Apple's Mountain Lion OSX 10.8 and Microsoft's Windows 8 logo
By Ogunleye George
The drive to maintain uniformed operating systems across devices has been strengthened by the release of platforms such as Windows 8, Android powered laptops and the recent Mountain Lion OSX 10.8 by Apple Inc. With little insight on the features of the duo –Windows 8 and Mountain Lion, users can have a peer across the border at what features in both OS platform that might prove useful to their socio-business needs.
New Twigs?
Windows 8 is a complete overhaul of its predecessor Windows 7, while Mountain Lion is more of a refinement of the Lion OS X with lots of new features.
Tablet Bridge
Microsoft regards the tablet platform as an extension of the PC (next step in the evolution of the PC), whereas Apple sees it as a fresh break and an entirely new stage in computing. As a result, with Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to bring the same interface to all devices, rather than copying only certain elements from the tablet over to the PC.
Although, iPad-influenced features present in Mountain Lion can be deactivated and activated, but not entirely so with Windows 8, as users have little or no choice but to use Metro to some degree.
Notification Center
Mountain Lion’s true system wide notification service is much like a pop-up that slides into the top-right corner of the screen, clicking the Notification Center icon (at the far right of the menu bar) or by swiping with two fingers starting at the far right edge of the trackpad, reveals a list of what’s been trying to get your attention these could be new messages, calendar appointments, tweets and other important updates. But Windows 8, notification system is still missing a ‘’list view’’ of all the updates.
User Interface
With Mountain Lion, the iOS features brought over to Mac OS X still feels like the iOS apps, but operate like mouse-controlled apps should.
This illustrates the difference in strategy here between Microsoft and Apple quite nicely. One is embracing mobile computing wholeheartedly and changing its entire platform as a result, the other keeping it at arm’s length while maintaining the integrity of the traditional desktop.
External Media Streaming
PC-to-TV connectivity has expanded sharing as it offers a more convenient and broader way of viewing media file off computing device. It is evident that Microsoft is much aware of this, with the release the SmartGlass app that lets tablets send content to Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, OS X Mountain Lion allows full Airplay mirroring to Apple TV boxes. However, the proposed SmartGlass application offers mirroring capabilities between Windows 8 PCs and the Xbox as do the AirPlay and Apple TV.
Text Messaging
Microsoft tends to present deeper message syncing between Windows Phones and PCs, coupled with the revamping out of Hotmail to a cloud mail outlook. Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 users won't be able to send and receive their text messages on their Mac.
Voice Dictation and Gesture Control
Windows 8 is equipped with voice dictation abilities but only available as an accessibility feature, deeply buried behind several menus and not intended for general use. Mountain Lion makes voice dictation easy to use from any application.
iCloud and Windows Live
Windows 8 and Mountain Lion platforms are designed around the trending idea of cloud services. Both let you sync your data across devices, and both include some sort of online file-storage service. Windows Live is everywhere in Windows 8.
Windows Live ID allows users to sync various PC settings across all their Windows 8 devices, and also helps to set up the SkyDrive app with your account information.