Among the plethora of new and useful features in OS X Mountain Lion, Apple included two new native apps borrowed from iOS: Notes and Reminders. The apps sync through iCloud with the iOS counterparts in order to remind you of upcoming events and help you keep track of things that you log away for later.
Notes
Notes is designed for whatever’s on your mind, wherever you happen to be. Think it up. Jot it down. Make it even more noteworthy with photos, images, and attachments. You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search. Use the Share button to send your notes with Mail or Messages. Pin important notes to your desktop so they’re easy to get to. And take them with you everywhere. Notes works with iCloud, so when you create or edit a note on your Mac, it automatically updates on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And vice versa.
While Apple included the ability to sync notes in OS X Lion, the notes were tied to mail accounts, and could only be accessed through Mail.app. While that made sense to some degree, it did get annoying over time, especially to those who were used to the iOS Notes app.
With Mountain Lion, however, Notes gets its very own native app, as well as the ability to include photos and attachments, organize notes into folders, pin notes to your desktop, add lists, and easily search through all the notes you’ve written.
Reminders
Now nothing slips your mind. When you have so much to do, Reminders helps you get it done. It’s all in a list. More than one, in fact. Make as many lists as you need and easily add to them. Set due dates and you’ll get alerts as deadlines approach. Check items off your lists as you go and keep track of what you’ve completed. And to be sure you don’t forget anything, iCloud keeps your reminders up to date on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Like Notes, reminders also syncs with its iOS counterpart, and supports all of the same features, including making an unlimited number of lists. The addition of a native Notes app also departs from OS X Lion, which tied all reminders to Calendar.app.
Native apps are much more convenient than have the feature tied to other app, and make it easier to quickly view, add to, or edit content without having to worry about going through the extra hoop of launching something else first.
I use both of these features frequently, and am thrilled to see both of these features more accessible (and more useful) in Mountain Lion. How about you?
Make sure to check out our full Mountain Lion coverage for all of the latest updates, or check our Mountain Lion U category to see all of the latest Mountain Lion features, tips, tricks, and tutorials!
