I took the plunge… I updated my Lion (OS) to a Mountain Lion (OS)…. It took nearly two hours (My Mac book is 18 months old) Was it worth it?
Mountain Lions Think Promethean Connectivity is Very Tasty.
UPDATE: 24/08/2012 – Promethean have released a beta driver to fix the below problem… see comments below!
The first thing to mention is that the Mountain Lion eats Promethean’s driver, pens and sound…. That’s right. The minute you install it, do not expect to be able to move the cursor around your IWB with your pens. Strangely, the board lights up in all the right ways, blue lights to show it’s connected, Activ Manger finds it… but, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to move the cursor. Why?
Because for some reason, Promethean seem to think it’s ok not to prepare their software for new releases of operating systems. Despite several complaints in the forum they seem to be telling us that they won’t have a fix for this problem until October (at the earliest). That is totally unacceptable and leaves a lot of teachers in a very awkward position.. That’s at least 9 weeks without your IWB working as it ought to with an operating system that was available for developers to practice with months ago…
Although this issue doesn’t affect the functionality of Activ Inspire itself, for some reason Promethean have decided to wait until the next release of their IWB to bundle in the upgraded driver…
Promethean’s advice is to not upgrade or roll back. “If the main purpose for the computers in the classrooms is to work with the ActivBoards, then there is less reason to upgrade to Mountain Lion immediately. ” The level of arrogance demonstration in the suggestion that a computer’s sole purpose would ever be to simply work with ActivBoards really surprised me. I have to say I am very disappointed in Promethean. I ended up running a training workshop, in their software, on their board… sat behind a desk moving a mouse. They will be keeping us posted on Promethean Planet.
I have to say, I was amused by the last poster’s comment:
tee hee!
Bottom line is, if you’re wanting to Promethean’s hardware with your MAC avoid upgrading to Mountain Lion. He’s hungry and he WILL eat your pens.
The Twitter Integration
I have to admit that one of the main reasons I upgraded was because I was under the impression that Twitter would be integrated into my OS. That I would be notified of new tweets in my stream, of new messages and that I wouldn’t need to use my trusty Twitter App anymore. I was wrong!
Those of you who were on twitter the night I installed it will have seen my disappointment. Yes, it notifies you of a new tweet, but only if someone has included your @ twitter handle in the message. It doesn’t seem to want to show me what my followers are saying. There is also no functionality to reply, RT (re tweet) or direct message. Perhaps I was being very naive but I thought I’d be able to click on the notification and reply (et all) Instead, it deletes the notification from the list and takes me to the twitter website to sign in… increasing the time it takes me to stay connected 
So, back to my twitter app!
I do like the fact that it at least lists all my notifications for me (iPhone style) in a bar to the right. It’s just a shame that you can’t do anything with these notifications. If anyone knows any better PLEASE tell me. Maybe I’m missing something?
Reminders and Notes
These two apps have appeared in my dock. The reminders are linked to my calendar so I now get a little notification on my Mac (as I would on my iPhone) when an appointment is coming up. Thing is, Outlook does that for me too… As for Notes, I use Evernote so…
To be honest, apart from the fact that I know I have the latest software and therefore hope that means my Mac will be more efficient, I’m not all that impressed by the “new” OS. It feels like the old one but with extra apps… Am I missing something?
