Mountain Lion V/S iOS6: Feature Comparison-Part 2

When Mountain Lion launched it looked a lot similar to its iOS cousin and here are the comparison between these two

3. Messages 

One of my personal favorites of the new features is iMessage/Messages. iMessage came with iOS 5 last year, and now Apple has brought it to OS X with Mountain Lion. Here is the situation: You are on the road or out of the house for a long amount of time, and are using your phone very heavily. By the time you get home, your phone is very low on battery, but you are having an important conversation with someone via texting/iMessage (they are also an iPhone user). So when you get home, you plug your phone in, go over to your Mac, open up Messages and continue the conversation there, never losing your place or any of the messages because they all sync via iCloud! It’s a great service. I can be having a conversation on my iPad, set it down, log on my computer and the other person will never know I switched devices, it’s that seamless.

4. Reminders 

Aside from iMessage, this is one of the fastest services that I have used in iCloud. I created a reminder using on my iPad, and no less than 2 seconds later it had already shown up in my Mac’s Reminders application. The Reminders application is new in OS X Mountain Lion, and, as you would expect, it’s near identical to the iPad and iPhone cousins. It’s a very clean, simple, and straight forward application, as it is with most things Apple. Both have all the same features, making reminders based on a time or location, marking items complete of incomplete, and more. Whatever you do on one device is seamlessly and near instantly synced with the other. It’s really great, and I find myself using it more and more as I use Mountain Lion and iOS 6.

Mountain Lion V/S iOS6: Feature Comparison-Part 1

When Mountain Lion launched it looked a lot similar to its iOS cousin and here are the comparison between these two

1. iCloud 

Deeper iCloud integration is one of the major features of OS X 10.8 and iOS 6 both. They each feature better syncing between Macs and iOS devices, with it all feeling faster and more seamless than it did OS X 10.7 and iOS 5. Reminders, Notes, and Documents sync between each of the respective applications near instantly, with only one time set up needed for all the iCloud related services. It’s really a flawless service, only improving upon what is already in place.

     

 All in all, iCloud has grown leaps and bounds in terms of seamless and quick integration. When you first boot up your Mac (after buying it new or after a fresh install of OS X Mountain Lion) you are greeted by a page in which you enter your iCloud information and choose what services to activate; very similar to when you first boot up an iOS device.

2. Notification Center 

Notification Center and improved notifications are not necessarily something new in iOS 6, but they are new to OS X in Mountain Lion. With the new version of OS X, it stole a few key features that were introduced in iOS 5 last year, including Notification Center and an improved notification UI. There is now a more unified and streamlined notification UI, which is simple and elegant just as it’s iOS counterpart is. The notification rotates down in the upper right hand corner of the screen, and if you do not activate it the banner simply slides off screen to the right. To see notifications that you have waiting, you can access Notification Center either by clicking the new button located by Spotlight in the Menu bar, or if you have a trackpad you slide two fingers from the right edge of the trackpad, revealing the familiar notification interface. New in both iOS and OS X Notification Centers is a Tweet button.

 

Mountain Lion V/S iOS6: Feature Comparison-Part 3

When Mountain Lion launched it looked a lot similar to its iOS cousin and here are the comparison between these two

5. Notes

 To be honest, i dont use that at all,because I prefer Word for my word processing.Notes has been around as long as iOS has, and it’s seen very few changes, one of the only major ones being when it got 2 new fonts to use as the default. In iOS 6, one of the only changes to it is Sharing capabilities, which actually started in iOS 5. This year though, with Mountain Lion, Apple brought iCloud to Notes. They built a Notes application for the Mac that mimics the appearance of it’s iOS siblings, and also only has the same 3 font options. However, now whenever you write a note within any of these 3 applications, it will sync across all of your devices flawlessly. It’s a tad more buggy than the previous two services, but the operating systems are both still in beta, so I expect it to get better. The only issues I have had is that they take a little longer than I would expect for them to sync, sometimes 10-15 minutes compared to the Reminders app’s 2-5 seconds. Nonetheless, it’s a great service for anyone that like to use the Notes application. Below is a screenshot of both the iPad and Mac’s Notes applications.

As the screenshots show, they are very similar looking applications. And the work the same too. All you do is type away, no real word processing options are included in either version (but that’s why it’s called Notes and not Pages). If all you do is take quick notes in something such as meetings or class, this application will be great for you. You will be able to take notes in a meeting with your iPhone or iPad and it will all be synced seamlessly with your Mac.

 6. Game Center 

Another one of the multiple applications that made the iOS to OS X jump is Game Center. Game Center, as many of you know, is Apple’s social gaming platform, where you can view your friends scores versus yours, see global scores, play multiplayer games, etc. Now with Mountain Lion, you can do all that via your Mac as well. In the WWDC Keynote, Apple did a demo of Game Center for OS X by showing how you could do multiplayer between not just iOS devices, but an iOS device and a Mac, or even two or more Macs now.

Game Center is a great service. When I have tried out its multiplayer features, it’s always very quick. You get a nice notification with a different Game Center specific jingle when friends request to play a game, and it’s very easy to jump right into the application they have requested you to play. I can definitely see myself, and others, using this feature as more developers take advantage of it.

Mountain Lion V/S iOS6: Feature Comparison-Part 4

When Mountain Lion launched it looked a lot similar to its iOS cousin and here are the comparison between these two

7. Dictation 

When the new iPad shipped with only Dictation, I was disappointed. I wanted Siri. I use at now all the time for things such as Messages, Google, Reminders, and more. And with the addition of full Siri support on the new iPad, I use it even more for miscellaneous things. In OS X 10.8, Apple has brought that same Dictation to the Mac. In System Preferences there is now a “Dictation” panel where you can turn it on and set a keyboard shortcut that will activate it whenever you are in a text field. For instance, mine (and the default) is double tapping the Function key. I find this feature very useful in helping me use a feature that I don’t use much now; Notes. When on my Mac, if I need to make note of something, I simply open Notes, activate Dictation, talk away, and then that note gets synced with my iPad if I ever need it there. It may be just an overlooked gimmick for some, but I definitely see many people using it once they give it a try.

8. Social 

Social integration has become big among manufacturers of all kinds. Apple is no exception. Twitter and Facebook are both two of the largest Social Networks in the world, and Apple has gone ahead and built both in natively to iOS and OS X. In iOS, Twitter integration began last year with iOS 5, with Facebook being added on in iOS 6. Now, in Notification Center, there is both a “Tap to Tweet” and “Tap to Post” button for both the services, depending on which you have set up. In OS X, currently there is is only Twitter integration, but Apple’s site for Mountain Lion states that Facebook is “coming this fall.” It is the same as in iOS, you can share posts from Notification Center and more. In both systems, there are “Share” button spread throughout. When clicked there is a “Twitter” and “Facebook” button now (if applicable). You can share pictures, links, videos, and more. All quick, easy, and natively built in.

Mountain Lion V/S iOS6: Feature Comparison-Part 5

When Mountain Lion launched it looked a lot similar to its iOS cousin and here are the comparison between these two

9. Other similarities (e.g. Launchpad, FaceTime, Spotlight, Automatic Downloads, App Store) 

There are also many little features here and there that OS X and iOS have in common. A few of the most noticeable I have listed here: Launchpad (or the iOS home screen), FaceTime, Spotlight, Automatic Downloads, and the App Stores. Launchpad was introduced in OS X Lion, and it got improved in small ways but useful ways in OS X Mountain Lion. The first new part that caught my eye was the search at the top of it, allowing you to search through all of you applications very quickly. Launchpad resembles the iOS home screen quite obviously, even going as far as having the same icon for folders and the same background for them as well. This was one of the major points that made people start noticing the similarities between OS X and iOS last year.