One year and one week since the release ofOS X Lion , Apple is back with Mountain Lion , also have a go at it as OS X 10.8 .
Like Lion , Mountain Lion offer numerous lineament additions that will be familiar to iOS users . This atomic number 76 X acquittance continues Apple ’s philosophy of bringing iOS feature film “ back to the Mac , ” and includes iMessage , Reminders , Notes , Notification Center , Twitter integration , Game Center , and AirPlay Mirroring . There are even a few feature of speech that are get their debut with Mountain Lion , and will discover their way of life back intoiOS 6this gloaming .
As the first OS ex expiration post - iCloud , Mountain Lion offers a much more thoroughgoing integration with Apple ’s data - syncing religious service than Lion bid . Mountain Lion also brings choice to limit which kinds of apps users can install , offers systemwide consolidation with social networking and medium - sharing services , and gives some late MacBook model the exponent to keep working even when they appear to be asleep . And although there are no actual mickle lions in China , OS X Mountain Lion does add a batch of features to speak to users in the country that ’s Apple ’s big growth opportunity .
At $ 20 , Mountain Lion is Apple ’s chintzy oculus sinister X upgrade since version 10.1 was free 11 year ago ; like Lion , Mountain Lion is available only via a Mac App Store download . The combination of the low price and the gentle download will likely make Mountain Lion the most quick adopted OS X upgrade of all time . reach how satisfying a release I found Mountain Lion to be , that ’s a good thing .
( A compatibility greenback : Some Macs now run Lion wo n’t be able to guide Mountain Lion . For more details , read our Mountain Lion FAQ . )
iCloud comes to the fore
In 2011 , in his last public event as Apple CEO , Steve Jobs present iCloud — Apple ’s Internet - based system of data storage and synchronization . At the clock time it was clearly a major strategic move for the companionship , and users of iOS 5 have benefited from several nice features , including cloud backup and predilection syncing across devices .
On the Mac , iCloud integration has been limited . OS X Lion was finished before iCloud go far , which foreclose Apple from deeply mix the two . But Mountain Lion and the extroverted iOS 6 ( due this fall ) make much better purpose of iCloud and — most impressively for user of both Macs and iOS devices — use iCloud to work out together .
It starts at frame-up : In Setup Assistant , the system necessitate for your iCloud ID and will synchronise a bunch of core preference — essentially the selective information hive away in the Mail , Contacts & Calendars Lucy in the sky with diamonds in the System Preferences app . With this individual log - in to iCloud , all your email accounts , contacts , calendars , musical note , monitor , and the like , will be available on the Mac you ’re using .
These feature of speech wo n’t bring over all your files from an sometime Mac ( you ’ll need to use Migration Assistant for that ) , but reckon a hereafter where most users ’ apps are purchased on the Mac App Store , and most apps stash away their documents in iCloud . In that world , logging into iCloud from a Modern Mac will be almost as unseamed as regenerate from iCloud on an iOS twist . This is definitely the direction Apple is head up in , even if Mountain Lion does n’t take substance abuser all the way there .
Since last fall , Apple ’s iWork apps for iOS ( Keynote , Numbers , and Pages ) have affirm iCloud ’s Documents in the Cloud feature , which permit you put in documents on Apple ’s Internet servers and get at them from any iOS machine . But the Mac versions of those apps have n’t been update to support that feature — until now . In a set of app updates clock with the sacking of Mountain Lion , Apple has updated the Mac iWork apps to bear out Documents in the Cloud . And TextEdit and Preview , two apps include with Mountain Lion , also support Documents in the Cloud . ( Apps from other developer are also free to support this feature , so long as they ’re sold through the Mac App Store . )
Here ’s how it works : Instead of the traditional opened dialogue box , there ’s a new box with two option : iCloud and On My Mac . On My Mac is the “ traditional ” Mac file chooser , pretty much the same concept as the one introduced back in 1984 . But the iCloud option discover something quite different : a view of all that app ’s written document that are stored in iCloud . By default , this icon - ground view show icons sorted with the late modified files at the top , though you may also switch to a leaning persuasion and sort by name , particular date , or size .
In either opinion , you’re able to drag one file cabinet on top of another in order of magnitude to make a novel folder . If you require to move a filing cabinet from the Finder into iCloud , you could just drag it into the window and it ’ll be moved . If you want to move a file cabinet from iCloud to your Mac , you just drag it out . ( Holding down the Option key while dragging does what you ’d expect , too — it imitate the single file or else of moving it . )
When I first opened Pages on my Mountain Lion - powered Mac , I was greeted with a collection of documents I did n’t expect to see — they were all items I had create over the retiring year on my iPad using Pages . I was able to open them and edit them , and the edits showed up almost immediately on my iPad , too . When the process puzzle out , it ’s nothing forgetful of magical .
Similarly , when you make a document in one of these apps and attempt to save it , by default the Save dialog box is set to iCloud . you may switch over to your Mac ’s intemperate drive if you need , but I ’d wager that average users will just economize their file to iCloud and not worry about navigate their hard drive ’s file hierarchy .
Many expert users will blench at the conception of not using the traditional filing cabinet system , but Apple believes that most computer users shinny with finding files and pass over file cabinet systems . Between Launchpad and Documents in the Cloud , many novice Mac user will more and more find little reasonableness to use the Finder . Having seen plenty of friends and relatives struggle with file management , I ’m lean to agree with the company . The right news show for power substance abuser is , Apple does n’t seem committed to ruining the experience for hoi polloi who require to save data file on their hard driving force . It ’s well-to-do to move files back and forward between iCloud and your Mac hard movement , the Finder has n’t belong aside , and Launchpad is utterly ignorable .
Even as an experienced power substance abuser , I see the appeal of Documents in the Cloud . It ’s certainly easier to find a file you were work on recently in a view that shows only one app ’s Indian file with the most recent stuff sort out to the top . It ’s not that dissimilar from what I tend to do these days when I ’m examine to spread a file : plunge the app , go to the File Menu , and look in the Open Recent cascading menu to see if the file I want is still there .
The menu that appear when you snap on a document ’s title of respect at the top of its window is much more useful now . Unsaved documents still come along in iCloud even if you never press Save . There are a mess of really useful feeling that will invoke to everyone .
But Documents in the Cloud is not all silver lining . Some file type — text edition files , for deterrent example — can be opened by all sorts of different apps , yet Documents in the Cloud does n’t share filing cabinet between apps . For example , there ’s no way to insert an double into a Pages or Keynote text file via iCloud shortly of open Preview , grab the data file from its iCloud windowpane , and tangle into a page or sloping trough . That seems less than ideal .
And while iCloud is liberal , that ’s only for the first 5 GB of data point . My iPhone and iPad backups already nudge me close to the terminal point ; tot a bunch of giant Keynote presentation will probably push me over the edge . If Apple wants people to embrace Documents in the Cloud , it might want to give drug user a flake more iCloud space without charging them for the privilege .
But still : With Mountain Lion , it ’s a lot clearer to see how iCloud will profit everyone who uses Apple product by tying those products more intimately together and eliminate a lot of fussing and fiddling with single file .
iOS apps come to the Mac
With Mountain Lion , Apple is persist in the approach begun in Lion to sync up the face , find , and even terminology used by OS X and iOS . The Address Book app is now Contacts , as on iOS . iCal is now Calendar . More notably , there are a handful of young apps that have been built specifically to touch up with Io twin — and to sync information across devices .
The new Reminders app , which wait more or less identical to theiOS version introduced with iOS 5 , syncs your reminder via iCloud . It supports the same canonic to - do list functionality as its iOS twin , and you may set locating - found reminder that will ( for example ) trigger alert on your iPhone when you participate or buy the farm a special place . It ’s scarcely going to give complicated task - management apps a ladder for their money , but that ’s not always Apple ’s destination when it builds an app into its operating systems . This is an app for citizenry who want a basic set of checklists synchronize across all their gimmick .
With its yellow college - ruled port , the Notes app will be instantly conversant to iPhone and iPad exploiter . It ’s also a suitable permutation for Stickies , the august usefulness for jot down a few notes to yourself . But musical note on the Mac has a few supererogatory tricks up its sleeve : It supports rich textbook with dissimilar baptistry , hyperlinks , bulleted lists , images , and even file attachment . The Notes app on iOS and Mac sync together , of course , so instead of having various separate notepad on all your equipment , all your notes are with you at all times . It really works , and it ’s been useful enough to prompt me to commence using bill on my iPhone .
banknote does n’t use the iCloud syncing , though , which is kind of an odd choice . This is a legacy of the old agency you saw Notes in Mac OS — as a special mailbox in the Mail app . That always matte like a bizarre feature , and it ’s good that Apple has finally broken Notes out into its own app . But behind the conniption , Notes still apply the IMAP email touchstone to sync , which mean you have to have a valid IMAP email account entered in the Mail , Contacts & Calendars system taste pane so as to utilise the syncing feature . It ’s something Apple should belike just transmigrate to iCloud for simplicity ’s sake .
There ’s also a raw Game Center app , which in the end brings Apple ’s crony organization for game across from iOS . Yes , you could lumber in , summate buddies , and see what game your friend are wreak from the app . But the app is n’t as significant as the fact that Game Center is now available to Mac game developer . By acquire vantage of Game Center , developer get access to buddy lists , a higher-ranking system , in - app vocalisation chat , head - to - head gameplay , and gameplay across Apple platforms . Expect a flood of Mac games that are versions of games previously seen on iOS .
iMessage supplants iChat
In 2011 Apple introducedthe iMessage communicating organization , a replacement for text messaging that lease Io gadget convey directly with one another . Unlike SMS textbook message , the iMessage system transference information ( not just schoolbook , but double and files ) via the cyberspace , so there are no text accusation .
With Mountain Lion , support for iMessage comes to the Mac as well . And it happens via the Messages app , which is a renamed edition of iChat with all its old features entire , plus support for iMessage .
Like Messages on the iPhone , Messages for Mac lets you declare multi - person chats and can optionally let people bonk when you ’ve have and take their messages and when you ’re typewrite a reply . An integrated telecasting - Old World chat push allows you to kick off a video chat with capable twist , either over traditional instant - messaging systems ( as iChat has always done ) or by launch the FaceTime app .
There ’s a lot to wish about have access to iMessage on the Mac . When I ’d receive a content on my iPhone while working on my Mac , I ’d be frustrated that I had to type out a response on my iPhone keyboard rather than the big Mac keyboard aright in front of me . It ’s now really leisurely to mail a quick text subject matter to my married woman when I ’m at piece of work — all I have to do is typecast her name in a new Messages window and then type a substance .
This is n’t to say that there aren’tfrustrating things about content , or iMessage in general . It ’s capital that using iMessage means you have a record book of your conversation on all of your gadget , and it makes it easy to keep on having a conversation even if you have to shut down your Mac and top dog for the busbar stop . But every metre I welcome a content via iMessage on my Mac , my iPad and iPhone also chime or vibrate . Not just at the first , but every single metre I invite a message . There should be a way for Apple to detect which gadget I ’m actively using to have the iMessage conversation and block off border the residuum of them . I should n’t have to mute my iPad and pull my iPhone out of my sack in orderliness to have a conversation on my Mac .
This feature has another odd side essence , too : When I opened my Mac up after I had been give an iMessage conversation on my iPhone , Messages opened and proceeded to afford a newfangled chat windowpane and display the old message from that conversation . It ’s gravid that I have a transcript of that confab on my Mac now , but it seems like an inelegant way to do it . ( And often times I only see part of a conversation , which is less than helpful . )
I also found a unusual , recurring bug when I was lumber out of all my service and could n’t log back in until I opened the preference windowpane , deactivate the score , and then re - activate it .
The bottom line is that I love the estimation of iMessage , gusto not worrying about the monetary value of schoolbook message , and am happy that I can institutionalize thing via iMessage from my Mac . But Apple need to rivet on making the cross - equipment experience a lilliputian less obtrusive .
Alert! Notification Center appears
Sometimes your Mac necessitate to get your attention . For years , many Mac app developer have built their own — think of meeting admonisher pop - ups in iCal or Microsoft Office , for example . For years , the opened - source projectGrowlhas attempted to create a more general telling system of rules , and it ’s support by portion of apps .
With Mountain Lion , OS hug drug gains a system - degree telling system approachable to every developer , with features much like those already ascertain in iOS . Alerts look in the top right corner of the screen in a little house of cards . Notifications persist there for five minute , and then slide off screenland to the right ( unless you swipe them forth first , or select them to launch the relevant app ) . qui vive , on the other hired man , remain on - covert until you tap the Show or Close ( or in the case of some alerts , Snooze ) buttons .
In iOS 5 , you see all your late notifications by pulling down from the top of the screen to disclose Notification Center . In Mountain Lion , the Notification Center list is a narrow-minded isthmus that live just to off the right-hand side of your screen . you may give away it either by flick on the unexampled Notification Center ikon at the far right of the menu bar , or by swipe with two finger start at the far correct edge of the trackpad . Either means , your integral Mac port will slide to the left field , reveal a leaning of what ’s been trying to get your attention lately .
There ’s also a new Notifications pane in the System Preferences app , analogous to the Notifications cascading menu in iOS ’s options app . From here , you could choose which apps appear within Notification Center and how their merry bubbles comport .
Notifications are good when you want to see them , but they can also get in your agency , depending on setting . Apple has made some smart decisions so as to rent you squelch notifications when they ’re not appropriate . If you scroll up in the Notification Center list , a new option is revealed : Show Alerts and Banners . If you flip the switch to Off , notifications are muffle — but only until tomorrow . Apple assumes that you just do n’t want to be bug right now , but does n’t want you to miss out on important presentment in the future .
Another clever feature is Notification Center ’s auto - sensing when a Mac is connected to an outside show . I apply a 2d display at my desk , and Notification Center has no trouble display alerts there . But if I rob up my MacBook to an high-definition television or a projector , the alerting will be suppressed . Mountain Lion actually look for clues that the external display you ’ve addict up to is a goggle box or projector , and if it is , it wo n’t show any notifications . Because the last thing you want is for a message from one of your booster on Twitter to be adrift over a lantern slide in an important presentation you ’re generate .
I ’ve see Notification Center to be a useful addition to my Mac . This is the variety of feature of speech that needed to be a part of the operating organization for the sake of consistence and ubiquity , and Apple ’s done a good job of implement it . I appreciate being alarm when someone ’s beam me a Direct Message on Twitter or when I ’ve received an important electronic mail , and the configurations in the Notification Center dominance panel are granular enough to reserve me to subdue any apprisal that get in my way . ( In a way , they may be too granular — I wish there was a room to more loosely congeal presentment preferences , rather than lead app by app . )
Gatekeeper eyes your apps
Ever since Apple present theMac App Store , many people have speculated that it was only a thing of time until the Mac , like Io , could only lead software trade at once via the shop .
I never really think that was a serious possibility , and Mountain Lion seems to clinch it . Thenew Gatekeeper feature , find in Mountain Lion ’s Security & Privacy preference dot , adds an intermediate level of auspices between fully - approved App Store apps and random files downloaded from unknown sources over the Internet . It ’s Apple ’s attempt to bring more iOS - style security to Mac substance abuser even if the apps they apply are not from the App Store , and it ’s a gravid move .
By default , Mountain Lion will launch freshly - download apps from the Mac App Store as well as any apps written by “ distinguish developers ” without complaint . Identified developers are members of Apple ’s Mac developer program who have find a credential unite to their identity , which they use to cryptographically bless their apps . ( Apple does n’t do any form of background hitch on the developer , and it does n’t approve any of this software . All it signify is that Apple make love who the developer who signed the app was — and that gives Apple the power to reverse the developer ’s license if they ’re discover to be a distributor of malware . ) The human activity of cryptographically signing apps also prevents legitimate apps from being fiddle with after the fact , since any modify apps will fail the check Mountain Lion performs .
Most masses will only run into Gatekeeper when downloading an app that has n’t been updated with a developer signature . you’re able to turn off Gatekeeper altogether , of course , but you’re able to also choose to open unknown apps manually : Just keep in line - select the app in the Finder and take Open . Gatekeeper wo n’t stop you .
It ’s also important to note that , as the name imply , Gatekeeper isnota system that continually read your Mac take care for malware . It do work only the very first time you try out to open an app , using the same system that warns you before you open just about any file that you downloaded from the Internet . Once you give that app entry through the logic gate and into your Mac , there ’s no more security .
developer have sleep with since February that Gatekeeper was coming ; I ’d bet that most Mac developer have acquired their credential and sign their apps . And the 1 that have n’t been signal will still run , once you ’ve used your own judgement to adjudicate whether you let them through the gate . It ’s a sensible strategy that does n’t leave developers whose apps ca n’t be in the Mac App Store out in the frigidness , and most users wo n’t notice a affair .
doorman ’s not the only surety addition to Mountain Lion . The Security & Privacy predilection pane ’s Privacy chit is now more chondritic . In increase to control over location - base datum ( introduced in Lion ) and the sending of diagnostic information to Apple , you’re able to also command access code to Contacts , Twitter , and Facebook .
Sharing and social services
In an attempt to reduce the amount of stair required to share hooey on your Mac with others , Apple has total a share-out button to most of its apps and offer access to the same share-out functionality for third - party app developers . When you press the ( intimate to iOS users ) share clit in an app , you ’ll see a pop - up menu listing several way to share the item you ’re work with .
Extending the theme of sharing , Apple has integrated Twitter and Facebook , as well as other Robert William Service include Flickr and Vimeo , throughout Mountain Lion . ( I was capable to taste the Facebook functionality on a demonstration organisation loaned to me by Apple ; the initial press release of Mountain Lion wo n’t affirm it , but it ’ll be made useable in an update sometime this dip . )
In Safari , the portion button lets you mail a link to Facebook or Twitter ( and in a nice touch , that choice will fetch up a “ share sheet ” where you could write your own text , rather than send out a generic pre - formatted content ) , sum up a bookmarker , station a link via Messages , sum the Sir Frederick Handley Page to Reading List , or institutionalise the fib via electronic mail . ( If you take to send the fib via e-mail , you could choose to institutionalize a connection , the HTML of the Sir Frederick Handley Page , or a stripped - down view of the page in the style of Safari ’s Reader feature . )
you could add your Twitter and Facebook account info in the Mail , Contacts & Calendars system taste . Once that ’s done , it becomes easy to speedily portion out items from just about anywhere via the Share computer menu or the buttons at the top of the Notification Center list . I was able to post an simulacrum to Twitter and Facebook from within Preview , as well as send it to Flickr . I could even transfer it to a nearby Mac via Apple ’s AirDrop file cabinet - transfer feature , all without will my Preview window . you’re able to even prefer whether to make your Facebook posts public , just to your friends , or to a limited list of friends .
Twitter and Facebook desegregation go beyond that , though . Mountain Lion can sync with your Facebook contacts list , so that all your Facebook Friend appear in Contacts . If the denizens of your Contacts lean are also your Facebook friend , Mountain Lion will do its best to avoid making duplicate entries . ( A few of my friends were duplicate when I tried this , but immix them back into one record was n’t too hard using the Merge Selected Cards command in Contacts . ) Mountain Lion can also optionally update the pictures tie to each of your contacts based on those contacts ’ public Facebook profiles , even if they ’re not Facebook supporter , and can do similarly with Twitter incarnation .
A few years ago I tested a Palm WebOS smartphone and was impressed with its attempt to sew my social networks and address al-Qur’an together into a integrated collection of touch . Apple has , up to now , resisted rich integration with service like Twitter and Facebook . The good news is that with Mountain Lion , Twitter is fully mix and this crepuscle Facebook will finally be besides . It will be a great convenience for user of these services . ( And if you do n’t apply them , you wo n’t neglect anything . )
Mac, take a memo
Dictation , a feature antecedently available only on the iPhone 4S and the third - contemporaries iPad , come to the Mac with Mountain Lion . Mountain Lion ’s command engine come along to be identical to the one found on iOS , and requires an net association . ( Keep in mind that Dictation andSiriare two separate functions . Mountain Lion does n’t proffer Siri . )
Mountain Lion dictation can be used just about anywhere there is a blinking cursor . If you could put down text there , you could dictate text into it — no app updates need . By nonremittal , you kick off a dictation seance by tapping the Function cay twice , although you’re able to customise this to a different keyboard shortcut in the Dictation and Speech ( formerly Speech ) preference pane . Then you just say what you want to say , and once you ’re done , your utterances will be rendered ( usually quite accurately ) as textual matter .
It ’s a great addition . Of of course , there are better speech - to - text pick uncommitted commercially — subtlety offersDragon Expressfor $ 50 andDragon Dictatefor $ 200 . Those plan work on your Mac without an cyberspace connector and offer voice - training and customizability that Mountain Lion ’s dictation feature ca n’t match . But not everyone who might utilize Dictation take that level of customizability .
I ’ve never managed to utilize most bid products for very long , but I find that I use iOS bid every now and then when I need it . I look forward to being able to do the same on my Mac with Mountain Lion .
Sleepwalking MacBooks
When a Mac is asleep , it ’s basically drained to the world . When an iOS gadget is asleep , it ’s still doing stuff — check your mail , making snappy sound , and even backing up . It means you’re able to flip open an iPad and your Inbox is already current , for example .
With Mountain Lion , Apple is insert a rendering of this iOS feature film to the Mac . It ’s send for Power Nap , and it ’s a somnambulant state that ’s neither benumbed nor awake as we currently sympathise them .
First , the restriction : While I ’d bet that most future Macs will hold Power Nap , right now it ’s only supported by a smattering of arrangement . On day one of Mountain Lion , you ’ll only be capable to take reward of Power Nap if you ’ve develop a Mid-2011 or 2012 time of origin MacBook Air or the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display .
To turn Power Nap on and off , you use the novel Enable Power Nap setting in the Energy Saver controller panel . By nonremittal , Power Nap is turned on when your laptop is connected to a mogul arranger and turned off when on battery , but you could choose to deform it off completely or turn it on for both .
Power Nap make for by periodically waking up a MacBook even when it ’s closed , but it ’s not the usual Wake Island - up . Fans do n’t spin and the silver screen does n’t come on . And since Power Nap only go on systems that utilize wink storage instead of spinning hard drives , disk access is silent too . From the outside , you ’d never cognize that it was awake .
When in this saturnine - wake state , your MacBook will ( once an hour , if you ’re connected to a power adapter or have more than 30 per centum of battery stay ) ascertain your mail , sync your contacts , upgrade your calendars , sync admonisher and notes , ensure Documents in the Cloud are synced , and update Photo Stream . If you ’ve got the Find My Mac feature turned on , it ’ll also phone home with its current location just like an iOS twist would .
A few Power Nap feature film are a act more vivid , and will only wreak if the MacBook is secure in to a power adapter . If you ’ve ever groused about leaving your laptop open in order for Time Machine to execute , Power Nap will countenance you in conclusion just close it and forget it . Now those Time Machine backups will keep on running when the figurer is “ at rest . ” If you ’ve put your laptop to mechanically download software updates in the background , those downloads will also occur during sopor , so they ’re ready to be applied when you awaken it back up .
I have to admit , it never really occurred to me that my Mac could be doing a muckle more when it ’s sleep . But I certainly do n’t have a bun in the oven my iPhone or iPad to be dead to the humans when they ’re asleep , so why not ask my Mac to keep on working too ? I ’m especially worked up about my MacBook Air at last being endorse up regularly , since it ’s rarely awake long enough when I ’m at house to do a full Time Machine backup over my internet .
The next step here , of course , would be for Apple to permit certain third - political party apps to have access to Power Nap . Users of online backup service , for example , would love it if their MacBooks would do all of that oeuvre in the dead of nighttime . But Apple in all likelihood will be judicious in this area — nobody wants to wake up in the cockcrow and happen upon that their laptop ’s hot and its battery has n’t recharge .
Goes in here, comes out there
There are n’t that many unlike elbow room to say , “ Here ’s a feature that you ’ve see on iOS that ’s also now on the Mac . ” But here we are again : AirPlay mirroring , a feature introduced in iOS 5 , has arrive on the Mac .
For a while now , Macs have been able to trifle back iTunes audio and video to Apple TVs ( and audio to AirPort Expresses ) , but in Mountain Lion , you could mirror the contents of your Mac ’s display on any video twist connect to an Apple TV ( so long as it ’s the small black variant ) .
When a 2011 - time of origin or later Mac running Mountain Lion sense the presence of an Apple TV on the local net , an AirPlay icon appears in the menu legal profession . Click and select an Apple TV , and your desktop will be duplicated on the telly it ’s connected to . By nonpayment , the content of your filmdom are scaled down to fit on the television set , but you could correct the Displays preference pane so that the television on your Mac cover is scaled to match the shape of the HDTV . ( Basically , you ’re take which display you want to be the clear — your Mac ’s , or the TV ’s . )
If you ’re in a Mac - centric office , equipping every conference elbow room with an Apple TV seems like a no - brainer . And I found myself using this feature article all the time at home . The other day I found a odd Internet video show that I want to watch with my wife while we deplete dejeuner . It was on a Flash - only website , so there was no way for me to play it on my Apple television set or on an iPad , but it play just fine on my Mac . So I turned on AirPlay Mirroring , pressed play , put the video into full - screen way , and we sat back and look out as the video ( and its accompanying audio , of course ) stream without a hitch .
There ’s one other nice AirPlay summation in Mountain Lion : Now all of the AirPlay devices your Mac can see appear as options in the Output tab of the Sound penchant Zen . If you desire to channel all your system audio through an Apple TV or AirPort Express nearby , all you have to do is switch to that machine in the Output yellow journalism . It ’s simple and works on the nose as you ’d expect .
Safari makes strides
When Apple first announced Mountain Lion in February , it did n’t make a big deal about changes to its Safari Web internet browser . But now Safari ready Apple ’s lean of the major change in Mountain Lion . And quite right , too — there are legion nice additions in Safari that make it a much better internet browser .
The biggest addition to Safari has been done by deduction : The search box next to the address bar has vanish . Instead , as in the style of Google ’s Chrome web browser app , the address taproom is also your lookup field . If you bed an address , you could type it there , but if you do n’t , you could just go into in search terms and Safari will perform a hunting using your preferred search engine .
Now if you type “ 11th MD ” into that box seat , you ’ll get a bunch of links about Matt Smith instead of an fault subject matter enjoin you that Safari ca n’t determine the internet site “ http://eleventh%20doctor/. ” Much more utilitarian , right ? As you typewrite , Safari will also make hypnotism , include search terms and pages from bookmark and other pages you ’ve visited , including a Top Hit area with the most likely pages you ’re look for based on your premature web internet browser story .
Another new Safari feature that I wish a bunch is iCloud Tabs , an icon on the Safari toolbar that displays a list of all the webpages you ’ve got debase across all your devices . This feature is mildly useful today for people with multiple Macs , but it will become much more useful with the release of iOS 6 this fall . At that item , you ’ll be able to start reading on your Mac and then pluck up right where you left off on your iPad .
The new Tab View feature of speech certainly looks in force : If you ’ve set about more than one yellow journalism open in Safari , and pinch on your trackpad , Safari zooms out until you see the current page on a gray background . Now you may swipe left or veracious and consider the cognitive content of all the other tabs . It ’s a pretty , optic room to see all your presently open tabs , and it makes a majuscule demonstration . That state , I do n’t see how I ’d ever expend it . Clicking on tabs turn great . If I want to see a varlet in Safari , I flick on the yellow journalism . Pinching , then purloin , then clicking ? It does n’t seem effective , but I accommodate that sometimes efficiency is boring .
There are several more additions to Safari , too — it ’s a whole upgrade . As I note sooner , the new Share menu appear in the Safari toolbar . The Safari Reader push button has gotten large and now sits just to the right wing of the reference legal profession , turning blue when a Sir Frederick Handley Page is eligible for Reader . The Reading List feature now offer an offline way , so you could save article to take later even if you ’re not connected to the Internet later .
Apple claim that JavaScript operation is improved in Safari , and that it ’s got the fast performance of any major web browser when measure using the SunSpider benchmark . I go SunSpider on my 11 - column inch MacBook Air and found almost no departure between Safari , Chrome , and Firefox — Firefox was in reality somewhat fast than Safari , with Chrome just as slightly slower than Safari .
I spend an mad amount of time in Safari , and in worldwide this update is a good one . However , Apple has changed the Safari interface so that it feels like pages load more tardily than they used to . I do n’t recall they really load slower , but the spicy advance bar creeps across the URL window more slow , and the status ginmill at the bottom of the cover no longer points out that it ’s look up domains and loading various vane - page element . Most of the time , it ’s not a big deal . But when I ’m faced with a slow - loading web page , it ’s a piffling thwarting — there ’s no indication about what ’s materialize , so I just have to wait and go for that Safari loads the page finally . perchance most Safari user wo n’t like , but I ground it disconcert .
Mail gets its priorities straight
I ’ve got a love - hate relationship with OS X ’s Mail app . Well , that ’s not entirely accurate . It ’s more of a tolerate - hatred relationship . During the Snow Leopard geological era , I get so fed up with it that I change to Gmail , but theimprovements to Mail in Lionlured me back . Mail has n’t received a major upgrade in Mountain Lion , but its support for Notification Center has led to the improver of one big feature : VIPs .
It ’s consistent that you ’d require Mail to notify you when you get new mail . But for anyone who get a large volume of mail , that ’s just too many notifications . So you could choose , from Mail ’s Preferences windowpane , just how you desire Mail to use Notification Center : Every time a subject matter come in , just when a message comes to your Inbox , when you get a message from someone in your Contacts list , or when you get message from a very important person . ( you’re able to also trigger a notice via a Rule . )
To scar someone as a VIP , just open up a message they ’ve air you and move the cursor over their name . Just to the leftfield , you ’ll see the faint abstract of a star . Click it and it will darken slightly . That ’s it . That Person is now Very Important . Little star show up next to their messages in your mailbox . That ’s how crucial they are .
Simply bound presentment to people in your contact lens list would have been a pretty good feature , but this is good . It ’s an comfortable room to mark your most important mass and make certain you sleep together when they e-mail you . I set Mail to send word me only when I get VIP messages , and after a few daytime of granting short gray star to people , the system really started to make well .
There ’s even a VIPs filter in the toolbar , so I can quickly see just mail from all my dignitary or even one particular person . This drop , with the departure of iOS 6 , this feature will also appear on iPhones and iPads — and presumably your panjandrum will sync across your twist , which will be even more utilitarian .
Now even when I ’ve got Mail in the background knowledge , I get a subtle monitor that someone important has station me a message . Given the book of mail I get in a daylight , and my propensity to bury to control it , that ’s invaluable .
This is not to say that I do n’t still have issue with Mail . I find its search functionality now and then brilliant and occasionally useless , and I ca n’t reckon out why . It sometimes have forever to jibe for raw ring armor , particularly over slow connexion . But though it undoubtedly pit me as an old - school email user , I still favour using an app to reading my mail in a web web web browser . post suffices , and with Mountain Lion , it just aim a bit better .
Big in China
Apple ’s had huge success in China of late , most especially with the iPhone . With Mountain Lion , the company is trying to improve reenforcement for those who publish in Chinese as well as recognise that most of the popular website that Apple integrate with OS X are n’t actually uncommitted within China .
On the text - input side , Mountain Lion offer better suggestions and correction via a dynamically updated dictionary . patently English words are often insert in Chinese text , so Mountain Lion allows the mix ofPinyinand English without switching between keyboard layout . Apple says Mountain Lion also doubles the phone number of characters discern by trackpad - base handwriting acknowledgment .
On the Internet services side , Mountain Lion offers support for Formosan alternative to several world-wide services . Search - railway locomotive Baidu is now an option in Safari . Chinese microblogging serviceSina weibois supported in Share Sheets , just as Twitter is . In addition to Vimeo and Flickr , Mountain Lion will support communion to Chinese television - sharing sites Youku and Tudou . And Mail , Contacts , and Calendar syncing will be support to Chinese service providers QQ , 126 , and 163 .
According to Apple , most Mac users wo n’t see these feature . Mountain Lion will determine — based on your location and language setting , whether you ’ve “ express an interest ” in Formosan features . For example , if you activate a Formosan keyboard layout . Once you ’ve show an pursuit in China , the support for the Chinese serving providers surfaces . ( As someone who has never been to China and does n’t talk Chinese , I could n’t test any of these feature . )
New features, across all devices
The biggest story in the release of Mountain Lion is n’t a exceptional feature film . It ’s Apple ’s young dedication to a yearly release cycle for OS X , and more important , to a oscillation that ’s synchronized with the discharge of iOS .
Last year ’s OS X Lion — and Mountain Lion to a reasonably less extent — offer numerous feature additions that were brought back to the Mac from iOS . But Mountain Lion also offers some feature that will be coming to iOS 6 this declination . Apple ’s young operating - system strategy is not to replicate Io to the Mac , as some cynics might have aver at the sentence Lion was announced . Rather , Apple ’s scheme is to roll features out across all its machine , on both operating scheme platforms , simultaneously — or at least as near to simultaneousness as possible for a company that has two separate operating systems to update every class .
It seems to me that , in large part , Apple is no longer as focused on Mac feature film or iPhone features or iPad feature as it is onfeatures , manifested in appropriate ways across all of its dissimilar products . There will always be features that are tuned for the very different interactions that users have with their iPhones than with their MacBooks , but most of the introductory melodic theme will span devices and operating systems , and most of them will sync together using iCloud .
To those who would reason that these feature water supply down the Mac , make it a simpler gadget more akin to an iPad with a keyboard rather than the with child - duty gadget it ’s often used as , I ’d head to a feature like Power Nap . Allowing your MacBook Air to back up wirelessly while it ’s closed and angle against your nightstand does n’t seem like a regression ; that seems like a manifestation of the always - on iOS philosophy , but translated into a quintessentially Mac - focused feature .
Yes , some of the features Apple has innovate in Lion and Mountain Lion are specifically designed for new and novice users , and that ’s appropriate devote how many of those users there are . But feature of speech like Launchpad and Gatekeeper and Documents in the Cloud are well dismiss or overrule by expert users ; on the Mac , Apple seems to have opt a track that make the out - of - the - box Mac experience considerably for new users without wrack things for the expert .
Macworld’s buying advice
All severalize , I found Mountain Lion to be a stable , hearty firing . Even prerelease habitus were far more static than I ’ve come to expect from OS ecstasy betas , leading me to inquire if Apple ’s new one-year agenda is leave to more careful incremental update ( with few bugs ) rather than great leaps ( with more , nastier bug ) .
Traditionally at the end of an operating - organisation inspection , you ’d bear a treatment of whether the upgrade is really deserving the money . But at $ 20 ( and that ’s a one - sentence purchase that can be used on every Mac you own ) , the money is n’t the issue . Do you have an iPhone or iPad that you ’re going to be upgrading to iOS 6 this fall ? Or are you go away to buy Apple ’s next iPhone when it comes out ? Do you want to have access to the latest features Apple is rolling out across its entire mathematical product line ? If so , your answer is a definitive yes .
Mountain Lion is the next dance step after Lion . It ’s Apple ’s current state of the art . If you ’re running Lion ( or even if you ’re a holdout running Snow Leopard ) , I recommend hop on board .
[ Jason Snell is the editorial theatre director for IDG Consumer & SMB , and is in charge of the editorial operations of Macworld , PCWorld , and TechHive . He ’s pen about every major OS X rendering since version 10.0 . ]
