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"Under the hood"? Not really. There are a few nifty new APIs – SceneKit, NSXPCConnection, NSUserNotification, the sharing stuff – and the 64-bit kernel (with ke
by ryannielsen 14y ago
"Under the hood"? Not really. There are a few nifty new APIs – SceneKit, NSXPCConnection, NSUserNotification, the sharing stuff – and the 64-bit kernel (with kernel ASLR) is now the default. Regarding user-visible features, I think there are a couple nice ones:
- AirPlay mirroring is slick, especially in meeting situations
- Document auto-save and versioning are a lot less annoying and more useful
- Improved sharing support can be quite useful in many situations
- Calendar and Contacts suck less
- Gatekeeper is, I honestly believe, a solid step forward in improving system integrity and security
- iCloud sucks less and is better integrated into some system apps
- You are now notified of both system and app updates, and update checks happen daily. I think this is huge for app developers
- Preview has support for entering text in text fields of PDF documents which aren't true PDF forms (this honestly might be my single favorite Mountain Lion feature)
For $20, I think this is a solid "polish" upgrade. There's nothing mind blowing, but there's an incredible amount of polish across the system, with a few truly useful features mixed in. For me? Money well spent.
- mehulkar 14y agoIntegrated iMessage is all the extra features I need.
- karolist 14y agoAirPlay mirroring sounds nice. Could it be used to show Photoshop canvas on an iPad when drawing with wacom? I was thinking of buying an app for this, but if Mountain Lion does that I might hold off till I upgrade.
- ryannielsen 14y agoOut of the box (so to speak), AirPlay mirroring only supports traditional AirPlay destinations, e.g. AppleTVs. I'm pretty sure you'll still want to pick up that app which makes an iPad an AirPlay destination.
- julien_p 14y agoAlso keep in mind that AirPlay mirroring requires at least a Sandybridge CPU, so you need a mac released in 2011 or later.
- kogir 14y agoCan you cite a source for that? Experience suggests that is not the case.
- pooriaazimi 14y agoSearching "airplay mirroring mountain sandy bridge" suggests otherwise. http://www.google.com/search?q=airplay+mirroring+mountain+sandy+bridge http://www.google.com/search?q=airplay+mirroring+mountain+sa... http://www.mindofthegeek.com/2012/07/05/airplay-mirroring-in-mountain-lion-not-supported-in-older-macs/ http://www.mindofthegeek.com/2012/07/05/airplay-mirroring-in...
- julien_p 14y agohttp://www.apple.com/osx/specs/ http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/ lists the following macs as supporing AirPlay * iMac (Mid 2011 or newer) * Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer) * MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer) * MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer) I remember reading that AirPlay mirroring uses the video encoding capabilities of SandyBridge CPUs, but I can't find a source for that now. Anecdotally, http://airparrot.com http://airparrot.com really taxes my 2010 MacBook's CPU.
- kogir 14y agoStrange, because it's working great on my 2008 unibody Macbook Pro with Core 2 Duo.
- Synaesthesia 14y agoSafari uses Core Animation for rendering, much smoother scrolling. It also has a sort of "Tab expose" feature.
- speg 14y agoand shared tabs through iCloud to your iOS devices.