Apple unveils Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion coming this summer with 100+ new features
Apple on Thursday announced Mac OS X 10.8, dubbed "Mountain Lion," the next major release of its Mac operating system, set to launch on the Mac App Store this summer, with a preview now available for Mac developers.
A developer preview of the forthcoming operating system update was released to developers on Thursday, and Apple has boasted that Mountain Lion packs over 100 new features, including many brought from the iPad and iOS mobile operating system.
"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. "The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system."
What's new
New features introduced with Mountain Lion include Messages, which replaces iChat, as well as Notes, Reminders and Game Center for the mac. In addition, Mountain Lion will also feature Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration, and AirPlay Mirroring.
Mountain Lion will also be the first OS X release with iCloud for easy setup and integration with applications. The developer preview also includes Gatekeeper, which helps keep users safe from malicious software by giving control over what applications are installed on a Mac.
The preview of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting Thursday. Mac users will be able to buy the upgrade from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012.
Bringing more of iOS to Mac OS
An in-depth preview of Mountain Lion was provided by Jim Dalrymple at The Loop who has had his hands on a copy of Mountain Lion for the past week. He said that the latest operating system is "packed with new features that existing Mac users and iOS users will enjoy."
"If there was a theme in Mountain Lion, I'd have to say it's familiarity," he wrote. "Apple brought many new features into the new operating system from IOS, so millions of users will recognize the names of the apps and features."
Messages
One of the biggest changes is the replacement of iChat with Messages. And starting Thursday, users can get their hands on the new Messages application in its beta form.
Messages allows users to chat with others based on their Apple ID, just like with iOS. It also connects with regular chat services like AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and others.
iCloud, Reminders, Notes, AirPlay and Twitter
Mountain Lion also features tighter integration with iCloud, connecting it with Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, the Mac App Store, Documents & Data, and Bookmarks. By simply entering an iCloud user ID and password, users will have many features automatically set up for them on their new Mac.
Mountain Lion also brings Notification Center from iOS to the Mac. It can be accessed by choosing a circle button on the top right of the screen. With a gesture of two fingers sliding from the right edge, the Notification Center can be pulled from the right side of the screen.
Reminders and Notes will help users create and track to-do lists across all of their devices. And Game Center lets users personalize their Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
AirPlay Mirroring is also coming to the Mac, allowing users to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what's on their Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV.
New Twitter integration also allows users to sign in once and tweet directly from Safari, Quick Look, Photo Booth, Preview, and third-party applications. The new system-wide Share Sheets also makes it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third-party applications.
Enhanced support for developers, Chinese users
Mountain Lion also features enhanced support for Chinese users, including the option to select Baidu search in Safari. It also sports "significant enhancements" to the Chinese input method, Apple said, along with connectivity for Contacts, Mail and Calendar through top e-mail service providers QQ, 126 and 163, and Share Sheets connectivity with Youku and Toudou.
For developers, there are hundreds of new APIs that allow access to core technologies and enhanced features in OS X. The new Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, allowing developers to create cross-platform multiplayer games for iOS and Mac. There's also a new graphics infrastructure underpinning OpenGL and OpenCL and implementing GLKit, first introduced in iOS 5, making it easier to create OpenGL apps.
Also found in Mountain Lion are enhanced multi-touch APIs that give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Additionally, kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced migration against buffer overflow attacks.
Pricing on Mountain Lion has not yet been announced, but the new operating system will only be available via the Mac App Store.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
Anyway, I'm totally stoked for Game Centre on the Mac.
Our apologies but there was an unexpected error with the application. This problem has been noted, and an email has been sent to the administrators. Please check back in a few hours to try the download again.
Doesn't really sound like Apple, does it?
Damn that's quick.
Summer lasts through September 21st, so it will probably be half a year+ until release.
Here's what you'll see when you go to download it:
Our apologies but there was an unexpected error with the application. This problem has been noted, and an email has been sent to the administrators. Please check back in a few hours to try the download again.
Doesn't really sound like Apple, does it?
I would expect that link won't be active until at least 11 AM EST/8 AM PST...once the business day begins on the West Coast. It may be even later today, as such.
Any mention of Core2Duo support?
Summer lasts through September 21st, so it will probably be half a year until release.
True, but it was two years between leopard and snow leopard and more than two years between SL and lion. So less than a year between these two? Pretty quick.
Is it solely in the UI or is it done in the security level of the OS? As I see, why can't we just go and launch a binary from Terminal, will that require a certificate too?
Psst, I hope Bash has a certificate.
Here's what you'll see when you go to download it:
Our apologies but there was an unexpected error with the application. This problem has been noted, and an email has been sent to the administrators. Please check back in a few hours to try the download again.
Doesn't really sound like Apple, does it?
IMHO that message is most likely as a result of a poor or slow internet connection your end be it literally your end or your ISP in general (such as contention ratios). I have never failed to be able to download even the largest offerings during peak demand (i.e. shortly after a release such as Lion) without issue and cannot see any other reason than the great connection I am lucky enough to have from FiOS which peaks at around 31 Mb/s and never flickers. If it were Apple's servers I'd also see the same problem one would think.
Based on some of these features, I'm more convinced than ever that there is an 'iTV' coming for Christmas.
With that name, only after Apple buys the UK, some would have us believe
(just kidding)
Damn that's quick.
Indeed it was. There was a 2 1/2 year span between Tiger and Leopard where Apple indicated that they were going to slow the release cycle down (considering they were working on iOS and the iPhone, you understand why). Now it seems to be accelerating again with Lion only getting a year in the sun before it becomes the previous generation OS. There are still a lot of people on Snow Leopard right now so I have to wonder about Apple's policy about only supporting two OSes with security updates.
iOS and Mac OS get even tighter integration and this speaks to Apple's overall strategy to have iOS based on the same Cocoa/Darwin bones as the desktop OS. It's getting easier for Apple and their programming tools to transfer technology from one to the other. We all benefit from that as users.
And "Mountain Lion"? Really? When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke. That makes three Apple OS releases that are basically the same animal (Puma, Panther, Mountain Lion).
http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion
I guess new software means new hardware accordingly. Most likely the new iMac and Macbook will be introduced just before (including free issue new OS) or after the summer holidays, containing newest processors of intel's Ivy bridge platform
Unfortunately for all the people looking forward to buy a new macbook or iMac in the next few months.. (which was in line with previous years revamps iMac)