OS X Mountain Lion Bringing Automatic App Downloads to Mac

As noted by Zach Kahn (via 9to5Mac), the latest developer build of OS X Mountain Lion released last week sets the stage for bringing iOS-like automatic app downloads to Mac App Store purchases.

mountain lion automatic download

Like on the iPhone and iPad, when you buy and install an app on one of your Macs, all of your other Macs logged into the same App Store account will automatically install the app too.

Unfortunately, the feature does not seem to be working completely. While the App Store will still offer to enable automatic downloads (as seen above), it does not actually install anything when you purchase apps from another computer.

Apple has been issuing regular updates of OS X Mountain Lion to its Mac developer community, and the company is expected to offer many more details on the next-generation operating system at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. OS X Mountain Lion is currently scheduled to see a public launch in "late summer" of this year and will bring a number of enhancements including several features drawn from iOS such as Notification Center, Game Center, Messages, and Reminders.

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Top Rated Comments

caligomez Avatar
171 months ago
I so want automatic updates. However, automatic App downloads though are a great feature. Can't wait for Mtn Lion!!!

I definitely don't want automatic updates.. sometimes they screw up apps that were previously working perfectly. Now, every time an update is released for an app that is important to me, I give it some time and research if there are any issues with that update.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrisbru Avatar
171 months ago
the main thing is why he is using dropbox AND google drive?? :confused:

Why not...? I have both. You can't argue with free cloud storage.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kemo Avatar
171 months ago
Speak for yourself, you fool! Lion > SL

I wouldn't call him a fool! Anyway maybe it's your personal preference that Lion > SL, but for a solid amount of people it's vice versa!

----------

Hopefully the new Macbook Pro will come out before the new OS. Who would want to have Mountain Lion pre-installed anyway?

If the new MBS would not be able to run Snow Leopard than unfortunately I wont be buying one. :( Or maybe if the ML will be really improved overally over Lion than I may consider getting one, but most preferably I will get the latest model of MB's or Air that can handle Snow Leopard because for me it's the best OS Apple made so far period.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jynto Avatar
171 months ago
Tim Cook has not adequately managed the lion debacle.

If Stve had been alive (sorry but I have to go in one of those if Steve sentences..) a lot of heads would have rolled off. Hell Steve fired the guy the d spent a few millions of dollars in litigation to hire him from IBM (mark pappermaster), their star addition to the team featuring on promo photos, just because of the anntenagate, a design Steve himself had insisted upon.

There's no chance in a million he d have done nothing for an os x release that has been this buggy and unpolished. Autoshutdown (aka system induced app crashing), autosaves (even when the user doesn't want to save), windows restores (even after you shut down every window as in safari and logged out), cumbersome duplicates and locked files for no reason, versioning in every single app that might not need versioning... Etc. etc. there simply hasn't been almost any over the hood addition to lion that wasn't both poorly thought out in terms of its requirements and even more poorly implemented.

And these were supposed to be the main selling features of the os, because in terms of under the hood development, memory management, file system advances there was little to no work down, and a lot of regression at points as witnessed by the increased kernel task resources used and the memory leaks in safari.

I simply can't see how Steve would have left all that slide. Lion has been an embarrassment to apple, made only tolerable by the insanely good quality of the hardware current macs, and computers in general use.

Good luck with trying to fix os x with ml with the same team that brought you lion...

Btw, Anyone going for ml .0 release (and those unlucky ones with a new mac purchase...) will really be soldiers in the front line taking a hit for the rest of who plan to go in on at .1 , .2 or .3 even.
Okay, I'm not the biggest fan of Lion myself, but this is just ill-informed. Let's get the facts straight. Mac OS X Lion was announced on 6 June 2011 during the WWDC keynote that Steve himself spoke at. Jobs passed away four months later on 5 October. He worked for Apple until the day before he died (http://gizmodo.com/5851475/steve-jobs-worked-the-day-before-he-died). Not only did he back Lion, but he was heavily involved in Mountain Lion and beyond.

So please don't assume that Saint Steve could do no wrong, because in your opinion he did. I don't think the company will fall apart without him. People have been complaining about Apple for years while Steve was around, just as they will continue to complain in his absence.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nuckinfutz Avatar
171 months ago
I so want automatic updates. However, automatic App downloads though are a great feature. Can't wait for Mtn Lion!!!
Automatic updates please with rollback if something screws up.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nuckinfutz Avatar
171 months ago
I would love to be able to turn off Auto Save. I save at known points in my work where everything is in an order I want. I like control over the state of my files. If I try some edits that I don't like, it is very easy to go back to the point I want because I have marked that point with a save. Plus I find the Date Modified field very useful, that is lost if I open the file to check something (which I do a lot).

Oh. Thanks, for some reason I was thinking your were strictly talking about iCloud features (most of which can be turned off individually)

Auto Save needs a bit of polish as well as Resume IMO.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)