Mountain Lion Release Coming Soon

Apple is on track for a public release of the new OS X Mountain Lion. When available, Mountain Lion can be downloaded for $20 through the Mac App Store. Users who purchased a Mac on June 11 or after will get the Mountain Lion upgrade for free.

How could Apple impress users with the new OS? Let’s see the new features of OS X Mountain Lion!

iCLOUD
iCloud is how a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch work together. You just sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is set up in all the apps that use it. So when you add, delete, or change something on your Mac, it also happens on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And vice versa.

Reminder
You may organize your life on your Mac by making list on them. You’ll get alerts as deadlines approach by setting due dates. Besides, by setting a location from your Mac, and your iPhone or iPad will remind you when you get there.

Notes
Just jot down whatever is on your mind, wherever you happen to be. You can even make it more noteworthy with photos, images, and attachments. You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search. Use the Share button to send your notes with Mail or Messages. Pin important notes to your desktop so they’re easy to get to.

iMessage
You can send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5, too. Send photos, videos, documents, and contacts — even send messages to a group. You’ll see when your message has been delivered and when someone’s typing a reply. Turn on read receipts, and they’ll see when you’ve read a message. With end-to-end encryption, your messages stay safe and private.

Notification Center
Something new is always popping up somewhere on your Mac — an email, a message, a software update, a calendar alert. Notifications always appear in the same spot on your desktop and disappear quickly so they don’t clutter up your screen. Whenever you want to see all your notifications in one place, just swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad.

Power Nap
When your Mac goes to sleep, it still gets things done with Power Nap. It periodically updates Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Photo Stream, Find My Mac, and Documents in the Cloud. When your Mac is connected to a power source, it downloads software updates and makes backups with Time Machine. While all that updating is going on, the system sounds are silent and no lights or fans come on, so nothing disturbs you. And when your Mac wakes up, it’s good to go.

Dictation
Dictation converts your words into text. The more you use Dictation, the smarter it gets. It learns voice characteristics. And it recognizes people from your contacts so it enters names accurately. Dictation supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, and Japanese.

Sharing
You’ll find the Share button throughout OS X Mountain Lion. It’s the new, easy way to share right from the app you’re using. Share photos, videos, and other files with Mail, Messages, and AirDrop. Send links from Safari. And with a few clicks, post straight to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo when the moment strikes.

Facebook
With built-in Facebook support, you can share what’s up with you right from the app you’re in. OS X adds your Facebook friends and their profile photos to Contacts so you can find them fast. When friends update their information on Facebook, it’s automatically updated on your Mac. Your Facebook notifications show up in Notification Center. And you can even update your status right from there.

Tweet
OS X Mountain Lion is designed for tweeting. Tweet links and photos directly from Safari, iPhoto, or Photo Booth with the new Tweet sheet. Add comments and locations. And when someone mentions you in a tweet or sends you a direct message, you’ll get a notification right then and there. You can tweet from Notification Center, too.

Air Play
With only a click, what’s on your Mac is also on your HDTV. It’s easy to set up with Apple TV. AirPlay audio streams the music, podcasts, and other audio on your Mac to AirPlay-enabled speakers.

Game Center
With the Game Center app on your Mac, you can play anyone on a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Just use your Game Center account from iOS or create one with your Apple ID. Then sign in and you’re in. See all the games you’ve played and get one going quickly. Check out leaderboards and see how your high score ranks against scores around the world. Game Center recommends Mac games and opponents, so you can start a multiplayer game with your friends and even challenge people you don’t know.

Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from. And it gives you even more control over which apps you install.

Safari
New features in Safari make browsing the web smarter and faster. As you search, Safari always stays one step ahead. It suggests a Top Hit, popular search terms, and pages from your bookmarks and history to help you find a web page fast. Tab View shows your open tabs. Just pinch to see them all and swipe to switch between them. When you open web pages on your iPhone or iPad, iCloud Tabs makes them available on your Mac, too. So you can pick up browsing wherever you left off. And now that Safari saves entire web pages in your Reading List — not just the links — you can catch up on your reading even without an Internet connection. Safari delivers the fastest JavaScript of any browser. So you get the best of the web.