10 Reasons Why You Should Update Your Mac To OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Today

Today Apple released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in the Mac App Store for a price of $19.99. If you only recently purchased your Mac computer however, you are eligible for a free upgrade to Mountain Lion. Obviously if you are eligible for a free upgrade to Mountain Lion there should be no reason why you are not updating. If you are not this lucky however, then you might be on the fence whether you should spend the $19.99 upgrade fee or not. Well, not to worry, in this article we will be covering the 10 main reasons you should upgrade to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. This way you can decided for yourself whether it is worth it or not.

Reason #1: iCloud Integration

In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion iCloud will be further integrated, meaning when you sign in with your account all your apps are configured to be up-to-date across all your Apple devices. This means when you add, delete or change something on your Mac, it will also happen on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. And vice versa. Integration with documents is also coming and it is called Documents in the Cloud. Developers will additionally get a new SDK to add iCloud support to 3rd party applications.

 Reason #2: iMessage

The aim of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is to bring iOS features to your Mac computer. As such you can expect iMessage to be a native application on your Mac computer running Mountain Lion. This will allow you to send and receive messages through Apple’s popular iMessage service. Meaning it will be even easier to keep in touch with friends or family who have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Reason #3: Voice Dictation 

At first voice dictation was a feature limited to only the iPhone 4S. It was then made available to the new iPad and now in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion it is coming to your Mac. This means you can use the power of your voice when searching the web, writing an email etc. With Voice Dictation now on your Mac it could pave the way for Siri in the future.

Reason #4: Notes And Reminders

That is right! Not only do you get the iMessage app in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, but you will also get your favourite iOS Notes and Reminders apps. When coupled with iCloud integration you will be able to instantly sync all of your notes and reminders through all of your Apple devices. This is extremely useful because the bridge between your computer and mobile device is now permanent.

Reason #5: Notification Center

One of my favourite features in the iOS 5 firmware is the Notification Center. Instead of having to go into each application to check what is new, I can simply bring up a global notification pane with all my notifications right in plain view. The same Notification Center is now coming to your Mac computer, and will help you easily stay in the loop with what is going on.

Reason #6: Game Center

Up until this point there has been no social networking platform to unite Mac gamers. Now this is all about to change with the introduction of a cross platform game center. This means now both iOS Devices and Mac computers have a platform to keep track of challenges, compete with friends etc. You will be able to play with other Apple gamers whether they are on an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or a Mac computer.

Reason #7: Facebook And Twitter Integration

With Facebook and Twitter integration in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion you will easily be able to share content to the two biggest social networks. Thanks to push notifications you will also be able to stay in the loop with what is going on. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion also has a new sharing menu to make sharing pictures or other interesting content from the app you are in a breeze. Keep in mind however, that only Twitter integration will be available as Facebook integration is coming later in the fall.

Reason #8: AirPlay

If you have ever used AirPlay with your iPad through your Apple TV then you know game-changing it is. Now the same functionality is available with your Mac! Meaning you can mirror your Macs screen on your big screen TV to share a variety of content like photos, movies, presentation etc.

 Reason #9: Snow Leopard Owners Can Directly Upgrade To Mountain Lion

If you are still running the Snow Leopard OS on your Mac computer then it is really time you think about updating to Mountain Lion. As long as your Mac computer is eligible to run the Mountain Lion OS you will be glad to know you can directly update from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion for only $19.99. This is over $30 in savings due to the fact that you don’t need to first update to Lion then Mountain Lion.

 Reason #10: There is over 200 other reasons! 

There are over 200 additional features that were not talked about that include Mail VIP, Launchpad search, Offline reading, PowerNap and much more. Apple is even adding unique features for customers residing in China including improving the Chinese input method, providing a new Chinese dictionary and adding support for Baidu in China.

Download OS X Mountain Lion [Mac App Store Link]

So, there you have it – 1o reasons why you should update to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion today! What do you think… were these reasons enough to convince you to update to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion? Share your responses and further thoughts in the comments section.