OS X Mountain Lion, or version 10.8 as it’s known according to Apple’s numbering system, accounted for 32 percent of all web traffic measured by Net Applications, a firm that charts OS share and other web metrics. This marks the first time Mountain Lion has accounted for a majority share of web traffic from Apple computers, with Lion dropping down to 28 percent.
In November, Mountain Lion only just trailed Lion, with 29 percent of web traffic, vs. 30 percent for Lion. Snow Leopard use actually remained relatively steady between November and December, losing less than a percentage point and suggesting that most of the Mountain Lion upgraders are coming from Lion, and not jumping up two versions. Mountain Lion requires that Lion be installed in order to upgrade (unless you have a USB stick version of 10.8), so it makes sense that the pool of upgraders is coming from Lion, where there are relatively few barriers to upgrading (it’s handled directly through the Mac App Store).
Snow Leopard continues to be very tenacious, with a 29 percent share of Mac web traffic, which makes it the second-most frequently used version of OS X over even Lion. But Mountain Lion’s growth is still impressive, and it seems to be attracting users faster than Lion was ever able to. Lion took until May 2012 to overcome Snow Leopard in terms of share of web traffic as measured by Net Applications, meaning it required nearly 10 months to unseat Snow Leopard as the dominant Mac OS. By contrast, Mountain Lion took around five months to reach the top spot, or about half the time.
Speedy adoption of new OS X versions is key to keeping a solid software ecosystem in place, and lessening headaches for developers both internal and external. That makes this particular development promising news for Apple, especially now that they’re on an annual update cycle for OS X, which makes getting people on the newest version as quickly as possible even more crucial.
There’s a special moment in every operating system’s life when it loses its innocent .0 status and grows up. It’s OS X Mountain Lion’s turn to mature, as Apple has just pushed out the 10.8.1 update for early adopters. Most of the fixes are for issues that plague specific use cases, such as audio output from a Thunderbolt Display or crashes in Migration Assistant. There are a few remedies that a wider audience might appreciate — a fix for iMessages that don’t send and an improvement to Exchange compatibility in Mail, for example. We don’t yet know of any surprises lurking underneath, but it can’t hurt to have a smoother-running Mac while we investigate.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software
Apple posts OS X 10.8.1 update, mends your Mountain Lion originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Maggie Valley, NC mountain view. With a country music band in the background down in the valley. Taken after sunset with the Samsung Galaxy SIII.
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Despite early hiccups Apple’s latest OS X release was downloaded more than 3 million times during its first 4 days of availability. The $ 20 upgrade brings a host of new features to compatible Macs including Airplay Mirroring, Game Center, system-wide sharing, and beefed-up iCloud integration, which now syncs iWork documents, notes, and reminders.
While Apple doesn’t speculate the reason for the huge download numbers, several factors likely led to the quick adoption rate. First, Apple priced OS X 10.8 to move. At only $ 20 the new operating system is a rather good bargain even if it doesn’t boast a lot of new features. Apple also made upgrading to Mountain Lion rather easy, which also likely led to more users jumping onto the system.
Thanks to the Mac App Store, upgrading to OS X 10.8 is downright easy. Users simply buy the new OS as if it was another application. From there, the update downloads in the background and prompts users to restart the system when its ready to install. It’s as painless as a system update.
“Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said in a released statement today.
Mountain Lion was released last Wednesday on the Mac App Store for just $ 19.99. Read our review here.
We’ve been fielding a number of tips this morning from eager Apple users who have been experiencing issues downloading Apple’s latest operating system update. There’s the usual round of server errors that come with major software upgrades and some issues with those download codes provided for folks who recently picked up a new Mac. We confirmed the issue with Apple support, who told us to try again in about an hour. Have your Mountain Lion dreams been temporarily put on hold? Let us know in the poll below, and please sound off in the comments.
Poll: Are you having problems downloading Mountain Lion? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple is well-known for wanting a close spread in hardware requirements with OS X upgrades, having dropped PowerPC like a hot potato when Snow Leopard arrived just three years after the Intel switch. Whether or not you’re a fan of that policy, it’s certainly carrying forward with Mountain Lion. When the newly-finished OS hits the Mac App Store, it will rule out the very first wave of 64-bit Macs: certain MacBook Pros, Mac Pros and other early systems will be denied a taste of 10.8. Some sleuthing from Ars Technica suggests that it’s a matter of graphics drivers rather than capriciousness on Apple’s part, as the Macs excluded from the mix are using 32-bit drivers that won’t play nicely with Mountain Lion’s 64-bit Utopia short of a wide-scale conversion effort. It’s little consolation to those who dropped a pretty penny on certain Macs just a few years ago. That said, Apple is still going the extra mile to support some systems — if you’re reading this on an original aluminum iMac, you’re sitting pretty.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software
Apple sunsets a few 64-bit Macs with Mountain Lion, video drivers likely the culprit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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3612, 3482, 149 VS 1987, 1986, 457 Video Rating: 0 / 5
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3482, 149, 3612 VS 3784, 2587, 1825 Round starts at 1:15 Video Rating: 0 / 5
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“Think about the mountain,” says AMD’s John Taylor. He’s talking about ultrabooks. “As you get up to $ 799, $ 899, $ 999, you’ve got 50 SKUs sitting up here, at this place. They’re going to fall off.” He shapes his fingers into a pyramid, so I can visualize the metaphor.
The fact that Intel has over 110 design wins for its proprietary laptop platform doesn’t seem to phase AMD’s director of product marketing very much. In his estimation, Intel’s ultrabook initiative isn’t just driving quality, it’s forcing a homogenization of the laptop market that might leave their manufacturers out in the cold. “There’s not room on the shelf to differentiate 50 Intel ultrabooks, particularly if they’re called Intel ultrabooks,” he says, and I start to…
Apple announced further details on OS X Mountain Lion, the iterative successor to Lion. Improvements include separate apps for Messages, Reminders, and Notes as well as a new notifications system. iCloud users can also store documents to the cloud.
Another improvement is a new style dock which tweaks OS X’s current dock ever so slightly.
Mountain Lion now supports native dictation as well as a special “do not disturb” switch that turns off all notifications when you are, for example, giving a presentation.
The OS also includes a new version of Safari with a unified search field as well as Tab View and tab syncing. You can also now use gestures to navigate between tabs.
This is also the first version of the OS to support Facebook sharing. A new feature called Power Nap will update all your apps and OS files while the computer is idle, allowing you to avoid time-consuming maintenance.
Game Center is now also part of Mountain Lion, allowing you to share scores and gaming friends across multiple devices.
The new OS will cost $ 19.99 and is available in near final developer form today.
