The Mountain Lion Appears

Apple announced Mountain Lion today, the next version of Mac OS X (I’m going to refuse to drop the Mac for now). I’ll get to the actual OS in a bit, but there was a very interesting quote in Gruber’s post on ML when he asks about this pre-seeding to journalists way of releasing OS X:

That’s when Schiller tells me they’re doing some things differently now.

I like that. I like to see they aren’t just thinking WWSJD. Apple without Steve needs to set out on its on path, and this new way shows they are doing that. Remember, Steve didn’t want iTunes on Windows, which is what really let the iPod take off. He wasn’t perfect.

Okay, back to the OS. ML looks real intriguing. The notification center seems like one of those things that isn’t that exciting until you start using it. Its not like in iOS where the need for it was dire. In OS X, it really isn’t needed, but I but its going to be awesome. Same with Airplay- I bet this is going to get a lot of use in schools. The Messages app is pretty nice, and it will be great to finally have one place for all messages.

Of course the iCloud integration is the biggest change. Luckily the old way of interaction with files is still there, but being able to sync to iCloud and access it anywhere is going to be awesome. I wonder what the means for DropBox (who will still be on PCs). But I am excited to see how far document management has come since the iPad first came out. Remember that? Syncing with iTunes to get Pages documents over? This is going to be so much better.

Finally, GateKeeper is scary and cool at the same time. Now, there are three permission levels regarding launching apps on the Mac: only from the App Store, anywhere, and App Store plus signed apps. I think a lot of people are worried that the Mac will be locked down like the iOS, but I have a feeling that its going to go the other way. I’d love to see this migrate to iOS. I like Apple has this right.

I’m excited about Mountain Lion, and of course I’m excited to get SMART Utility up and running on it. Check out the next post for more info on that.