Apple OSX Mountain Lion released today.

Apple has released the latest version of their evergreen OSX operating system.

‘Mountain Lion' will be available as an upgrade for just £13.99 from the Mac App store. Existing OSX users can upgrade to Mountain Lion from their existing OSX 'Lion' operating system, or the most recent version of OSX Snow Leopard, which is 10.6.8.

General requirements:

• OS X v10.6.8 or later
• 2GB of memory
• 8GB of available storage space
  
• Some features require an Apple ID.
  
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider.

What hardware models are supported?

• 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)

Furthur compatibility information can be found on the offical Apple website - http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

What can we expect from Mountain Lion?

The latest operating system has been designed to integrate seamlessly with social networking platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Sharing information from your mac has never been easier.  Mountain Lion also includes a fantastic notification panel which is similar to the one found on the latest iPhone.

Some key features of Mountain Lion:

iCloud integration - An automated cloud based service, iCloud allows you to store your email, contacts, reminders, documentation, notes and calendars to the cloud. If you use more than one Apple hardware device then iCloud is the perfect solution for ensuring that your data is always kept up to date on you iPhone, iMac, iPad and iPod touch.

Reminders and notes - updated versions of both apps. Both reminders and notes use iCloud to keep your list up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod touch.

iMessage - the ultimate conversation application. Send messages from your Mac to anyone using an iphone, iPod touch and an iPad, as long as they are using version 5 of IOS.  Fully encrypted, you are also use read receipts so you will know if someone has red your message.

Notification centre - similar to the notification system on your iPhone. Notification centre is a great tool for keeping up to date with recent activity such as new email messages, software updates and calendar alerts. Perfect for keeping our IT Support engineers on their toes!

Power nap - perfect for recharging your energy in the afternoon :) Ok, its not that sort of powernap. Power Nap ensures that everything on your mac is kept up to date when your mac is in sleep mode.  Updates include email, calendar entries, software updates, reminder, notes, photos and documents.

Sharing - sharing is good! The share button in Mountain Lion will allow you to share information directly from the app you are using. You can share photos, videos, files, email and messages and you can share links from safari. Share all of the above to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and Flickr.

Integrated Facebook support - Later on in the year, Apple will introduce built in Facebook support. Facebook support will allow you to share information directly from your apps to Facebook, including photos and links. Mountain Lion will also add Facebook friends and their photos to your contacts list.  When your friends update their status, it is automatically updated on your Mac. Very cool.

Twitter - get tweeting with OSX Mountain Lion. Tweet photos and links directly from your apple apps to Twitter. You can tweet photos, links and you can add comments and location details.

Existing Our IT Department clients can contact us on 0845 129 9940 with any questions, queries or concerns about the latest operating system.