The New Features Coming To Mac OS X Mountain Lion


We got a fairly thorough preview of Mountain Lion when it was announced back in February, but Apple has announced a couple of nice extra features at today’s Worldwide Developer Conference event. Here’s the new stuff you can expect in Mountain Lion when it’s released.

Dictation


Just as dictation has made its way to the most recent iDevices, you’ll soon be able to use it on your Mac. It works system-wide with any application that can take text input. You just click a little microphone button, speak what you want to type, and OS X will translate it into text for you.

Power Nap


Power Nap is a technology Apple has added to Mountain Lion that allows your computer to get things done while it’s n sleep mode. This means your computer will be able to download emails, update your photo stream, and refresh other data even when it isn’t actively being used. Apple claims this technology is silent and power-efficient, so it won’t drain your battery. Currently it will only work with the new MacBook Pro with Retina display and second generation MacBook Airs (or later), but presumably Apple will continue bringing Power Nap to other new Mac models as they roll out in the future.

Send Files Through Screen Sharing


Although you’ve been able to share files through Apple Remote Desktop for a while now, developer Zach Holman noticed that it is now built into Screen Sharing. For those of us who love using Screen Sharing to remotely access our computers, this is a highly-desired addition. You just grab a file, drag it onto the shared screen, and drop it to watch it copy over. It’s really simple and really great.

A Lower Upgrade Price


OS X Lion came in at a pretty inexpensive upgrade price of $30.99, but Apple is offering Mountain Lion for $20.99 in Australia. (That makes sense, given it’s more of a point upgrade.) What’s potentially better — at least for those of you with multiple Macs — is that one purchase of Mountain Lion will be enough for every Mac that you own. You won’t have to buy a new copy for each computer. One download will work for all. New Macs purchased from today get a free upgrade when Mountain Lion releases.

Photos via GDGT Live and MacRumors Live.


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