Apple have released a new version of the operating system for their laptop and desktop computers. The main changes are the introduction of features you may be familiar with if you already have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Apple are claiming over 200 new and improved features in OS X 10.8, or Mountain Lion. Many of these will not be obvious, or will be to features you don't use, but there's bound to be some that affect you.
Dictation
Possibly the biggest new feature is the ability to dictate wherever you can type, and for that reason I'm going to do more than just mention it.
If you tap the "fn" key twice, the presence of a dictate icon is announced. You then say your piece and press "Return" or tap "fn" twice again, and after a short time the text appears on screen. It's possible to choose to use the "Command" key instead of the "fn" key, and to choose to turn dictate off, or change the language it's set to recognise.
You have to remember to vocalise punctuation and capitalisation, and to talk properly - enunciate words clearly, leave short gaps between words and don't say "um" or "kind of". This makes talking quite stilted until you're used to it, but it only took me a couple of goes before it was working very well indeed.
There are sounds to tell you when you've started or stopped dictating. If you make a mistake and wish to cancel the dictation, you can press the escape key.
You can't dictate a whole book in one go. After about a minute of dictation, even if you don't press the key to indicate you've finished, OS X will make the end dictation sound and start the interpretation. So if you want to dictate a long piece, you'll have to break it down into shorter chunks.
Dictation requires an Internet connection, and it's important to know that everything you dictate is sent to Apple for interpretation. So you may not want to use the dictate feature for confidential information. For everything else this may be the one feature that changes everything!
Other new features
As I mentioned above, most of the new features are ones that started life on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Here are a few of them:
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iCloud is Apple's cloud storage. If you have two devices connected to the same Apple ID, work saved on one device appears automatically on the other device. This means changes to calendars, contacts, reminders, documents and notes are updated on all your Apple devices.
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There is a to-do list called Reminders, which includes geotagging. This means that as well as setting alerts for particular times, you can set one for a place. For example, you could set a reminder to put the rubbish out for when you reach home!
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The Notes app is a quick plain text editor. It allows you to create what looks like sticky notes on your desktop, which are visually very obvious.
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Messages is a texting app that allows you to send encrypted texts to anyone using iOS 5 free.
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Notifications are alerts such as new emails arriving, tweets, a calendar appointment coming due, a Facebook update or notice that a software update is available. These already appear on screen and then fade away, but the Notification Center groups them all into one place. if you have a trackpad, a two finger swipe from the right edge opens the Notification Center. If you use the keyboard, there isn't a shortcut by default, but you can set one up in System Preferences very easily.
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With the Power Nap feature, your Mac can download new mail messages and keep synchronising with iCloud even when it's asleep. if it's connected to a power source, it can even download software updates and carry out Time Machine backups. It does this with no system sounds, lights or fans.
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Sharing of web pages and documents has been made much easier. Safari has a Share button which allows you to email or tweet about a page. The context menu for a file has similar Sharing options. Facebook support is due to be added later in the year.
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Using AirPlay Mirroring you can show what is on your Mac screen on an Apple TV, or stream audio to wireless speakers. Note that this feature requires a second generation Apple TV and a recent Mac (theoretically at least a 2011 model, although there are claims it works with a 2010 model iMac).
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Gatekeeper helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac by giving you a number of options such as only install apps from the Mac App Store, or ones from approved developers.
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Safari now has a single field for search terms and web addresses, and pages opened on your iPhone or iPad are available on your Mac.
Accessibility
As well as the standard features, there have been some notable changes to the VoiceOver screen reader:
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System Preferences has been changed to make it easier to customise your settings.
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The Accessibility pane can be opened from anywhere with the Command-Option-F5 keyboard shortcut.
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There is support for 14 new braille displays.
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Drag and drop now supports modifier keys such as Command and Option, allowing you to execute different actions based on the context. Also, you can drag items to hotspots .
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Reordering of tables by column headers is now possible.
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Text selection on a webpage has been improved.
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There is support for "press and hold" buttons.
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VoiceOver can now access status bar menus for applications like Dropbox (note that with focus on the menu heading, you must press VO-Space to open the menu before arrowing through it).
There haven't been any major changes to the Zoom magnifier, but it no longer has a shortcut by default. This is apparently because people were inadvertently starting Zoom and not knowing how to turn it off! You can still turn on the shortcut if you want to use it, or use the gesture method of holding down the Ctrl key and swiping up on a trackpad or Magic mouse with two fingers.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
An upgrade to Mountain Lion costs £13.99, and it's only available on a new computer or as a download from the App Store. For information about whether your current Mac will run Mountain Lion, and more about how to install it, visit http://www.apple.com/uk/osx/how-to-upgrade/
We'd love to hear your thoughts about Mountain Lion, whether you love it or loathe it, or if you have a feature we've not mentioned. You can contact us by emailing digitalaccess@rnib.org.uk.