In a surprise move, Apple has announced the next major version of its OS X operating system, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. It’s only been seven months since the Cupertino company started bringing iPhone skills “back to the Mac” with OS X 10.7 Lion, but it’s stepping up a gear with this follow up. There are iPhone features galore inside – and at long last, Apple is killing off iChat.
Apple is drawing explicit parallels between OS X and the iPad with, Mountain Lion, introducing services including Notes, Reminders and Game Center to Mac, as well as Twitter integration and a Notification Center similar to that found in iOS 5, as well as AirPlay screen mirroring.
Apple says Mountain Lion is built with iCloud app integration in mind, and for the first time will include a malware monitoring system, called Gatekeeper.
Messages meanwhile will support chat between Macs and iOS devices, with support for photo and video transfer – it’ll also integrate AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. It’s available as a beta today for everyone.
Numerous new APIs will also be made available to developers, but perhaps the most intriguing are a set ofGame Kit APIs that Apple says will make it “possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.”
Apps on notice
Apple’s announcement put several established OS X services on notice. The much loved Growl could be made redundant by an effective Notification Center, while Apple’s own iChat service is officially being abolished to make way for Messages. That should come as no surprise, as it was never quite clear why it was allowed to co-exist with iMessages and FaceTime, but it’s still surprising to see how long it clung on for.
Twitter integration meanwhile will work across Safari, Quick Look, Photo Booth, Preview and third party apps – pretty comprehensive, and it’ll be interesting to see if this affects uptake of Mac Twitter clients.
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 is available for Mac developers as a preview today, and will be on sale as a Lion upgrade through the Mac App Store in the “late summer”, the company says.
Excited about a new OS X? What else would you like to see in it? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
