Daniel Goh's Blog
Daniel Goh male Junior Writer
A video game junkie always looking for more convenient ways to do things tech wise. Some say its lazy, I say its innovative. Currently being sucked into the world of social media addiction and will never leave the house without his trusty iPod and headphones.
Windows 8 seems to be the main topic of discussion these days, as most of its features are beginning to look and feel incredibly tablet friendly (touch interface) that even the new Windows 8’s Metro-style user interface seems somewhat similar to that of the Windows Phone 7 OS. In a post entitled ‘Say Goodbye to the Start Menu’, my colleague Samuel Phua details some of the changes to the classic OS in order to encompass touch functionality. I would like to add on to this fact by detailing some of the highlights of the next major version of Mac OS X, which also seems to be gravitating towards an iOS-like façade.
Dubbed Mountain Lion, this next OS from Apple is said to be available summer 2012 and will see a ton of iOS features being ported over. With iOS 5, iPads and iPhones all around the world gained a new ‘Messages’ app, which allowed for free messages to be sent between iOS devices. Similarly, the new OS X will gain this app as a replacement to iChat and will now support messages, video, and images between Mac computers and iOS devices.
Also, the familiar notification center will also be hidden under the desktop, much like the system you’ll find on iOS devices. Many of the other apps including Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Notification Center, Share Sheets, OS-wide Twitter integration, and AirPlay Mirroring will also be ported over. With iCloud support, users will now be able to manage all Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, and FaceTime under one Apple account.
Another huge indicator that the future of Apple’s Mac OS X might be more ‘iOS-like’ than ever is hinted with the facts that developers are starting to gain access to ‘hundreds’ of new APIs, many of which debuted on iOS 5, such as GLKit for integrating OpenGL support.
It’s really exciting to see how the development of operating systems in general will play out. Right now, it’s shifting from mouse to fingers, but who knows, with the Xbox 360’s Kinect technology picking up, my childhood dream of a computer like those in Minority Report or even better, Jarvis from Iron Man, may just be around the corner. Fingers crossed.
If you have any opinions you’d like to share about the new OS that are soon coming to a computer near you, please leave a comment down below.
