Apple’s next major release of its operating system for the Mac will be available today, 25th July. It was announced yesterday during with the third quarter earnings report. 

The new OS version had been in beta since February and then Apple releasing a developer version earlier in July. The $19.99 download update adds a few new features which were in the iOS; Twitter integration, notes and reminders, dictation, iMessage, to send and recieve messages to other iOS devices, Game Center to allow playing against anyone on a Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch and new security with the Gatekeeper, which, “helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from.” There are other 200 features, listed here in complete. The new release has changed the system requirements to running the OS on the Mac, find out here if yours is up for it.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said of the update, “We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter. We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

Revenue for the third quarter had not been strong as some analyst thought it might have been, although profit was up 21% to $8.8 billion on revenue of $35 billion, it was less than the $9.8 billion forecast. As Tim Cook pointed out, sales of the iPad were strong, reaching 17 million, a big rise from the 11.8 million from the first quarter.