Today Apple launched the next version of their OS X operating system for the Mac, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. The new version brings features back to the Mac from iOS devices, such as Game Centre, Notification Centre, AirPlay and Twitter/Facebook integration.

Mountain Lion includes over 200 new features such as:
- New Messages app you can send text, photos, videos, contacts, web links, and documents to anyone using another Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - you can even start a conversation on one device and continue it on another
- Share button makes it easy to share files, web pages, photos, and videos, as well as tweet right from the app you are using.
- Reminders app you can create to-do lists and alerts that appear in the new Notification Center
- Notes app is now out on its own, and not integrated (hidden!) in Apple Mail
- Twitter integration means you can tweet right from your apps with the Tweet sheet.
- Game Center allows you to play against friends online using games purchased from the Mac App Store or iOS App Store
- AirPlay Mirroring shows your Mac screen on your HDTV with Apple TV
- Power Nap keeps your Mac up to date while it sleeps so it's instantly ready to go
- Gatekeeper makes it safer to download apps from the Internet by giving you control over which apps can be installed on your Mac
- New versions of Safari and Mail

Full details including a Mountain Lion introduction video is available on the Apple site here.

You can download and install OS X Mountain Lion for €15.99 / £13.99 from the Mac App Store:

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Tags: Apps | Mac OS X

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Apple are due to launch their new operating system, Mac OS 10 X Lion 10.7, before the end of July. But the question is–are you ready?



Mac OS X Lion will run on any new Mac, bought within the last few years. Here is how to check to see if your Mac is compatible with Lion:
1/ go to your Apple menu and choose “About this Mac”
2/ check to see that your processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo or above
3/ check that your memory is above 1 GB
4/ look for the version number and make sure you are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard: 10.6.8

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Tags: 10.7 | Apple | Apps

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Having used an iPad for over a year now, and having recently upgraded to an iPad 2, here is a list of the apps we still use. We have also listed some apps which dropped out of favour.

Apps used daily:

1/ Twitter: the official app from Twitter. We slowly moved across to this instead of Twitterific, and we aren’t entirely sure why! The sliding panes of Twitter app may not be to everyone’s liking, and Twitterific does have a classier design. However you can only add one account to the free version of Twitterific, and in the end we weren’t drawn to Twitterific enough to buy a copy of the pro version. The Twitter app works fine for us.

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Tags: Apps

Here is a quick list of iPad applications which we are using and like. Almost all are free and they can be downloaded using the App Store application on the iPad.



Some of the best free apps:
- iBooks- to download books from the Apple store- lots of classic book are free
- Kindle- Amazon’s version of iBooks but access to the Amazon book store. This let’s you sync your books between your Mac and your iPad or iPhone using their Whisper Sync.
- Epicuruous- iPad version of recipes app
- Twitterific- best app for using with Twitter
- Pocket Pond- fun app- just try it!
- Planets- beautiful graphics showing the planets and stars
- Adobe Ideas- a drawing app

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Tags: iPad | Apps | iPhone

One interesting development we have noticed over the last few months is RTÉ's embrace for apps on the iPhone and iPod touch. The latest application is the RTÉ news app, which is availbale for free on the iTunes App Store for Ireland. it's worth noting that if you try to buy the RTÉ News app from the US store, it costs $2.99.

The RTÉ news app is quite a simple application with two main functions: the first is top stories section which reflects the news stories on the RTÉ website. It has four sections covering news, sport, business and entertainment. The second feature is the "watch live" section, which has a video feed of RTÉ News headlines and weather. There are two other buttons at the bottom of the screen, one called "share" and one called "RTÉ Mobile". However these are just links for sharing details of the app with a friend and a link to other mobile features and applications. So on first impressions it looks as if this application has more to it, but in fact it is just a combination of the RTÉ website news, and the news video feed. Overall it is useful, if rather uninspiring. [Click here- iTunes link].

Continue...

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Tags: Apps | iPhone | iPod