OS X Mountain Lion Launch

The long waited OS X Mountain Lion has finally launched today. The main purpose of the OS X Mountain Lion that I can see is to make all the Apple devices have the identical interface. I guess the main upgrade would be the iCloud syncing ability. Just like in all iOS devices now, your Mac will be able to join the cloud to share files more easily. Apple had this OS up on their main website for quite a long time to get people all hyped up about it, but is it really worth the $19.99? Let´s take a look at it closely.

source: Apple

First of all, one of the most talked about feature on this OS is the notification center. Just like the notification center on iOS devices with iOS 5, it´ll contain all the alerts including reminder, email, messages, software updates, friend requests, etc. Also, when you want to see all your notifications, you simply just need to swipe your trackpad from right edge to the left or if you don´t have a trackpad, you can just click the bulletin icon on the top right of your screen. If you get an alert while the notification center is not on, you´ll get a pop up on the top right hand corner. You can also change the settings to make it show up differently.

Next thing is Messages. This was available as a beta for a really long time and Apple just took it down recently from their official website. The Messages just simply syncs all your iMessages with your iOS devices and integrates iChat at the same time. It can come pretty handy when you´re at home and you´re on your computer and all of a sudden you need to send someone a text message. One thing about the Messages, tho, is you´ll need to use your Apple ID instead of your phone number when sending text messages, meaning the recipient will see your email address not your phone number.

Apple also added an app called Power Nap. What that does is it allows your computer to sleep while still receiving all the data. In other words, this app has the same function as "push" in iOS devices. There are other features like sharing status messages to twitter and facebook more easily.

I personally think the notification center is the only benefit from this OS and I'm quite skeptical if that is really worth 20 bucks.

Posted in: Apple, Mountain Lion, OS X