Apple Offers Quick Glimpse At Mountain Lion

By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 2/16/2012

New York - February is proving to be a big month for operating systems, with Microsoft and Apple releasing test versions of their latest software.

Apple announced the developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion is available for download starting today. The OS is expected to go on sale this summer.

Microsoft had already announced the public beta of Windows 8 would be released on Feb. 29.

Mountain Lion's updates are heavily derived from iOS, the company said, with many features now found on the iPad being ported over. These include better integration with iCloud, messages, reminders, notes, notification center, share sheets, game center, Twitter, AirPlay mirroring and gatekeeper.

The Apple tagline is "Inspired by iPad. Re-imagined for Mac."

Some of the iPad functionality includes:

·         Messages, said to be is an improvement on iChat, allows messages to be sent to any Apple device, along with photos, videos and documents;

·         Reminders, a list-making app that can work in conjunction with other Apple devices through iCloud;

·         Notes, with an extended text-writing function that can also be shared through iCloud;

·         Notification center, which acts as a central depository for emails, instant messages, calendar alert and social-media alerts; the user is notified via a short-lived banner that appears on the desktop that something new is in the center for viewing;

·         Shared sheets, a button that will be found on many Mountain Lion apps that will push links, photos and videos from the website to friends; and

·         Game center, where the user can play multiplayer games with friends or congregate the games they already own.