Apple announced the latest version of OS X for Mac, Mountain Lion, sometime ago, but today at WWDC, the company went into more detail about the update, with a big focus on the new ways it ties into iCloud. Read on to find out what they are.
- iCloud in Mountain Lion now integrates reminders and notes across all your devices.
- iCloud now also integrates with Messages on your iOS devices, so if your iPhone gets a message from another iPhone user, you’ll be able to see and respond to it right from your Mac instead.
- “Documents In The Cloud” now backs up all sorts of documents on your Mac across all devices: not just Pages files, but those made in Numbers, KeyNote and even TextEdit. A developer SDK will be provided so other apps can take advantage of this too.
- The new Growl-style notification centre will indeed get a Do Not Disturb-style option at the top of the sidebar, to prevent distractions.
- It’s no Siri, but OS X Mountain Lion now included voice dictation like the new iPad currently offers.
- Safari gets a much needed feature and performance boost, with a new unified search box, similar to what Google offers on Chrome, as well as iCloud tab syncing, so you can quickly open a page you had open on another connected device.
- A new system wide sharing option in Mountain Lion lets you share files easily across other services, like Twitter.
- Power Nap: certain Mountain Lion Macs will be able to update while in sleep mode. Apple says this will include second generation MacBook Airs, and the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
- Game Center: Similar to its iOS version, but with support for gaming between OS X and iOS devices.
- Offline reading list: Apple didn’t go into great detail, but it sounds a bit like services such as Instapaper or Pocket.
- Apple says Mountain Lion will be out in July, for $19.99. Yup, that’s next month. Better yet, it’s a one-time licence for all your Macs, and that price includes upgrades straight from Snow Leopard as well as Lion.
