Messages, Calendar, Mail Reminders and third-party apps in one location.
System-wide Sharing – Allows users to share links, photos, videos and other files without having to switch from app to the other. With a simple one-time sign on, users have access to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo.
Dictation – Instead of typing where applicable, users can now use their voice. Dictation works with any app and supports English, French, German and Japanese.
AirPlay Mirroring – Wirelessly sends up to 1080p secure stream of what’s playing on the Mac to an HD television using Apple TV. In addition, users are able to send audio to a receiver or speakers that use AirPlay.
Game Center – Whether on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, Game Center allows users to enjoy live, multiplayer games on popular social gaming networks from iOS to the Mac.
Power Nap – Automatically performs Time Machine backups to Time Capsule and downloads OS X software updates while Mac the sleeps.

“People are going to love the new features in Mountain Lion and how easy it to download and install from the Mac App Store,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With iCloud integration, Mountain Lion is even easier to set up, and your important information stays up to date across all your devices so you can keep editing documents, taking notes, creating reminders, and continue conversations whether you started on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.” Although the Mountain Lion was just released, reviews are already out. Anick Jesdanun with the Huffington Post says, “It’s well worth the price just for the integration with iCloud, and you get a whole lot more.” Michael deAgonia with Comupterworld said, “Other than a couple of glitches, everything worked as expected. Mountain Lion was as speedy as its predecessor. Battery life remains consistent with earlier versions of OS X. An annoying bug that caused problems reconnecting to Wi-Fi after waking from sleep seems to be fixed. The new additions are well implemented, and the ability to access data and files across all your devices makes this upgrade a no-brainer.” At ABC News, Joanna Stern gave a similar review saying, “Not only do you get a bevy of new features, which I found to enhance and speed up my day to day computing tasks, but it cleans up some flaky issues that lingered in Lion.” According to the release, Mountain Lion requires Lion or Snow Leopard, 2GB of memory and 8GN of available space. Additionally, the OS X Mountain Lion is available at no additional charge to customers who purchased a new Mac system on or after June 11, 2012.

[1] Apple Reports Third Quarter Results