Less than a month after releasing OS X Mountain Lion to the public via the Mac App Store, Apple has updated its desktop operating system bringing an array of minor bug fixes. Despite selling over two million copies in the first 48 hours alone, the very first iteration has had a couple of minor issues, as is nearly always the case with an initial release.
Although the iOS App Store is overflowing with apps for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the Mac equivalent doesn't have nearly as many apps living within it, meaning OS X users have significantly less choice when it comes to extending the functionality of their machines. With that said, I tend to find that my personal taste of OS X apps come in two forms, either extremely simple creations or apps that actually go all out and provide fantastic functionality that makes my life a lot easier. An example of the former is Live Wallpaper that offers dynamic backgrounds and an example of the latter is Xcode or Pixelmator that offer grunt and power.
Although the Mac App Store is still relatively in its infancy, it is already home to a large array of fantastic and powerful apps, all located in one central hub. Working in a similar fashion to the iOS variant, the dedicated store for OS X based apps is broken down into different categories and makes it extremely easy to sift through free and chargeable apps that may make our day to day Mac usage more productive or just a lot more fun and engaging.
If you can bring yourself to look past the fact that you have just spent a whole heap of money on excellent Apple hardware to run OS X, then it actually makes sense to be able to install a version of Windows alongside the default operating system. This is especially true when we consider the new Retina MacBook Pro and those who want to use PC software or games in the full 2880 x 1800 resolution.
A significant refresh of the Mac Pro was expected to arrive at WWDC '12, but the speculation never reached fruition, and the somewhat neglected device still pines for its first changes since 2009. Intel's long-awaited Ivy Bridge chip finally reached the Cupertino company's famed MacBook range at the annual developers conference, and both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro were grateful recipients. Meanwhile, Apple also introduced the first MacBook Pro to ditch the optical drive while also including a beautiful Retina display, and we took this as a sure sign of things to come.
The introduction of the Retina-ready MacBook Pro was a fantastic achievement for Apple and represented a huge step forward for the Mac line of computers as Apple continue to develop both the hardware and software of their increasingly popular notebooks. The company is rightly proud of what they have achieved with the initial release of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, and pride themselves on being the first to market a notebook that features a display with 5.1 million pixels and a monstrous 2880 x 1800 screen resolution.
When we talk about Apple, the first products springing to mind are the MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and iPods, devices of which have all had a hugely significant impact on their respective markets over the past 10-12 years. That said, before the last decade, Apple was nothing more than a computer company, competing with fierce rivals Microsoft while creating plenty of innovations of its own.
It's been nearly three weeks since Apple deemed their latest version of OS X to be ready for a prime time release on the Mac App Store, a decision that resulted in over three million Mac owners purchasing and downloading the cutting-edge operating system within the first twenty-four hours. The early indications seem to show that users were generally happy with what Mountain Lion brought to their Mac experience, but a few users have been reporting a detrimental effect on internal MacBook batteries.
It's difficult to remember what we all used to do to handle our increasingly busy schedules and work loads before we had such capable computers and mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. Being able to be permanently connected to our diaries, appointments and task lists through the use of mobile hardware and scheduling software has proved to be an invaluable resource for those who have busy professional and personal lives, but the real power is needed when we knuckle down to actually sift through our list of tasks.
OS X Mountain Lion has been with us for long enough, and users can form their own opinions on Apple's latest cutting edge operating system and certainly decide themselves if they feel it is an improvement over OS X Lion, or even the latest version of Snow Leopard if they refrained from upgrading to Lion. Judging by the fact that Mountain Lion notched up over three million downloads in twenty four hours and the Mac App Store is littered with positive reviews, it would seem that the majority have greeted OS X 10.8 with positivity.
