Windows 8 vs. OS X Mountain Lion #Part 2

Windows 8's Browser: Internet Explorer 10

IE10 comes in two flavors—new and desktop. The new (formerly known as "Metro") IE10 is full screen and touch-friendly, while the desktop IE10 uses an interface identical to its IE9 predecessor. Both guises use the same underlying webpage rendering engine, which is faster and more compliant with new standards than IE9.
Internet Explorer 10 not only takes hardware acceleration using a PC's graphics processor up a notch, but implements far more HTML5. These are important factors, since many new Windows 8 apps will use IE as their own rendering engine. Like Apple's Safari, IE10 under Windows 8 will allow syncing of favorites and history.

Mountain Lion's Browser: Safari 6

One of the major new pieces of Mountain Lion was Safari 6. Notably, the Windows version of Safari hasn't come along for this update, so Apple's browser is starting to look like the Mac and iOS exclusive that IE is on Windows and Windows Phone. With version 6, Safari has joined most new browsers' design choice of using a single box for address entry and search. Safari’s Cloud Tab feature shows you the tabs that are open on your other devices, so you can resume browsing after moving from one device to another. The updated browser also has a new tab view that lets you swipe through large thumbnails.

Sharing from Mountain Lion

Apps in Mountain Lion get a new Sharing arrow button that lets them post whatever current item you're on by posting directly to email, iMessage, Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo. Coming in the Fall will be the one place we all really want to share digital stuff to—Facebook. This sharing tool will not only let you post photos and links, but you'll be able to add comments and location info. 

Sharing from Windows 8

Windows 8 has a built in Sharing button that's always available from the "charms" toolbar. You can call this up at any time by moving the mouse to the upper or lower-right corner of the screen or by swiping in from the right on a touchscreen. The Share charm taps in to email, SkyDrive, and any social network you've connected to the built-in Windows 8 People app.

Extra Goodies in Windows 8

Microsoft has built several useful and fun new-style apps that ship with Windows 8, including Mail, Photos, People, Messaging, Weather, Finance, Calendar, Maps, News, Sports, Music, and Video. Many of these display live updated info on their Start page tiles—something not possible on the Mac OS X desktop or even in iOS. Windows 8's Metro Snap feature lets you get a peek at a second app while running your primary app in full screen. A final new pair of goodies in Windows 8 will be the ability to "Refresh" or "Reset" the system. With the first, you keep all your apps but clean out all the operating system gunk files, and with the second, you get a completely new Windows installation—perfect for gifting an older machine to a relative.

And speaking of older machines, perhaps the biggest "extra" for Windows 8 is that its desktop mode can run every Windows legacy app. Not only has it been updated with a more-modern, flat window border look, but Windows Explorer and Task Manger have been updated with new looks and capabilities. Drastically faster startup than previous versions of Windows could also be considered an extra, though it's also become an essential for any platform with mobile aspirations, given the iPad's fast startup. 

Extra Goodies in Mountain Lion

Mac OS X's AirDrop feature stands out among its extra goodies: It lets you transfer files to any nearby Mac without disks, USB keys, or even a WiFi connection. Other nifty capabilities outlined are Auto Save and Versions, which mean you never have to worry about losing a document because you forgot to hit Save. The problem is: Software vendors aside from Apple itself have been slow to implement support for Lion's built-in Versions and AutoSave. Find My Mac does for your laptop what's been possible on the iPhone for years. Longtime goodies for Mac users include Preview and QuickTime, which let you view most of the media and document file types you're likely to download.

New for Mountain Lion is Dictation, which lets you talk whenever you'd normally have to type. This is something that's been in iOS 5.1, and I find it incredibly useful. New, too, is Game Center—also with iOS roots—which lets you manage all your gaming apps and activities. It also connects you to a gaming network, with leaderboards, achievements, in-game chat, and notifications. Speaking of notifications, don't forget the goodies coming from iOS mentioned earlier, including the Notification Center and iMessage. 
 See #Part3 & #Part1

Source Article; By Michael Muchmore  for PC MAG