First Reactions to OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

rockymtnhigh

Hardly Normal
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Apr 14, 2006
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First Reactions to OS X Mountain Lion

Yeah, I am a geek, and the first thing I did this morning was go into the App Store to see if Mountain Lion, the latest version of Mac OS X (10.8) was out. It was, and I clicked purchase. $20 later and the 4.34 GB file began downloading. An hour later (it took longer to download the file than to install it) I was roaring like a Mountain Lion (or do they chuff and not roar? Anyways, I digress.

First reactions. The core of OS X Lion is intact. This is less a major overhaul of the OS than it is a series of welcome enhancements. OS X is taking a huge step towards total integration with Apple’s iOS operating system found on iPads and iPhones. And as an owner of both an iPad and an iPhone, this is a very good thing. The first thing I saw was icons in the dock for Reminders, Messages, and Notes. Identical to their iOS 5.0/6.0 applications, thanks to iCloud, these applications now sync content seemlessly between the iPhone/iPad and Mac. I created a note on the Mac, had the iPad open, five seconds later it showed up there. I edited it on the iPad, and the changes were practically instantaneous on the Mac.

I have been running the beta of Messages since this spring, so that was not exciting, but for communicating with others in the Apple ecosystem, Messages is awesome. Send texts from your computer. Alas, it only works for users on iOS 5 or higher. All you Android folks - sorry, I can’t message you through my Mac.

Next up, Safari 6. I have also been running the beta of this for the past month, but with ML, it now has an iCloud tab. I can instantly see the browser windows open on my iPad and iPhone, and switch to any page. There is now a unified address bar (like in Chrome) so searches and addresses are in the same place. A few other features, but the biggest thing is Safari just felt fast.

Then we come to Airplay. Yes, in the place of the display icon on the menu bar is now the iOS Airplay icon. If you have an Apple TV, this is cool. Click on it, and you can mirror your Mac’s screen to an Apple TV. Works great. It automatically scaled my display to a 16x9 screen with small black bars (but still looked good) and played instantly on my Apple tv. I loaded a 1080p video from You Tube in Safari, went full screen, and it played flawlessly on the Apple TV. Now I can use Amazon Prime Video on my Apple TV, just need the assistance of my Mac. Very nice.

Twitter is now integrated into the OS; I can tweet from pretty much anywhere (and soon will be able to do the same with Facebook, but that is still under development). This brings me to the notification bar. Just like in iOS, Mail, Twitter, and other apps can place notifications of events in a dropdown box on the right side of the screen. Works well. Will definitely put Growl out of business. Would like to see a bit more volume when a notification comes in, and I have not yet found the Do Not Disturb button.

There are updates to iWork, iPhoto, iMovie, and Aperture. Now, in iWork apps (say Pages) and Preview you can rename a file from the title bar, move it to iCloud, Duplicate it, etc. All from the title bar! From within Pages or Numbers or Preview, click OPEN from the file menu, and you can choose between files stored in iCloud and files stored on your mac. Also very cool. Finally, iCloud is getting it. Not quite Dropbox, but a huge improvement. From within iPhoto you can now share to Photostream, to Twitter, and to Messages. Got a photo you want to text to an iOS user, easy as pie. Have a photo in iPhoto you want to tweet - just as simple.

Mail and Finder now have easy access to the Photo Browser. You can attach any photo from your iPhoto Library into an email - or search directly for a photo from Finder. No need to open iPhoto. There is now a MEDIA section in Finder for Photos, Music, and Movies. Yet, all drawing on the power of the iPhoto and iTunes libraries.

What have I missed? Oh yeah, Voice Dictation. Double click the function key and a Siri-like sound and microphone appears on the screen. Talk to your mac and it will listen. Same technology, works as well as on the iPhone and iPad. I like it a lot. When done either click the mouse on Done (my initial reaction was to touch it on the screen - but this is NOT an iPad! DOH!), or click FN again. Works great. Now I can talk to my computer whenever I want - and while you already know I am crazy, I’ll at least be accomplishing something.

I am sure I have missed something, but its only been 2 hours since I installed the operating system. Is Mountain Lion a game changer? Is it a whole new OS? Absolutely not. It is a series of enhancements to a solid operating system designed to make it easier to use, and to make it more relevant to the way we compute. If you live in Apple’s walled garden, and have a mac, iPhone, and iPad, then Mountain Lion is well worth it. I absolutely love the total integration among my devices - and how seemless that process is. Worth $20? Absolutely.

Shortcomings? I haven’t found any yet. I don’t think they have improved the full-screen mode support for dual displays (but I have not connected this machine to a second display yet.

PS If you are going to take the plunge, remember to save the installer to a USB external drive before installing it - so you have a copy. The installer disappears when the OS is installed. And be smart and so a full backup before installing. :)
 
I have 3 seperate log-ins on my mac for my wife, daughter, and myself. Do you know if each log-in can be tied to it's own apple ID? In other words, when I log in, is my imessage and reminders tied to my apple ID. And if I log out and my wife logs in, will her imessage and reminders be tied to her apple ID. My wife and I both have iphones and my daughter has an ipod touch with her own apple ID.
 
In spite of earlier protestations to not get this yet, I couldn't stand it. So I got it with about your same results.

One thing that is an irritant is that my version of VMWare Fusion won't work with ML, but it told me that AFTER the install. Since I haven't actually used that in a very long time, it is of no real concern.

The Airplay doesn't work with my 2009 27" iMac, but I knew it wouldn't. That is one thing that I would have liked to have. I've been thinking about a new mini for awhile, this may just be the time to actually pull the trigger.
 
I have 3 seperate log-ins on my mac for my wife, daughter, and myself. Do you know if each log-in can be tied to it's own apple ID? In other words, when I log in, is my imessage and reminders tied to my apple ID. And if I log out and my wife logs in, will her imessage and reminders be tied to her apple ID. My wife and I both have iphones and my daughter has an ipod touch with her own apple ID.

Yes, my wife has a user acct on my air, tied to her id. Works fine. Each user account functions as it's on machine. They are completely independent of each other. It's only software that you can set to run for all users. But settings are tied to the account.
 
I don't currently own an apple tv but I've been considering buying one. Are you saying I can mirror anything from my Mac to the apple tv? If so, this would come in handy if I need to watch a tv show from the web. For instance if I miss a show on tv I can go to the web, CBS.com for instance, and watch it on my tv with the apple tv. Is that possible?
 
That's what is being said as long as your Mac is new enough. I think I read that it is 2011 models or newer.

I know it won't work on my 2009 iMac.
 
Apple is really becoming a company that hates its customers

It is reported that Mac osX lion is now gone from the APP STORE. So if your system can not run mountain lion and you need a refresh your SOL.
 
Apple is really becoming a company that hates its customers

It is reported that Mac osX lion is now gone from the APP STORE. So if your system can not run mountain lion and you need a refresh your SOL.

I doubt this is true. You can boot the computer in recovery mode and it will pull the required files off the internet.
 
Apple is really becoming a company that hates its customers

It is reported that Mac osX lion is now gone from the APP STORE. So if your system can not run mountain lion and you need a refresh your SOL.
Nope its still there, check your purchases and you will see it there. Its just not available for sale anymore.
 
Well, I have an early 2009 21" iMac with more memory, a first gen ipad and the kids have newer iphones and ipods. I am looking at the features and really don't see much that would benefit me. Not too excited about the cloud as I am an old fart set in my ways and don't want anyone else owning my data. Seems that few of the features being described would actually work with my equipment, and I'm not likely to upgrade hardware soon. Any reason to move up from Snow leopard?
 
It is reported that Mac osX lion is now gone from the APP STORE. So if your system can not run mountain lion and you need a refresh your SOL.
I can confirm it's either gone or really hard to find. I scanned -- quickly -- the "top apps" and don't see it. I suspect it would normally be in the top 120 or more. I also did a search for "lion" and don't see it.
 
I can confirm it's either gone or really hard to find. I scanned -- quickly -- the "top apps" and don't see it. I suspect it would normally be in the top 120 or more. I also did a search for "lion" and don't see it.

I bet if you had an old non-ML compatible machine, they could get your Lion in an Apple Store (IF that old machine actually meets the Lion requirements).
 
Well I tried out the dictation and it seems to work more or less anyway and this is just a test

It seemed about as accurate as on the iPhone and iPad, which when I have used it, was pretty good. You just have to learn to speak differently. And say "at the end of a sentence period" or question mark or exclamation mark - or even smiley face - its the punctuation that is the challenge. I don't use it often, but its a nice feature to have.
 
Just realized that a two finger swipe from the far right of the track pad will open the notification screen, in a very iOS-like way. I like that.

I have yet to figure out how to get new mail notifications to make a sound; not sure why.
 

BD-R / DVD-R archive program ??

Changing ISP's

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