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OS seXy: Mountain Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Today, Apple will be rolling out OSX Mountain Lion (10.8 baby!). They are touting that this update has 200+ features, which is pretty nice for the price tag of $20. Out of the 200 or so new features, some are impressive, and some less than impressive, but it’s an update either way. Here is a list of 10 features that caught my eye:

1

AirPlay Mirroring
The ability to effortlessly show your screen, without the need for a ton of extra wires, software, or configuration, is a step in the right direction. It also gives people another reason to go out and grab an Apple TV, which is more feasible for most people, than it is to go out and buy a dedicated computer to use as a media center. I am all for moving away from the current norm of everyone and their grandma having Cable or Satellite TV. Between Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and the internet in general, there’s just not much of a reason to subscribe to TV anymore. I’d love to see devices like Apple TV, or smart TVs to take over and give network TV the boot! So the more Apple TVs we can get in people’s homes, the better imho.

2

Built-in Sharing

As dangerously addictive as Facebook and Twitter may be, it’s nice to see integration with these services. Yes I’m aware that I’m about to see my Facebook newsfeed get overwhelmed with even more nonsense… but hey, maybe that will help people spread the word about my blog too ;) . I for one welcome my new social networking overlords.

3

Dictation

I really don’t think I need to explain this one, it’s a no brainer… Dragon Naturally Speaking can suck it! (Apparently Nuance, the guys who make Dragon Naturally Speaking, power the dictation service… so I stand corrected) Prepare to be overwhelmed with tons of mac users being even more verbose about their fanboy status (especially when social networking sharing is at full tilt)! Who’s excited? This guy, that’s who.

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After installing Mountain Lion, this has to be my favorite feature so far. It works without a hitch, without having to train the computer first. Very impressive.

4

Messages App

The Messages app on iOS has been a wonderful experience, but it has always been lacking one main feature… the ability to chat with folks that are on a desktop (or laptop if you wanna be picky). Hellllllloooooo update! I’ve been waiting for you. Now if only they ported this over to Windows so I could get rid of this blasted Skype…

5

Notes App

I use the ever-living turds out of the Notes app on iOS, so it’s great to see they are bringing it to OSX, along with syncing. Don’t get me wrong, the sticky notes are nice and all… but I’d rather have a place that is out of the way to store my little side notes, brain twinkles, and uber quotes.

6

Power Nap

I am totally a fan of keeping things up to date… but absolutely not a fan of having the update process take place while I’m using the computer ::looks at Windows Update notification in start menu and shakes head:: (Yeah that’s right, I’m on a windows box typing up a post about Apple stuff… it’s a Macbook Pro tho… so shhhh). Power Nap takes that pain away, and gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

7

Reminders App

Oh dear sweet baby Hey Zeus!!! I have been wanting a synced task list built in to the OS for a while. Although it’s no replacement for collaboration tools such as Trello, for the unorganized mess that is my brain, this app is absolutely essential!

8

Kernal ASLR

<insert some stuff nobody wants to read here> Basically… more secure OS… it’s good stuff

9

Game Center-enabled Chess

This almost makes me want to use the chess app! Nope, nevermind, it doesn’t… I like chess, but computer chess… not so much. Mainly because I can’t walk the knight around like a horsey on the table while I’m waiting for the person I’m about to beat, to make their move. I’m kind of a maverick, and I just don’t give a shoot?!!

10

You can zoom in to TextEdit

Thank you.

 

So all in all, this isn’t going to be a major update to the OS, but it will be adding some nice little features. Considering the price tag, I think it’s definitely going to be worth it. Share this post if you agree!

 

Update:

One of our fans was curious what the system requirements for this update were, so I thought I’d share in case there were others out there asking the same thing:

Not sure what model Mac you have? No worries! Just type that serial number in to the Apple Serial Lookup box to the right -> and hit the “Lookup Product” button to open a new window that should show you the model of your Mac!

[important]

System requirements

  • 2 GB of RAM
  • 8 GB of available hard disk or solid state storage
  • To upgrade from an old version of OS X, the computer must be running at least v10.6.8.[6]

The following models are supported:[6]

The following models support AirPlay Mirroring:

The following models support AirDrop:

[/important]