OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual

Chapter 10. Reminders, Notes & Notification Center

You’ve come at last to the summit of the mountain, the heart of the matter, the core of the apple: the three new features that make Mountain Lion Mountain Lion. These three new apps have arrived, fully grown, on the Mac after a long and storied childhood on the iPhone and iPad. They are, of course, Reminders, Notes, and the Notification Center.

Their appearance in OS X makes perfect sense. First, of course, they’re great day-to-day apps that can really, truly make you better organized. You’ll feel less helpless in the modern maelstrom of obligations and to-do lists.

But more important, they make sense because of iCloud.

Reminders, Notes, and Notification Center like to be synchronized across all your Apple gadgets. Take some notes when you’re at a meeting with your iPad, and presto—they magically appear on your Mac. Add a To Do item on your Mac when you’re on a phone call, and shazam—you’ll find it on your iPhone when you’re out and about. Create an appointment on your desktop Mac’s calendar, and kaboom—you’ll be reminded of it when you’re on the road using your laptop. We’ve waited a very long time for this.

If you’ve used one of these features on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you’ll feel right at home when you encounter them on the Mac. This, of course, is the beauty of submitting yourself to an all-powerful technological mother ship like Apple: Everything looks and works the same on different gadgets. But read along anyway; there ...