Apple OS X Mountain Lion Features, Release Date

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.