Apple today announced a new operating system for the Mac – Mountain Lion. This is be the ninth major Mac OS X release which brings 100 new features and makes it closer to the iOS experience. Mountain Lion is the first Mac OS that supports iCloud out of the box and comes with features like Messages, Notes, Notifications, Game Center, OS-wide Twitter integration and Airplay mirroring.

Some important features of the Mountain Lion are as follows:

Messages: It replaces the iChat app and allows users to send unlimited messages, images, videos to another Mac or iOS device. Additionally, Messages will support IM services that were supported by iChat. It is available in beta today for Lion OS and the final build will be shipped with Mountain Lion.

Reminders and Notes: As the feature says, it helps to create and track to-dos across all devices.

Game Center: It works pretty much the same way on iOS. Users can find new games or challenge friends to play multiplayer games.

Notifications: Notifications are new in Mountain Lion that quickly alerts and gives quick access to Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps.

Share Sheets and Twitter: It makes it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and other apps whereas just like iOS 5, Twitter is integrated OS-wide so users can tweet directly from Safari, Photo Booth etc.

AirPlay Mirroring: The final feature is AirPlay Mirroring that allows to wirelessly and securely send a 720p video stream from Mac to an HDTV via Apple TV.

Apple is now seeding a preview to developers whereas the actual release for end consumers will happen later this year.

Leopard users can quickly hit the Software update to update their Mac to OS X 10.5.8 version. The update claims to enhance stability, compatibility and security of the computer. Apart from the automatic update, users can download standalone installers in case they want to update more than one Macs. Other things included in this update:

- Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2.
- Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4.
- Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
- Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
- Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
- Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
- Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
- Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
- Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
- Improves overall reliability with AFP.
- Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
- Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
- Improves Sync Service reliability.
- Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
- Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
- Includes latest security fixes.

Apple Support

Installing Mac operating system on netbooks is not new. There have been many netbooks including the Eee PCs that have been tried and tested successfully. However, the previous hackintosh required a patched Mac installation file to detect the netbooks as a genuine Mac system. Now EeeMac Journey has churned out a very nifty tutorial to install an original copy of Mac OS X on an Eee PC 901 or 1000. It works by installing a bootloader called BOOT-132. The bootloader loads itself with a few kernel extensions before anything else and thus spoofs the OS to believe that the hardware is a retailed stock Mac. Installing original Mac OS X has its own advantage like eligibility to receive updates for the OS.

Full tutorial on EeeMac Journey.

[Via MAKEzine]

Still wondering whether a hacked Mac OS X version will work flawlessly on your netbook or not? Well, Boing Boing Gadgets has got a nifty chart up on their blog showing what function works with which netbook.

The outcome is that if you own an MSI Wind or Dell Mini 9 netbook, then you’re in luck coz these are the only two netbooks that support important functions like Wi-Fi, USB, LAN, Audio, Bluetooth after the OS installation.

For the tutorial on how to install the Mac OS X on MSI Wind, head over here.

[Via BBG]

Wired.com writers recently managed to make a Hackintosh netbook for themselves. They have successfully installed Mac OS X on Samsung NC10, MSI Wind and Medion Akoya Mini. Now they are providing a nifty tutorial for the layman to do the task. It really isn’t some rocket science as you have to just follow the instructions in the article.

Wi-Fi and USB ports won’t work but a video has been posted explaining how to swap a defunct Wi-Fi chip with a Mac compatible one.

A user successfully installed the Mac OS on his Dell Mini 9.

For Samsung NC10
For MSI Wind