We’ve mentioned before about brands rewarding for loyalty in the tech industry, and buyers of Apple products know how well many of their devices connect to each other. Texting between iPhone’s, iPad’s and the iPod touch has never been easier and it seems that Apple want to connect their mobile and desktop devices better in the coming year.
When we first tried iOS 5 and the new message system it seemed a step that was both obvious and extremely useful, which meant that you could text people without an iPhone and the messages would show in a green color but those with an iOS device showed in blue. If your friends or family had an iOS device then the messages with videos and photos could be sent via Wi-Fi, and this saves you money/text allowances because they’re free between Apple devices.
It’s hard to explain what a massive difference it makes to prioritize Wi-Fi for sending messages and using 3G as a secondary option, which not only gives faster delivery and instant display of the recipient typing but also benefits thousands of people that like to send text messages internationally.
The next step is Apple’s Messages beta — we wrote about a number of features for Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion a couple of days ago, and today we wanted to focus on the new Apple Messages beta. Some of our readers would rightly point out that other messaging services already have what Apple is building, although it’s how Apple are centralizing all messages under one service for many Apple products, which is likely to build more allegiance for the popular tech brand.
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will change everything – We’ve heard about people trading Android phones in for iPhone’s just because they love the iPad, iPod touch or Mac OS X computers. Users want their gadgets to work better together and when it comes to messaging Apple are going to make iOS and OS X work in harmony, which means starting a conversation on one Apple device and then carrying on where you left off with another. Think about talking on your iMac via the future Messages app and then going mobile to carry on messaging.
Let’s take a closer look at Apple Messages beta — we’ve included some videos below this article to help you get a better understanding of the new Messages beta, although if you want to jump in and download the software right now head over to this page on Apple’s website. The first video below gives you a quick overview from the moment Messages is installed, which is great if you want to see how the setup guide works.
The second video takes a look at how Messages beta easily works with other iOS devices like the iPhone, and in this video they start typing on a Mac and then jump onto an iPhone to see the message already there ready to carry on with that device if the user wants to. In the third video we’ve included a just under 10-minute hands-on with Mountain Lion 10.8, although those of you that want to see the official preview should see the fourth video below.
Have you downloaded the Messages beta for Mac OS X, if so how did you find it? Let us know if you find any problems with the beta.
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