Apple’s Lion pushes users further into corner
Compared to the previous version of Apple’s OS X software, Lion — which overhauled everything from how programs are launched to how you scroll through a web page — Mountain Lion is an incremental improvement, bringing to the Mac several functions already familiar to users of the company’s mobile devices.
I’ve been running the new software for a week, both on a laptop borrowed from the company and on an iMac desktop where I installed it myself. The upgrade, which is available only as a download from the Mac App Store, costs €15.99.
Mountain Lion works on most models released since 2007, though it requires that you already have either Lion or its predecessor, Snow Leopard.
The upgrade process took about 75 minutes. It required little input from me and was aggravation-free. The biggest issue I confronted was the temporary disappearance of an icon for Google’s Chrome browser, easily fixed.
The most significant change in Mountain Lion is its integration with iCloud, the free Apple service that automatically stores your data online and lets you access it from any Apple device.
For instance, using the Documents in the Cloud feature, I created a file on the Mac using Apple’s Pages word-processing application, pulled it down on an iPad to make a few tweaks, then saw them reflected the next time I came back to the Mac.
At the outset, Documents in the Cloud is limited to Apple applications such as Pages and the other components in the company’s iWorks productivity suite.
Mountain Lion also brings the Messages app, already used on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, to the Mac. Messages, which replaces the iChat program, allows you to send free, unlimited texts to fellow Apple users.
Even better, your conversations are duplicated and kept up to date on all your Apple devices.
Messages is just one of the applications hatched on the iPad-iPhone operating system, iOS, that have now migrated to the Mac. Others making the trek include the Game Centre hub and social network, a new centralised Notification Centre that slides in and out with a finger swipe, and new apps for notes and reminders.
For all the convenience, Apple’s relentless drive to put itself at the centre of your entire online experience can sometimes feel a little overweening.
A good example is the new Gatekeeper feature, designed to enhance security by throwing up obstacles to keep you from unknowingly installing malicious software.
Programs from the Mac App Store or from developers certified by Apple glide through, but for anything else, you have to manually override Gatekeeper and convince Mountain Lion you really, really want to install that software.
Eventually, perhaps, every Mac program will have some sort of Apple stamp of approval. After all, the only official source for iPad and iPhone apps is the company’s carefully controlled App Store.
Lest you start to feel completely imprisoned by the Apple-centric ecosystem, though, Mountain Lion includes a few nods in the direction of connecting with the wider world.
Twitter, for example, is now deeply integrated throughout the operating system. Once you log in to your account through the system preferences setting, you can easily tweet through the Notifications Centre, as well as a share button built into many applications.
A similar tie with Facebook will be rolled out in an update. You’ll also be able to bring your Facebook friends into your Contacts address book, and receive activity alerts through the Notification Centre.
Then there’s AirPlay Mirroring, which allows you to wirelessly toss anything from your Mac’s screen onto a HD television equipped with the compact €109 Apple TV set-top box.
It sure beats fumbling with a projector and cables if you’re doing, say, a PowerPoint presentation.
But it makes you dependent on yet another piece of Apple technology. Which, of course, is precisely the idea.
* Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist
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