On Thursday, Apple released a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion. If you’ve lost count, that’s the the ninth major release of Apple’s self-proclaimed “most advanced operating system in the world.”
This time around, Mountain Lion will deliver the most popular apps and features from the iPad to the Mac while “accelerating the pace of OS X innovation.”
Apple says that users can expect upwards of 100 stunning new features and other bells and whistles to make the Mountain Lion user experience unlike anything they’ve previously experiened.
Mountain Lion introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring.
Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. The developer preview of Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper, 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.
The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting today. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012.
“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.”
