How To Get The Best Features Of Mac OS X Mountain Lion Right Now
by Adam Dachis on Feb 17, 2012, 3:05 PM
 Yesterday, Apple announced the next version of Mac OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion, is scheduled to be available at the end of summer.
It's filled with cool new features, but who wants to wait until this summer to get them? This post originally appeared at Lifehacker. Messages  Messages is a little like iChat, but it lets you send messages to iOS devices via iMessage, and if you have Mac OS X 10.7.3 on your computer, you can actually start using theMessages beta today. Just download it, install it, and start keeping your messages in sync across all your Apple devices.
Notification Center  You've probably seen Notification Center on iOS 5 as it was probably the most-desired feature lacking from Apple's mobile operating system. It provides a more subtle notification system on your mobile device and a pulldown list to see your current notification history. A similar feature will be available as part of Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Although Apple's Notification Center for the desktop is going to be a far more robust, most of us currently use Growl for notification banners. Growl will cost you a few dollars if you want the latest version, but you can download an older copy for free. The advantage of paying is that the latest version (only available for Mac OS X Lion 10.7 or later) includes a feature called Rollup, which is essentially the same as Notification Center. (See the screenshot to the right for an example.) It saves your notifications in a little window so you can see what you missed while you were away. Growl is limited by what can send it messages, however, so you won't receive notifications for things like SMS and calls. If you're a Google Voice user you can get those notifications by installing an app like GrowlVoice ($5) or BigPhone ($5 / Free). These apps not only let you get call and text notifications on your computer, but let you respond to both as well.
AirPlay Mirroring  AirPlay Mirroring takes whatever is on your Mac's screen and wirelessly mirrors it on your television (via an Apple TV) or any other device that can receive an AirPlay transmission. You can do this right now with an app called AirParrot ($10). It provides the exact same functionality. If you want to take things a step further than Mountain Lion can offer, then you'll also want to check outAirServer. This app will let you receive AirPlay signals on your Mac so you can send video from other devices, like your iPhone or iPad, and watch them on the computer.
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