Tech and Gadgets by Peter Bite

Apple’s newest operating system Mountain Lion for the desktop has been released. It introduces over 200 new features to a Mac desktop environment. Here are the main ones: iCloud
iCloud is the Apple cloud computing strategy for storing and replicating your data among your apple devices.

Not all applications are covered, but it does sync your data instantly among mail, contacts, notes, calendar, documents and more. When you edit a document on one device upon saving, it appears on all your devices.

Reminders and Notes:

Apple brings these two iOS applications across to OSX and makes available for iCloud functionality.

imessage:

The day of the free text message from your desktop computer is here. iMessage is now included in OSX, so you can send free unlimited text messages to anyone on an iPhone or iPad or Mac with Mountain Lion.

Notification Centre:

Mountain Lion comes with a notification centre that displays summaries of incoming emails, texts, reminders, game updates and more. Swiping to the left on the touch pad brings the list of notifications into view. It also provides a place to enter text for Facebook and Twitter updates.

Game Centre:

Game Centre comes to the Mac enabling users to play multi player games from their laptop or desktop. Take a look at the promotional video for more Mountain Lion features: http://www.apple.com/au/osx/

Price: A$20.99 from the Mac App Store

Cloud Computing Backup Storage Options:

When choosing your backup and syncing solution, I have done a quick comparison of the main providers. Currently it looks like Microsoft is offering the best deal.

Each week I will answer readers questions about technology or gadgets and the best questions will be published here for the benefit of all. If you need any help with your technology needs, just email me at peterbitecomputing@gmail.com