Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion for $19.99

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Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) latest version of OS X Mountain Lion, which was announced during the WWDC keynote this June, is now available for download for just $19.99.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced yesterday the company’s financial performance, and along with it, he took the opportunity to announce iPad sales figures, Mountain Lion release news, and more.

We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter. We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow ,and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.

Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion for $19.99

Finally those who were eagerly waiting for Mountain Lion, can now grab it at a price of $19.99 from the Mac App Store and if you’ve recently bought a new Mac, then you can get this new OS for free. Developers who are familiar with Mountain Lion have reported good feedback on this new OS, but actual users have yet to say anything about it. Also we’ll need to wait for the detailed review on Mountain Lion before commenting on this OS.

This is the first time that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is moving towards a more seamless experience between OS X and iOS. It would be worth watching whether the majority of users will like this new idea or not.

Features of OS X Mountain Lion

According to Apple, this new operating system comes with over 200 new features. Let’s take a look at some of these features.

Safari: Safari is redesigned to function like Google Chrome, which combines search and address bar in one box (Chrome calls it an Omnibox). Safari also brings improved performance to Mac, with Javascript performance up to 6 percent, compared to Safari 5.1.

Messages: With iMessage, you can send messages to anyone who has an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or a Mac with Mountain Lion. Messages have replaced iChat, and now you can also attach files to your conversation.

Dictation: Remember Siri? Not exactly like that, but Dictation lets you use your voice instead of typing it manually. Wherever a text field is present, just select that field and turn Dictation on. If you want to use punctuation marks, then that’s also possible with Dictation.

Notes: The Notes application from iOS is now included in Mountain Lion. Your Notes can now stay synced across all your devices, thanks to the iCloud.

Reminders: This is yet another feature that’s brought from iOS. Reminders is a standalone app which lets you manage your reminders from Mac. The interface resembles the iOS app, so that if you have used iOS before, then you can just start using this app.

AirPlay Mirroring: With AirPlay Mirroring, you can send what’s on your Mac screen to an HDTV wirelessly, with Apple TV. Your Mac can now become a media hub for your HDTV.

Notification Center: Notification Center consolidates notifications from Messages, Calendar, Mail, Reminders, and third-party apps in one convenient place, which means you can now say bye bye to third party apps for this purpose. Apple took Notification Center from iOS 5 and integrated it with Mountain Lion. Finally, your Mac has a built-in system for app notifications and new messages, just like the iOS.

Sharing: OS X Mountain Lion comes with system wide sharing to your favorite social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo. Just sign-in once and authorize them to post on behalf of you. Also there’s no need to switch between apps, as sharing can be done easily via the share button.

OS X Mountain Lion Requirements

OS X v10.6.8 or later
2GB of memory
8GB of available space

Supported models:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

Before you start purchasing this new OS, ensure that your Mac is fully compatible to run OS X Mountain Lion. If you are running a Mac with above supported models, then you can go ahead and grab this new OS right now.

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