Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion introduced, what it means to your iPad

The most recent updates to the Mac OSX keep getting the Mac notebook/desktop more and more connected to the iPad. Today’s announcement of 10.8 Mountain Lion is keeping with that as it shares more with iOS capabilities.

The actual Mac OS update is not available yet, but we thought we would point out how it will impact how you use your Mac and iPad together.

iCloud is becoming more integral as a way to move files and information between the Apple Notebook/Desktop and your iPad. Sign in once via your multiple devices and your mail, calendars, contacts, photos and documents are always in sync between them.

Messages is replacing iChat and is fully integrated to talk freely to your iPad’s Messages app. This will mean your connected to your chat groups across devices in the same fashion, no need for extra software. This feature is available as beta for your Mac OS 10.7. Messages, like your iPad, lets you know when the message has been delivered with end-to-end encryption.

Game Center has come to the Mac, so now play games with friends and track your successes on both the Mac and iPad. Small feature for now but will be bigger as people extend the power of Game Center beyond tracking high scores.

Notes has become more of a stand alone app on the desktop and mimics the look/feel of the iPad. The current 10.7 has notes in the Mail app on the desktop so it never looks quite the same as when you created the note and synced from your iPad. The Mac version does get more features like checklists which we hope is in the near future iOS update.

Reminders, Apple’s Task app for the iPad is now coming to the desktop. Similar in features, it is a light task list manager that you can now create a list and take it with you on the iPad… check things off as done on the iPad and sent that info back to your Mac. Gone though is the location feature to remind you when your close to the place the task is assigned to… since your desktop seldom travels in the car with you… it would take a really long extension cord!

A couple items coming to the Mac OS is ‘just like on the iPad’ but will not change how you work between the two. Like the iPad’s Twitter feature, the same feature on the desktop lets you quickly share links, notes, messages and photos to Twitter. And, Notification Center, keeps all your alerts handy in a single interface on the desktop like we enjoy with our iPads.

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