If you're new to the Mac, haven't upgraded your operating system in a while or simply want to know just about everything there is to know about Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you'll want David Pogue's "OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual."

One of the latest entries in the "manual that should've come in the box" series has 904 pages of details on the 200-plus new features in Mountain Lion. There are in-depth looks at such new features as Dictation, Notification Center, Reminders, Twitter and Facebook integration, Air-Play TV mirroring,. Power Nap, Game Center, Documents in the Cloud, iMessages and Gatekeeper.

The Missing Manual also looks at the hundreds of smaller enhancements, too, as well as all 50 programs that come with the Mac: Safari, Mail, Messages, Preview and more. For power users, there's info on security, accounts, networking, build-your own Services, file sharing with Windows and more.

As with all his books, Pogue infuses everything with a sense of humor that keeps what could have been a dry technical instruction book fun and upbeat. If you're not familiar with the author, he's the weekly personal-technology columnist for the "New York Times" and an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News. His funny tech videos appear weekly on CNBC. In 1999, he launched his own series of amusing, practical, and user-friendly computer books called Missing Manuals, which now includes 100 titles.

"OS X Mountain Lion" is available in an US$27.99 e-Book version or $34.99 print edition. You can learn more at http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025634.do .