The New OS X by Apple (Part Four)

In the previous part, we looked at the features of iCloud, Notes and Reminders. With these features installed on Apple computers, your productivity will definitely increase. Everything you need to organize your life is already installed in one package. It even comes with a pre – installed dictionary! How cool is that?

Now, let’s take a look at more stuff that will make using a Mac a lot fun.

Messages

You may have heard that with iOS 5, you can send unlimited texts to your buddies that also have iOS 5 devices. Well, this is actually true. All you need is a Wi – Fi connection and you’re good to go. That means that even if you only have an iPod Touch, it effectively becomes an iPhone! Except of course, it can’t make any calls or take great pictures.

This same feature can be found in Mountain Lion, and this app is simply called Messages. Basically, it acts as the central hub for all of your chatting needs. With iChat in Messages, you can log in your Yahoo or other ISP accounts to chat with your contacts.

But the real winner here is the ability to send messages to iOS devices with the help of iMessages. Not only can messages be sent, but a variety of other stuff as well. You can send pictures, documents and even contacts too. Links, notes, reminders and other small stuff can also be sent. There’s even a feature for group messaging!

Message encryption is included so you don’t have to worry about your messages getting leaked out by some weird forces at work.

All you need is your Apple ID to start chatting with your contacts. If chatting isn’t enough, you can launch FaceTime directly from iMessages to video chat with your friends!

And to finish everything, all of your chats are saved in iCloud, so when you start a chat on your Mac, you can continue the conversation while you’re travelling with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Share Sheets

While Mountain Lion features a whole bunch of different ways to share content already, Apple decides to throw in some more, and it comes in the form of Share Sheets.

It’s a very easy way to share stuff like pictures, links and other stuff. It’s app sensitive, which means that Share Sheets will only display the types of sharing methods appropriate for the file you want to share.

For example, if you want to share a link, you can send it through email, Messages or other means. You can also send photos directly to photo – sharing websites and even videos too.

This improves productivity because you don’t have to drag and drop files. You can just select the file you want, access the little Share Sheet menu found on top of the window and that’s it.

Continuation

There are a few more features that we’ll cover in another part, such as the ability to stream content from your Mac to your TV!