Apple users

Anybody downloaded the newest Mac OS Mountain Lion? I did last night and it took over an hour at 4.35Gb for the complete version. I have noticed several little nice things already - when you get a new email in your mail client a small drop-down window appears top right of the Safari screen with the email showing, I have several new icons on the bottom tool bar that I have yet to explore, Messages, Notes and Reminders (cannot think when I will use them at home but just wish my employers would install this on our Windows 2003 NT/ XP based system on my 3 year old ship). And compared to the amount MS charges to up buy an new OS for a Windows based system it seems a bargain at £14 and seems to work straight out of the package without any glitches or patches required!

Hi Tim,

I downloaded last night too - took 2 hours! I haven't noticed much extra so far except the notifications bar on the right drops down - much like my iPhone & iPad. I'd already got the beta version of iMessage. I was annoyed that I had to pay for it though since my iMac is not quite a year old - only those bought since June got the upgrade for free.

My mate had software loss issues on his older Mac but so far mine seems OK.

Will report back any cool findings or indeed any bugs....

I have a Macbook Air (the computer I downloaded onto last night) and a Mac as well as 2 x iPad and an iPhone! Just downloading and installing Mountain Lion on the Mac as I type this - the 2nd download is free!

Yep it's really ace... What you don't see is even more amazing - the shift in OS in this build has meant a cleaner running of the machine. So worth doing if you have the time.

(14-08-2012 01:04pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  I have a Macbook Air (the computer I downloaded onto last night) and a Mac as well as 2 x iPad and an iPhone! Just downloading and installing Mountain Lion on the Mac as I type this - the 2nd download is free!

I think that most of the visible changes in Mountain Lion relate to tighter integration with iOS through iCloud - I can see that like me you're already well established in that ecosystem!

Have never looked back since replacing a Sony Vaio that ground to a halt with problems, with the MacBook Air. No need to pay vast fortunes to 3rd party software companies to provide all sorts of registry cleaners/ anti virus programmes/ etc etc etc. I still run Sophos AVG for Macs and it seems to work very well, I have Office 2010 for Mac running on both the Macbook Air and the Mac so no hassles there either and all my devices "talk" seemlessly to each other without me doing anything. Life is so much simpler - put an appointment into my iPhone calendar and it appears on all my other Apple devices by magic!

(14-08-2012 04:03pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Have never looked back since replacing a Sony Vaio that ground to a halt with problems, with the MacBook Air. No need to pay vast fortunes to 3rd party software companies to provide all sorts of registry cleaners/ anti virus programmes/ etc etc etc. I still run Sophos AVG for Macs and it seems to work very well, I have Office 2010 for Mac running on both the Macbook Air and the Mac so no hassles there either and all my devices "talk" seemlessly to each other without me doing anything. Life is so much simpler - put an appointment into my iPhone calendar and it appears on all my other Apple devices by magic!

It's the "it just works" simplicity that's what I like too. I think computers are like cars, if you're quite happy spending the weekend with your head under the bonnet tinkering and tweaking engines and modding to get your car working exactly how you want it, then that's like owning a PC. If you just want to enjoy driving your car and leave everything to the manufacturer/dealer, then that's more like the Apple philosophy

To be fair though MS Windows7 has caught up on the stability and reliabilty front - its now robust, stable and quick.

Anyone who thinks they can run a Mac without antivirus software in 2012 is misinformed as the Mac is a frequent and very vulnerable target. Whilst its quite difficult to bring a Mac down with a hostile program they make great bots for the proliferation of malware and viruses to other unprotected devices - ...get it protected your friends are not safe without it.

It will be interesting to see where Apple go with Macs generally as sales have sat on a plateau for quite sometime and for a company that defines itself in consumer electronics rapid growth is the name of the game. There is talk in the industry that Apple are going to drop the Mac workstations for lack of sales volume just to concentrate on the Macbooks. Industry-wide sales of laptops are falling at the expense of tablets - and now hybrid tablet/keyboard devices are appearing its just a matter of time.

I feel somewhat of a dinosaur here. I run a I mac and a Macbook Pro, with 2 other users running 2 Macbooks and Macbook Air.

I got the apple e-mails regarding the new Mountain Lion, think I'm running Snow Leopard OS X.

Having read a couple of reviews which weren't that favourable + I couldn't see any benefits decided against it, my diary is not that busy being retired, little need for MS Works etc and no iphone.

Keep the posts coming as I may still go for it, when I can understand the benefits. As for the cloud I have no idea what it is or does.

(14-08-2012 04:48pm)Straydox Wrote:  To be fair though MS Windows7 has caught up on the stability and reliabilty front - its now robust, stable and quick.

Agreed - has come along way over the years...
I run Windows for two applications or "programs" only. One being the Aust. Tax Online lodgement... Anyway, the fact is that my Toshiba Portege runs Windows incredibly well and I have another high-spec desktop that runs 3D rendering stuff. However, these machines are used infrequently, and unlike my line up of OSX Mac's, are still the delicate flowers of the bunch.