14 DAY TRIAL // Apple took the developer community by surprise today launching a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion, “the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, which brings popular apps and features from iPad to the Mac and accelerates the pace of OS X innovation.”
The new OS delivers such cool new features as Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring.
Apple confirms that Mountain Lion is the first OS X that has been built around iCloud, “for easy setup and integration with apps.”
Gatekeeper, another new feature introduced in Mountain Lion, is described as “a revolutionary security feature that helps keep you safe from malicious software by giving you complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac.”
Available to Mac Developer Program members starting today, this preview release of Mountain Lion has features that have been specifically designed to support Chinese users.
This includes significant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidu search in Safari, Apple said.
Developers looking to access to new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X will be able to access hundreds of new APIs.
Some of these application programming interfaces, the Game Kit APIs, will allow developers to “tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.”
“The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.”
Regular Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion in late summer 2012. The product will be offered through the Mac App Store, just like the Lion before it.