On Wednesday, Apple lunched their next major version of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion.
With over 200 new features being added to Mac OS X, Mountain Lion brings even more features of iOS to the Macintosh further unifying the experience across multiple Apple product lines. The major new features of Mountain Lion include:
- iCloud support
- Reminders (OS X version of the iOS app)
- Notes (OS X version of the iOS app)
- iMessage (replacing OS X iChat)
- Notification Center (as seen in iOS)
- Power Nap (requires a Mac notebook with build in flash storage; ie: MacBook Air)
- Dictation (voice recognition, but not Siri)
- Sharing button (as seen in iOS)
- Twitter integration
- AirPlay (requires a mid-2011 or newer Mac)
- Game Center
- Gatekeeper
- Safari 6
Mac OS X Mountain Lion is available now for $19.99 on the Mac App Store for users of Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.7 Lion. If you just purchased a new Mac, perhaps a new MacBook Air or the new super sexy 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, you can upgrade to Mountain Lion for free using the Apple Up to Date program.
Business users, ‘techies’, and just about anyone else who is interested, can also purchase and install OS X Server, an add on application module for Mac OS X Mountain Lion that adds server features such as Wiki Server, File Sharing over and above the sharing features in Mountain Lion, network Time Machine backup Support, email and calendar servers, iMessage server, web server, and network OS X software installs and updates. Previously priced at $49.99, OS X Server for Mountain Lion is available now for $19.99 for the Mac App Store.
Mountain Lion is a great addition to any Macintosh that is capable of running it. I would, however, suggest that anyone running a mid-2007 or 2008 edition Macintosh upgrade their Mac to the maximum amount of RAM memory possible before installing Mountain Lion. Yes, the software will run, but if you only have 2GB of RAM, you may not get the experience you want. (Read: lots of spinning beach balls.) I’m running Mountain Lion on an 8GB mid-2009 17-inch MacBook Pro and things seem to be running well so far.