Today Apple decided to give everyone a little taste of the next OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. True to their word Apple is about to release their annual OS upgrade. I give you some of the big changes I find important so you don't have to wade through the hundreds of enhancements Apple has been working on. The new changes were much needed. Let's hope this covers up all the stability issues that plagued OS Lion last year. Read on and enjoy the video preview.
Welcome to the start screen for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Notice Mac was not used in the previous sentence, that was on purpose because it's gone. Now if only Microsoft can get rid of that annoying Windows label we can have an OS war once again. Any way notice the screenshot above. Apple is now forcing it's users to install their OS using an Apple ID. Can't say that I am surprised, but not sure why I should be forced to do it. This will give everyone the ability to start using the cloud before they even open their first program. Once you sign in to your pretty new software there a few more major things you will want to use. Below I am going to run down these improvements so enjoy.
Messages
Once you unlock your Mac just put two fingers on the right edge of your magic trackpad and swipe left. Voila a new messages bar. You now have a notification bar to feed you messages. Seeing this I immediately smiled because I so love using something similar in Ubuntu. Gadgets on Windows 7 is nice, but nowhere near as nice to see or use. Using a high def screen this is an excellent use of space. A browser does not need to take up a whole screen anymore so mad props to Apple for letting us use that space. Notice the dark gray background people? Why can't they use it for iOS? I'm so sick of the same old lame color scheme, but that is not what we are discussing now so let's continue.
iChat is now as dead as Whitney. Make way for Messages. I don't like the generic naming, but the functionality is where it's at.
Taken from iOS's messenger app, OS X 10.8 is joining all your services like Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo, and AIM all loading buddy lists. Notice they left out MSN...burn. There is also a hook built in to launch Facetime. Props to Apple for integrating all these services, but I would love to see MSN and Skype integrated as well. While we are at it, Facebook please? I guess I am asking too much. Also, do not expect to link your 10 digit iPhone number. This will be e-mail link only from iMessenge.
Airplay
So Apple is adding mirroring to Apple TV using Airplay. There will be an icon that shows up in the menu bar letting you know you can mirror when an Apple TV is connected to the same network. Apple is a little behind here. Yes, they make it really easy to use, but I am shocked they did not do more with this feature. So right now it only mirrors up to 720p content. The only nice thing is it will auto scale the media you are mirroring and adjust the resolution if needed. So great job with mirroring for dummies, but real nerds are going to feel limited.
Gaming
Apple is blurring the line between iOS and OS X by letting the Gaming Center onto it's bigger platform. All the games you love on iOS will now be played on the big screen. I don't know how well this will translate considering you are using a magic trackpad and not a touchscreen, but we shall see. You will also be treated to sweet features like leaderboards, achievements, in-game voice chat, and multiplayer online opponents. Once again this will appeal with the Mac for dummies crowd, but hardcore gamers won't give a damn.
iCloud has been pretty much used to just backup your iPhone stuff in case it crapped out. OS X 10.8 makes it a key feature for anyone using Mac products. Since you have to login with your Apple ID the first time you start the OS, iCloud quickly gets to work and before you know it contacts, calendar, and mail are pushing from your iPad or iPhone. Also, there are some enhanced features to documents. Apps will get access to your doc library, and you will get to create folders to organize your docs. Way to show up Skydrive Apple. Changes are instant as well. I have to admit Apple has raised the bar with cloud syncing. They were not the first, but once again they integrate the service flawlessly.
iOS facelift
So a lot of programs are seeing a design overhaul to look more like OS. Check below for some examples. You also see new share buttons show up through much of the highly used programs in OS X so sending a link or media file to mail, twitter, Airdrop, etc. is so much easier now.
Apparently Apple is getting a little suspicious of malware these days. So much so, they have introduced something called Gatekeeper. This will mostly just bug developers, but will help the Mac for dummies crowd secure their computers. So now when you submit an app it has to have a level of certification. A user will have the option to download certified or non-certified apps from the App Store. This will give the user an easy way to download apps without having to worry if Apple approves of it, but developers may get irritated knowing they may need to get Apple approval to have the biggest share of the market.
Wrap-up
Not being a huge Apple fan, I feel like something is still missing from OS X 10.8. I am impressed with the way Apple implements the things we want to use the most, but still I can't say that OS X is the best system out there. Anyone with a Mac should download this upgrade on the first day of release. I would guess it will be available for download within a few months. Check the video below for a great walk through from Nilay Patel at www.theverge.com. It's the best preview I have seen thus far.
