in OS X Mountain Lion, showing a banner, the
Tweet and
Post buttons.|alt=Notification Center, a sidebar application that displays notifications.
Default wallpaper The default
desktop picture is an image of the
NGC 3190 galaxy.
Notification Center Notification Center was added in the operating system. It provides an overview of alerts from applications and displays notifications until the user completes an associated action, rather than requiring instant resolution. Users may choose what applications appear in Notification Center, and how they are handled. There are three types of notifications: banners, alerts, and badges. Banners are displayed for a short period of time in the upper right corner of the Mac's screen, and then slide off to the right. The icon of the application is displayed on the left side of the banner, while the message from the application will be displayed on the right side. Alerts are the same as banners, but will not disappear from the screen until the user takes action. Badges are red notification icons that are displayed on the application's icon. They indicate the number of items available for the application. It can be accessed by clicking the icon in the right corner of the menu bar. When open, the user can click a button to
tweet, post status updates to
Facebook, or view all notifications in the sidebar pane. Swiping up will reveal the option to disable Notification Center for one day. Many settings of Notification Center can be customized under the "Notifications" pane in
System Preferences. Each application can have three ways to display notifications: none, banners, and alerts. Options to toggle the app icons and sounds are also available. Users can click and drag an app in the pane to change the order the applications are displayed within Notification Center.
Notes Notes, another transfer from
iOS, is added. It is separate from
Mail in its own application, with support for desktop notes added (syncs along with its
iOS counterpart). Created notes are synced through all the user's Apple devices through the iCloud service. Notes can be arranged in folders, and pinned to the user's desktop. When the application is closed, the pinned note still remains. Notes can be created in three different default fonts - Noteworthy, Marker Felt, and Helvetica. Users can add custom fonts by visiting the menu. The menu allows users to change text size, format lists, choose the alignment (left, center, justify, or right), assign a writing direction, and indent text. Attachments, images, and
hyperlinks can also be added into a note. Attachments cannot be viewed on iOS devices.
Messages Messages, an
instant messaging software application, is added in Mountain Lion. It was announced on February 16, 2012, as part of the OS X Mountain Lion developer preview. Starting with this release, Messages replaced
iChat as the default OS X instant-messaging client. A free beta version of Messages was available to download for Mac OS X Lion from the Apple website until June 2012. The final version of Messages was included with the release version of OS X Mountain Lion. As with its predecessor, Messages has text messaging, audio, and screen-sharing capabilities. Messages also contains native video conversation support, utilizing Apple's
FaceTime video calling application where possible. However, it does retain video capabilities for interfacing with other instant messaging clients. Messages supports Apple's
iMessage, a free instant messaging service previously only available on devices running
iOS 5. It also supports both
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) (shown in the application under its former name, Jabber) and the
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
OSCAR protocol. It also offers a direct connection to
Yahoo! Messenger and
Google Talk. Points are awarded to players as a part of Game Center's
achievement tracking system. Players can earn points by meeting specific in-game challenges. A player must establish an
Apple ID to associate with a Game Center nickname. A player has the option to create an Apple ID from within Game Center if they do not already have one. Only one nickname may be associated with an Apple ID at any given time. Each player is assigned a profile in Game Center. A profile consists of the player's nickname, the number of Game Center-compatible games the player owns, the number of friends the player has, the number of achievement points a player has, and an optional photo and player-defined status.
Application updates OS X Mountain Lion added updates for many applications on the operating system. The
Chess app supports
Game Center.
Dashboard widgets can be managed in a
UI similar to Launchpad.
Mail adds new VIP feature to save frequent contacts. The
Preview app gets an improved user interface. It is able to fill out forms in PDF documents that don't contain actual PDF form fields.
Reminders is a new to-do list application, separate from
Calendar in its own application that syncs along with its
iOS counterpart.
Safari 6 gets a new release and features a new address bar; a combination of the address bar and the search field. The address bar also has a "Reader" button, showing the user just the text of the article without advertisements and distraction. When the user is on a website with no article, the button is disabled. Safari 6 is available as a download for OS X Lion.
Time Machine is able to do rotating backups on more than one storage medium.
Other updates AirPlay Mirroring is added, which allows wireless mirroring of a Mac's screen to an
Apple TV. System-wide integration of AirPlay audio transmission is added. There are many new features for Chinese users, including support for
Baidu as an option for
Safari search engine,
QQ,
163.com and 126.com services for
Mail,
Contacts and
Calendar,
Youku,
Tudou and
Sina Weibo are integrated into share sheets. Dictation, new in Mountain Lion, is a system-wide voice input mechanism that requires a broadband Internet connection.
Facebook gained full integration following an update in late 2012. Some of the features include single-sign on and integration in Notification Center, Contacts and Share Sheets.
Gatekeeper, also new to Mountain Lion, is an
anti-malware feature based on
digital signatures and the Mac App Store. Power Nap allows flash storage-based Macintoshes (late 2010 MacBook Air and later, or the MacBook Pro with Retina display) to synchronize with iCloud (Reminders, Calendars, Photo Stream, Notes, Mail, and Find My Mac) while sleeping and also allows a Mac to download App Store and OS X updates as well as make periodic Time Machine backups when it is plugged in and sleeping. Several new screensavers were added. Share Sheets, a "Share" button and dialog box in
Safari and other applications, are added.
Twitter was integrated with almost all of the applications, with single-sign on, tweeting from an app, Tweet Sheets, tweeting photos and links, using multiple Twitter accounts, Twitter notifications, profile picture integration, and Location Services available. Application updates automatically install from the Mac App Store. The
iCloud library
User interface (UI) was integrated throughout the operating systems, which includes new Open and Save dialog boxes across built-in applications,
iWork and third-party applications via an
Application programming interface (API). Applications that make use of this API support a new user interface to view and manage documents in the cloud that are specific to the application being used. Documents can be renamed from the title bar. iWork documents automatically synchronize with iCloud. The full screen ability is on every display. The
Dock has received an updated look, emulating the appearance of the aluminum surface that much of Apple's current hardware line-up sports. Scroll bars widen when the mouse hovers over them. Finder displays a progress bar in the "size" column when copying a file, and on icons in Launchpad when downloading from the Mac App Store.
Launchpad has
Spotlight search for finding applications. Address Book was renamed "
Contacts", a message is shown to suggest to users that they search the
Mac App Store for an RSS app. • The
Software Update service was unified into the
Mac App Store. • The list of updates installed in the past was removed. • The "Web Sharing" option was removed from System Preferences.
Apache is still included with the operating system and can be enabled using third-party software. • When the
X11 app is opened, users are directed to the open source
XQuartz project instead. •
Xgrid support was removed (including in
OS X Server edition). • The Display Preferences status menu was replaced by the AirPlay icon, and it is no longer possible to quickly switch resolutions without first opening up preferences. • The option in Menu Bar to display battery life using "Time" is no longer offered. Instead, the only option is to display battery "Percentage". However, battery time can still be viewed in the dropdown by clicking on the battery icon. ==Reception==