os x OS X Mountain Lion Discussion

[.Neo]

Perhaps it isn't implemented in iOS yet, and only works between two Macs on the developer preview.

It looks that way.

[PyX]

Except for the Safari progress bar having a different loading animation I haven't seen any noticeable changes to Aqua. But if you found something else worth mentioning, by all means speak up...

I?ll install it and dig in around with it, been very busy during the last few days buying my first car since uni is over :D

[Elliott]

I'm firing it up in VMware now to see the changes (not that there are many :p).

[PyX]

A lot of things have changed from my point of view, but then again, I haven't really looked deepfully into Developer Preview 1. I overwrote my "Mountain Lion" partition when I installed, and here's what I've noticed :

- Base installation gave me regular scrolling with my mouse. This is what I was looking for, because natural scrolling with a mouse has always felt insane to me.

- Scrollbars now become bigger when we hover on them with a mouse. Yay !

- The top part of the Mac App Store (the toolbar) is bigger. The traffic lights are on a different row than the previous/next button.

- Launchpad still has a grid of 8 apps on the width of my screen, and 5 in height, but they are squeezed in the middle of the screen. There?s a 150 px border around it that is left empty.

Other than that, nothing worth mentioning. I hope they will introduce more yet-to-be-seen features when they release it, along with an event for it to glorify its release in front of its competitor Windows 8. The timing is perfect to release a little more aggressive version of Mac OS X, they can't miss this opportunity. That being said, I'm satisfied with the changes so far in the Developer Previews, bugs aside obviously.

[Rudy]

- Launchpad now has a grid of 8 apps on the width of my screen, and 5 in height. I don't know what it was before, but there is about 150 px on the left and right that have been left empty. I guess they want the same experience on all screens ?

Is that on your 27" iMac or your MBP?

[PyX]

It?s on my 27" iMac. I clarified it a little bit more, after relaunching Lion.

[.Neo]

"A lot of things have changed from my point of view" - What those four things? :laugh:

Anyway, the first three already changed in DP1. The change to Launchpad is new in DP2 (I think) and something I don't really get after seeing it. Just seems like a waste of space. I do know you can change the Launchpad icon size by using the pinch motion on a trackpad. No idea how to change it with a mouse.

[Quillz]

Finally got DP2 up and running on my 27'' iMac. Pretty stable for me so far, haven't had any major issues yet. I did notice, too, that it seems to default to a rather narrow Launchpad setup, which seems a bit pointless. I widened it back to how it was before.

Given the stability, I'm thinking maybe an early summer release would be possible. Lion was late July, I wouldn't be surprised to see ML around that time or maybe even a little earlier.

[protocol7]

I think the narrower Launchpad and larger icon size than when Launchpad first appeared is to make it looks a little less overwhelming. When you fire up Launchpad and are greeted with 32 icons at once it's a bit much. The current version displays the default system-supplied apps in the first window and anything third-party starts in the second window.

I prefer this version, though I really don't see much point to Launchpad as I can launch apps faster from Spotlight.

As for DP2 it's noticeably improved in some areas but brought some new bugs too (to be expected). Coming back from full-screen in some apps like iTunes leaves their menubar unresponsive for example. Still, it's shaping up well.

[Quillz]

Seems ML DP2 got rid of Safari's Activity window. (Or else it got moved and I just can't find it.) I actually don't like that, the Activity Window was very useful for being able to download/isolate embedded content on web pages.

[PyX]

"A lot of things have changed from my point of view" - What those four things? :laugh:

Well at first, I detected a few more things, then edited my post because I was wrong :p

Then I realize this was all either in Lion or in DP1 already.

I?m so glad that they added the previous and next calendars in iCal (or Calendar now). The one in Lion was inferior to even the one in Tiger just because of this missing feature. But this feature came back in DP1 already, not DP2 ?

They need to work on Messages a lot. They really need to come up with a list of who has iMessage and put these people in my friends list. This has been wanted since iOS5, and now it?s even more wanted on a Mac because we can?t send SMS if they don?t have iMessage. Also, it?s not customizable enough : the smileys are horrible (they differ from the ones on my iPhone), the smileys grid misses functionality (it only contains 28 smileys), the conversation layouts are inferior to some found in Adium (for instance, something like Renkoo would be better), I can?t even display the time in a conversation, the reply field looks too narrow in terms of height, ? And the fact that I have to accept to start a conversation with a friend, or else the bubble will stay on the top right of my screen until I decline, leaves me a bad taste in the mouth every time it happens.

[.Neo]

The Messages interface is terrible. Anyway, I'm off enjoying 18 degrees sunny Amsterdam. :p

[sila]

I'm glad there isn't a whole slew of new features as it means they can spend time implementing what is going in right. Add some new features and continue to tidy and optimize under the hood, given Apples new OS pricing i'm certainly happy with that. Smaller, cheaper, more regular feature updates definitely makes sense to me.

[PyX]

The Messages interface is terrible. Anyway, I'm off enjoying 18 degrees sunny Amsterdam. :p

Nice ! Hope you have fun then !

I?m enjoying 25 degrees sunny this afternoon in Montreal, as well as driving my first car :p

The weather doesn?t make sense anymore? we?re supposed to get this in May and August? a normal day would be 5 degrees here ATM !!!

[Elliott]

I actually like the one-window interface of Messages. :p. An iMessage "buddy list" would be nice, but I've taken to starting new conversations through the messages window. In that interface, it does tell you who has iMessage enabled.

[celticpride678]

Anyone else noticing "laggy" scrolling when browsing in Safari under Mountain Lion Dev 2. Seems as though websites that use Flash ads (anything Flash for that matter) are having some trouble under the new build.

[Binary]

"A lot of things have changed from my point of view" - What those four things? :laugh:

Anyway, the first three already changed in DP1. The change to Launchpad is new in DP2 (I think) and something I don't really get after seeing it. Just seems like a waste of space. I do know you can change the Launchpad icon size by using the pinch motion on a trackpad. No idea how to change it with a mouse.

In DP2, pinching in launchpad changes the icon spacing margins now, not their size.

I like this change; a full screen of icons on an iMac was a bit too much for the eye to narrow in on an icon.

I hope they add an Option for Alphabetical/Kind Ordering, as I think I'd find it easier to get what I want. I know that if you start typing it'll zone in on your app, but I like to use the nifty launchpad scrolling pages :D

[Rudy]

I'd like to be able to send videos through Airplay in Safari (like on iOS). So I could easily send videos to my new aTV :D

[Glassed Silver]

I'd like to be able to send videos through Airplay in Safari (like on iOS). So I could easily send videos to my new aTV :D

Use Safari in full screen and/or the video and AirPlay mirror to your aTV. (Y)

Glassed Silver:mac

[Rudy]

Use Safari in full screen and/or the video and AirPlay mirror to your aTV. (Y)

Glassed Silver:mac

I want to use my computer while watching stuff ;)

[Glassed Silver]

I want to use my computer while watching stuff ;)

Fair enough! (Y)

I assume it might be integrated into the OS API so 3rd party devs and especially Apple will be able to take advantage of AirPlay on the Mac.

So I guess we'll see the AirPlay button appearing in some places in future! ;)

Glassed Silver:mac

[Rudy]

Fair enough! (Y)

I assume it might be integrated into the OS API so 3rd party devs and especially Apple will be able to take advantage of AirPlay on the Mac.

So I guess we'll see the AirPlay button appearing in some places in future! ;)

Glassed Silver:mac

There's a Safari extension ClickToFlash which supported sending the video to an AppleTV but that functionality has been broken in later iOS versions (the video plays for a minute and quits)

[Glassed Silver]

There's a Safari extension ClickToFlash which supported sending the video to an AppleTV but that functionality has been broken in later iOS versions (the video plays for a minute and quits)

iOS versions?

Glassed Silver:mac

[.Neo]

In DP2, pinching in launchpad changes the icon spacing margins now, not their size.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

I like this change; a full screen of icons on an iMac was a bit too much for the eye to narrow in on an icon.

That's the whole reason why I have absolutely no use whatsoever for full-screen on my 27-inch iMac. You reach a point where have to turn your head to get an overview of the entire window. I'm glad it's at least a purely optional thing in OS X instead of it being forced upon you like Windows 8's Metro.

[.Neo]

Well I finally got around to installing DP2. Honestly I don't know what to think at this point. It's OS X Lion with two extra default apps, an updated iChat and Notifications. Oh and did I mention the new desktop picture? I'm hoping DP3 will spot some worth mentioning stuff.

PS Can anyone explain why my home folder suddenly isn't allowed to start with a capital anymore? I like my name to start with a capital, if only to match all the other folders... It's like I'm using Linux now... :/