Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion review

MessagesApple has updated iChat with its Messages application, which works fantastically and could be useful it you're looking to set up a company-wide IM infrastructure.

It works with iMessage so can be used with iOS devices, plus third party programs such as Google Talk, AIM, Jammer and Yahoo. You can, of course, send files via Message, but be warned some file types aren't compatible across all devices.

iChat is compatible with Google Talk, AIM, Jammer and Yahoo clients making cross platform communication possible

A Word document will not be compatible with an iPhone, for example. If you wanted to share a document, you would need to convert it to the Pages format and ensure the recipient has Pages on their iOS device.

Security

Mac OS X Mountain Lion features two new security features in the form of Gatekeeper and Find My Mac.

Gatekeeper blocks you from downloading applications from anywhere other than the App Store, which may not be so useful if your IT department installs software. You can of course tweak the settings to override this, but it defeats the object.

We found it best to adjust the settings on Gatekeeper

A third setting is your best bet it allows you to download applications from the App Store and those from recognised developers, but these developers must have signed a certificate, which is reverting back to the old school ways of ensuring apps are harmless.

Whether all high profile software manufacturers will be on-board is yet to be seen.

The good news is any of the applications you already have running on your computer before the update will automatically be signed off, as will those you install from other sources and give the OK to manually.

Find My Mac forms part of the iCloud service and for the first time on a Mac update, you're prompted to set up the service when you install Mountain Lion. Although the software does not seem as relevant on a Mac computer. An iPhone, more likely to be stolen/lost, plus there's also the problem that if an iMac is stolen, for example, it wouldn't remain on and traceable whilst in transit.

The management feature allows you to lock or wipe your Mac remotely, when it is connected to the internet. As soon as it is located, you can send a message to the computer that will flash up as a dialogue box to warn the thief you know where it is.