Introduction

Apple has pro a summary of Mountain Lion's key new features at http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/.

The minimum system requirements for OS X 10.8 are currently expected to be:

• Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5, Intel Core i7, or Xeon processor (Mountain Lion will NOT work on PowerPC machines or early Intel Macs with a Core Duo processor). The following models are supported:
• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)
• 2GB of memory
• 8 GB of disk space for downloading Mountain Lion from the App Store
• A working internet connection to download from the App Store
• Latest version of Mac OS X Lion (10.7.x)

If you are running Snow Leopard (10.6.x), update to the latest version of OS X Snow Leopard before you purchase OS X Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store. Click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install Snow Leopard v10.6.8, the latest version.

• Mac App Store installed

Noteworthy changes to OS X Mountain Lion

• OS X Mountain Lion will only be available as a download via Apple's App Store. DVDs will not be available for purchase from Apple.
• Notification Center: A desktop version similar to the one introduced in iOS 5 on iOS devices. Notification Center consolidates notifications from Messages, Calendar, Mail, Reminders, and third-party apps in one convenient place.
• Power Nap: Power Nap performs Time Machine backups to Time Capsule and downloads OS X software updates while your Mac sleeps. With Power Nap, your Mac sleeps but your applications stay up to date.
• iMessage: a multi-protocol instant messaging and texting client (replacing iChat); supports the iMessage service.