Apple’s merging of iOS with OS X continues today with our first glimpse at 10.8 Mountain Lion, the next major OS release for Macs. Of course in the process of bringing the best of both worlds together, some things win out. In the case of Mountain Lion, several apps and features have been replaced with their iOS counterparts. Here is everything from past OS X releases that died today at the hand of Apple’s iOS-ifying of Mountain Lion.

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion preview today ahead of the planned summer release and we briefly touched upon some of the more important features like the all-new Messages app,Gatekeeper anti-malware capabilities, enhanced local services for the Chinese, system-wide Twitter integration and brand new iOS-like Notification Center. Tucked away as a side-note in Apple’s press release is AirPlay Mirroring, another welcome addition to Mountain Lion’s arsenal of over a hundred new features (so claims Apple).

Yes, there are a few apps for that, though, I have yet to find one that works as seamlessly and effortlessly as AirPlay implementation on iOS devices. Eagle-eyed readers could point out that AirPlay support was long-planned for Lion until it was abruptly pulled last-minute without an explanation. Sure enough, it took longer than expected, so we are excited with full AirPlay Mirroring now a possibility on Macs running Mountain Lion.

Apple’s Developer Center just updated with the new Mountain Lion resources only available to registered Mac developers. Most importantly: Those with a paid developer account can now immediately download OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview. The software delivers through the Mac App Store and it replaces your previous operating system version, so make sure to use it on a test machine and not your primary productivity system. Just log in to your developer account, access the Mac section, click the OS X Mountain Lion tab, and then hit the Get Redemption Code button next to the OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview or OS X Mountain Lion Server Developer Preview. This will launch the Mac App Store and start the download process. You must use a 64-bit, Intel-based Mac running either Mac OS X v10.6.7 Snow Leopard or OS X Lion and have at least 8GB of free disk space to install the OS.

In addition to the pre-release version of the operating system, Apple also made a number of related resources available, including guidelines for developing apps for Mountain Lion, GameKit, and GLKit programming guides that explain how to write Game Center-compatible games using social gaming and graphics technologies that debuted in iOS 5 and more. Finally, following a brief removal of Xcode 4.3 from the Mac App Store this morning, the new Xcode 4.4 Developer Preview for OS X Mountain Lion is now available in your dev account and it includes the Mac OS X 10.8 SDK and iOS 5 SDK.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed with today’s news of OS X Mountain Lion Preview and the first public beta of Messages for the Mac, do not be: Apple just published a nice video demonstration of key new features on the new OS X Mountain Lion Sneak Peek page. It will take some time before the clip goes live on Apple’s official YouTube channel. Until then, enjoy the above Newsit Tech’sconversion of the Mountain Lion showcase that is likely to be pulled soon.

To go with Apple’s announcement of the Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview, Apple CEO Tim Cook and worldwide marketing head Phil Schiller sat down for interviews with The Wall Street Journal at Apple headquarters in Cupertino. During the interview, Cook noted laptops will continue to exist alongside the tablet market, but merging the two products, and the different chips various Apple devices use, is a possibility the company is considering. Cook said, “We think about everything. We don’t close things off,” but he also noted the Mac is still “incredibly important.” He continued:

“We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here. Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac… We think about everything. We don’t close things off.”

It has been only seven months since Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.7 Lion and today the companyannounced Mountain Lion—the next major update to its desktop operating system. As 9to5Macfirst learned in October, Mountain Lion brings even more popular iOS features to the Mac platform. The notion is shared by those Apple invited to a private briefing a few day ago: Mountain Lion is all about putting even more of iOS into the bowels of Mac OS X. Meanwhile, iOS-ification of Mac OS X continues with Twitter integration in Mountain Lion and new iOS-esque apps, such as Messages, Notification Center, AirPlay Mirroring, Notes, Reminder, Game Center, and deep iCloud integration.

With over a hundred million iCloud accounts now in use, Mountain Lion’s setup assistant will now ask you to set up an iCloud account for the Documents in the Cloud and Find My Mac features, as well as to sync contacts, email and chat messages and calendar entries. You can also access your iCloud storage in Finder and drag and drop documents for manual syncing between iOS apps that support Documents in the Cloud and their desktop counterparts.

Can’t get iMessage to work on your hacktivated iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4? The followinginstructions should help fix the issue.

1. Launch Cydia and add to your source:

repo.bingner.com

2. Once added, go ahead and install SAM (Subscribers Artifical Module) and SAMpref.
3. Launch SAMpref and Click “Revert Lockdownd to Stock” in Settings > SAM (this deactivates your hacktivation).
4. Go to Settings > SAM and tap on “De-Activate iPhone”
5. Connect your iPhone to iTunes to activate it.
6. If you already have iPusher app installed, remove it now.
7. Navigate to Settings > SAM > Utilities > tap on Backup Activation and then followed by on Restore Activation.
8. Reboot your iPhone and then sync it with iTunes.
9. Install free iPusher App from here.
10. Reboot your iPhone and then sync it with iTunes. Make sure your iPhone is connected to a Wifi that has an active internet connection.
11. Open iPusher app and tap on Test Push Notifications button. If you see a pop-up saying Yay, push notifications work fine! then it means your Push Notifications are working fine
12. Turn off iMessage.
13. Reboot iPhone.
14. Turn on iMessage.

Common Issues (Compiling)

1. Can’t get passed iTunes activation – Check if “Hacktivation” in SAM is on, then take a look at the text underneath it on what you have to do; then turn “Hacktivation” off and connect to iTunes again.
2. …

Did it work for you? Leave your comments or simply click LIKE below!

Want to get your hands on the new iMessage beta — the iChat replacement that’s coming with OS X Mountain Lion this summer? If so, you can do so now, as Apple has posted a public beta download for all to enjoy.

iMessage was one of the prominent features of iOS 5, and it allows users to chat across multiple devices using the same interface that’s used for SMS messages.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is by far the easiest way to get Siri running on your older devices like the iPhone 4, or iPod touch G4, and it requires no proxy server or meticulous setup.

As long as you have a generous friend that’s willing to send you a file from their jailbroken iPhone 4S, you can have Siri running on an older device in just a few minutes.

Inside, we’ll walk you through how to use AssistantConnect and AssistantConnect4Son video. It’s extremely simple, just follow this brief tutorial…

The app development world went into a frenzy, when social network app Path was caught uploading user’s address book information without asking for permission last week. We’ve already given our view on the matter, but yesterday, Forbes reported on a study by University of California at Santa Barbara that found Cydia apps leak private data less than apps available on the iTunes App Store.