Apple seeds devs with Safari 5.2 for Lion, Xcode 4.4 with new LLVM compiler

9to5 Staff

As part of today’s Mountain Lion Preview roll out, Apple seeded its registered developers with new versions of the Xcode development environment and the Safari browser. Safari 5.2 for Lion, now available for download through the Dev Center, welcomes new features that cannot be found in the most recent Safari 5.1.3 version for end-users or the recently seeded Safari 5.1.4 for developers.

Apple took a page from Google’s book by integrating the search bar into the address bar (finally, some would say) in Safari 5.2. Other enhancements include visual tweaks that highlight the domain section of the URL in the address bar and a rehashed Reader icon. Features from both Safari 5.1.4 and 5.2 are likely to be included in this summer’s release of Mountain Lion.

A developer preview version of Xcode 4.4 is required to code and test applications for Mountain Lion that will become available to the public this summer. Among the new features:

Read more

Did your Mac make the Mountain Lion obsolescence list?

9to5 Staff

If you plan to install Mountain Lion on an older Mac, you might be out of luck. The new operating system release raises the ladder in terms of graphics performance required for its new features like AirPlay Mirroring. As a result, a couple years old Mac might not cut it anymore. According to French-language website MacGeneration, any Mac sporting Intel’s sluggish GMA x3100 or 950 chip will not be able to run Mountain Lion. While we have come a long way since the GMA graphics, you probably have somewhere under your table or in the basement a legacy Mac that does not have enough oomph for Mountain Lion. Anything older than the mid-2007 iMacs, early-2008 Mac Pros, early-2009 Mac minis and Xserves are left behind. The same goes for MacBooks based on any Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the original 2008 MacBook Air. Sorry folks, that is the price of progression. In addition, the following platform changes may interest you…

Read more

AirPlay Mirroring in OS X Mountain Lion: From the board room to the living room (and beyond)

9to5 Staff

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion preview today ahead of the planned summer release and we briefly touched upon some of the more important features like the all-new Messages app, Gatekeeper anti-malware capabilities, enhanced local services for the Chinese, system-wide Twitter integration and brand new iOS-like Notification Center. Tucked away as a side-note in Apple’s press release is AirPlay Mirroring, another welcome addition to Mountain Lion’s arsenal of over a hundred new features (so claims Apple).

Yes, there are a few apps for that, though, I have yet to find one that works as seamlessly and effortlessly as AirPlay implementation on iOS devices. Eagle-eyed readers could point out that AirPlay support was long-planned for Lion until it was abruptly pulled last-minute without an explanation. Sure enough, it took longer than expected, so we are excited with full AirPlay Mirroring now a possibility on Macs running Mountain Lion.

Just as you would expect, AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion lets you tunnel whatever is on your Mac wirelessly to your television through the Apple TV set-top box. Think web pages in Safari, kitten clips on YouTube, movies from iMovies, Keynote presentations or any other content displayed on your Mac, including your desktop. Yes, just like on the iPad.

Better yet, using AirPlay Mirroring on 2011 Mac notebooks does not need a local wireless network, because the machine can create an ad hoc wireless network to pair with the Apple TV. This is gold for road warriors and educators who only need a MacBook and an Apple TV to present their portfolio or teaching material on the big screen.

There are some caveats, though.

Read more

Apple hooks up exploding Mac userbase in China with local services in OS X Mountain Lion

9to5 Staff

Mountain Lion will cater to Chinese users more than any other OS X version. CEO Tim Cook once more underscored the importance of China by highlighting Mac sales in today’s interview with the Wall Street Journal. Sales doubled in the 1.33 billion-people market during 2011 to the tune of $13 billion in revenue.

“They know about Apple and what Apple stands for. Then they search out and look for the Mac”, he told the paper. Apple’s promotional material said Mountain Lion makes it easy to “set up Mail, Contacts, Calendar, video sharing, web searching, and blogging on your Mac using many popular services in China.”

For starters, Chinese input method in Mountain Lion has “significant enhancements.” Secondly, Apple worked hard to make sure customers in China get a localized experience by providing the ability to select Baidu search in Safari. Baidu is the dominant search engine in China, ranked No. 6 in Alexa’s global rankings and No. 1 in China with an estimated 56.6-percent share of the country’s 4.02 billion search queries as of June 2011…

Read more

Here, Apple’s demo video for Mountain Lion

9to5 Staff

If you are still feeling overwhelmed with today’s news of OS X Mountain Lion Preview and the first public beta of Messages for the Mac, do not be: Apple just published a nice video demonstration of key new features on the new OS X Mountain Lion Sneak Peek page. It will take some time before the clip goes live on Apple’s official YouTube channel. Until then, enjoy the above Newsit Tech’s conversion of the Mountain Lion showcase that is likely to be pulled soon.

Read more

Tim Cook talks Mountain Lion

Jordan Kahn

To go with Apple’s announcement of the Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview, Apple CEO Tim Cook and worldwide marketing head Phil Schiller sat down for interviews with The Wall Street Journal at Apple headquarters in Cupertino. During the interview, Cook noted laptops will continue to exist alongside the tablet market, but merging the two products, and the different chips various Apple devices use, is a possibility the company is considering. Cook said, “We think about everything. We don’t close things off,” but he also noted the Mac is still “incredibly important.” He continued: Read more