Mac OS X Mountain Lion

[Lyd]

Any of you Mac girls upgrading your OS today? I really like some of the new things they've added. Plus, I'm one of those weirdos that just feels the need to have the most recent OS, so I'll be getting it. They've added AirPlay, so I'm going to test it to see if I can scrap on my big screen TV through the Apple TV. That would be AWESOME!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

[dana]

oooh fun! can't wait to hear how it goes!! i am getting a new computer in a year - so i'm not sure if i'm going to upgrade now or just wait a year when i get everything new ...

[LibbysMommy]

I upgraded (I'm a nerd too) . My biggest reason for upgrading is the Messages feature...my hubby and I are always messaging over our iOS devices so this is perfect. My only gripe is that it doesn't show our message history (like going all the way back)...it's like it starts from a clean slate. Overall though I like it I do like the notifications too. I think I need to start making better use of reminders too - that feature seems really cool

[Nettio]

Haha, I was just reading about it this morning. I'm not sure there are any features I'm super excited about but since I'm planning on getting a new MBP anyway, I'll probably wait and do it then unless it comes with it.

[Lyd]

Originally Posted by LibbysMommy

I upgraded (I'm a nerd too) . My biggest reason for upgrading is the Messages feature...my hubby and I are always messaging over our iOS devices so this is perfect. My only gripe is that it doesn't show our message history (like going all the way back)...it's like it starts from a clean slate. Overall though I like it I do like the notifications too. I think I need to start making better use of reminders too - that feature seems really cool

I've been using the Beta version of Messages for a while now, and I absolutely LOVE it! I even do my YIM stuff through Messages.

I'm kind of excited about the Notification Center and Reminders as well. I've always liked the Reminders app on my phone better than the Tasks in iCal, so it will be nice to have that on my MBP now.

I will say . . . it's taking a long time to download, and I'm antsy. LOL.

[LibbysMommy]

I had no idea you could do YIM through Messages...I need to set that up!!

And yes...it was a HUGE download!! lol

[origami]

We never upgrade immediately. We usually wait about a month, just in case there are problems with the new operating system. The Airplay feature sounds wonderful. We recently dropped cable and are thinking about getting Apple TV for one of our televisions.

[Lyd]

Originally Posted by origami

We never upgrade immediately. We usually wait about a month, just in case there are problems with the new operating system. The Airplay feature sounds wonderful. We recently dropped cable and are thinking about getting Apple TV for one of our televisions.

I highly recommend AppleTV. We got one last year for our main TV and fell in love. After that we got one for the TV in our bedroom as well. I don't know if DH could live without it now.

[SmallMoments]

Joel's doing his now. I'll wait and see how he likes it. If he does, I'll get it.

[BrattyMeg]

they were upgrading the MBPs today when we went to the Apple store to look at getting one for DH (need the writeoff blah). Anyways it looks fun to play with. I'll probably wait a month or so to make sure there's no kinks then upgrade.

[Arual]

I'm skeeeered to upgrade, because Im not sure how nicely it will play with CS6. LOL!

I'm a chicken!

[Traci Reed]

It's downloading! I'm going from Snow Leopard so I'm sure it'll be a huge change for me...

[Lyd]

Originally Posted by Arual

I'm skeeeered to upgrade, because Im not sure how nicely it will play with CS6. LOL!

I'm a chicken!

I'm on CS6, so I'll let you know if I have any problems. So far, there haven't been any glitches, and I'm liking what I see. Haven't had time to scrap at all today though, so . . . .

[Arual]

Originally Posted by ltarbox

I'm on CS6, so I'll let you know if I have any problems. So far, there haven't been any glitches, and I'm liking what I see. Haven't had time to scrap at all today though, so . . . .

Thanks Lydia, I'm going to wait and see what your report back is......

This will mean we have to redo our time machine back up entirely huh, ugh!

[Lyd]

Originally Posted by Arual

Thanks Lydia, I'm going to wait and see what your report back is......

This will mean we have to redo our time machine back up entirely huh, ugh!

I don't think so - it hasn't affected my Time Machine process at all. My backups were running like normal today.

[Arual]

Originally Posted by ltarbox

I don't think so - it hasn't affected my Time Machine process at all. My backups were running like normal today.

Ahhh, great! I'm so glad to hear that! I just might quit being a chicken and just do it. I just hate computer issues, so I'm always the last to take the step, lol.

So I wonder, is it best to just upgrade via the app store online, or is it best to buy the disk and have that in hand - you know, in case you ever need to pop the disk in to correct issues (I've only ever had to do that twice before, longgggg ago though).

[Lyd]

Originally Posted by Arual

Ahhh, great! I'm so glad to hear that! I just might quit being a chicken and just do it. I just hate computer issues, so I'm always the last to take the step, lol.

So I wonder, is it best to just upgrade via the app store online, or is it best to buy the disk and have that in hand - you know, in case you ever need to pop the disk in to correct issues (I've only ever had to do that twice before, longgggg ago though).

You pretty much have to buy it through the app store. For individual users, they don't really offer it on physical media any more. For Lion, you could get a USB drive with the OS on it, but it was pricey and more something that companies would do who needed to install the OS on several machines.

[Arual]

Oh drats... okay, I guess I'll just do it at the app store then. I need to quit being so old-fashioned I suppose!

Thank you for your help Lydia (you ladies here are always so nice to everyone!)

[Jen22]

Wait - the upgrade is only 20 bucks?! I'm so used to PC - and with Apple products running a tad more expensive (understatement? lol) - I expected over a 100 bucks, minimum Might have to upgrade now!

[origami]

We'll probably upgrade soon. Let us all know how well Mountain Lion works with CS5 and CS5 and PSE10! We upgraded to Lion a couple weeks ago from Snow Leopard in anticipation of Mountain Lion and also because of the iPhone iOS and iCloud.

[Julie Billingsley]

looking at the new features, I'm most interested in Reminders (yay, to-do lists!), Power Nap, Collections for Font Book (yay, font organization!), Dictation, and the "improved scroll bars". I'd love to hear any reviews of those new features!

[Arual]

I haven't gone back to reread an article I started on last night (it was after midnight afterall... yawn!) but it was something about a virus inside of Mountain Lion? Anyone else read this or know anything about it?

It's only 4am, so in a couple hours when my brain is wide awake I will go back and read it again...

[scrapmommaof3]

I just bought a new iMac last night online. It says if it doesn't come with Mountain Lion in the box I can upgrade for free. I guess we'll see. So excited about my new iMac. My first Mac (it's been a long time coming). I should be here next week!

[Lyd]

Just posting an update to say that I scrapped a page this morning in CS6 with no glitches at all - everything was normal, normal.

Also, about the virus . . . I'm pretty positive there is no virus that is inside the OS. There is still some talk about that Java virus that went around a little while ago. But, I can't find anything that talks about a virus specifically related to this OS release. In fact, Mountain Lion includes some security features that, if used properly, should help prevent virus problems:

"You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed."

I've been running the new OS for a full day now (which I know isn't really all that long), and I haven't encountered even one single problem. Looks like a pretty clean release to me.

[Arual]

Thanks for the update Lydia!

The 'virus' they spoke of was called the Morcut virus (hope I spelled that right). I know nothing of it, never heard of it.... and have yet to go back and read the article (if I can even find the darn thing again!).

Im going to upgrade today! As my husband says "it's a computer, it's not the end of the world if the upgrade doesn't go smoothly" .... he's right, but good golly he obviously doesn't understand our obsession to our macs or to CS! HA!

[Arual]

Originally Posted by Traci Reed

It's downloading! I'm going from Snow Leopard so I'm sure it'll be a huge change for me...

Ditto!

it's downloading right now... wow it's a lonnnnnnng download!!!
Im coming from Snow as well, so Im sure I'll be seeing some change... eek!

[Arual]

Thank you Lydia! I'm up and running on MLion now, yay! It was a PIECE OF CAKE, I should stop being so scared all the time, LOL!!

I have noticed though that my pen/tablet doesn't play too nicely with MLion (it's been acting dumb for awhile though... sluggish) but I hooked up my wired trackball and that is working beautifully and fast, it has shown me that my pen/tablet has failed me! LOL!

Anyhow, thank you letting me know your CS6 was fine with it, it gave me the push to go ahead and do it!

[Julie Billingsley]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

looking at the new features, I'm most interested in Reminders (yay, to-do lists!), Power Nap, Collections for Font Book (yay, font organization!), Dictation, and the "improved scroll bars". I'd love to hear any reviews of those new features!

anyone have reviews of any of the features I mentioned? I'm wondering if I should even upgrade.

[Lyd]

Glad you got things up and running, Laura!

Julie - I love Reminders! iCal has had tasks forever, but you couldn't set up recurring tasks, and you can do that with Reminders. And, it syncs with your iPhone, if you have one, automatically.

Power Nap - I don't know. It does seem like a cool thing, but it also seems like something that runs in the background so you won't really notice it much. And, I haven't noticed it. LOL.

I have never liked Font Book all that much. It always seemed to slow my computer down, and it didn't have many features. I use Fontcase right now. But, I may give Font Book a try since they seem to be fleshing it out a little more.

The dictation is pretty cool. I can see myself using it quite a bit, if I can remember that it's an option. I forget about so many of these cool little features, so I have to force myself to get in the habit of using them more.

The improved scroll bars are another thing that I haven't noticed much. I never had any issues with my scroll bars before anyway, so . . .

I guess that wasn't very helpful for you. LOL. I am really liking the Notification Center. I like the status bars in the Finder now that show your download/copy/move progress. It's one of those little things that just made me happy. The other thing I like is the new way to browse through your open tabs in Safari (with track pad gestures). I also really like the Airplay Mirroring. Very cool. I like the VIP mailboxes in Mail, and I've been enjoying the Messages program for a while now, since I was using the beta version of that.

[Julie Billingsley]

Thanks Lydia! I appreciate hearing your opinion!

[Nettio]

Lydia, did they make any changes to Mission Control at all? That's my biggest pet peeve with Lion - they totally ruined Spaces/Expose for me and I still haven't gotten used to it. I hadn't heard anything about it but I figured I'd ask.

[Lyd]

I can't see any mention of changes to Mission Control on Apple's site at all, and it's not in the video, so I kinda doubt they many any changes there.

You know, I never got used to using Spaces or Expose. If you have an awesome way to use those, I'd love to hear how you do it. I think I was just used to my own way before they introduced those features, so I don't use them much. I use Expose a little bit when I want to clear my screen, but not much.

[Arual]

I didn't have Lion, so I don't know how Mission Control was, and I never used Expose either. However, I did read somewhere in one of the many articles that Mission Control has been 'fixed' since Lion, they mentioned that Lion had ruined it but that MLion has improved it. But I have no personal knowledge of this.

I *LOVE LOVE LOVE* the Reminders... I already used it for 3 reminders for today, and I love that I can close it out when it pops up or I can SNOOZE it... whoa, neat! LOL!

[Julie Billingsley]

Well, you guys convinced me!

I upgraded to Mountain Lion this afternoon and was pretty much pulling out my hair for an hour after it installed. When it installed, it caused my Wi--fi to disable and I could not get my computer to go online. I was trying everything. Finally it started working again after the 10th time that I turned the wi-fi on/off. Just wanted to mention this before someone else goes through the same thing! Just turn the wi-fi symbol on/off (it is in the top right corner area, and it should fix itself.

[Arual]

Ohh Julie, I'm glad you got it to work, I didn't have any issues with my wifi... after it rebooted from the installation it was automatically connected. Which kinda surprised me actually. I was expecting to have to reset that up... phew, glad we didn't!

So what are you loving so far about MLion Julie? I love all the little things...like the reminders, love the mail, and I love how when I move a file on or off of my desktop everything else snaps into place - keeping it tidy (not leaving the big 'hole' of the moved file), love the notification center too! I have found many little things that I love (they might have already been on Lion though, but I came from Snow Leopard).

[Julie Billingsley]

I haven't really had much time to look at the new features. I did have to download a new version of Java to get Photoshop to work, but it appears to be working fine now. I opened Reminders and love the lists that I can make. (Anything that keeps me more organized is good!)

I don't see a benefit for Notification Center. I don't IM or text and I don't use Apple's mail since I'm happy with Gmail. So, notification center doesn't seem useful, nor is Messages.

I have tried Dictation, and that was super funny. It was throwing very random words in. I'm not sure how helpful it will be, but for now it's good for a laugh.

[Julie Billingsley]

I'm continuing to have problems with my wi-fi on Mountain Lion. I have to reset my whole modem every time my Mac goes to sleep. I never had one problem with Lion, so this is a unhappy surprise that I hope they figure out soon.