Mountain Lion feels like the fine-tuned product of years of careful thinking about how an operating system should combine innovation and consistency, while Windows 8 feels (so far) like a 1.0 release: big ideas, paradigm shifts, and a lot of work still to be done. The voice-activated Siri system in iOS doesn't exist in OS X, but Mountain Lion includes a built-in dictation system that lets you speak text into any existing application I've got more to say about it below. The OS X Mail app used to be a catch-all that also stored notes and reminders, but now OS X has separate Notes and Reminders apps that match the ones in iOS-including location-based reminders that trigger when you enter or exit a specified address-and sync their contents with your iOS devices via the cloud. A complex app like the Safari browser keeps all its advanced features while adding a new "tab view" that, somewhat like Safari does in iOS, displays reduced side-by-side images of all your open Web pages and lets you switch through them with an easy trackpad swipe. ![]() The app exchanges messages with any iOS devices in an interface that matches the iMessage app in iOS. Simple, single-purpose apps like Mountain Lion's new Messages app are good examples of what's right in the OS X/iOS integration. ![]() In contrast, Apple took the best parts of its iOS phone-and-tablet operating system and built matching features into OS X, without delivering major disruptions to longtime users of either. We'll reserve judgment on the success or failure of that integration until final code is released, however. Microsoft chose to merge a desktop OS and a tablet OS in way that seems likely to encounter serious resistance among their more conservative desktop users, to say the least. While Mountain Lion wins as a consumer OS, it will also be extremely interesting to see just how much attention it gets from businesses, too-especially smaller businesses that wouldn't take advantage of the Windows Server 2012. I only stopped being distracted by the gorgeous imagery when I changed my desktop background to a solid color.Ī Different Approach Compared with last year's debut of OS X Lion, what's different is that, this time, Windows 8's release is imminent (it's currently available as a Release Preview). If you buy a MacBook Pro with Retina display with Mountain Lion installed, be warned: you may spend so much time feasting your eyes on Mountain Lion's high-resolution desktop backgrounds that you won't get any work done. Don't bother trying to buy Mountain Lion on a disk it only comes on a new Mac or via the App Store. If you recently bought Mac-on or after June 11, that is-don't kick yourself: your upgrade is free. Though Apple won't say a word about it, this "AirPlay Mirroring" feature clearly looks forward to a future TV manufactured by Apple itself.Īpple charges $19.99 to download Mountain Lion from the App Store and-for that single one-time payment-you can upgrade all your existing Macs from OS X Snow Leopard or OS X Lion. The new OS makes it easy to use a Mac as a high-powered game console and media center, easily sending its screen to an HDTV connected to an Apple TV add-on box. While adding security and sharing features that make it a more powerful system for getting work done, Mountain Lion also makes some convincing advances on Windows' throne as the leading platform for playing games. Mountain Lion isn't perfect, but it leaves the consumer competition so far behind that you'll need to look hard for convincing reasons to use anything else. When installed on the latest Mac hardware-recent MacBook Air models and the new MacBook Pro with Retina display-Mountain Lion even keeps working while the computer sleeps, downloading software updates, messages, mail, and much else while the laptop's lid is closed and its lights are off, so the system is up-to-date the moment it wakes up. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.
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