As Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s reporting US$35bn quarterly results last night, Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest computer operating system, will go on sale today, bringing in a sweep of new features, including dictation and Facebook integration.
Kudos to our own Elaine Burke who made an “educated guess” that Mountain Lion would go on sale on 25 July.
OS X Mountain Lion will be available today from the Mac App Store for US$19.99. Mountain Lion requires Lion or Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6.8 or later), 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space.
The move follows a major revamp of Apple’s MacBook line-up, including a MacBook Pro with Retina display, and the company said all newly purchased machines can upgrade to the new OS for free.
At the time of writing, Apple.com said simply that the new OS will be “available in July” so the button hasn’t been flicked. Expect this to happen later today as the US wakes up.
Many of the new features in OS X Mountain Lion are influenced by the success of features in Apple’s iOS devices, like the iPhone and the iPad, which account for up to 75pc of the California tech giant’s revenues.
Among the new features you can expect are:
· An all-new Messages app
· An iOS style Notification Center
· System-wide sharing
· Facebook integration
· Voice dictation
· Power Nap
· AirPlay Mirroring
· Enhanced security through Gatekeeper
· iCloud built-in
