10.8

Apple's iOS isn't the only thing to get an update this morning. Alongside iOS 6, Apple quietly pushed out 10.8.2, the second minor update to Mountain Lion since it was released in July.

Chief among the additions is integration with Facebook, a feature that was promised for a fall release when Mountain Lion first debuted earlier this year. Facebook users can share items directly from share sheets now, as well as in Notification Center, and sync up contacts from the popular social network.

The update also adds the Power Nap feature to late-2010 MacBook Air machines, … Read more

When Apple released OS X Mountain Lion, it included some extra controls to help you keep personal information private. One area of personal information you now have control over is your Contact list. Prior to OS X 10.8, apps could access your Address Book (the name changed to Contacts with Mountain Lion) without alerting you, or requesting your permission.

When you run an app on OS X Mountain Lion for the first time, and it tries to access your Contacts, you'll see an alert similar to that above. Clicking OK will allow the app to access your Contacts, … Read more

Generally when Apple releases a major upgrade to OS X, it quickly follows with an update to tackle some of the immediate and outstanding bugs with the software. The time frame for this update has been between 13 days (for Snow Leopard) to 26 days (for Lion), and while Mountain Lion has gone for about a month so far in its initial release, the first update is now available and addresses pertinent problems with Thunderbolt audio noise and Mail accounts not working, among other issues.

One problem that people have reported with OS X 10.8 is an audio noise issue … Read more

Notification Center is a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion that helps you keep all of your important alerts and notifications in one place. The claim of convenience can only be true if it's truly convenient to access and use. Luckily, there are a few different ways to access the tray of notifications hidden under your desktop. Let's take a look at four of them.

Menu bar

The most obvious way is by clicking on the Notification Center icon in the menu bar. You can click the icon to reveal and hide Notification Center. There's nothing … Read more

One of the nice things about the new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion release is that the Notes application makes it easy to have notes sync from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad. But what if you're an Android user or want your notes to flow outside the Apple ecosystem for some reason? Yes, it can be done.

I don't take a lot of notes, but I've found it handy to have some things like frequent flyer numbers jotted down digitally in an easy-to-locate format. As a longtime Outlook user, I've used Outlook'… Read more

One of the new features in OS X Mountain Lion is the new AirPlay Mirroring feature. AirPlay Mirroring makes it easy to give presentations, watch Flash videos (Hulu, anyone?) or show off photos from your recent vacation on a TV. If you want to see AirPlay Mirroring on OS X in action, make sure to check out Jason Parker's video demonstration.

One thing that isn't really advertised about the new AirPlay feature on your Mac is the capability to send only the audio from your Mac to any AirPlay compatible device. Meaning, you don't have to mirror … Read more

One of the new features in OS X Mountain Lion is the PowerNap energy-saving option that allows newer MacBook Pro and MacBook Air systems to continue to use network and backup services when in sleep mode. However, even after installing the OS X Mountain Lion upgrade, qualified systems may not be able to use the PowerNap feature.

When activated in the system's Energy Saver system preferences, PowerNap will perform hourly checks for new e-mail and updates to Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes, iCloud documents, and Photo Stream. It will also maintain a connection for Apple's Find My Mac service. … Read more

With the introduction of iCloud -- Apple's service for storing your data and content online rather than on your devices -- you can now sync all of your stuff wirelessly between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This is great for adding things like appointments into your calendar as they will instantly appear on all of the Apple gizmos you're using.

If you haven't set up iCloud on your devices, it's easy to do, but you have to ensure you're using the same Apple ID on all your gadgets. By default, my iPhone was set to … Read more

Apple today replaced last year's version of OS X with a shiny, new model. But in the process, it also quietly scrubbed that older version from its digital and physical stores.

Several readers have reached out to let us know that Lion, which was replaced with Mountain Lion today, can no longer be found on the Mac App Store. The same goes for the USB thumb drive Apple sold with a Lion installer for those who could not purchase it online. Links to Lion in the Mac App Store now show a warning message that the product is not … Read more