La nona major release del sistema operativo Apple, indicata come OS X Mountain Lion, è disponibile in download dal Mac App Store. Rispetto al suo predecessore, l'azienda di Cupertino ha integrato oltre 200 nuove feature, compresa l'integrazione con iCloud e le app aggiornate Message, Notification Center, Sharing, Facebook, Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring e Game Center.

Il prezzo di aggiornamento per Mountain Lion da Lion o Snow Leopard è di 19,99 dollari. Per poter installare il nuovo sistema operativo è necessario disporre di Lion o Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6.8 o superiore), 2 GB di memoria RAM ed 8 GB di spazio disco disponibile. In aggiunta, come avevamo già indicato, solo i sistemi presenti nella seguente lista potranno essere aggiornati, come riportato sul sito ufficiale:

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

"People are going to love the new features in Mountain Lion and how easy it is to download and install from the Mac App Store," afferma Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing di Apple. "With iCloud integration, Mountain Lion is even easier to set up, and your important information stays up to date across all your devices so you can keep editing documents, taking notes, creating reminders, and continue conversations whether you started on a Mac, iPhone or iPad."

Nella press release ufficiale di Apple si legge di tutte le novità incluse:

• iCloud integration, for easy set up of your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and Notes, and keeping everything, including iWork documents, up to date across all your devices;
• the all new Messages app, which replaces iChat and brings iMessage to the Mac, so you can send messages to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or another Mac;
• Notification Center, which streamlines the presentation of notifications and provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps;
• system-wide Sharing, to make it easy to share links, photos, videos and other files quickly without having to switch to another app, and you just need to sign in once to use third-party services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo;
• Facebook integration, so you can post photos, links and comments with locations right from your apps, automatically add your Facebook friends to your Contacts, and even update your Facebook status from within Notification Center;
• Dictation, which allows you to dictate text anywhere you can type, whether you're using an app from Apple or a third party developer;
• AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send an up-to-1080p secure stream of what's on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV, or send audio to a receiver or speakers that use AirPlay;
• Game Center, which brings the popular social gaming network from iOS to the Mac so you can enjoy live, multiplayer games with friends whether they're on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Additional features in Mountain Lion include the revolutionary new Gatekeeper, which makes downloading software from the Internet safer; Power Nap, which automatically updates your apps and system while your Mac is asleep; and a faster Safari browser. New features for China include significantly improved text input, a new Chinese Dictionary, easy setup with popular email providers, Baidu search in Safari, and built-in sharing to Sina Weibo and popular video websites Youku and Tudou.