OS X Mountain Lion brings a lot of great things from iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the Mac. You can send iMessages. Get your Mac in on Game Center. Receive notifications. And more. And with iCloud, now your Mac works even better with your iOS devices. Watch the video
iCloud is how a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch work together.1 It keeps your mail, calendars, contacts, reminders, documents, notes, and more up to date wherever you use them. So when you add, delete, or change something on your Mac, it also happens on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And vice versa. You don’t have to do anything at all — iCloud is automatic and effortless. Just sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is set up in all the apps that use it. Suddenly, life’s easier to juggle.
Start here.
Sign in once and iCloud is all set up.
Organize your life on your Mac. It’s all in a list. More than one, in fact. Make as many lists as you need and easily add to them. Set due dates and you’ll get alerts as deadlines approach. Set a location from your Mac, and your iPhone or iPad will remind you when you get there.2 Check items off your lists as you go and keep track of what you’ve completed. iCloud keeps your reminders up to date on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, so you don't forget anything.
Notes is designed for whatever’s on your mind, wherever you happen to be. Think it up. Jot it down. Make it even more noteworthy with photos, images, and attachments. You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search. Use the Share button to send your notes with Mail or Messages. Pin important notes to your desktop so they’re easy to get to. And take them with you everywhere. Notes works with iCloud, so when you create or edit a note on your Mac, it automatically updates on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And vice versa.
Messages with iMessage takes your conversations even further. Because now you can send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5, too. Messages appear on your Mac and any device you use, which means you can say hi from your Mac and keep chatting on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are. Send photos, videos, documents, and contacts — even send messages to a group. You’ll see when your message has been delivered and when someone’s typing a reply. Turn on read receipts, and they’ll see when you’ve read a message. With end-to-end encryption, your messages stay safe and private.
They’ll see what you mean.
Send photos, HD videos, contacts, and attachments.
Are they writing back?
When you see three dots, someone’s typing a reply.
Make it face-to-face.
Switch to FaceTime right in Messages.
Did they get it?
Delivery receipts let you know your message arrived.
Something new is always popping up somewhere on your Mac — an email, a message, a software update, a calendar alert. Notification Center makes it easy to stay on top of it all. Notifications always appear in the same spot on your desktop and disappear quickly so they don’t clutter up your screen. Whenever you want to see all your notifications in one place, just swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad. And there they are, in a simple, ordered list. So you’ll always know what’s up as soon as it comes up.
See what’s up.
Swipe to check out your new email, messages, reminders, and more.
When your Mac goes to sleep, it still gets things done with Power Nap.3 It periodically updates Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Photo Stream, Find My Mac, and Documents in the Cloud. When your Mac is connected to a power source, it downloads software updates and makes backups with Time Machine. While all that updating is going on, the system sounds are silent and no lights or fans come on, so nothing disturbs you. And when your Mac wakes up, it’s good to go.
Now you can talk anywhere you can type. Dictation converts your words into text. It uses the built-in microphone on your Mac, so there’s no need to set anything up — just start speaking instead of typing. When you say “comma” or “exclamation point,” Dictation punctuates for you. The more you use Dictation, the smarter it gets. It learns voice characteristics. And it recognizes people from your contacts so it enters names accurately. Dictation supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, and Japanese.
You’ll find the Share button throughout OS X Mountain Lion. It’s the new, easy way to share right from the app you’re using. Share photos, videos, and other files with Mail, Messages, and AirDrop. Send links from Safari. And with a few clicks, post straight to Facebook,4 Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo when the moment strikes.
See it. Share it.
Use the built-in Share button.
This fall, OS X will be even more Facebook friendly. With built-in Facebook support, you can share what’s up with you right from the app you’re in. Post photos or links. Add comments and locations. Just sign in once, and you’re all set up. OS X adds your Facebook friends and their profile photos to Contacts so you can find them fast. When friends update their information on Facebook, it’s automatically updated on your Mac. Your Facebook notifications show up in Notification Center. And you can even update your status right from there.
They have to see this.
Post photos and links. And add comments and locations.
OS X Mountain Lion is designed for tweeting. Sign in once and you’re all set up — and you don’t have to leave the app you’re in. Tweet links and photos directly from Safari, iPhoto, or Photo Booth with the new Tweet sheet. Add comments and locations. And when someone mentions you in a tweet or sends you a direct message, you’ll get a notification right then and there. You can tweet from Notification Center, too.
AirPlay Mirroring is made for an audience. Because with a click, what’s on your Mac is also on your HDTV. It’s easy to set up with Apple TV. Show web pages and videos to friends on the couch, share lessons with a classroom, or present to a conference room. AirPlay audio streams the music, podcasts, and other audio on your Mac to AirPlay-enabled speakers. It’s a big deal for your Mac. And for everyone around it.
With the Game Center app on your Mac, you can play anyone on a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.5 Just use your Game Center account from iOS or create one with your Apple ID. Then sign in and you’re in. See all the games you’ve played and get one going quickly. Check out leaderboards and see how your high score ranks against scores around the world. Game Center recommends Mac games and opponents, so you can start a multiplayer game with your friends and even challenge people you don’t know.
Ready. Set. Sign in.
Use your Game Center account from iOS or create one with your Apple ID.
Who’s in?
Find friends/foes in your gaming network. And meet new players.
Gatekeeper helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from. And it gives you even more control over which apps you install. You can download and install apps from anywhere on the web, just as you always could. You can choose to download and install apps from the Mac App Store — the safest place to find apps for your Mac. Or use the Gatekeeper default option, which allows you to install apps from the Mac App Store and apps from identified developers. It’s a new way OS X keeps your Mac safe. Learn more about Gatekeeper and other security features
You control what’s installed.
Install apps only from the Mac App Store, from identified developers, or from anywhere you want.
New features in Safari make browsing the web smarter and faster. Now there’s one simple search field for both search terms and web addresses. As you search, Safari always stays one step ahead. It suggests a Top Hit, popular search terms, and pages from your bookmarks and history to help you find a web page fast. Tab View shows your open tabs. Just pinch to see them all and swipe to switch between them. When you open web pages on your iPhone or iPad, iCloud Tabs makes them available on your Mac, too.6 So you can pick up browsing wherever you left off. And now that Safari saves entire web pages in your Reading List — not just the links — you can catch up on your reading even without an Internet connection. Safari delivers the fastest JavaScript of any browser.7 So you get the best of the web.
Search smart.
Now there’s one field for both web addresses and search terms.
OS X Mountain Lion brings all-new support for many popular Chinese features and services. The dictionary app now includes the Standard Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese. Improved text input makes typing in Chinese easier, faster, and more accurate. With eight new fonts, your writing can appear formal, informal, or fun. Mail works with QQ, 163, and 126. Baidu, the leading Chinese search provider, is a built-in option in Safari. Now you can post to the web right from the app you’re in. Post videos with Youku and Tudou. Post to Sina Weibo, the popular microblogging service. And share easier than ever. All these new services are easy to set up on your Mac.