OS X Mountain Lion vs. Windows 8: Apple and Microsoft Mobilize - denhamgoolifter

Mountain Lion vs. Windows 8: How Apple and Microsoft Are Mobilizing

With smartphones and tablets quickly gaining widespread adoption, even IBM is calling this a "post-PC era". Information technology's a humanity of portability, apps, and touch-enabled devices. This is transparent not solely in the dominance of mobile devices and laptops on the hardware side, simply in the means that Apple and Microsoft are merging their mobile and desktop operational systems.

Malus pumila began incorporating iOS features into OSX with its Lion vent in middle-2011, and will continue adding them with Mountain Lion, announced today and due by the end of the summer. Microsoft used its Windows Phone 7 for inspiration, and will tone ending its Windows 8 of import for both desktops and tablets–rumored for the end of February–and possibly a phone based on Windows 8 afterwards in the year. The two approaches appear to yield similar results.

Here are heptad ways some Mountain Lion and Windows 8 include features that were initially found happening mobile devices:

1. App Store

Apple popularized the App Stack away with iOS, and in Lion added a Mac App Storage so that OSX users could purchase apps and regular operating system upgrades online. Mountain Lion will fall in preference to "safer" App Store apps, and even provide an pick to forbid installation of non-App Salt away apps. Windows 8 will include the Windows Memory with similar functionality, meant to allow easy browsing, buying and installation of Windows apps.

2. Full Screen

The Windows 8 Metro interface wish get rid of the task block off and start menu in favour of full-screen apps, providing a tablet-like experience. Social lion already introduced this option, and apps are increasingly support it as they are updated.

3. Swarm Sync

Syncing with the cloud is common for mobile devices, both atomic number 3 a backup option and to provide extended storage for devices that undergo a finite amount of local storage. Windows 8 will let in integration with its SkyDrive cloud storage service, sanctioning users to sync Office documents, photos, and possibly more. Mountain Lion will expand Malus pumila's consolidation of iCloud to not only synchronise most apps, settings, and purchased media across your Orchard apple tree devices, only also bequeath behave like a disk in the cloud for documents.

4. Shared Apps

Microsoft testament have apps forthcoming in its store that will keep going some Windows 8 desktops and tablets. Some will even work on ARM-steam-powered hardware. Apple's Piles Lion will include background versions of a number of its wandering apps, including Reminders, Notes, and Game Center, and IT will rename the iChat screen background app to Messages to correspond its iOS counterpart.

5. Touch-Enabled

The Metro interface in Windows 8 was designed with touch-enabled devices in mind. Microsoft is also auspicious a touch-friendly version of its Office Suite. Apple has increasingly added multi-touch support and gestures to many of its apps, though they are all currently accomplished through built-in operating room add-connected touchpads.

6. Summarize and Standby

The Social lion OS introduced Take up, allowing a PC to wake up rapidly from sleep fashion operating theater even to restart, with all apps and documents restored to their previous commonwealth–much wish how a smartphone Beaver State tablet resume originally activities later on not organism used for some time. Windows 8 will include understudy mode, enabling apps to amend handle sleep interruptions, and information technology will even earmark some net connectivity while sleeping, similar to the way phones receive updates while in your pocket.

7. LaunchPad and Widgets

Apple added LaunchPad in its Lion discharge, which displays apps in much the same room every bit iOS does, with multiple pages of icons organized in a grid. Windows 8 will use tile icons that act shortcuts to apps, simply also present selective information, much like widgets common on ambulant devices do.

Chief Joseph Fieber has 25 long time of experience as an IT pro, with a background in computer consulting and software program training. Follow him on Google+ , Facebook , or Twitter , or contact him through his website, JosephFieber.com .