Apple today announced that downloads of OS X Mountain Lion have exceeded three million in four days, making it the most successful OS X release in Apple’s history. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion — the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system — is available through the Mac App Store as an upgrade to Lion or Snow Leopard users for $19.99 (US).
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 3 Million Download in 4 Days
Apple will launch the next iPhone on September 12, according to a rumor from the typically reliable AllThingsD. Citing sources, they say Apple has an event planned for an unspecific topic for the second week of September, and suggests the event will be for the new iPhone launch.
Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past.
iPhone 5 Release Date September 21
The iPad mini will be announced at the same September 12 event, as will the new iPod nano. We haven’t heard a release date for the iPad mini yet, but it could be the same as the iPhone 5. It seems likely the new iPod touch will make an appearance on September 12 as well, though we haven’t heard any specific information about that yet either.
Last year, the iPhone 4S was announced on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, and released 10 days later on October 14. The event included minor updates to the iPod line, notably a white iPod touch 4. This year, the iPad 3 was announced on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, and released 9 days later on March 16. The event included a 1080p Apple TV.
Back in March, we heard Apple was targeting an October release window for the iPhone 5,1, much like last year’s iPhone 4,1 (iPhone 4S). Recently, however, several reports have suggested Apple would be ready to go as early as September. Last week, App4Phone.fr, citing Chinese manufacturing sources, reported the September 21 release date.
Unlike last year, when some 16 months separated the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, a September 21 schedule would put the iPhone 5 launch at just over 11 months after the iPhone 4S.
The longer schedule last year allowed Apple to re-position the iPhone as the new, big fall product release. It took the spotlight from the iPod family that previously ruled the holiday quarter, but has waned in recent years. It also padded the time between the Verizon iPhone 4 launch, which only occurred in February of 2011, and gave four extra months for Apple to work on iOS 5, which included major new features like iCloud, Notification Center, iMessage, and Siri.
iOS 6, which was announced during Apple’s WWDC 2012 keynote on June 11 and includes a new, Google-free Maps app, and Passbook, should get a final presentation during the September 12 event as well, and if Apple sticks to previous patterns, a release sometime around Wednesday, September 19.
Apple typically shows off extra, hardware-specific iOS features at new iPhone events as well. For the last few years, Apple SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, has demonstrated advanced camera and video recording, and Apple SVP of iOS, Scott Forstall, has demonstrated Voice Control, FaceTime, and Siri. For now, we have only educated guesses (see the conclusion) as to what else might be coming to iOS this year.
As for hardware, we’re still hearing the iPad mini will be exactly like the 9.7-inch iPad, only scaled down to 7.x-inches. We originally heard Apple had a few iPhone 5 prototypes, including 3.5-inch and 4-inch versions, but recent reports and parts leaks make it look like the 4-inch, 16:9 screen version is what Apple’s going with. We’ve also consistently heard all new iOS devices will have the new, smaller Dock connector iMore learned about back in February, which along with the nano-SIMand rumored in-cell display should leave lots of room for the LTE radio we learned about earlier in the year, and the bigger battery to go along with it.
If these announcement and release dates prove accurate, we should find out in only 6 short weeks.
Right alongside the freshly launched OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has released Safari 6 for OS X Lion users. Users can download Safari 6 from Software Update via the Apple menu.
The Omnibar, which Apple calls the “Smart Search Field”, is the biggest visible change, it combines the URL bar with the Search bar allowing for a much cleaner minimalist user interface that more closely resembles Google Chrome. The Omnibar is worth the update alone in our view, but there are a handful of other nice features that are also great like Offline Reading List, which saves complete web pages for reading later when you don’t have an internet connection, a Do Not Track option for enhanced web privacy, the Password Pane management tool for web logins, Baidu search for Chinese users, and a bunch of fixes and performance enhancements.
If you’re not upgrading to Mountain Lion today, do yourself a favor and at least get Safari 6.
OS X Mountain Lion has been released by Apple. The major update to Mac OS provides over 200 new features, including iMessage support, Reminders, Notification Center, Notes, Game Center, extensive iCloud integration, and much more.
OS X Mountain Lion is Now Available, Download Now!
The upgrade costs $19.99 but is available for free to Mac users who bought a Mac within the past month.
Apple’s generous licensing terms allow you to install a single purchase of Mountain Lion on all of your personal Macs. If you don’t want to re-download OS X 10.8 each time on each computer, you can make a Mountain Lion boot installer from any USB drive or DVD.
Be sure to back up each Mac before installing, follow our simple guide on things to do before upgrading if you haven’t done so yet.
The release of OS X Mountain Lion is just around the corner (it’s official: July 25), but before jumping into the latest major Mac system update, you’ll want to do a few things. We’ve broken it down to a few simple essentials that are easy to follow:
Mountain OS X Lion Upgrade
Almost all relatively new Macs will run Mac OS X 10.8. You can easily find out if your Mac will run Mountain Lion by comparing it against this list of supported machines:
If you’re unsure of your make and model year, check on your Mac by doing the following:
All things considered, the system requirements for OS X Mountain Lion are fairly light, but there are some Core 2 Duo Macs that lose support and won’t be able to update. That can be frustrating, but it’s the price of progress. Remember that you’ll need at least 12GB of storage space available to install Mountain Lion, but realistically you should have more than that available to insure your Mac runs best anyway.
If you’re already running OS X Lion (10.7) then you probably don’t need to worry much, but for those who are upgrading to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, there’s a good chance that an app or two won’t work. This is due to new architectural requirements for the latest versions of OS X and unfortunately there are some developers who have gotten on board to update their apps yet, despite having years to do so (QuickBooks is a prominent example).
A good list of compatible and incompatible apps is maintained in a searchable database by RoaringApps, check it out here.
If you find apps that are incompatible with OS X 10.8 you can either find an alternative on the App Store, or consider holding off on the system upgrade until the developer gets their act together. Smaller developers tend to do this faster than larger software companies, so if you’re waiting for a large company it may take a long time.
This is probably the most important step when upgrading any OS and a Mac is no different. The odds of something going wrong are slim, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Your best bet is to use Time Machine and initiate a manual backup right before installing OS X 10.8 update. If you don’t have Time Machine setup and configured yet, what are you waiting for? Grab a cheap external hard drive and set it up as a backup drive now, Time Machine is completely automated and as easy as backups get.
Once Mountain Lion is on the Mac App Store, it’ll be a $20 purchase and installs directly from the App Store. It takes about 30-45 minutes to install depending on the speed of the internet connection and it’s mostly automated, you don’t need to sit around babysitting the installer.
Remember, if you bought a new Mac recently, Mountain Lion is free for you.
No more rumors or speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that OS X Mountain Lion will launch tomorrow, July 25:
“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”
That quote comes directly from Apple’s PR library ahead of the Q3 2012 earnings call this afternoon, and also serves to reiterate the release date of iOS 6 later this year, while also teasing for whatever “amazing new products” (new iPhone? iPad mini?) Cook is referring to.
OS X Mountain Lion Will Be Released Tomorrow, July 25
As we mentioned earlier in our recap of things to do before installing Mountain Lion, you’ll want to back up your Mac before installing OS X 10.8 on your Mac.
The third beta of iOS 6 has been released to developers running compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod hardware. The new build is 10A5355d and contains many bug fixes and improvements over beta 2, pushing the newest version of iOS closer to it’s public debut later in the year.
iOS 6 Beta 3 OTA Download
For developers already running iOS 6 beta 2, they can download the beta 3 release quickly as an over-the-air delta update, found in Settings > General > Software Update. The new builds IPSW files are also hosted on Apple’s iOS Developer Center.
Some devices are seeing beta 3 marked as beta 2, despite already having beta 2 installed. This appears to be a typo and downloading the update installs the newest version anyway.
Apple has stated that iOS 6 is due for public release this fall. It’s looking increasingly likely iOS 6 will coincide with the launch of iPhone 5, and possibly even the much rumored iPad mini.
The Golden Master seed of OS X Mountain Lion has been released to developers. Golden Master (GM) builds are typically the release version of software, indicating that a public version will arrive very soon. The GM build is 12A269 for Client and 12S302 for Server.
Mountain Lion Golden Master
Registered developers can get a download code for Mountain Lion GM directly from Apple’s Dev Center, that code can be redeemed through the Mac App Store as usual. Developers can also download a new version of Xcode 4.4 development suite.
OS X Mountain Lion is versioned as Mac OS X 10.8, and includes over 200 new features, many of which are borrowed from iOS, including iMessage, Notification Center, Share Sheets, Game Center, Notes, Reminders, Dictation, and significantly enhanced iCloud integration.
Apple previously stated that OS X Mountain Lion would be released this July at a price of $19.99
OS X Developer 