Apple has kept most of the OS X Mountain Lion fun to itself, developers, oh and us for the moment, but Lion users can try out one of the most interesting elements, the new Messages app, today. A free download for OS X Lion, Messages replaces iChat and adds support for the text, photo and video instant messaging that iOS 5 users have been enjoying for some time now.
Seven months ago Apple launched OS X Lion; now, 19m copies later, it's ready to preview OS X Mountain Lion. The next update for Mac isn't expected to hit the Mac App Store for download until this summer, but SlashGear caught up with Apple to find out the top ten - or in fact eleven - headline features of Mountain Lion, as well as get our hands on early version of the developer preview. iMessage jumps to OS X, along with Game Center and Notifications, and plenty more, as Apple narrows the gap between iPad and Mac. Read on for all the details.