Messages - page 7

Mac OS X has had the ability to recognize data like dates, times, and phone numbers for a while now. If you’re using the Mail app, you can right click on a recognized date and add it to the Calendar app. If you right click on a phone number, you can add it to the Contacts app. Pretty neat, right?

But what you may not have known, however, is that the app you can see iMessages in from anyone on an iOS or OS X device, Messages, is also able to recognize this data, making adding Calendar events from within Messages super easy. Here’s how to do it.

With Mountain Lion came Messages, Apple’s new version of iChat. The killer feature, of course, is that you can talk to folks on iOS or OS X right from your Mac, over the internet, without incurring SMS fees for those using an iOS device. I like it because I can chat with friends who are “texting” me during the day, but I don’t have to type on the smaller iPhone keyboard to do so.

But what about all those other IM services out there? Well, Messages supports AIM, Jabber, Google Talk, and Yahoo! messaging services, so you can run all your messages through the one app. It’s super easy to do, too.

In our Ten Killer Tips for iOS 6 feature, we showed you how easy it is to reply to a phone caller with a text message in iOS 6. When the call comes in, tap on the little phone icon in the lower right and slide up. You’ll get the option to either reply with a message or have your iPhone remind you to call the person back later.

If you choose to reply with a text message, you get a couple of built in replies–Call you later, I’m on my way, What’s up–or you can type a custom message. Ever wanted to change those pre-written messages? I know I have. Here’s how.

It used to be that in order to see images sent along to you in iChat, you’d open up the File Transfers window, click on the graphic, and hit the spacebar on your keyboard to see the image full size, just like you can in the Finder or Open/Save dialogs.

If you’ve migrated to Mountain Lion, however, you’ll know that iChat is no longer, and the replacement app, Messages, has a File Transfers window, but Quick Look won’t work in it any more. How do you see your images full size within the Messages app, then? Lucky you, we’re here to tell you.

Apple has seeded a new OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 build (12C35) to participants in its AppleSeed program, continuing its testing of Facebook integration. Though it states that there are no known issues with this update, the Cupertino company is also asking users to focus on Messages, Game Center, Safari, and Reminders.

When Apple unveiled iMessage, one of the first thoughts for many IT professionals and business users was that Apple had come up with a secure messaging platform that could rival RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger. While iMessage has a lot going for it as a secure messaging platform, there are still some reasons that it may not be an ideal business solution.

Here’s an obvious yet often overlooked tip – something that I’ve personally looked at every time I use the Messages app on my iPhone, but never really “connected” with.

I’ve often needed to send along a specific text message, to a boss or co-worker, or even to a family member. I’ve often copied an individual message, then pasted it into a message of my own to the new person.

Starting in iOS 5 iOS 4, though, there’s an easier way – forwarding it. Here’s how.

Has this happened to you? You’re out and about with friends, and a text message (or iMessage) hits your iPhone. Being a serious iPhone user and Tweeter, of course, you’ve left your iPhone out on the tabletop. Unfortunately, the text message that shows up on your screen isn’t very flattering to the friend sitting immediately to your left. She sees it, gets upset, storms off. Nobody wins.

With a quick trip to Settings, however, you can prevent this tale of tears and keep your iMessages for your eyes only. Here’s how.

It’s hard to believe that it was just a little more than a year ago that Apple released OS X Lion. Only twelve months later, and we’re now staring right down the maw of Apple’s ninth major release of Mac OS X: Mountain Lion.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion signifies a new approach on Apple’s part towards OS X updates: instead of going years between major releases, Cupertino is trying to take the rapid release approach that has worked so well for them with iOS and apply it to the Mac.

Mountain Lion, then, feels in many ways less like OS X 10.8 than OS X 10.7.5: a smaller, more tightly focused update continuing what OS X Lion started, taking iOS’s best ideas and bringing them to Mac.

Thanks to major breakthrough features like iCloud syncing, Notification Center, Sharing, AirPlay Mirroring and more, there’s less of a distinction in Mountain Lion between the Mac and iOS than ever. But is that a good thing, and how will it change the way you use your Mac?

Mountain Lion includes over 200 new features. Some of them are dramatic and hard to miss while others are minor conveniences that don’t stand out immediately. Many of those big and small new features and improvements have a lot of appeal for business users.

Here’s a list of the many new features in Mountain Lion that can help professionals in almost any industry work smarter, more efficiently, and more effectively.

Despite releasing OS X Mountain Lion and a whole host of app compatibility updates this morning, Apple has finished delivering new software. The Cupertino company just rolled out iTunes U version 1.2, which adds note-taking, and new search and sharing features.

Following the release of OS X Mountain Lion this morning, it seems Apple is also pushing out updates to its applications to ensure they’re compatible, and to take advantage of new features. One of the apps on that list is iPhoto, which now has new sharing options in version 9.3.2.

Following nearly six hours of downtime this morning, the Apple Online Store is back up. Although the Cupertino company has not added any new products, it has introduced a new notifications service that provides U.S. customers with text message alerts when their order status is updated.

If you’ve ever jailbroken an iPhone, you should be familiar with BiteSMS, the built-in Messages replacement that delivers almost every feature you could ever want in a messages app. One of its highlights is a feature called Quick Reply, which allows you to respond to incoming messages from the home screen, the lock screen, or from within other apps using a handy popup window.

The developer behind this awesome app has now brought Quick Reply to the hugely popular WhatsApp messenger, using a new tweak that’s available now from Cydia.

Facebook has updated its standalone Facebook Messenger app for the iPhone this morning to deliver a nice selection of new features, in addition to some bug fixes and performance improvements. Highlights include in-app notifications, the ability to delete individual messages, and support for larger images.

Apple has put a lot of work into developing its own secure messaging platform. With Mountain Lion and the Messages app that Apple rolled out in iOS 5, Apple is setting up its iMessage platform with a lot potential advantages for consumers and business users alike. For business, the always available and secure messaging is huge. Messages and conversations can be found on an employee’s iPhone, iPad, home iMac, work MacBook Air – that’s taking the concept of RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger service to a higher level.

For consumers, the great features are the integration of non-phone devices like the iPad and iPod touch and reduced reliance on carriers for texting, which can translate to cost savings (depending on mobile carrier/plan).

While most of us still use SMS to send text messages, there’s a distinct trend in shifting to using solutions like Apple’s Message platform.

Shortlt after Apple announced Mountain Lion would be shipping next month, Cult of Mac reported that Cupertino had already begun preparation for the operating system by pulling the Messages for Mac Beta from their official site. The app allowed users of OS X Lion to send iMessages to iPhones, iPads and other Macs, but since it’s a headlining feature of the $20 Mountain Lion operating system, it stands to reason they’d want to start curtailing access to the service for Lion users.

That’s not all Apple’s doing, however. According to a new report, Apple is actually forcibly disabling the Messages Beta for OS X Lion users. They really want you upgrading if you use Messages,

If you haven’t already installed the Messages application on your Mac, you will now have to wait until OS X Mountain Lion is released next month to get your hands on it. The Messages for Mac beta, which was released back in February after Apple’s initial Mountain Lion preview, has now been pulled by the Cupertino company.

Apple could be preparing to kill off OS X Lion early in favor of its predecessor, Mountain Lion, according to the company’s AppleCare training schedule. One source claims that the Cupertino company is already recruiting and training staff for the new release, which could get its debut in June, weeks earlier than expected.

When Cliff Weitzman emailed me about his Black SMS iPhone app, I was impressed by the pitch alone. An App Store app that encrypts text messages and emails between iPhones and iPads? Sign me up!

Black SMS accomplishes a task that I haven’t seen anything from the App Store come close to replicating. It does indeed encrypt your texts and emails so that they are unreadable without the Black SMS app and an associated password. CIA agents and paranoid boyfriends should take notice of this one.

Some new jailbreak tweaks have surfaced in Cydia that allow you to open and send all kinds of files between iOS devices with iMessage. Apple’s messaging protocol can be used to send much more than simple SMS and MMS messages; you can send everything from a song to a PDF.

Attacher will let you send and receive all kinds of files with iMessage, and it includes a couple features that make it a compelling offering. A pair of jailbreak tweaks called SendAny and ReceiveAny also accomplish the same goal with a different approach. Which tweak option is best? Let’s take a closer look.

Following the release of Apple’s second Mountain Lion beta late last week, registered developers have been stumbling across a number of new features that weren’t present in the first beta. These include Twitter notifications, “iCloud Tabs,” and location-based reminders.

This is neat: When you log into a webmail account using Safari in OS X Mountain Lion, Safari will offer to save the login info. So far, so familiar. The new trick is that it will also offer to set up your Mac apps with the same login. Thus, you sign in to Gmail and Safari will ask if you want to use your Gmail account with Mail, Messages and Calendar.

Yesterday, we reported that Apple’s new Messages app icon looked pretty shamelessly similar to that of HipChat‘s. Now HipChat has spoken out about the maybe-theft-probably-concidence, and while they don’t have any hard feelings, they still think it sucks they’re about to get steamrolled by Apple.

Enjoying the Messages beta that Apple released yesterday? It’s fantastic, isn’t it? But don’t get too attached to it, because unless you plan to upgrade to Mountain Lion this summer, you’ll lose the application when the beta ends.