Earlier this week, Apple announced that OS X Mountain Lion, the upcoming version of its desktop operating system, will be launching in summer 2012. The news came as a surprised to many fans since Lion was released only 7 months ago, and Apple has confirmed that OS X is moving to a yearly release schedule in contrast to its previous development cycle of eighteen months to two years between major versions. But there’s no need to wait until summer—we have quite a bit of information about what we can expect to see in the next version of OS X.
The overarching theme of Mountain Lion is iOS integration. It’s obvious that Apple is trying to blur the lines between its desktop and mobile software—one subtle change is that “Mac” is no longer a part of the operating system’s name. Additionally, Mountain Lion will include Mac versions of many iOS apps, such as Notes, Reminders and Game Center. It also appears to use the Notification Center concept from iOS, gathering action items in a single place and giving the popular Growl notification service a serious run for its money.
One of the most intriguing announcements relates to iMessage, Apple’s proprietary protocol currently used for SMS-like communication between iPhones and iPads. It seems that a Messages application will be coming to Macs, allowing users to send and receive iMessages on their desktop computers. In fact, Apple released a beta of Messages on Thursday, allowing Lion users the chance to try out the new functionality. The Messages application also includes support for AIM, Gtalk and FaceTime, completely replacing iChat in the process.
iCloud support is another major pillar of Mountain Lion, with the new OS supporting several features to make the cloud-based storage system easier to use. Document API’s will allow users to easily sync files across Macs and iOS devices, and a single sign-in screen will simplify accessing the service. Apple is making a big push toward connectivity beyond iCloud, too—Twitter integration is everywhere in Mountain Lion, and a feature called “Share Sheets” will provide a method for users to share links, photos, videos and other contents from participating applications.
Apple is making fairly aggressive changes in its new version of OS X, banking on the simplicity of iOS-like features to draw users in. We saw glimmers of the same idea in Lion with features such as the Mac App Store and Mission Control, but simplification hasn’t been a universal success (does anyone actually use full-screen apps?)
OS X Mountain Lion is scheduled for release in summer 2012, most likely at Apple’s WWDC developers’ conference or soon thereafter.
9 Responses to “Apple OS X Mountain Lion Features, Release Date”
I use fullscreen apps like all day errday
The entire reason full screen mode was needed was because the dock is so horrible. If it defaulted to being a little less obtrusive, and a “maximize” feature was added, full screen would no longer be needed. But that’d make it a little too windows-like, no?
How often does someone focus on one single task for a prolonged period of time on a computer — that justifies such a feature? Gaming is the only case I can think of, and games have their own full screen mode already. Add to that, full screen doesn’t work properly on dual monitor setups, and it’s another useless “feature”.
Setting dock to autohide, and installing an applescript to turn the “+” button into a maximize, and I have a useful version of fullscreen. Of course, OSX would loses that showroom eye candy that is the dock.
Here’s to hoping that linux desktop (the new version of duke nukem forever) comes to pass.
Another crappy upgrade !! There is nothing new in the OS.
Nothing new. I already have skydrive on my pc and built in sms.
Same old OS X. It has been the same for the last ten years. Time for an overhaul!
Dude that same old OS X still is way better than you bundle shiny/transparent horrible-to-use windows of 7.
Dude that same old OS X still is way better than the shiny & transparent bundle of horrible-to-use pages we call windows.
So, “summer” counts as a “release date?” Not to be overly pedantic, but isn’t that a “release season?”
i’m in australia, its summer right now, when is summer wherever they are saying that?
cool!!!