Mountain Lion

Shared Reminders go live at iCloud.com

Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 on September 12 and the following day updated the iCloud.com web interface by dropping the Beta flag and introducing the new Notes and Reminders web apps with cloud notifications enabled. Today, club Cupertino improves upon its cloud-based suite of services by adding shared reminders to the Reminders web app on iCloud.com.

You were able to set up shared reminders using Reminders on OS X (not via the stock iOS Reminders app, though), but those wouldn't sync with the web interface. Today's update is a minor but important one as it finally provides for a more seamless sync of reminders across devices, though not yet perfect...

Facebook integration and iMessage upgrades shown off in OS X 10.8.2

It's been a big day for Apple releases, including the Mac. As we reported earlier, OS X 10.8.2 was released with a whole slew of new features. Most predominant are the new Facebook single sign-on, and the iMessage phone number syncing abilities.

Take a look at our brief video demonstration of these two new features in action, and don't forget to check out our post highlighting the full change log. Have you upgraded yet?

Messages for Mac is about to get a lot more useful

As 9to5Mac just pointed out, Apple has released OS X 10.8.2 build 12C50 to developers, and it packs quite a few useful features.

Most notably, in my opinion, is the new syncing ability between iMessages sent to a telephone number. Now, any iMessage can be sent and received from a Mac running OS X 10.8.2, regardless of whether or not it's a phone number or an email address.

I don't know about you, but this has always seemed like a glaring omission, and serves to make iMessage that much more of a relevant communication tool on the desktop.

How to create an OS X Mountain Lion USB installation drive

Creating a USB install drive is one of the simplest ways to ensure that a fresh clean installation of OS X Mountain Lion is only a few steps away. Gone are the clunky days of using CDs to reinstall an OS.

Inside, we'll show you how to setup your very own OS X Mountain Lion USB installation drive, using an easy to follow video walkthrough.

Apple announces three million Mountain Lion downloads in four days

Apple this morning announced that OS X Mountain Lion has been downloaded three million times in the four days following its release last Thursday, making it the most successful OS X release in the company's history.

Its predecessor, OS X Lion, clocked in Lion a million downloads on its first day on the Mac App Store, moving six million copies in total during its first 76 days.

Mountain Lion is being distributed exclusively via the Mac App Store and is priced at $19.99 a copy, with rights to install it on up to five different Macs. In other words, Apple made a cool $60 million in revenue off Mountain Lion in just four days...

NYT: Apple talking to Twitter about investing hundreds of millions of dollars

Apple has apparently been in talks with Twitter officials in recent months about making a possible investment in the micro-blogging platform, reports The New York Times. Described as "a strategic investment", it could value Twitter at more than ten billions.

Apple's attempts at social were limited thus far. Its social thing for music, Ping, will likely be discontinued with the next major iTunes update. That promised Facebook integration in Ping had been pulled last minute was blamed on “onerous terms that we could not agree to”, as Jobs put it. Nonetheless, Apple has opted to partner with both Twitter and Facebook to support their services throughout iOS and OS X.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal says Apple talked to Twitter about this a year ago, claiming no immediate acquisition is in the cards.

Go past the break for the latest...

Poll: did you buy Mountain Lion?

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion some 36 hours ago exclusively via the Mac App Store at a breakthrough price of just $19.99 a copy, with rights to install the operating system on up to five different Macs authorized with the same Apple ID account.

If yesterday's poll is anything to go by, you seem to be appreciating the bang Mountain Lion is offering for your buck, with nearly 80 percent of respondents saying that the software is worth its asking price.

But assessing the perceived value of a piece of software is one thing and actually taking the plunge is an entirely different matter. Today's poll, yet another YES/NO survey per popular demand, asks a simple question, whether or not you've bought Mountain Lion yet...

Poll: is Mountain Lion worth its asking price?

As you know, Apple today released OS X Mountain Lion. It will run you only twenty bucks a copy, which includes rights to install the operating system on up to five different Macs. Mountain Lion builds upon its predecessor Lion in that it streamlines your experience with additional iOS tricks, deep integration with iCloud, Facebook and Twitter and interesting new capabilities such as PowerNap and Gatekeeper, to name a few.

It also includes a handful of apps ported from iOS, such as iMessage, Reminders, Notes, Game Center and Notification Center, in the hope that it'll help new Mac owners get up to speed quickly. At that breakthrough price, Mountain Lion should be a no-brainer. But as is often the case, the price is a reflection of the product's perceived value.

For some, Mountain Lion is worth every cent. There are also those who feel that even twenty bucks is too high a price for an OS that underwhelms with just a handful of truly new features while spoiling the fun by insisting on a bunch of glorified iOS apps with that forced skeuomorphic design.

Which camp do you belong to?

RedSn0w is compatible with Mountain Lion

Good news for all of you Mac-using jailbreakers out there that updated to Mountain Lion today. The Dev Team has just confirmed that the new OS is compatible with RedSn0w.

The Team does have a few instructions, though, for the folks that updated. So if you have installed Mountain Lion, and you plan on using the utility, you should read this...

Apple releases Mountain Lion on Mac App Store for $19.99

As part of yesterday's earnings report for fiscal 2012 third quarter, Apple's CEO Tim Cook was quoted in a media release as saying the company would launch the next major revision to its desktop operating system on Wednesday. The company just made good in its promise by letting OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion out of the cage. It's available now as an exclusive Mac App Store digital download costing just $19.99 a pop...

Apple to bring iOS 6 Maps to Macs?

Having ditched Google Maps in favor of its in-house mapping solution in iOS 6, Apple could now be extending iOS 6 Maps to Macs running OS X Mountain Lion. This would seem logical and inevitable given Apple recently confirmed the use of OpenStreetMap data in iPhoto for both iOS and Mac. Apple conceivably has the maps.apple.com subdomain set up, which currently redirects to the iOS 6 section on its website...

Upcoming tweak brings another Mountain Lion inspired Notification Center to iOS

Mountain Center is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that brings an OS X Mountain Lion like Notification Center to iOS. Now if this all seems a bit familiar to you, that's probably because you've seen or read about MountainLionCenter, which performs a similar action.

Oddly enough, it seems that both tweaks were being developed around the same time, completely independent of one another, hence the overlapping of functionality. But there is good news, because the tweaks differ enough to warrant giving them both a separate look.

Mountain Center adds a few options that you won't find in MountainLionCenter, like the ability to invoke Notification Center from either side of the screen, and more. Take a look at our full video walkthrough inside...