How OS X Mountain Lion cured me of my Android addiction

At the core, I’m an Apple user. I have an iPhone, an iPad, an iPod Touch and more than one Mac kicking around the house. Even with all these Apple devices, I can’t resist the allure of Android. With its widgets and turn-by-turn navigation, I often grab my Galaxy Nexus over my iPhone 4S when I leave the house. This propensity to pick up an Android device is going to change, now that I have Mountain Lion on my Mac.

On Wednesday, Apple released Mountain Lion and as an iOS user, I have to say it’s an impressive upgrade from a mobile standpoint. One of the first things I noticed after installing the OS and logging in with my Apple ID was the seamless syncing of content between my iPhone and my desktop. The OS X Notes app was filled with the notes that I created on my iPhone, and my reminders had been pulled over without any interaction on my part.

Not only was the syncing done automatically, it was also amazingly fast. I added a few reminders on my iPhone and when I turned to open the Reminders app on my MacBook Pro, the new entries were already there. Until you experience it, I don’t think many people realize how helpful it is to have their tasks, notes and other important information sync between their phone and desktop with minimal effort. Lion gave us a hint of this seamless syncing with its early implementation of iCloud, but Mountain Lion really builds upon this start and improves on it by adding Messages, Reminders and more.

Admittedly, Google has an excellent cloud system with its online Google apps and Android mobile operating system, but it can’t compete with Apple’s current OS X and its integration with iOS. Unlike Apple, Google doesn’t have a strong desktop platform. Its Chrome OS hasn’t caught on, and most Google users access their content via a web interface. The web app is convenient, but it’s not as powerful as a built-in app, which is easy to use and can interact with other core OS functions in a way that a web app (or third-party app) can’t.

I’m not saying iCloud is the perfect solution. I encountered intermittent glitches when documents didn’t sync on different devices, but at this point, iCloud is better than the solutions being offered by Google’s Android or even Microsoft’s Windows Phone. With Mountain Lion, iOS and iCloud, Apple’s platform is good enough that it makes me look at my Nexus 7 and wish it were a mini iPad instead.

That being said, this technology is still early in its evolution and companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft know that ubiquitous access to your information is the future. It’s only going to get better from here and I can’t wait to see what each of these companies do next in the next few years with both their mobile and, if applicable, desktop solutions.

About The Author

Kelly Hodgkins

Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.

http://twitter.com/gamercore Chris Chavez

Don’t a lot of OSX apps in Mountain Lion also sync with Google’s services? Calendar, contacts, email, etc? For notes OSX, I’ve always just used Evernote to keep my thoughts organized and it syncs right to my Android device.

Although I own the new MacBook Air, I’ve never really considered myself an “Apple user.” I avoid all their services if possible (never once opened iTunes). I enjoy certain things on OSX, but I still feel like a Windows user with an Android phone who computes on OSX. :p
Gchatt10

Google has been doing this for a while now… my Google account syncs everything across my android deice, my laptop, desktop, tablet soon to be my TV with Google fiber. Yes Mac is a beautiful polished OS but don’t act like this hasnt been done before.
- Gchatt10
  
  Google music cloud stores 20000 songs free, all of Google play, Google drive I could go on forever
http://www.facebook.com/people/Juan-Leal/100000991249319 Juan Leal

so because you have syncing now you want to use a restrictive iphone with 3.5″ screen and crappy specs? obviously you were never a real android user so stop pretending you are one of us.
- Jarrod
  
  That “3.5 Inch” screen has been more accurate then some of the android phones I have had in the past with a 3.8 inch screen. Also I’m using a 3GS currently and the androids I have used were newer by a year or two.
http://twitter.com/Juker77 Matt Barnes

I just downloaded it last night and I’m looking forward to getting the iPhone 5 this fall and see how it works like you said….currently I’m enjoying jelly bean on my HTC Evo 4G!
K G

Great, just simply great article.
Just a small correction in the open line, it should be “At the core I am an iSheep”.
But rest of the article is amazing, ground breaking and game changing so on…………..
Anonymous

wow awesome but I feel they are trapping you more in closed ecosystem. With Google it doesn’t matter that I use Ubuntu at home and Windows at home. It just works.
Cherrise

Assume that just an instant syncing feature makes iOS and OS X much better than Android and Chrome OS is a little bit light for me. Just talking about syncing, I’ve been using it in the exact same way that you say for months (Google+ Instant Upload, Google Calendar, Any.Do, Dropbox, Evernote, etc.) and the web interface or third party apps have never caused me problems.

Probably the built-in apps can play an important role, but I don’t think that just that makes the whole difference.
http://asszem.blog.hu Andras Olah

how I wish Google had an option to sync all my Calendars seamless across my devices, and I could save a document to a Drive that I can open from any operating system which is capable of running a browser. and only if we had a tasklist manager that automatically syncs the tasks to say with our Gmail account. And I wish Google would let 3rd party developers develop great apps that can integrate to Android so if the built-in solution doesn’t fit our needs then we can find different applications and set them as system defaults.

And definitely a good reminder syncing application will solve my turn-by-turn navigation problem.
- Gchatt10
  
  Haha I love the sarcasm!
- Anonymous
  
  Hehehe well put, love the sarcasm!
Keith Stefanec

Good to see Apple catching up.
Applesucks

maybe the iphone 5 will finally catch up to the S2?