14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has seeded developers with the Golden Master build of OS X Mountain Lion in anticipation of its public debut this month. Mountain Lion introduces more than 200 new features.
Developers enrolled with Apple can visit the company’s Mac Dev Center and redeem a code that enables them to download the latest Mountain Lion build for testing. The GM is said to weigh in at 4.34 GB on the Mac App Store.
There are few documented changes in the media, such as improved Dictation performance, and the official release notes are yet to be leaked.
Mountain Lion is scheduled to make its public debut this month bringing an all-new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration, Dictation, Power Nap, AirPlay Mirroring, Game Center and Gatekeeper (for enhanced security).
Apple says that with iCloud built into the foundation of the software, Mountain Lion will be the perfect OS choice for those who wish to keep their content organized and up to date across all their devices.
“The pace of innovation on the Mac is amazing, OS X Mountain Lion comes just a year after the incredibly successful launch of Lion,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With iCloud built right in and the new Notification Center, Messages, Dictation, Facebook integration and more, this is the best OS X yet.”
Additional new features in Mountain Lion include: AirPlay Mirroring; a faster Safari with a unified Smart Search Field, iCloud Tabs, and a new Tab View; new features for China, including improved text input and a new Chinese Dictionary; as well as over 1,700 new APIs for developers.
Mountain Lion requires a new Intel processor, OS X Lion or Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6.8 or later), 2GB of memory and 8GB of available disk space.