OS X Mountain Lion
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 3:36PM 
Things certainly are changing over at Apple.
A brand new OSX announcement "Mountain Lion" delivered via one on one presentations to key media figures.
Blimey - That came out of left field!
OSX now seems to be on an annual update cycle, with "Mountain Lion" bringing many of the missing features from iOS to the Mac, as well as straightening out some inconsistencies.
The big one for me is the further integration of iCloud along with the launch of full "Documents in the Cloud" for the Mac. As far as I can see, this has been the major stumbling block for updates to iWork on the Mac. Pages, Numbers and Keynote on iOS have all been updated but iWork on the Mac is amazingly still at iWork '09. I can only imagine Apple have updates to these important apps ready to go, but have been waiting for "Documents in the Cloud" to be ready for primetime on the Mac.
The development of "Mountain Lion" seems well advanced, with a public beta of the new messages app available now for all, with a preview of the full OS also available to developers. Touted for release in the Summer, making the beta available now gives both Apple and App developers time to iron out any bugs well in advance of WWDC. It also leaves WWDC wide open for any iOS6 announcements (opening up the Apple TV anyone?).
It's a sign of just how large and successful Apple have become, when such a major announcement can be delivered without a major event. It doesn't seem that long ago when even the Apple HiFi and iPod socks warranted an announcement at an Apple event, now a major update to their flagship OS can be launched with just a few carefully arranged meetings, and a beautifully designed website.
Another positive sign is the commitment they seem to have made in releasing an update to both iOS and Mac every year. The amount of technical resource and planning required to accomplish such a feat is really quite staggering, and bodes well for future innovation. In retrospect, a major enabler for this approach must be the aggressive strides Apple takes to leave behind legacy software. Such a contrast with other OS development companies.
So I'll try and free up some space on my MacBook Air, download the developer preview and kick the tyres on the new OS.
Of course, it means SCOtutor for Lion will have a shorter lifespan than I anticipated, but I'd better start thinking about SCOtutor for Mountain Lion.
Reader Comments (1)
And so the sad decline of OS X continues, with more diddificatiin of its once great and powerful user interface. Depressed now.