Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview
Apple today released a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion which brings popular apps and features from iPad to the Mac. Mountain Lion introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring.
Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud integration with apps. The developer preview of Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper, a security feature that helps keep users safe from malicious software by giving you control over what apps are installed on your Mac. The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting today. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012.
“The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.”
The developer preview of Mountain Lion features the new Messages app which replaces iChat and allows users to send unlimited messages, photos and videos directly from Mac to another Mac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. Starting today Lion users can download a beta of Messages and the final version will be available with Mountain Lion. Reminders and Notes help users create and track their to-dos across all devices. Game Center lets users personalize their Mac gaming experience, find new games and friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Mountain Lion includes notifications. Notification Center provides access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps. System-wide Share Sheets share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Twitter is integrated throughout Mountain Lion so users can sign on once and tweet directly from Safari, Quick Look, Photo Booth, Preview and third party apps. Mountain Lion also introduces AirPlay Mirroring, to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what's on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV.
Apple says that more than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Mountain Lion makes it easier to set up iCloud and access documents across users devices. Mountain Lion uses users Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime and Find My Mac. The new iCloud Documents pushes any changes to all your devices so documents are always up to date, and a new API helps developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.
Gatekeeper is a new security feature that gives you control over which apps can be downloaded and installed on your Mac. Users can choose to install apps from any source, just as they do on a Mac today, or they can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, users can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed.
I am looking forward to the messages app. the link is dead on their website (AKA completely removed right now)
What I think Apple is trying to do is get the attention of all the PC users, to get them to switch to Mac. A lot of people have iPads, iPod touch, iPhone, and they want to lure them away from Windows.
What i do not get is I just purchased Lion last July (or whenever it was released) and 1 year for an OS seems silly to me. Yes i know it was only 30 dollars, but look at all the updates for Snow Leopard. Lion is only on .3
I can see a lot of Mac users being pushed away from Apple because it just seems as though now it is just a money grab for them. I could be wrong, and it could be a great OS, but hopefully they give us some upgrade options when it is released.
Historically speaking, a 12 month update release schedule isn't out of the ordinary for OS X. Earlier versions were being updated approx. once per 12-18 months. It's true that there were a lot of updates for Snow Leopard, but the Lion update took less than two years.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowserm
I am looking forward to the messages app. the link is dead on their website (AKA completely removed right now)
What I think Apple is trying to do is get the attention of all the PC users, to get them to switch to Mac. A lot of people have iPads, iPod touch, iPhone, and they want to lure them away from Windows.
What i do not get is I just purchased Lion last July (or whenever it was released) and 1 year for an OS seems silly to me. Yes i know it was only 30 dollars, but look at all the updates for Snow Leopard. Lion is only on .3
I can see a lot of Mac users being pushed away from Apple because it just seems as though now it is just a money grab for them. I could be wrong, and it could be a great OS, but hopefully they give us some upgrade options when it is released.
First the link is there for messages app.
Second no one knows what the price will be. It could be free for all we know. No one even saw this coming.
Is that safe to download the beat on to a production machine?
Apparantly not...
"Our apologies but there was an unexpected error with the application. This problem has been noted, and an email has been sent to the administrators. Please check back in a few hours to try the download again."
Second no one knows what the price will be. It could be free for all we know. No one even saw this coming.
this is the message I see when I try to get the messages app..
"Our apologies but there was an unexpected error with the application. This problem has been noted, and an email has been sent to the administrators. Please check back in a few hours to try the download again."
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