Hello! My name is Jonathan. I come to you from the historical city of Charleston, SC. I recently graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Computer Engineering. I have a thing for technology, photography, girls named Emma and Zooey, and music.
Well, wouldn’t you know it? Apple can still surprise us.
I was of the opinion that Apple could no long keep a secret, but today I am happy to report that they still can.
Today Apple introduced the next version of Mac OS X, called Mountain Lion. Apparently starting a new yearly release cycle for OS X, Mountain Lion will be available at the end of the summer for an undisclosed price. Based on the fact that Lion was only $29 I would be willing to bet that Mtn. Lion will be less that even that.
My favorite new feature? A toss-up between Messages and Notification Center.
Bonus: If you have Lion you can install a beta version of Messages today.
Before Mac OS X Lion we had a feature called Spaces. Spaces was great. You could move applications to a certain space and keep all of your windows very organized. The best part was that you could assign an application to a certain space so that whenever it was opened it would be opened on a certain space. This is what made the feature so useful.
In Lion, Apple combined Spaces with Exposé to create Mission Control. However, as excited I was about Mission Control when I first saw it, I was quickly disappointed to learn that they took out the best part of Spaces: the ability to assign an application to a certain space (now called desktop). Well, fear not my friends. One of my fellow Apple friends stumbled accross something. The feature has not been removed! It has simply been moved to a not-so-obvious place. To change the space an application would open with Spaces you would simply go to System Preferences and see a list ofapplications and their assigned space. That is gone. Now, if you want to assign an application to always open on a certain desktop you move the app to the desktop you want it on, right click on its icon in thedock, go to Options, and click on Assign to… This Desktop. You can even assign it to No Desktop or All Desktops. And with that my biggest complaint about Lion has now been remedied.
If you took my advice and upgraded to OS X Lion you have probably noticed Apple has made some changes to how scrolling works. They make it very clear when you install Lion that to scroll up on a page you now drag your fingers down. If you are like me and aren’t ready to change how you have been using a computer since the beginning of time then you can change things to the now “un-natural” way of scrolling. To do so simply go to System Preferences > Mouse and uncheck “Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating”. If you are on a laptop go to System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoon and uncheck “Scroll direction: natural.” It’s nice to know that how I have been using a computer is now considered not natural. However, if I did not have to use Snow Leopard at work I would consider trying out the new way. Going back and forth would be a nightmare, though.
