Jim Balsillie resigns from RIM board

Jim Balsillie, the brash, hockey-loving executive who helped build Research in Motion into a global force with the BlackBerry smartphones, is retiring from the struggling technology company as its new CEO attempts to rebuild RIM.

The announcement, symbolic of the changes afoot at RIM, came along with a financial report that fell short of analysts’ already low expectations on Thursday. The company announced a loss, rather than the reduced profit that many had expected, and fewer BlackBerrys were sold than anticipated.

While Balsillie’s retirement from RIM’s board of directors at age 52 will have little real impact on the company — he and company founder Mike Lazaridis had were replaced as co-chief executive and co-chairman in January — his departure is another indication that Canada’s premier technology company is in trouble.

Thorsten Heins, who has the job of steering the company as its new chief executive and president, told analysts Thursday that RIM’s management and board would consider a sale if an offer came forward but added, “it’s not the main direction we are pursuing right now.”

Heins didn’t deny what many outside observers have been saying for months — that RIM needs a new approach in a world where Apple’s iPhone, iPad and devices using Google’s Android operating system are winning market share, especially among consumers.

“I did my own reality check on where the entire company really is,” Heins said. “It’s now very clear to me that substantial change is what RIM needs.”

He said Research In Motion now will put more attention on its core business users: “We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalize on our leading position in this segment.”

Balsillie had become one of Canada’s best-known businessmen both because of his role at the company, but also because of his failed attempts to use his personal fortune from his part ownership of RIM to bring another National Hockey League team to southern Ontario.

He often frustrated analysts who cover RIM, who privately griped about Balsillie “overpromising and underdelivering” and just talking too much. Some of Balsillie’s favourite expressions on conference calls were: “Just you wait and see. Just wait until you see our roadmap. It’s very exciting.”

Balsillie issued a brief comment in RIM’s announcement.

“As I complete my retirement from RIM, I’m grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success.”

Heins said RIM won’t release its BlackBerry 10 smartphones — the next-generation of BlackBerry smartphones with a new operating system based on the system in PlayBook tablet computer — until later this year. That leaves the company with few new products to sell.

William Blair & Co. analyst Anil Doradla said RIM will be better off without Balsillie on the company’s board.

“We don’t want his invisible hand out there,” Doradla said from Chicago.

RIM is now going to focus more on its business customers after not being totally successful in the consumer market, he said.

They’re saying, ‘Let’s focus on our core strength. Let’s focus on enterprise. Once we get that stability on that front, then we will start looking at the consumer side,’” Doradla said.

It shows that RIM is willing to have partnerships and “not fight battles it can’t win” and the company will support iPhones and Android devices in the workplace, he added.

Activist shareholder Vic Alboini and chief executive of Jaguar Financial, who had been pushing for Balsillie to leave the company, said the departure of the former co-CEO was expected.

He also said the decision to pursue a strategic review has been a long time coming and could help push up the company’s value.

“This is the key to creating shareholder value,” Alboini said in an email.

“Jaguar believes selecting and implementing smart strategic opportunities could result in an overall minimum share value of $30,” Alboini said.

That’s more than twice the current value of RIM’s stock.

Research In Motion announced from its headquarters in Waterloo, Ont., that it had a loss in the final quarter of its 2012 financial year, rather than the profit that had been expected, as a result of writing down some of its assets.

Sales of the BlackBerry were also below many analysts expectations and the company, which usually provides guidance about where it expects revenue and profit will be in the near future, said it’s not continuing that practice.

Heins also said the BlackBerry maker can’t excel in every field, noting the consumer market.

“We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we try to be everybody’s darling and all things to all people. We will seek strong partnerships to deliver those consumer features and content that are not central to the BlackBerry value proposition, for example, media consumption applications.”

RIM, known for its technical strengths, produces its own hardware, software, operating system and applications such as the BlackBerry Messenger Service, a popular instant messaging service that is exclusive to BlackBerry users.

While this has been an advantage for RIM in the past, the company has seen software developers choose to focus on applications for more popular iPhones and Androids.

The company said two of its senior executives are out. Chief technology officer for software David Yach will be retiring and RIM’s chief of global operations, Jim Rowan, is leaving “to pursue other interests.”

Heins also said his message was simple: “We’re making the necessary changes at the company.”

In its financial results, RIM reported a loss for its latest quarter of US$125 million or 24 cents per share as it took a $355-million charge to goodwill.

The loss compared with a profit of $934 million or $1.78 per diluted share a year ago. Revenue fell to $4.2 billion, down from $5.6 billion.

During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and over 500,000 PlayBook tablets.

Excluding one-time times, RIM reported an adjusted profit of $418 million or 80 cents per share.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 81 cents per share and revenue of $4.54 billion, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Analysts had expected the company to ship 11.5 million BlackBerrys in the quarter.

RIM cuts prices of some BlackBerry models in India

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has cut prices of some of its smartphone models in India by up to 27 percent, in a move to boost sales in the world's second-biggest mobile phone market.
India is one of the few growing markets for RIM, which is facing tough competition from Apple Inc and high-end devices on Google Inc's  Android platform used by a range of handsetmakers, including Samsung Electronics.
RIM said on Wednesday it cut prices of four of its smartphone models, including the entry-level Curve 8520, which is its best-selling smartphone model in India.
Sunil Dutt, managing director for RIM's Indian operations, said the four models accounted for about 60 percent of the company's sales in India, where BlackBerry devices have gained popularity among the youth.
The price cuts are aimed at making the phones "more accessible to a wider number of consumers in the country", Dutt said in a phone interview.
RIM does not disclose country-specific shipment figures. India's CyberMedia Research estimates RIM ranked third last year with a 15 percent share of the country's smartphone market, trailing Nokia's 38 percent market share and Samsung's 28 percent.
Smartphones currently account for just over 6 percent of total handset sales in India, a market which is extremely price sensitive and most use their phones only for voice calls and text message. But the segment grew 87 percent last year to 11.2 million phones shipped, according to CyberMedia.
RIM cut the maximum retail price of the Curve 8520 model by 18 percent to 8,999 rupees and that of Torch 9860 model by 26.7 percent to 21,990 rupees. The other two models whose prices were cut are Curve 9360 and Curve 9380.

India’s first telecom incubator to take off in Kerala in April

New Delhi, Mar 28: Startup Village, India’s first public-private partnership incubator is all set to take off from Kerala in the second week of April. 

The projected investment of the first technology business incubator in the telecom sector is expected to be of Rs 100 crore with the aim of helping grow over 1,000 student start-ups.

Startup Village will come up in Kochi, looking to emulate the famed Silicon Valley incubators and transform Kerala into ‘Silicon Coast’.  The project will also kick-start the search for the billion-dollar company to rise out of an Indian campus.

The launch of the project was announced by Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Oommen Chandy at a press conference.

Kiran Karnik Former president of NASSCOM, Dr H.K. Mittal from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Shri. Rajan Mathews, Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India, Shri. Abhishek Goyal, CEO of UrbanTouch.com, and Shri. Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman of the Board of Governors of Startup Village were also present at the event.

Creating ‘Silicon Coast’
The project also aims to transform job seekers into job creators. It is being set up by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) under the DST, and the Kerala Government-run Technopark, in collaboration with MobME Wireless – a private firm which began as a student start-up and has grown to become one of India’s top 10 emerging companies.

"Six years back, in 2006, Technopark took its first steps into incubation when MobME Wireless, a young company promoted by then engineering students, was launched. That sparked a change in the mindset of youth in college campuses and Technopark incubator quickly rose in six years to become one of the most prominent National Incubators. Technopark won the President’s award for Best technology business incubator in the country for 2008. Today there are 125 companies in Technopark Incubator employing 3000 people and generating Rs 100 crore annual revenues," said Ooomen Chandy.

"With this strong foundation, we are now prepared to take the next leap forward for accelerated growth in the technology startup ecosystem. Our aim is to incubate 1000 startups over the next 10 years from college campuses and start the search for a billion dollar startup from Kerala. Shri Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder of Infosys, would be the Chief Mentor for startups and guiding them with his vision and expertise to make this a reality," he said.

"The scale we aim is very high and the state will provide an unrivalled ecosystem by bringing forward-looking policies and enabling bright students in college campus’s to be entrepreneurs. Support would also be given by extending attendance and grace marks to entrepreneurs with what is currently given to sports and NCC," he added.

Industry support
India’s telecom and information technology industry has also extended support to this bold venture which is expected to trigger a new wave of innovations.

Former NASSCOM chief Shri. Kiran Karnik; UrbanTouch.com CEO Shri. Abhishek Goyal; former Yahoo India R& D CEO Shri. Sharad Sharma; Dell India MD Shri. Ganesh Lakshminarayan; Shri. KK Natarajan of Mindtree; Shri. Arun Kumar, Global Board Member of KPMG; Dr. Ravi Pillai, the biggest employer of Indians in the Middle East; and major local IT entrepreneurs like Shri. Nandakumar of SunTec are among those joining the project as mentors and investors.

“Incubators are the catalysts of change and growth in any sector. The Startup Village is definitely India’s most ambitious project that will have a pan-India impact in the coming years. The combined experience of veteran industry players, along with the support facilities and funding opportunities, should help local start-ups emerge as global winners and the game-changers of tomorrow,’’ said Shri Kiran Karnik.

"Startup Village is a key experiment in the way forward for creating a blueprint for scaling innovation with more active participation of the private sector and to augment government efforts," said Dr. H. K. Mittal , while calling upon the private players to come up with fresh ideas.

Recalling that India has a three-decade experience in incubation, he said, NSTEDB has taken the bold step to involve the private sector based on the learning from over 60 incubators across the country.

"The next big wave in telecom sector is in the growth of smart phones and 4G and Startup Village will help young startups to harness these global opportunities. Game-changing innovations in the sector have gathered pace, calling for a vibrant collaborative ecosystem. The industry will support Government of India and the State Governments in this ambitious exercise," said Shri Rajan Mathews.

"We are attempting to create a complete ecosystem, starting from policy changes to allow students to pursue entrepreneurship. This will be followed by an incubator (idea nursery), accelerator (specific support to scale promising ideas) and angel fund (investment in breakthrough innovations), all under one umbrella for the first time in the country,” said Shri Sanjay Vijyakumar.

"Innovation zone is another unique feature of Startup Village as it ensures pre-launch access to cutting edge hardware and software technologies. This enables start-ups to have time and technology advantage increasing their chances of success,"he said.

The Startup Village campus will have full 4G network and advanced telecom labs. It will also provide services, including legal, intellectual property and accounting, in addition to fully furnished office space,video conference rooms and virtual office services. The hub will extend a host of perks, like three-year service tax exemption up to Rs 50 lakh revenues. The incubator companies can by default make a pitch presentation to Startup Village Angel Fund, promoted by the broadest community of entrepreneurs.

Rajinikanth website really runs without Internet

Kolkata: It may sound like another Rajinikanth joke, but a new website dedicated to the superstar runs 'without an Internet connection'! Visitors to www.allaboutrajni.com are greeted with a warning that "He is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary website. It runs on Rajini Power" and are advised to switch off their Internet connection to enter the website.

Only when the web is disconnected, one is allowed to explore the site.

Netizens can trace the story of the legend from the beginning, read inside scoops from his films and get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action, while browsing through famous Rajini jokes about impossible feats only he can achieve.

"The unbelievable spectacle of running a website without the Internet is a tribute to Rajinikant's larger than life image," claimed Webchutney's creative director Gurbaksh Singh, who developed the site for Desimartini.com.

With a heady mix of foot-tapping music, vibrant splash of colours, quirky quotes and illustrations, and icons in true Rajni style and lingo, the unique website reflects Rajini's signature style.

Singh told PTI that the website is based on a complex algorithm running in the back-end that keeps an eye on the propagation of data packets between two terminals.

Magic kicks in soon as the Internet speed is down to zero, which is the basic premise on which the site and the concept have been constructed.

The humour element on the website is accentuated by the error message in typical Rajini style that appears if a visitor attempts to re-connect the Internet.

"Aiyyo! That was unexpected. To keep browsing, switch off your Internet," reads the message.

"The website has received a phenomenal response and has gone viral with several thousand hits and counting, along with innumerable shares and mentions across the web, especially on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter," Singh said.

"After a few iterations and testing, we cracked the code required to build the world's first website that runs without the Internet - a website that runs offline - which is as awesome and unbelievable as miracles and stunts associated or performed by Rajni himself," he said.

Apple’s new iPhone will introduce bigger screen: report

 

SEOUL—Apple Inc.’s new iPhone will have a sharper and bigger 4.6-inch “retina” display and is set to be launched around the second quarter, a South Korean media outlet reported on Thursday.

Sales of the iPhone, first introduced in 2007 with the touch screen template now adopted by its rivals, account for around half Apple’s total sales.

Apple has decided on the bigger 4.6-inch display for its next iPhone and started placing orders to its suppliers, the Maeil Business Newspaper said, quoting an unnamed industry source.

Its major display suppliers LG Display and Samsung Electronics Co declined to comment.

Samsung, which is also the biggest challenger to Apple in smartphones, uses a 4.3-inch OLED display for its flagship Galaxy S II smartphone, introduced in April last year.

The high-definition “retina” display — containing several times as many pixels within the same area — is used in the latest iPad released this month.

The latest iPhone 4S was introduced in October last year.

Aakash II world's cheapest tablet launching in April at same price: Kapil Sibal

NEW DELHI: A faster, upgraded version ofAakash tablet -- touted to be the world's cheapest -- would be launched in April without any increase in price, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said. 

Sibal said during Question Hour in Lok Sabhathat Datawind will supply one lakh high speed tablets with a longer battery life and better screen. 

"These higher specifications which include 700 MHz Cortex A8 processor, 3200mAH battery with three-hour usage time and a capacitative touchscreen have been necessitated to overcome the initial difficulties observed in the devices," he said. 

The first phase of one lakh tablets were targeted for students in higher technical education institutions so as to further ascertain technical feedback on its operation and usability, the minister said. 

To demands from members for extending the distribution of tablets to school students, Sibal said the same would be made available when the proposed National Mission of Education through ICT for Schools got necessary funds. 

He said once the production capacities are built up, norms for distribution with an aim to prioritise empowerment of students, especially from disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society, through this low cost access-cum computing device would get developed.  

Airtel introduces unlimited international roaming data plan

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has launched '1-day Bridge DataRoamUnlimited' under which its post-paid users can get unilimited data usage while roaming across Asia Pacific for USD 10 per day.

This initiative has taken by Bridge Alliance which has 11 member operator networks, including Airtel, across Asia Pacific.
"Airtel's launch of Bridge DataRoamUnlimited takes the alliance to the next level of expanded coverage and presence in the region," Bridge Alliance acting Chief Executive Officer and Vice-President (Infrastructure & Operations) Ken Wee said in a statement.
Bridge DataRoamUnlimited is a daily flat-rate data roaming plan that offers flexibility for customers roaming across the 11 Bridge Alliance member operator networks namely in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
Airtel post-paid mobile customers can activate this plan via SMS or by contacting their customer care executive before their overseas trip in Asia Pacific.

iPad 3 launched, and it will be stronger, clearer, faster

THE world's best-selling tablet computer received a major overhaul today, becoming the first Apple product to connect to next-generation 4G mobile networks and gaining a high-definition screen, more graphical grunt, voice dictation and a significantly better camera for the same price as the old model.

But Australians will not be able to use the new iPad’s new speedy 4G connection, which is incompatible with the country’s only 4G network, when it arrives in local stores on March 16.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook revealed the third iPad tablet in San Francisco early this morning, in a performance that will be judged as his first real test as head of the company after he took over from founder Steve Jobs.
Mr Cook said the iPad had created a new category with the tablet that Apple would "redefine" again with the new edition iPad.
"We think that iPad is the poster child of the post-PC world,’’ Mr Cook said.
"The momentum behind Apple has been incredible and has surprised almost everyone. We sold 15.4 million in the last quarter alone. We sold more iPads in the fourth quarter of last year than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line worldwide."
The new iPad will be the first Apple product to use a 4G (LTE) mobile internet connection that could deliver a speed boost of up to five times that of current networks.
Unfortunately, it is not yet equipped to work with Australia’s first 4G network, offered by Telstra, as it uses a different frequency (1800MHz) to 4G networks available in the United States.
Other than 4G compatibility, the new iPad’s most obvious upgrade is its 9.7-inch screen, which now features double the resolution (2048x1536) to a high-definition “Retina” display as seen in the iPhone 4.
Apple worldwide marketing vice-president Phil Schiller said the screen upgrade is designed to better show off HD movie downloads, books and photos, with pixels indiscernible to the naked eye, however app makers and iPad users may need to upgrade their software to make full use of the new display.
Apple's new iPad will also feature a more powerful processor - a 1.5GHz dual-core A5X chip with quad-core graphics processing - that will enable the use of more demanding apps, including video-editing software and games.
However, the company stopped short of adding a quad-core computing processor as rumoured and seen in some rival tablets including the ASUS Transformer Prime.
The new iPad also features a significantly better rear camera that now offers a backlit sensor, 5-megapixel resolution and hybrid infra-red filter for better colour reproduction, as well as voice dictation that is designed to recognise the Australian accent.
The new iPad has retained its original US price, starting at $US499.
Apple has sold more than 55 million iPads since its April 2010 launch, dominating the fledgling market.
Despite increased competition from Samsung, Motorola, Sony and ASUS, Gartner predicts Apple will continue to lead the category this year with 69 million tablet sales compared to just 22 million Google Android-run tablets, even though its rivals are closing the hardware gap.
Apple also revealed an upgraded Apple TV set-top box at the event that will support full high-definition movie and TV downloads, up from a current resolution of 720p.
The small black box will also come with a new menu featuring options resembling iPod icons. It will be launched in the US on March 16 for $US99.

• iPad 3 will be incompatible with Australia's 4G network
• Apple CEO said it would "redefine" the tablet
• "We think that iPad is the poster child of the post-PC world"

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/tablets/ipad-3-launched-and-it-will-be-stronger-clearer-faster/story-fn6vigfp-1226292917176#ixzz1oei5ERWe

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/tablets/ipad-3-launched-and-it-will-be-stronger-clearer-faster/story-fn6vigfp-1226292917176#ixzz1oehr2rLh

Apple joins $500 billion club

The latest jump in the price of Apple’s shares has made the company worth a new record high of $500 billion.

Only Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, ExxonMobil and General Electric have previously passed that mark.

The share surge came as Apple announced a media event for March 7 which is expected to be the unveiling of a faster and better-equipped version of its popular iPad tablet computer.

The company’s market value has climbed steadily in past weeks, buoyed by anticipation over its latest gadget as well as by hopes that Apple will finally accede to shareholders’ demands it return some of its $98 billion (73 billion euros) war chest of cash and securities.

Apple iPad tablet sales doubled in the December quarter to 15.43 million units. The company has sold about 55 million iPads since it introduced the device in 2010.

It may be looking to “make further inroads into the general computing market” with the newest iPad, said Avi Greengart, qn analyst at Current Analysis.

Chief Executive Tim Cook has often said that he expects tablets to outsell personal computers eventually.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Features

In an unexpected and surprising move, Apple unlived the Apple OS X Mountain Lion last week, and fans around the world were left awestruck as the new OS promises to bring over a 100 new features, including those features that are present in the iOS, like the messaging app and Twitter integration, and AirPlay Mirroring.

Apple released OS X Lion just seven months ago, selling over 19 million copies worldwide. It has now surprised all its fans by unveiling the next OS for the Mac, combining it with iOS to provide more features and flexibility.

Merging iOS with OS X is perhaps a brilliant move from Apple and no doubt this is going to simply amaze the Mac users. Currently, Apple has released the Developer Preview of the OS X Mountain Lion, enabling developers to discover all the features and eventually develop apps and distribute great Mac apps.

In addition to all this, OS X Mountain Lion will offer deep integration with iCloud, which will enable the system to automatically configure services like, Mail, and FaceTime, while the iCloud Documents will automatically sync documents across devices.

Also, Apple has officially renames Mac OS X to just OS X, dropping the name ‘Mac’. This means that Apple’s desktop operating system is now simply called as OS X. This is because Apple plans to refer ‘Mac’ to hardware products, while OS X refers to the software.

This is first developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and the OS will be released to the public in late summer. Here’s an overview and the new features that OS X Mountain Lion boasts about.

OS X Mountain Lion Features

OS X Mountain Lion – iCloud

Mountain Lion is Apple’s first OS X release after the launch of iCloud in October 2011. iCloud is Apple’s cloud-based sync and store service, which currently has over 100 million accounts. Having laced into iOS 5, iCloud is now getting a deeper integration into OS X Mountain Lion.

The initial registration process is to be done, similar to how you set up the account with your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You will be presented with a login screen when you first install the OS, and the system will automatically set up Mail, iCloud, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Mac App Store, Documents & Data, and Bookmarks.

Once done, you will have to manually perform some operation with the iCloud setup after which the system will automatically sync your contact, calendars and bookmarks for you.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion also includes Documents in the iCloud, which will be opened at the document library, and listed chronologically by last edit date. That way, you can store and access documents and files directly from iCloud. Users are also given an option to create a new folder for iCloud documents using an interface that is much similar to the iOS Apps folders UI.

OS X Mountain Lion – Notes

Notes is an iOS app that has been integrated into the OS X 10.8, which is very much similar and looks almost exactly like the iPad Notes app. Notes has always been elegant in its simplicity and easy to use. Every note added can simply be a simple text, or a completely formatted content with change of fonts, with bullets and numbering. You can also include images or photos by simply dragging to Notes.

One thing that I like about the app is that you can keep a note opened even after close the main Notes app. The note will be opened in a new window, and you can set individual note windows to always stay on top. However, this feature will be disabled in Mission Control and couldn’t be moved on top of full screen apps or other Spaces.

Notes sync with iCloud, and can also be synchronized with supported services like, Gmail, Yahoo, and others. Additionally, you can even drag and drop notes into the Reminders app, and create to-do lists from them.

OS X Mountain Lion – Messages

Messages in OS X Mountain Lion has been replaced with the iChat on Mac. With Messages, Mac users can now easily share and exchange photos, text, and video messages with the 100 million iOS 5 iMessage users. Video chat can be done using FaceTime video calls, which is however a separate app, but Messages can launch the app and start a video chat without any additional tasks or steps.

Messages has got a new user interface with a mixture of IM, text messaging, and message history search that blends into something entirely different. It is simple to start a conversation and can be easily carried over to any of the iOS device. It also supports dropping of photos and videos right into a conversation without any efforts.

Users can also transfer up to 100MB of file size with read-receipts. All conversations, individual or group, are encrypted in Message. Users can try out Messages for free at the moment. Apple is offering a free beta for Lion users, which will expire when OS X Mountain Lion is released for public use.


According to stats, so far, there have been around 26 billion messages sent using the app, and the figure is expected to soar higher once the OS X Mountain Lion is release to the public.

OS X Mountain Lion – Notification Center

Notifications is yet another major feature that has been migrated from iOS to OS X. Notifications is quite similar to Growl app, as notifications are displayed on the upper right-hand corner. You can seven choose to if an app displays a banner, an alert that shows up in the middle of the screen, a badge icon, or all three.

These notifications will automatically slide away after five seconds, and a new blue icon lights up on the right side of the menu bar. Clicking this icon will slide the OS X desktop to the left and opens up the Notification Center, which looks similar to iOS 5.

According to John Gruber, only apps acquired from the Mac App Store can send events to Notifications. You can, however, configure the app to only alter you if you receive an email from a friend or colleague who has been marked as a VIP, or have any missed FaceTime calls, or friend requests, or game invitations in Game Center. That way, you can avoid the notification alter if you find them annoying. There’s also a new Notifications API allowing third-party apps and services to hook into the Notifications Center as well, even if the app itself isn’t running.

The Notification Center can also be accessed with a two finger swipe to the left from the right hand side of the trackpad. Swiping toward the right with two fingers will close the panel.

OS X Mountain Lion – Reminders

Apple has decided to replace the iCal feature in Lion with Reminders. The dedicated Reminders app in the OS X Mountain Lion looks quite similar to the Reminders app in iOS 5. Surprise!

With the iCloud integration, entries in the Reminders will be automatically synced across all devices, but can also be synced with supported services like Google Calendar and Yahoo Calendar. Similar to the iPhone and iPad app, Reminders in OS X 10.8 supports creating lists and checkboxes, and due dates with alerts.

However, Reminders in OS X 10.8 does not support location-based reminder unlike on the iPhone and iPad, but other functionalities like alerts, priorities, and due dates should do the needful.

OS X Mountain Lion – Twitter Integration

The OS X Mountain Lion supports iOS-like share button, enabling users to quickly share text, photos, and videos via Twitter Mail, Messages Flickr, and AirDrop. Mountain Lion also has a similar Twitter integration like the iOS integration. You can get notifications for replies and direct messages sent on Twitter.

Once you login to Twitter, you can easily share content across Safari, Preview, Photo Booth and Quick Look. It also has the character count which makes sure that you’ve tweet is under 140 characters. URLs will be automatically shortened and an optional city-level location can also be added. You can also sync pictures of your contacts your Twitter list.

OS X Mountain Lion – Gatekeeper

One major new addition to OS X Mountain Lion is the Gatekeeper feature. Gatekeeper is Apple’s new security system for OS X, that is basically used to check if a app or a software hasn’t been flagged as malware.

Mac Developer Program members can get a unique Developed ID, a identification code for each developer. When a user attempts to download an app from the Mac App Store using the Developer ID, the Gatekeeper then comes in use, by checking if the app is flagged as a malware or not. If not, the app will be downloaded and the user can install it, however, if it has been flagged as malware, then the app will be automatically discarded from downloading.

In other words, developers will now have the ability to sign their apps, and Mountain Lion will only install only those apps that are signed and apps from the Mac App Store.

Developers can get the unique Developer ID from their existing subscription fees for the Mac Developer Program. According to Apple, signing a new application is easy with just a few clicks. All thanks to its integrated Xcode signature tool.

According to Apple, the objective of Gatekeeper is to protect Mac users from installing malware apps from uncertified and pirated app stores. You can however run unsigned apps by changing the global setting to allow apps from anywhere.

OS X Mountain Lion Wrap-up

“With all-new features inspired by iPad, the Mac just keeps getting better and better.” This is what the headline reads on the Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion webpage, and certainly it does have many new features included from iOS.

There are hundreds of new features included in the new OS X along with the iOS integration. In fact, the iOS integration is actually the best part of the OS X Mountain Lion.

The OS X Mountain Lion developer preview is available today. However, not all the features will be included in it. Users will have to wait until late summer when the OS will be launched for public use. Meantime, let us know your views and opinions about the new OS X Mountain Lion by adding them in the comments section below.