Todays’s announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, due in the summer, came out of the blue. What is not surprising, though, is the continued iOSiffication of the desktop operating system. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook told a conference earlier this week that the halo effect among the millions of iPhone and iPad buyers has never been stronger. These people are predisposed to buy a Mac next time they need a new PC. And they will be looking to see the familiar features that have come to rely on.
One of the most important features to be ported to OS X (no longer known as Mac OS X, by the way) is iCloud. Already part of OS X in terms of photo sharing and the PIM synchronisation, iCloud will be extended to include iWorks documents and, probably, allow similar features to be added to third-party apps. Notifications, Notes, Reminders will come over from iOS and there will added features for social sharing, including hard-wired Twitter.
Messages, a now-familiar feature of iOS 5, will be part of the update but the good news is that it is already here and can be downloaded now from here. I installed it an hour or so ago and it is offering the same functionality as the existing iOS app.
Here is Apple’s introductory video for the new Mountain Lion:
In addition you will be interested to read Macworld’s hands-on features: