Apple has announced that the next version of OS X will be called Mountain Lion and will be released in late summer. The company also made a preview version available to developers and gave the rest of us a peek at some of the new features.
Many of those features have been brought over from iOS 5. These include Messages, Notes, Reminders, Notification Center, AirPlay Mirroring, and Game Center.
‘The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better, said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. ‘The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.’
Messages replaces iChat and allows conversations with users on Macs and iOS devices. Lion users can download a beta of Messages from Apple. Game Center allows Mac users to play multiplayer games with those on iOS devices.
iCloud has been beefed up with iCloud Documents, which pushes changes to files to all devices linked to an iCloud account.
The one brand new feature Apple has so far announced is Gatekeeper, a security tool which allows users to decide whether they want to allow any Mac app to be installed on their system, or limit it to those apps from the Mac App Store and Apple-approved developers.
