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Most software vendors are convinced that the reason so many people have embraced Google Apps as a service in the cloud is because the price can’t be beat. But as compelling as free might be, a new survey suggests that the primary reason is that Web applications such as Google Apps make it a lot easier for people to collaborate with one another.

In a survey of over 2,000 Google Apps administrators conducted by Focus Research on behalf of The Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, an association of vendors that deliver cloud products and services that integrate with Google Apps, the primary reason cited by 30 percent of the respondents for adopting Google Apps was collaboration, while only 19 percent cited cost.

David Politis, chairman of the association, says that success with Google Apps basically comes down to making sure that there are people in the organization who are committed to educating everybody else on how to use the environment, especially across multiple organizations.

No matter the size of the company, it’s almost impossible these days to easily collaborate with anyone outside the company unless a pre-existing arrangement that includes access to a common set of applications already exists. But most work these days between companies tends to be ad hoc, which usually results in a lot of default usage of Google Apps or document file sharing services such as Dropbox.com.

That obviously raises a lot of security and compliance concerns. But as usual, productivity trumps those concerns. People need to get their jobs done. That means they’re essentially betting that people trying to steal their data may not be looking in the corner of the Web they are using at the moment to share sensitive data. even as it becomes apparent that the people who would steal that information have increasingly more sophisticated tools at their disposal, the odds that they will discover their data at just the right moment seem remote to the average end user.

Given the popularity of Google Apps, there seems to be no end in sight when it comes to making use of shared public services on the Web, at least until somebody in IT comes up with ways to either secure those applications or provide a secure alternative that is just as easy to use.

Collaboration Drives Google Apps Adoption

PHILADELPHIA–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today introduced, at this gathering of infrastructure professionals from around the world, the shared OpenRoads information modeling functionality in its InRoads, GEOPAK, and MXROAD V8i (SELECTseries 3) products for roadway design. the common code foundation across them represents the final stages in the evolutionary convergence of functional innovations among all three products – an evolution that began with the introduction of Roadway Designer. Users of any or all of these products can now benefit from shared innovations that increase the potential of information modeling in road design, construction, and operations. the new functionality advances what’s possible in civil design through immersive modeling, design-time visualization, design intent capture and persistence, hypermodeling, information mobility, and construction-driven engineering. moreover, because Bentley has conscientiously incorporated these capabilities within each of the existing product lines to preserve user equity in standards, deliverables, and legacy data, all civil users are now enabled to advance rapidly.

“Construction-driven engineering is vital for P3 projects – to make the ‘hand-off’ between design and build, and ‘hand-over’ to operations ‘hands-on,’ reducing project risk and maximizing return. the OpenRoads common foundation in our SELECTseries 3 roadway products facilitates this information mobility that design/build civil projects demand.”

Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said, “We have carefully enabled the users of InRoads, GEOPAK, and/or MXROAD to adopt and benefit from OpenRoads information modeling in a continuous and nondisruptive manner. this powerful new functionality is here in the SELECTseries 3 releases of these products, and all users will gain by previewing them and upgrading as soon as possible.”

the just-released McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report “The Business Value of BIM for Infrastructure” emphasizes the strong potential of information modeling for roadway and bridge infrastructure. according to the report, the percentage of firms expected to reach information modeling usage for the majority of their work on these projects will rise to 56 percent in 2013 (from 20 percent in 2009 and 35 percent in 2011). a key reason for this increasing uptake, states the report, is that “The project-related benefits of model-based design and construction accrue directly to owners and are compelling.” to accelerate these gains, delegates from more than 30 transportation agencies are attending Bentley’s Be Together conference this week to hear about the latest advances in information modeling. For consulting firms doing work for multiple departments of transportation, the OpenRoads common functionality is just as compelling because it will enable them to maximize return on talent through work sharing to the best needs of all clients.

Commenting on the benefits of information modeling, Steve Meyer, information technology specialist, Engineering Applications, Iowa Department of Transportation, said, “We have been using Corridor Modeler (Roadway Designer) for a number of years. 3D design has improved our ability to produce more accurate plans with less field changes because we can look at our design and find problem areas before they are constructed. With SELECTseries 3 using intelligent elements that can update on the fly, we see huge advantages. Intelligent elements will allow us to establish an interrelational design that maintains our design intent while giving us the ability to make changes that are immediately apparent, both visually and geometrically.”

Immersive Modeling and Design-Time Visualization

the OpenRoads immersive modeling functionality provides design-time visualization, giving engineers and designers the ability to view their designs interactively as rendered on-demand models in the design software environment – enabling government agencies, consultants, and operators to make better design, construction, operations, and maintenance decisions. Immersive modeling is supported by the software’s ability to capture and persist design. it does this by self-documenting design decisions and changes, and then reacting to and anticipating such changes as they relate to design intent. As a result, the engineer or designer is always in control of the design process and no changes or relationships are ever “hidden.”

Hypermodeling

Hypermodels present information directly within the 3D context, which serves as a “spatial index” for immersive interaction with content of any type, including 2D drawings, raster images, photos and videos, point clouds, scalable terrain models, hyperlinks, survey data, and design data. the OpenRoads hypermodeling functionality uniquely enables civil design information to remain continuously vital throughout the lifecycle of construction and operations, as a critical success factor for design-build and especially public-private partnership (P3) projects.

Information Mobility

the information mobility facilitated by OpenRoads shares architectural, engineering, construction, operations (AECO), and geospatial information across the infrastructure lifecycle and project disciplines. Users and work processes can readily exchange information in the appropriate format with the required level of precision.

OpenRoads provides this functionality through its support of i-models (containers for open infrastructure information exchange that maintain the provenance of their content), allowing teams to analyze projects virtually, for instance to detect and resolve clashes and simulate project schedules. Users can augment data by registering comments in i-models and can produce 2D and 3D PDFs for consumption by a wider audience. OpenRoads and i-models make information modeling pay off through “hands-on” reuse in field construction and asset management, instead of truncating benefits at “hand-off” and “hand-over”.

Construction-Driven Engineering

Construction-driven engineering is an objective, driven by project economics, that is facilitated by OpenRoads functionality. With information-rich 3D modeling, design-time visualization, and information mobility secured by ProjectWise, engineers and constructors can stay in sync, assuring that design models become and remain sufficiently complete, and that quantities are always accurate. OpenRoads functionality accordingly supports machine-guided construction and virtual inspection.

Ron Gant, Bentley global marketing director, said, “Construction-driven engineering is vital for P3 projects – to make the ‘hand-off’ between design and build, and ‘hand-over’ to operations ‘hands-on,’ reducing project risk and maximizing return. the OpenRoads common foundation in our SELECTseries 3 roadway products facilitates this information mobility that design/build civil projects demand.”

OpenRoads Functionality available in Technology Previews

At the Be Together conference this week, Bentley is inviting the hundreds of delegates from transportation agencies and their consultants to participate in test drives of OpenRoads functionality in workshops, and (with all Bentley SELECT subscribers) in technology preview implementations within their respective organizations upon returning home. For details, go to Bentley Civil V8i (SELECTseries 3) technology preview at www.bentley.com/Beta.

For additional information about Bentley’s V8i (SELECTseries 3) products for roadway design – featuring OpenRoads functionality – visit http://www.bentley.com/Civil.

About Be together: the Bentley User Conference

Be together: the Bentley User Conference, taking place this week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, enables the architects, engineers, constructors, geospatial and operations professionals, and CAD managers who regularly exchange ideas virtually on the be Communities professional networking site to connect, communicate, and learn from each other in person. in addition, guided by Bentley product experts, attendees acquire knowledge crucial to the adoption of information-modeling best practices as they earn Bentley Institute Learning Units to maximize return on time invested in professional development. the conference hosts 12 tracks: Bentley Civil, Bridge, Building, Communications, Engineering Information Management (including ProjectWise and AssetWise), Geospatial, Geotechnical, MicroStation, Plant, Structural, Utilities, and Water. For additional information about the conference, visit www.bentley.com/BeTogether.

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Bentley’s mission is to empower its users to leverage information modeling through integrated projects for high-performing intelligent infrastructure. Its solutions encompass the MicroStation platform for infrastructure design and modeling, the ProjectWise platform for infrastructure project team collaboration and work sharing, and the AssetWise platform for infrastructure asset operations – all supporting a broad portfolio of interoperable applications and complemented by worldwide professional services. Founded in 1984, Bentley has grown to nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries and over $500 million in annual revenues. since 2003, the company has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.

Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com and in Bentley’s annual report. For Bentley news as it happens, subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts. to view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, access Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure publications. to access a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit Be Communities.

to download the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners ranking, a unique global compendium of the top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure based on the value of their cumulative infrastructure investments, visit www.bentley.com/500.

Bentley, the “B” Bentley logo, be, ProjectWise, GEOPAK, MXROAD, InRoads, SELECT, OpenRoads, and MicroStation are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Bentley Introduces Shared ‘OpenRoads’ Information Modeling Functionality in InRoads, GEOPAK, and MXROAD V8i (SELECTseries 3)

TORONTO, ONTARIO — (Marketwire) — 05/19/12 — a ten-day effort by Air Canada pilots to negotiate a new agreement with the airline has failed, sending the dispute to federally-legislated arbitration.

“To say we are disappointed would be a vast understatement,” said Captain Jean-Marc Belanger, Chair of the Master Executive Council of the Air Canada Pilots Association. “We did everything possible to reach an agreement, paring down our proposals, addressing the airline’s issues and showing flexibility at the bargaining table.”

Under the protocol governing the negotiations, ACPA will not comment on the reasons that an agreement could not be reached.

The pilots will now prepare a final offer for submission to federal arbitrator Doug Stanley, in compliance with the 90-day process legislated by the federal government.

The Air Canada Pilots Association is the largest professional pilot group in Canada, representing the 3,000 pilots who operate Air Canada’s mainline fleet.

Air Canada Pilots Dispute Goes to Arbitration

Reveille Software™, provider of the most widely-used packaged application performance management (APM) solution for enterprise content management (ECM) applications, today announced that its Reveille Management Console for EMC Documentum now supports EMC® Documentum® D2 and EMC Documentum Mobile.

The EMC Certified™ Reveille Management Console for Documentum extends EMC Documentum to provide operational and resource management of Documentum performance and service levels. Now, the Reveille Management Console for Documentum uniquely delivers real-time, actual user experience monitoring of EMC D2 and EMC Mobile users and measures the service levels of the key EMC D2 and EMC Mobile platform components.

EMC Documentum D2 takes the complexity out of content-centric solutions by providing a spreadsheet-like approach to configuring purpose-build content solutions without the need for time-consuming customizations. EMC Documentum Mobile is the take-anywhere access to EMC Documentum repositories. available for anyone with an Apple iPad or an iPhone, the EMC Documentum Mobile App allows Documentum repository users to perform common tasks from virtually anywhere that they have internet access.

“EMC Documentum is delivering advanced client and mobile solutions to fulfill the ‘New User’ promise,” said Bob Estes, chief executive officer of Reveille. “Reveille Management Consoles provide EMC D2 and EMC Mobile customers operational, resource and application compliance management in an easy-to-implement, packaged solution that increases application availability and improved PC and mobile device user experiences.”

Additional Resources

• Learn more about the EMC Certified™ Reveille Management Console for Documentum
• Follow Reveille Software on Twitter
• Learn more aboutReveille Software
• Reveille Software will demonstrate EMC Certified solutions for EMC Documentum and EMC Captiva at EMC World 2012 in Las Vegas, NV from may 21st – 23rd, 2012 at Booth #1218

About Reveille Software

Reveille Software™ provides the most widely-used packaged application and performance management (APM) solution for enterprise content management (ECM) applications. Reveille proactively monitors user experience, application processes and business metrics to improve end-user experience and increase application governance. used by hundreds of companies, including Amgen, Nestle and JP Morgan Chase, Reveille provides improved application service levels and reduced application operating costs so that business-critical applications perform at peak efficiency and availability.

Reveille Software Announces Support for EMC Documentum D2 and EMC Documentum Mobile

New service provides added computing power and design freedom for Vectorworks Service Select members

(Gawkwire) – Nemetschek Vectorworks, inc. today announced the launch of Vectorworks® Cloud Services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal and Spain. Vectorworks Cloud Services provides greater convenience, collaboration and freedom for users to access their designs from any location, at any time. It is available exclusively for members of the company’s software subscription program, Vectorworks Service Select, and is initially offered as a free service.

"we are very pleased to offer the benefits of cloud computing directly to our UK customers through Vectorworks Cloud Services,” said Martyn Horne, product development manager at Computers Unlimited, the Vectorworks distributor for the United Kingdom and Ireland. “Coupled with the new mobile app, Vectorworks Nomad, this capability adds a very useful and new dimension to the Vectorworks workflow and product portfolio."

This initial Cloud Services offering will allow users of Vectorworks software to access and share files and make design decisions from any location. changes to users’ Vectorworks files will be automatically synchronized to their private cloud storage, allowing them to browse, annotate and share their designs from web-enabled devices using the Vectorworks Nomad mobile application.

Vectorworks Cloud Services also saves time by freeing up desktop computing power. Creating client presentations with desktop-design software often requires a significant amount of user investment to coordinate, monitor and wait while resources consume the desktop CPU. Vectorworks Cloud Services provides a cloud-based workflow, shifting calculations needed to generate sections, elevations, renderings and Building Information Modeling (BIM) data from the desktop to the cloud.

"Vectorworks Cloud Services will be a nice opportunity for Danish Vectorworks users,” said John Hansen of MikroGraf who represents Vectorworks in Denmark. “Smaller firms, in particular, will benefit from the backup and presentation features of this inventive service.”

Vectorworks Cloud Services was launched in the United States and Canada on April 2, 2012 as a free trial. to learn more, please visit http://www.vectorworks.net/cloudservices.

About Nemetschek Vectorworks, inc.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nemetschek AG and has been developing software since 1985. the Vectorworks line of software products provides professional design solutions for more than 450,000 designers in the AEC, entertainment and landscape design industries. with a tradition of designing flexible, versatile, intuitive and affordable CAD and BIM solutions, Nemetschek Vectorworks continues to be a global leader in 3D design technologies. for more information, visit http://www.vectorworks.net.

About Computers Unlimited Design Department

Computers Unlimited Design Department is an exclusive distributor of many 2D, 3D and CAD solutions for professionals working in architecture, interior, furniture, landscape, industrial design, animation, new media and video designers. Computers Unlimited Design Department’s portfolio of products include Vectorworks software, an affordable CAD and BIM solution, and its Training Division, Training Unlimited, provides the UK’s only Authorized Vectorworks Training Centre and training on all our products is carried out by Authorized CAD Specialists. for more information, visit http://www.vectorworks-cad.co.uk.

About MikroGraf

MikroGraf finds and presents the best IT solutions to small and medium sized companies in Denmark. with 20+ years of experience, we also offer advise on how to maximize IT tools.

We are proud to represent excellent products from Autodessys (bonzai3d, formZ), Nemetschek Vectorworks, inc. (Vectorworks software), MAXON (CINEMA 4D, BodyPaint), Open Text (FirstClass), Kerio (Kerio Mailserver) and Cyberoam. for more information, visit http://www.mikrograf.dk.

About TechLimits Informática

TechLimits has been a distributor of Vectorworks software in Portugal since 1997 and in Spain since September 2011. In Spain, Vectorworks software is available in English or localized into Spanish. TechLimits offers tech support and training and holds workshops and training events at universities on a regular basis. for more information, visit http://www.techlimits.com or http://www.techlimits.es.

Vectorworks Cloud Services Offered in UK

Free software and GNU Linux icon Richard Stallman was taken ill at a weekend conference in Spain, reportedly being taken to hospital suffering from the symptoms of high blood pressure.

Stallman’s parody site catches Stallman’s eye

Early rumours on social media that the fifty-nine year old free software champion had suffered a heart attack have, thankfully, turned out to be incorrect.

Stallman was reported to have been half way through a talk to students at the Polytechnic University of Cataluna in Barcelona when he requested a doctor.

When an ambulance took a while arrive, Stallman is said to have quipped with characteristic humour “Here’s the truth, Rajoy [Spanish President Mariano Rajoy] wants to kill us all.”

The presentation was suspended and Stallman was taken to hospital as a precaution, apparently under his own steam. “He was in the hospital but has been discharged,” read a brief statement on the Free Software Foundation website.

Stallman is not a man who suffers fools (or journalists) as any writer nave enough to momentarily confuse his movement for ‘free software’ with ‘open source’ will attest.

He famously fights his battles for the semantic and intellectual heartland in front of his word processor and usually wins.

His views on the politics of technology – the subject of his Barcelona speech – are legendary for a forthrightness that might be dismissed as merely eccentric coming from a lesser figure.

In March 2011 he likened mobile phones (he doesn’t own one) to being a “tool of Big Brother,” and “Stalin’s dream.” He was also famously qualified in his comments over the death of former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. “I’m not glad he’s dead, but I’m glad he’s gone.”

Richard Stallman recovers after being taken ill during speech

Space agency NASA is withdrawing its participation with OpenStack

Space agency NASA is withdrawing its participation with OpenStack, the open source cloud organization it co-founded with web hosting company Rackspace, according to a report by DatacenterDynamics.Since launching two years ago, the OpenStack community of developers and cloud computing technologists have continued to improve on the open standard cloud computing software.

In more recent months, the open-source platform has seen a growing level of commercial adoption, drawing support from Dell, IBM, Cisco, HP, Yahoo!, and Red Hat.

In a presentation at Uptime Institute’s symposium on Tuesday, Karen Petraska, service executive for computing services at NASA’s CIO office, said the agency will scale back its development of the open-source platform now that it has started to see commercial adoption.

Petraska added that NASA is not interested in competing with commercial cloud companies, and would rather be a “smart consumer” of commercial cloud services.

In addition to reducing its work with OpenStack, NASA also said it will cease its developmental involvement with cloud infrastructure solution Nebula.

NASA’s move comes just a few weeks after its fellow OpenStack co-founder Rackspace revealed it will continue to build on its cloud investments like OpenStack to ramp up future revenues following a slightly disappointing first quarter.

Meanwhile, OpenStack continues to flourish in development, releasing its fifth version, Essex last month. The new platform is the culmination of contributions from  200 developers, and boasts 150 new features.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website was breached last November, which resulted in hackers being able to install malware, delete or steal private information, and take control of user accounts to access privilege sections of the network

Talk back: do you think NASA’s leaving will have a negative effect on the future development of OpenStack? do you agree with their decision in leaving? let us know in the comments section.

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1. The Open Group Publishes Standards for SOA and Cloud Computing

NASA Drops Development for OpenStack Cloud Computing Software

Stellarium 0.11.3 is a free software that gives you the ability to see the sky, looking exactly the same as if we viewed it live through binoculars or a telescope. We can learn a lot about the stars, planets, satellites, nebulae, the solar system, etc. the program is very interesting proposition for fans of astronomy. the universe countless hidden treasures. some we can see with the naked eye, others hide the human eye. with Stellarium 0.11.3 will have them available to you from the comfort of your computer.

Stellarium 0.11.3 is a virtual planetarium with the advantages that this entails. thanks to the news filters you’ll always know what celestial object you are viewing and where you are. with the search will find any planet, moon, star or nebula just by typing its name.

With Stellarium 0.11.3 you can move like fish in water by the infinity of space, zoom in and out of bodies. And from the ground, you have a chance to see the constellations with the drawing that represent them.

The space has no secrets for you with Stellarium 0.11.3.

Size: 56.6 MBPublisher: Visit WebsiteRelease Date: 2012-5-19OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

Stellarium 0.11.3

Stellarium 0.11.3: Travel through space from your PC

It’s generally believed that the first known ‘PC’ on the market was called the Altair 8800–the one bill Gates and his buddies famously giggled excitedly over, as they flew down to Albequerque, new Mexico, to get their humble software to run on the thing. The Altair was not meant for human beings to use; it was meant for computer geeks to tinker with. it did very little–okay it did nothing. Still, it was exciting enough that the company that sold the Altair, MITS, couldn’t handle all the demand. Suddenly, a metal box with a few blinking lights was selling like hotcakes.

Within two years the IBM 5100 and Apple I were released, putting MITS out to pasture. Slowly, the need for well designed software came to light. soon, the Graphical User Interface, Keyboards and Mice, Mac, Windows, and all the rest of it. and now, we have mass-market touch-based computing–Apps. To some they are the dumbest form of technology on the planet. They’re too easy to use. They’re casual. They’re like playing with elastic bands, flicking and scratching, rubbing and pushing. It’s the complexity of full productivity software, with the usability and ‘golly gee stupid simplicity’ of toy blocks.

Why is this the evolution of great software design? is it just because Apple came out with the first sexy gotta have it touch screen phone? or is it the goal, the destiny, of all great technologies that,to put it bluntly, idiots can use it.

• A great DVD player is defined by is high quality of picture, as well as its simple clean user interface.
• A great car feels like it’s in park, or barely moving, when it’s cruising as 120 MPH.
• A delicious steak is effortless to easy, and rich with just the right juices and flavors.

Maybe it’s not about technology. maybe technology is what makes thing possible, but design is what makes them good. The first is about efficiency; the second is about directing some efficiency towards a productive end. I don’t care how fast your car is if it’s too big for the road, or it the roof sometimes flies off (or the heat of the turbo charged engine, heats up the leather seats to a frightful boil).

Yes, I know, there are a few of you out there rolling your eyes at this. I’ve obviously drank the Apple Kool-aid and I’m going to start rattling off all the ways software, technology, and apps should be oversimplified like the Japanese Dojo, with clean white interfaces and Helvetica Neue text. It’s not that there’s something great about white, but there is something incredibly fantastic about unitasking. I’m sorry if all this Zen stuff is putting a cramp in your zafu, but you have to understand just how much of a pain in the ass (for designers and users) complexity really is. Complexity is wasteful. Simplicity is about maximizing utility.

How to bring delight to users? Never ever screw up. Ever. Never bring up a glitch, a bug, never show them all the ugly code that’s under that luscious UI. and for goodness sakes, UPOD! Under Promise Over Deliver. So many people shoot themselves in the foot by not adopting this. Market your software, your project, your lemonade stand, whatever, conservatively, so that users/customers are delighted when they finally try it out.

And in the end, that’s what it’s all about: delight. Delight is picking up your phone, trying out a new app for the very first time, without any instruction, knowing instantly how to use it, what it’s for, and sharing it with all your friends. The writers of this book called it Tapworthy, but I noticed they kept going back to that word ‘delight’, which I love.

“Tapworthy” The Evolution of Stupidly Simple Software Design

Michael Harper for RedOrbit.com

Apple yesterday pushed out another update to its Mountain Lion developer preview. The current build is listed as “12A206j,” and was released very shortly after build “12A193i,” which was released on may 1.

Those developers who haven’t already done so can download the new software update from within the Mac App store.

According to Apple Insider, Apple has informed these developers that the new build will not work on MacBookPro3,1 — The 2007 Mac Book Pro model — though newer builds will fix this problem.

People Familiar With the Matter have also said this new build of Mountain Lion causes errors when using fast User Switching, leaving the desktop blank white for several seconds. there also remain some problems in the “share” functionality related to Mail and Twitter. any issues discovered and reported in the previous build have so far been absent, signaling Apple has been hard at work to perfect their newest OS.

Apple has also reportedly told developers that QuickTime screen recordings have a tendency to become distorted on machines running Nvidia graphics processing. This build is the second issued for the third preview of Mountain Lion, which was released to Apple developers in April.

Mountain Lion — or OS X 10.8 — is Apple’s new and upcoming operating system, slated to be released this coming summer.

As a point of reference, Lion was released on July 20th last year, while its predecessor, Snow Leopard, was released on August 28, 2009. both of these OS’s were promised a “summer” launch date, so Mountain Lion could reasonably come in between any of those days.

As each version of OS X progresses, more and more Macs are left out in the cold. For instance, when Mountain Lion releases, those with the original Mac Pros and MacBook Airs will be left behind.

Thus, when it was discovered the new build didn’t run on MacBookPro3,1, some people likely assumed Apple was already making cuts. any Macbook Pro released before June 2007 will not be able to run Mountain Lion.

While new developer builds and previews are likely to make news around the Apple circuit, the bevy of information we’ve already received about the new operating system is interesting considering these developers all signed a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA.

Technically, these developers aren’t allowed to discuss the inner-workings of the new OS with anyone who isn’t a developer.

And yet, many sites have been posting information about how the new features will work.

Therefore, anyone who has signed an NDA and is talking about new features or new functionalities in the new OS are likely going to be very careful to mention they read about it from some other site, freeing them up to talk about it.

It’s all a very interesting game of “I’m not saying, I’m just saying…”

According to Apple, Mountain Lion will be moving even more features of iOS to the desktop.

Many expect Apple to announce a release date for Mountain Lion during their WWDC, June 11-15.

Apple Releases New Build Of Mountain Lion