Reviews

Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion review

Apple has tweaked the interface added core iOS features such as Notifications, revamped Safari and bolstered security features, all for £14.

27 Jul 2012

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Safari

Safari has been updated in Mountain Lion for the handful of users who still have it set as their default browser. Apple's built in browser has struggled to keep up with its competition in the form of Chrome and Firefox, so the revamped interface and features are welcome here.

The Tabbed view displays all the open tabs in a smartphone multitasking-style interface. The open tabs are presented side-by-side and you can swipe through these if you're using a MacBook with multitouch, or the Magic Mouse. It's not the most intuitive way of navigating, but it soon becomes second nature.

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It is possible to swipe through tabs with the latest version of Safari

The updated Reading List function allows you to download pages rather than just bookmark them, so if one article runs over a certain number of pages (like this review), Safari will detect this and download the whole article, not just page one.

iCloud integration allows you to view all the tabs you have open across all your iCloud devices, so if you have four tabs open on your home Mac, the function will mirror these on your desktop. Apple understands that not everyone will remember to add a page to their Reading List, so this allows you to read the content if you didn't manage to finish an article before leaving for work. It only works when your computer is online though, so we recommend using Reading List to the max.

Sharing options include the ability to share articles on Twitter or send the whole article, rather than a link, via iMessage in a Safari Reading List rendered page layout. It's handy to have this extra option, because you can't guarantee everyone will click on the link in an email or message.

Syncing and account management

Apple is pushing iCloud with Mountain Lion, and the move to the cloud is welcomed, especially with competitors such as Google and Microsoft increasing rolling out services.

You are asked to add your iCloud details when you first install Mountain Lion and we recommend you do, because you get a whole lot of bang for your buck here almost eradicating the need to install Microsoft's Office 360 suite.

All your iCloud synced documents are organised in the iCloud Document Library. If you use TextEdit for typing or Preview to view PDFs, it's a godsend, allowing you to store your text docs and PDFs directly to your iCloud account.

These will then be synced to any iCloud device (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) to view and edit on the move. It does make productivity on a Mac top class.

An irritating aspect of iCloud is that unlike Dropbox or similar cloud storage products, you don't get one universal cloud documents folder. Instead there is one for each application. It's presented in that way to make it feel more like the applications are in the cloud rather than just the documents.