Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion—released to developers today and scheduled for public availability this summer—doesn't have the massive under-the-hood changes we saw in Lion, also known as Apple OS X 10.7. There's no equivalent in Mountain Lion to the switch to 64-bit computing, for example. But that's not to say OS X 10.8 isn't a big deal. To the average user, Mountain Lion might even seem like a bigger deal, because the changes to Apple's desktop operating system are things average users will be able to appreciate from the minute they start using the OS. Especially users who also have iPads or iPhones.
Why? Because out of the 10 biggest OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion improvements touted by Apple, about half involve changes that bring OS X more closely in line with iOS. In some cases it's a pretty big deal: Messages replace iChat, for example. In others, such as pulling Notes out of email and giving it the iOS treatment, it's more about consistency. Apple iOS users will be pleased, too, at the degree to which Mountain Lion meshes with iOS, given the new OS X integration with iCloud. All sorts of apps and services can be synced across your iOS and OS X devices. There are even options built in at the menu level, where you have the choice to save a doc not only to your local machine but also directly to iCloud, for example.
For all the convergence with iOS, Mac OS X Mountain Lion still looks and feels like a desktop operating system. It's still OS X, not iOS. With the forthcoming consumer beta of Windows 8, which takes more drastic Metro measures to tablet-ify Microsoft's OS, it will be interesting to see which approach wins the day.
For now, however, it's Mountain Lion's day in the sun. While we've been fortunate enough to try out the code in a much earlier stage of development than we've ever seen before from Apple, Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 already looks like a considerable improvement to what is already our Editors' Choice operating system.
1. iCloud, Integrated
Apple's first real foray into the world of cloud computing (unless you count the ill-fated and soon- departed MobileMe) was iCloud, and it wasn't released until October 2011, well after the release of OS X 10.7 Lion. When Mountain Lion is finally released this summer, it will be much easier for the 100 million iCloud users to sync documents between Macs and iOS devices. Mountain Lion-aware apps let you save documents to iCloud or your local system directly from the file system. If you save a doc to iCloud, any revisions that you make on one device are instantly available on all your other Apple devices. There's a Documents Library for easy access to your iCloud documents, with the most recently used documents sorted to the top. Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, Notes, and many more Apple apps and services work with iCloud in Mountain Lion, and there's an API that will allow developers to create iCloud-enabled apps, too.
The extremely popular iMessage service has displaced the venerable iChat on Mountain Lion. The result is a cross-platform service that lets users on Macs, iPhones, and iPads chat with each other. It allows for unlimited messaging, including the sending of high-quality photos, HD video, and attachments as large as 100MB. Mac users will want to restrain themselves when chatting with friends on metered mobile data plans, although the iOS version of the app is smart enough to route messages through Wi-Fi when it's available. Messages shows delivery receipts by default, and there's also an option to turn on read receipts. Messages are encrypted end to end, and there's a button to escalate your chat to a FaceTime video call. Messages works with other instant-messaging services, including AIM, Google Talk, Jabber, and Yahoo. Want to try out Messages before Mountain Lion drops? Check out the beta for Lion at apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/messages-beta/.
Although we didn't see it in the early version of Mountain Lion we previewed, Game Center is making the move from iOS to Macs. If you don't know it from iOS, Game Center is a social gaming platform. Looking for a new game or someone to game against online? This is where you'll do it on your Mac. You'll be able to play against anyone with a connected iPad, iPhone, or Mac, too. Game Center enables multiplayer games, in-game voice chat, and notifications of friend requests and game invitations. There will be an API for Game Center that lets developers leverage in-game chat, leaderboards and more.
4. AirPlay Mirroring Makes Your TV an Apple Television
If you've got an Apple TV device on the same network as your Mac (with a second-generation Intel Core processor), Mountain Lion makes it simple to mirror your screen on your HDTV (at 720p resolution). AirPlay Mirroring pops up to let you know when it detects an Apple TV, and it handles all the resolution matching. Combined with Game Center, AirPlay Mirroring can more or less turn your Mac into a game console.
5. New Notification Center
Mountain Lion unifies system and app messaging, giving all messages a consistent look and bringing them into one place. The Notification Center slides in and out from the right-hand side of the screen when you use a new trackpad gesture (a two-finger swipe from the right edge). Or you can click the Notification Center button in the upper right corner of the screen. (It turns blue when there are new notifications.) Apps can pop up banners, which last on your screen's upper right corner for five seconds before moving into the notifications center. Alerts, on the other hand, pop up and persist until dismissed. There's an API for developers, too, so that their apps can appear in the Notification center and conform to the Mountain Lion style.
