OS X Mountain Lion adds Siri-style dictation
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 ships in July, and will feature Dictation, Power Nap, and iCloud integration
Apple has shown off its upcoming new version of OS X, Mountain Lion, at the WWDC event in San Francisco.
As well as adding the ubiquitous new desktop image and a new glass dock, OS X 10.8, as it’s more formally known, continues the convergence between Apple’s desktop OS and its iOS mobile operating system. That means you get Siri-style dictation, a Notification Center and Game Center, along with iCloud integration.
The new dictation feature (which will go very nicely with the next generation MacBook Pro‘s dual mics) works across apps – it even plays nice with Microsoft Word.
A new Notification Center serves up banners and alerts – and looks suspiciously similar to the iOS Notification Center.
Mountain Lion also ramps up OS X’s integration with Apple’s iCloud. Notes and Reminders are synced across Macs and iOS devices, while iMessage integrates with your Mac. Yup, if you get a message on your iPhone you can now answer it on your Mac.
A Documents in the Cloud feature shows all the docs you have in the cloud in Pages, making them available across all your devices – you can also edit them across devices, too.
Finally, a new Power Nap feature automatically refreshes data while your Mac’s sleeping. It works with the next generation MacBook Pro and second generation MacBook Air.
Launching in July, Mountain Lion will cost US$20 as an upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard, and for personal Macs. Naturally, it’ll be included for free on new Macs.
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