Apple® today announced that OS X® Mountain Lion, the ninth major release
of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, will be available
in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™. Mountain Lion introduces
more than 200 innovative features including the all new Messages app,
Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration*,
Dictation, Power Nap, AirPlay® Mirroring, Game Center and the enhanced
security of Gatekeeper. With iCloud® built into the foundation of OS X,
Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to keep your content up to date
across all your devices.
Apple today announced that OS X Mountain Lion, with over 200 new features and built-in iCloud integration, will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $19.99. (Photo: Business Wire)
“The pace of innovation on the Mac is amazing, OS X Mountain Lion comes
just a year after the incredibly successful launch of Lion,” said Philip
Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With
iCloud built right in and the new Notification Center, Messages,
Dictation, Facebook integration and more, this is the best OS X yet.”
Using your iCloud account, Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to
set up your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and Notes. The
new Reminders and Notes apps help you remember important tasks and jot
down your thoughts quickly, while iCloud automatically keeps everything
up to date. Documents in the Cloud works with iCloud-enabled apps
including Apple’s iWork® suite so you can always access and edit your
documents on any device.
The new Messages app replaces iChat® and brings iMessage™ to the Mac, so
you can send messages to anyone with an iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch® or
another Mac. You can include attachments, high quality photos and HD
video, and your iMessages appear on all your devices so you can pick up
a conversation right where you left off. iMessage includes group
messaging, delivery and read receipts, typing indicators and secure
end-to-end encryption. The Messages app also supports traditional
instant messaging services, including AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk and
Jabber.
Mountain Lion streamlines the presentation of notifications, and with
Notification Center you can see all your notifications from OS X and
third party apps in one convenient place. You can customize which apps
send you notifications, the type of notification you receive, and how
many items are shown in Notification Center. When you want to focus on
your work or watch a movie, you can choose to temporarily suspend all
notifications.
New system-wide Sharing is built into Mountain Lion, making it easier
than ever to share links, photos, videos and other files. Clicking the
Share button allows you to share quickly without having to switch to
another app, and you just need to sign in once to use third-party
services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo. Facebook and Twitter
are integrated with Notification Center so you can receive notifications
when someone sends you a message or mentions you in a post or Tweet.
With built-in support for Facebook, you can post photos, links and
comments with locations right from your apps. Once you’ve signed in,
your Facebook friends automatically appear in Contacts with their
profile photos. Your Facebook notifications work with Notification
Center in Mountain Lion, and you can even update your Facebook status
from within Notification Center.
Dictation is built into Mountain Lion and allows you to dictate text
anywhere you can type, whether you’re using an app from Apple or a third
party developer. Mountain Lion also introduces Power Nap, an innovative
new feature that keeps your MacBook Pro with Retina™ display and MacBook
Air (second and third generation) up to date while it sleeps. Power Nap
automatically refreshes Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes,
Photo Stream, Find My Mac and Documents in the Cloud, and when plugged
in, downloads software updates and backs up your Mac using Time Machine®.
The revolutionary new Gatekeeper feature makes downloading software from
the Internet safer by giving you control over which apps can be
installed on your Mac. You can choose to install apps from anywhere,
just as you do today, or for maximum security you can set Gatekeeper to
allow only apps from the Mac App Store. The default setting allows you
to install apps from the Mac App Store and apps from developers that
have a unique Developer ID from Apple. In addition to checking daily for
security updates, Mountain Lion includes app sandboxing to keep
misbehaving apps from compromising your system, and kernel ASLR for
improved protection against buffer overflow attacks.
Additional new features in Mountain Lion include:
• AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send an up-to-1080p
secure stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV®, or send
audio to a receiver or speakers that use AirPlay;
• Game Center, which brings the popular social gaming network from iOS
to the Mac so you can enjoy live, multiplayer games with friends whether
they’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch;
• a faster Safari® with a unified Smart Search Field, iCloud Tabs that
present your open tabs across your devices, and a new Tab View to
quickly swipe through them;
• new features for China, including significantly improved text input, a
new Chinese Dictionary, easy setup with popular email providers, Baidu
search in Safari, built-in sharing to Sina Weibo and popular video
websites Youku and Tudou; and
• over 1,700 new APIs that give developers access to the latest core OS
and web technologies, as well as the newest features of OS X, including
Documents in the Cloud, Notifications, Sharing and Game Center.
Pricing & Availability
OS X Mountain Lion will be available in July from the Mac App Store for
$19.99 (US). Mountain Lion requires Lion or Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6.8
or later), 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space. For a complete list
of system requirements and compatible systems, please visit: apple.com/osx/specs/.
OS X Server requires Mountain Lion and will be available in July from
the Mac App Store for $19.99 (US). The OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date
upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to
all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an
Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 11, 2012.
*Facebook integration will be available in an upcoming software update
to Mountain Lion.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with
OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital
music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has
reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store,
and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with
iPad.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple’s PR website (apple.com/pr),
or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.
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