Apple reveals new OS - with iPad tricks

Apple has released a preview version of its new Macintosh operating system, bringing some features of the iPad to the non-public computer.

The Cupertino, California-based company said the updated operating system, called Mountain Lion, may be available to Macintosh developers immediately and Mac owners can upgrade to the brand new software by late winter, Kiwi time.

Apple said Mountain Lion incorporates a new Messages application which replaces iChat and allows a user to send unlimited messages, photos and video from a Mac to a different Mac or a tool running iOS software including the iPad or iPhone.

It's also integration with Twitter allowing users to register and tweet directly from Safari, Photo Booth and third-party applications.

Game Center allows live multiplayer games to be played across iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch devices while with AirPlay Mirroring, a Mac user can wirelessly send video from a Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV.

Mountain Lion is the primary Mac operating system built with the net "cloud" in mind, Apple said.

"Greater than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to establish iCloud and access documents across your devices," it said.

Mountain Lion entices users into iCloud, which Apple chief executive Tim Cook this week described as one of the crucial "profound changes" people will sooner or later focus on with their grandchildren.

"In case you dial back 10 to twelve years, Steve (Jobs) announced a technique for Apple that positions the Mac or PC on the hub of everyone's life," Cook said Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco.

"iCloud turns that on its head," he said. "It recognizes that, across that decade, you and that i live off multiple devices."

a brand new security feature called Gatekeeper protects Macs against malicious software by giving users control over what applications could be installed and downloaded, Apple said.

Cook, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said the recent Macintosh operating system takes benefit of features popular at the iPad and iPhone.

"We see that folk are in love with loads of apps and functionality here," Cook said of the iPhone. "Anywhere where that is smart, we'll move that over to Mac."

Apple sold a record 5.2 million Macs last quarter.

In a nod to the booming China market, Mountain Lion boasts features tailored for Chinese users, giving them the choice of using Baidu search inside the Safari browser or uploading video on to China websites Youku or Tudou.

Sales of Macintosh computers in China greater than doubled last year, Cook said. "Not on a large base, but one hundred pc remains good," he said. "China is a huge focus for us."

Macintosh computers have benefited from a "halo effect" that started with the success of culture-changing iPod players introduced in 2001 and which has continued with iPhones and iPads, in keeping with Cook.

"The realm changed for us in lots of ways when the iPhone launched," Cook said, explaining that the hit smartphones brought the California company to the notice of millions of individuals everywhere who "had never met Apple."

"You could definitely see a synergistic effect of those products," he said.

The iPad is eating into desktop computer sales in what late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs branded the "post-PC era" but is taking an even bigger bite out of sales of machines powered by Microsoft's Windows software, in accordance with Cook.

"I do believe the iPad is cannibalizing some Mac, nevertheless it is cannibalizing more Windows PC," Cook said on the conference.

"The way in which we see cannibalisation is we choose to do it instead of have someone else do it," he said. "It does not imply the computer goes to die; i feel the Mac can still grow."

- AFP