Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 – Need to Know

Apple OS X Mountain Lion – AirPlay mirroring

AirPlay mirroring will allow you to mirror your Mac's screen to any telly connected to an Apple TV box at a resolution of 1080p. We bet our entire gadget collection that AirPlay mirroring will be built into Apple's long-rumoured upcoming iTV television set.

Apple OS X Mountain Lion – reminders

iOS 5's reminders app now has a fully-fledged OS X Mountain Lion version and makes use of Apple's iCloud to sync across all of your iOS devices. The only missing feature is location based reminders, though admittedly they're much more useful in the more portable iPhone and iPad.

Apple OS X Mountain Lion – Power Nap and Gatekeeper

Available on the next generation MacBook Pro and second generation MacBook Air, Power Nap enables your MacBook to update while it sleeps. As well as downloading and installing software updates, it'll also back up the MacBook using Time Machine, and refresh Mail, Contacts, Calendar and iCloud apps.

The Gatekeeper feature may prove contentious to some – it enables you to restrict app downloads to Apple's own App Store, or install any third party apps. By default, it locks you into the App Store and to Apple-approved third-party apps, and downloads daily security updates.

Apple OS X Mountain Lion – Game Center

Game Center on OS X Mountain Lion will let you play games on your Mac with your iOS-toting friends in real time, as long as there is a Mac version of the title in question. A new Game Kit tool will be available for developers to create compatible Mac titles.

Apple OS X Mountain Lion – Pricing and availability

Mountain Lion will be available in July priced $US20 and will require Lion or Snow Leopard, 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space. It will, of course, be included on new Macs at no additional charge from July; a free upgrade will be available to anyone who bought a Mac on or after June 11th 2012.

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