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.
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.
