What's new in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Apple's latest OS X release is up on the App Store now – though Apple's servers are packed to bursting at time of writing. Take a break from hitting refresh and catch up on all you need to know about OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion's fancy new features.

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – Notification Centre

OS X Mountain Lion follows in the footsteps of its iOS 5 brother with a new dropdown notification list. Simply slide two fingers from the right edge of the trackpad to fire it up and enjoy instant status updates and access to Twitter and Facebook.

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – Game Center

Mountain Lion will let you challenge your iOS-toting mates in real-time with cross platform gaming support – as long as there's a Mac version of the title available. In other words, you can lose to your 5 your old niece more often as she laps you round the track yet again.

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – Dictation

Craving Siri-like dictation on your Mac? Mountain Lion has you covered, letting you convert your speech to text in a whole host of apps and take advantage of the dual mics present in the next-generation MacBook Pro. Ideal for lazy gadgeteers with fatigued fingers.

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – AirPlay mirroring

OS X Mountain Lion supports AirPlay mirroring, pumping out your Mac's screen in 1080p to any telly that's connected to an Apple TV box. Expect to see this feature built into Apple's rumoured iTV television set too.

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – deeper iCloud integration

iCloud gets smarter and allows you to sync calendars, emails and contacts across your collection of iOS devices, as well as your notes, messages and reminders.