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Apple's Mountain Lion vs. a real mountain lion
Jeff Somogyi of dealmac has posted an amusing comparison between Apple's upcoming OS X Mountain Lion and a real mountain lion. It turns out the differences between them are not so subtle. While Apple's Mountain Lion introduces Notification Center, a feature brought over from iOS that consolidates notifications in one organized pane, Somogyi correctly notes that "Mountain lions will not notify you before they pop-up and eat your face." I've never met a mountain lion face to face in the wild, but if they're anything like the utter bastard killing machines they were in Red Dead Redemption, Somogyi is absolutely right about that. The whole chart is definitely worth a read and good for a laugh. Somogyi notes that the "low hanging fruit" would have been even riper for comedy if Apple had named the next version of OS X "Cougar" -- personally, I'm rather grateful Apple went with "Mountain Lion" instead.
PSA: Can your machine run Mountain Lion?
Ah, compatibility, she can be a cruel mistress, prone to leaving your favorite devices out in the cold and your wallet a few bills lighter. Apple's latest OS update, Mountain Lion, is no different. OS X 10.8 won't run on just any Mac, so, the question is, will it run on yours? Well, if you've got any machine from 2009 or newer the answer is yes. Older than that and things get a little bit shaky. iMacs are the most forgiving, with support starting on the mid-2007 models. Any Pro desktop from early 2008 on should be fine, while Xserves get cut off at early 2009 along with the Mac Mini. The original Air is already getting turned aside and you'll need a late 2008 model (or newer) for the update, while vanilla MacBooks are nearing total obsolescence as support starts with the aluminum models from 2008. Lastly, those of you rocking 15- or 17-inch MacBook Pros should be golden starting with late 2007 models. Oh, and any 13-inch Pro should be good to go.
Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper adds additional security options to OS X
With the many updates and new features announced for the upcoming OS X release of Mountain Lion, one may have slipped by, but it's an important feature. It's also likely to become controversial. Gatekeeper gives users some extra security when running third party software. Apple says Gatekeeper will help prevent users from "unknowingly downloading and installing malicious software." The system preference has three levels of security. One only allows you to install apps from the Mac App Store. A second level allows installation of apps from what Apple calls "identified developers." Apple is starting up a program that basically allows developers to have digital signing of their apps. The lowest level of security allows apps to be installed from any source, but OS X will warn you if the app is not digitally signed. What Gatekeeper doesn't do is protect you against malware and viruses, which admittedly have not been a big problem on the Mac platform. Apple does have some built in tools to identify potentially harmful programs, but sometimes the problems can get ahead of Apple implementing a solution. Of course, Windows faces similar challenges, but on a much larger scale. Gatekeeper is in the recently released developer preview, but it is not activated. AppleInsider reports that it can be turned on by using the new OS X system policy control command-line tool "spctl(8)". It will be interesting to see if Gatekeeper matures and adds features by the time Mountain Lion is released in late summer. We'll do a deeper dive on Gatekeeper and its possible implications for the Mac platform later on.
Mountain Lion to move Software Update to the Mac App Store
Every version of OS X has featured a standalone application called Software Update that delivers updates to Apple's operating system, applications, and hardware drivers. According to Pocket Lint, Software Update is being deprecated in the next version of OS X, Mountain Lion, in favor of delivering software updates entirely via the Mac App Store instead. After OS X Lion was made available only via the Mac App Store, it created a somewhat confusing situation where Apple's own programs were updated via the standalone Software Update application while many third-party apps were updated via the Mac App Store. Mountain Lion eliminates this confusion and makes the Mac experience more like that on iOS devices; Mountain Lion users will have only one interface to reckon with when updating software components on their Macs. Presumably Apple will continue to deliver updates via Software Update for Mac users running legacy operating systems like Snow Leopard (and soon, Lion). Hopefully Apple will also continue to offer standalone updates on its support site so paranoid users like me can keep downloading and applying combo updates when OS X updates come out.
Daily Update for February 16, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Mountain Lion drops support for several older Mac models (Updated)
Every new version of OS X comes with harsh news for owners of older Macs: "Your Mac is too old. You're stuck with your current OS. Forever." For Mac OS X Leopard in 2007, anyone who owned a Mac with a processor slower than 867 MHz was stuck with Tiger. In 2009, Snow Leopard made the biggest (and most controversial) shift yet and dropped support for all PowerPC Macs. In 2011, Lion dropped support for Macs that didn't have 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which included most of the first-generation Intel Macs. The march of progress continues in OS X Mountain Lion, and with it comes a new set of minimum requirements. [Update: Apple has since released the official system requirements for 10.8 Mountain Lion. –Ed.] An anonymous developer clued us into the minimum requirements for OS X 10.8, and there's bad news for some older Mac owners. Mountain Lion will only run on the following Macs: iMac (mid 2007 or later) MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later) MacBook Pro (Mid/late 2007 or later) MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later) Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later) Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later) Xserve (Early 2009) This means the following Macs which are supported under OS X Lion will not be able to run Mountain Lion (model identifiers in parentheses): Late 2006 iMacs (iMac5,1, iMac5,2, iMac6,1) All plastic MacBooks that pre-date the aluminum unibody redesign (MacBook2,1, MacBook3,1, MacBook4,1) MacBook Pros released prior to June 2007 (MacBookPro2,1, MacBookPro2,2) The original MacBook Air (MacBookAir1,1) The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Macmini2,1) The original Mac Pro and its 8-core 2007 refresh (MacPro1,1, MacPro2,1) Late 2006 and Early 2008 Xserves (Xserve1,1, Xserve2,1) Update: It slipped my mind that there were two pre-unibody plastic MacBooks introduced between the aluminum MacBook and the plastic unibody redesign, both of them with the model identifier MacBook5,2. Those MacBooks, which still feature the legacy pre-unibody case design and were manufactured in early- to mid-2009, are supported in Mountain Lion because they feature an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card instead of the integrated Intel GPUs in their predecessors. If you're running Lion and not sure if your Mac is supported under Mountain Lion, go to the Apple Menu and select "About this Mac." Click "More Info," then click "System Report." You'll be presented with a window showing a Hardware Overview, and your Model Identifier will be the second entry from the top. If your Model Identifier matches the list above, then regrettably OS X Lion is the end of the road for your Mac. The loss of support for all most pre-unibody plastic MacBooks and the first-gen MacBook Air are likely to come as a big shock to many Mac users; personally I know many people who own older pre-unibody MacBooks. Dropping support for these models in Mountain Lion appears to have something to do with the Intel integrated graphics processors from that era; no Mac with an Intel GMA 950 or Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor will be supported in Mountain Lion. My Early 2008 MacBook Pro dodged the bullet... this time. I have a feeling many of you out there will not be so lucky, and I have a sneaking suspicion that OS X 10.9 will drop support for my Mac, too. It's rough news to be sure, but keep in mind that OS X Lion won't spontaneously combust once Mountain Lion goes live; even if your Mac is stuck with Lion for the rest of its operational life, you can still look forward to several more years of software support for your current OS.
Tim Cook discusses Mountain Lion with the Wall Street Journal
Many media outlets got a sneak preview of Apple's next version of OS X, Mountain Lion, and the Wall Street Journal was no exception. The Journal was treated to a preview from Apple CEO Tim Cook himself. He discussed with the Journal the basic philosophy behind OS X updates going forward: "We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here," Cook says of the iPhone. "Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac." Cook considers iOS and OS X as having "incremental functionality," which fits in with how Steve Jobs characterized the iPad at its 2010 introduction; the iPad is a stepping stone between the iPhone and the Mac, and OS X Lion was Apple's first step at bringing some of iOS's features to the Mac. Mountain Lion is merely the next iteration of that process. "We took a logical pass at what the user is going to experience using these products to make it all make sense," Phil Schiller told the Journal in another interview. By changing the names of certain applications (Address Book to Contacts, iChat to Messages, iCal to Calendar, etc.) and bringing features like Notification Center, AirPlay, and iCloud document sharing to the Mac, Apple seems to have put consistency of experience at the forefront of its design goals. This is a smart move for Apple; with considerably more iPhone users than Mac users out there, creating a wholly integrated platform where iPhone users can sit in front of a Mac for the first time and feel instantly familiar with it is sure to drive Mac adoption even higher in the years to come. Whether this convergence will also apply to hardware is another story. The Journal asked Cook if Macs will eventually run on the same ARM microprocessors as iOS devices, but Tim Cook gave a decidedly noncommittal "We think about everything. We don't close things off." When the Journal mentioned Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 update, Cook shrugged it off. "I don't really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple," he said, calling any pressure that Apple may feel "self-induced." Indeed, the news about Mountain Lion comes at a time when Apple is the only major PC manufacturer experiencing positive growth in the industry; sales of non-Mac PCs have declined year-over-year, with some manufacturers experiencing steep losses in revenue. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is already available as a developer preview, and Apple says it will be available for sale in "late summer." Now that the company has the resources to do so, it appears to be committed to yearly upgrades for OS X on the Mac alongside its yearly upgrades to iOS.
6 cool Messages tips and tricks
It's just arrived in beta, but Apple's next chat app is intriguing. Are you looking to spice up your Messages skills? Here are a half dozen tips and tricks for you to start with. Choose the contact method: Messages can contact you via your AIM/iChat ID, your phone number, your Apple ID, and so forth. It's up to you to choose exactly how you want your message delivered. Locate the pop-up in the To: field and use it to select the contact method you want to use for your conversation. Switch to FaceTime: To the right of the "To:" option is a second pop-up, which allows you start a FaceTime session. You can select which address you wish to connect to (typically phone number of Apple ID). Click this, choose the contact method, and wait as OS X launches the native FaceTime application. Edit Contacts: Right-click any contact and choose "Show Contact Card" to open a contact in Address Book (soon to be the Contacts app). Once there, you can add phone numbers, Apple IDs, etc. After saving, these items are instantly made available in the two pop-ups you've just read about. Use "read receipts": You can let people automatically know you've seen their messages by enabling read receipts. Open Messages > Preferences (Command-,), choose Accounts > your iMessage identity and check Send Read Receipts. When you read the message, the sender is instantly updated with a status change that looks like this. They can tell at a glance that you've received and seen the text that was sent. Change the Presentation Style: Right-click in the message area and choose from three styles: Show as Balloons (the default), Boxes (a semi-compact style that I quite like), and Compact (which seems overly compressed to me). In Boxes style, successive messages are merged together rather than appearing as a sequence of bubbles. Here, three messages are grouped to one box. Convert Smileys back to text: If smileys get on your nerves, you can convert the Messages presentation from their stock art to standard text. Right click and choose View > Hide Smileys Got more tips or suggestions? Add them to the comments!
Messages is a good idea, but is not ready for prime time
It's rare that I can honestly say that Apple software has given me a headache. The new beta for Messages has left me and other members of TUAW staff reaching for aspirin and lamenting that this is nowhere near ready for prime time. That's understandable, given the beta status, but it's still frustrating. "Setup was easy, and I like the idea of being reachable on my Mac, but controlling where the messages end up is confusing at this point," Kelly Hodgkins, the first staff member to try out Messages, said. The very last point she makes is one that is going to be the sticking point for a lot of people. Check out the gallery below for shots of the program in action -- and make sure you do a reboot before using Messages, or it will not work. %Gallery-147811% Messages has a hard time directing a message to its proper destination when people have multiple devices in play. A conversation between myself and Steve Sande went to all the places Messages should go, while test messages from Kelly went only to my iPad and iPhone. A message from Erica Sadun just went to the iPad. Erica and Kelly couldn't message each other at all until Kelly used Erica's phone number, and that only went to her iPhone. In other words, a big headachy mess. When Steve sent me a test image on the Mac, it took several minutes for it to go through -- showing as successful on his end when it wasn't appearing on mine. Then he got an error message and the picture began flashing between an empty green bubble and the iPad shot he sent. There is a FaceTime button in the chats, but instead of launching a video chat inside Messages, it kicks you out to the separate FaceTime app. "It should have FaceTime integrated in so there's only one messaging app to rule them all," Steve said. (This may well be a feature that has to wait for the full release of Mountain Lion.) Steve liked that he's able to message his wife without having to switch between his Mac and iPhone. But, he added, going into full screeen is ridiculous on a large monitor. It looked rather silly on my 11-inch MacBook Air as well. And Erica Sadun's thoughts? "Betalicious," she proclaimed, "with lots of iChat crap still tucked in." She thought the client was ugly, and I have to agree. I also thought the program was bloated and unwieldy. Instead of combining all the messaging programs into one window, it still has separate windows for Messages, AIM, etc. Messages, like the rest of Mountain Lion, is the logical next step in Apple developing its instant message programs and making them available across a lot of its devices. But like last year's FaceTime beta, there are a lot of bugs to be worked out, and I wish Apple had taken a cue from Adium in designing Messages. If you do plan to stick with the program, Erica will be offering some tips and tricks on making it useful.
Apple unleashes OS X Mountain Lion Preview to Mac Developer Program
You may still be purring your way through our in-depth preview, but Mountain Lion is now officially out of the bag, with Apple releasing a preview version of its latest OS X to the members-only Developer Program. If you're up to date on those $99/year dues, you can head on over to the Member Center to get your OS 10.8 fix, and start checking out those shiny new Messages, Reminders, Notes and Notification Center apps. Or kick up your feet and bring your desktop to the big screen with AirPlay Mirroring. If you have the Apple-approved credentials to proceed, you can find all that and more by making your way over to our source link just below.
Messages Beta now available for Mac OS X Lion
If you've read our OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion preview you know that the new Messages app is one of the spiciest new additions to the OS. And, good news for you, you can try it out right now -- if you've made the jump to 10.7 Lion, that is. It's available now for download, so get to clicking.
Apple previews Mountain Lion, next version of Mac OS X
Apple on Thursday released an early preview of Mountain Lion, its next version of Mac OS X, to developers and select publications. The reviews are now hitting the Internet. The general consensus about Mountain Lion is that it will bring some of the best features of iOS (like Notification Center, AirPlay mirroring, GameCenter and Messages) into OS X. These features are not going to be tacked-on mobile versions, but fully integrated in a way that works on a desktop operating system. You can check out some of the early reviews at The Loop, Macworld, Engadget, The Verge, Laptop Magazine, CNET, and PC Magazine. Apple's preview page for Mountain Lion is also live. The next version of OS X is expected to ship this summer and will be available from the Mac App Store. Pricing is not available, but, based on Apple's history, it should be reasonably priced.
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in-depth preview
Apple OS X Lion (10.7) review Apple's OS X Lion USB sticks now available online for $69 Apple updates EFI firmware on 2010 Macs: offers Lion internet recovery, not much else You can bid farewell to the days of Apple's theatrical OS reveals -- at least until OS 11 rears its head, anyway. In the meantime, the outfit has seemingly been content to strip away more and more pomp and circumstance with every subsequent big cat release. Lately, the company has settled into an evolutionary release schedule, eschewing full-fledged makeovers in favor of packing in lots of smaller changes, many of them quite granular indeed. It's a trend that can be traced as far back as 2009's OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), a name designed to drive home the point that the upgrade wasn't so much a reinvention of the wheel as a fine tuning of its predecessor, Leopard. The arrival of Lion (10.7), though, marked a full upgrade. With features like Launchpad and Mission Control, it seemed like it might be the last version Cupertino dropped before finally pulling the trigger on operating system number 11, and perhaps transitioning to something with an even stronger iOS influence. Right now, at least, the company's not ready to close the book on chapter X, but it is giving the world a first peek at 10.8. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mountain Lion.
