Download the free Messages Beta - iMessage Beta | Hacker News Reader

Download the free Messages Beta - iMessage Beta

apple.com

36 pointsshadow17 comments

http://appldnld.apple.com/MessagesBeta/041-4274.20120216.z5k...

Direct link for those having issues downloading...

Is it just me or recently Apple is mr me too? I mean, this is a lot like WhatsApp, except it's cross platform, which i see a big no go for me really. The new OS from Apple also has a ton of apps that were created using the successful models they found in appstore, if they like them so much why don't they buy them.

Whatsapp chat interface design actually copied from Apple's SMS app.

This replaces iChat when you install it.

For me it's nearly he same, the buddies window is exactly the same. Although they changed up how messages display.

You used to be able to not have windows grouped together (i.e. you could drag/drop different conversations out into their own window). You can no longer do that. You can move them to their own window, but if the buddy responds again it goes to both the 'main' window and the new window. Kind of weird.

I haven't really liked tabbed chatting, but I guess this may be time to deal with it.

I wish the addressing mechanism of iMessage was more clear. If I send someone an iMessage from my Mac, does it show up as from my email address of my Apple account? Is the phone number of my iPhone automatically registered as an iMessage-eligible recipient when I set up my Apple account on my iPhone (currently doesn't appear to be).

What Apple has done is merge all addressed/phone numbers of an AppleID into one. If you send a message with Messages on you phone, your side of the conversation will appear in the thread on your phone/iPad/etc. They are one now.

So, people can iMessage you at any of the identifiers attached to you AppleID and it will be sent to all locations.

Sucks for me since I give my Google Voice number to everyone and there's no way to register that with Apple AFAIK. So all my iMessages to peoples' phones show up as from my email address that's tied to my Apple account, which very few people have in their address book, or my actual AT&T cell phone number, which absolutely no one has in their address book.

Is this correct? I have sent and received iMessages on my phone but they do not appear on my iPad or my Mac. I wish it worked as you described, but it doesn't seem to be.

agreed. this was the first thing I tested after upgrading to iMessage on OSX this morning

working for me on my iPad, iPhone and Mac. Notifications are dismissed on all other devices once it's being read on either one of the devices

Except it doesn't work quite right. My friend and I both have iPhones and iPads. If I send her a "text" from my iPhone, sometimes it ends up on her iPad, if the last place she sent me a message was from her iPad, and vice versa. This results in missed messages both ways. If iMessage delivers a message, it should deliver to all registered devices for the user. The process is so opaque that you can't really see what it's doing to try to get it to work right. In that sense, it's kind of like Siri, the concept is the right one, but the execution sucks.

i am now just wondering how long it will take to reverse engineer the protocol so we can get this working on more than just a Mac (Windows would be handy, but think about getting this to talk to your Web Service!)

Does it work on Mac OS X Leopard on PowerPC?

Looks like it requires 10.7.3

EDIT: probably shouldn't have fed a troll EDIT2: No troll here

lol It might sound like a troll question, but honestly, my primary Mac still is a PowerMac G5 2x1.8GHz bought in 2004 ...

But no worries, I'm going to replace it the coming Summer with an iMac 27"

My mistake!

It definitely requires 10.7.3

Sorry about that.

No, it's Intel only and requires Max OSX 10.7.3

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