messager

Loaded's Bridget Carey sits down with us for a roundup of breaking news from the Mobile World Congress, a smartphone expo based out of Barcelona that started this weekend.

The announcements range from Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) handsets with simpler nomenclature and integrated quad-core processors with new features like built-in projectors and a Nokia PureView smartphone with an insane 41-megapixel camera.… Read more

Facebook is being accused of snooping on its users' text messages, but the social network says the accusations are inaccurate and misleading.

The company is among a wide-ranging group of Web entities, including Flickr and YouTube, that are using smartphone apps to access text message data and other personal information, according to a Sunday Times report (behind a paywall). The newspaper said Facebook "admitted" to reading users' text messages during a test of its own messaging service. The report also says information such as user location, contacts list, and browser history are often accessed and sometimes transmitted to … Read more

It's no secret SMS is wildly popular, but according to a new report from research firm Ovum, carriers around the world lost quite a bit of revenue last year after mobile phone owners turned to other services to chat with friends.

The research firm revealed yesterday that carriers lost $13.9 billion in SMS revenue in 2011 because of consumers chatting with friends on social-messaging applications. Those applications range from everything from Facebook's mobile app, which features chatting, to instant-messaging apps. Apple's iMessage is also included in that list.

It was a similarly disappointing year for carriers … Read more

Twitter has again tweaked its iPhone and Android apps, reviving a few "high-demand" features that were jettisoned from the previous versions, as described yesterday in Twitter's official blog.

Both apps have brought back the swipe shortcut. Swiping a tweet in your timeline now displays the toolbar of icons that let you reply to, retweet, share, or view the tweeter's profile all without having to exit the timeline.

And both versions have added a new alert to the "Find Friends" feature. Now when you tap on the feature at the bottom of the Discover tab, … Read more

Apple has let the cat out of the bag; OS X Mountain Lion is available as a developer preview starting today, and planned for release this summer.

But, to give the Mac and iOS faithful a taste of what's to come, a beta preview of the new Messages app has also been made available starting today. What's so special about the Messages beta? It includes iMessage for OS X, meaning you can send and receive iMessages from your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch--seamlessly.

Before I start diving into Messages, we have to point out that it is … Read more

E-mail is the greatest office productivity booster since the invention of the telephone. E-mail is the biggest waste of work time since the invention of the coffee maker.

Lately, I've been leaning toward the latter proposition. I calculate that only one in five of the messages that make it through Gmail's spam filter into my inbox are worth the time it takes to open and read them.

This doesn't include the spam Gmail automatically identifies and blocks, which in recent years has dropped from more than 90 percent of all the messages sent to just over 70 … Read more

We all know texting while driving is a deadly combination, yet who can resist the siren song of that new-message ding? I'll admit it's tough not to steal a glance at the phone--and once you're glancing, you're reading.

Most owners of Android-powered smartphones know about Google Voice Actions, which, among other things, allows you to dictate text messages using just your voice.

However, there's still a bit of screen interaction required, as you have to find and tap the microphone to engage Voice Actions. And what about messages you receive? There's no hands-free help there.

Enter Text by Voice, an admirably effective app that makes texting a totally hands-free experience. With it you can send and listen to messages without so much as touching your phone. It's entirely voice-powered.… Read more

The next beta of Windows 8 will apparently give us a healthy dose of Metro apps, whether we want them or not.

Microsoft plans to release the Windows 8 Consumer Preview--basically, a pre-release version of the new OS available to anyone who wants to download it--on February 29. Microsoft is reportedly finalizing the Metro apps that will be bundled with the new OS. Citing "sources familiar with Microsoft's plans," the Verge revealed the current list as:

These are just the apps known so far, so there could … Read more

Apple has weighed in on a controversial issue with its iMessage service that keeps accounts on devices even when the owner has wiped the phone.

A story posted by Gizmodo yesterday detailed the dangers of the issue after a reader sent the outlet photos and details of iMessage exchanges that appeared on their iPhone after having it serviced at an Apple store.

According to their story, it all stemmed from that employee using their own phone's SIM card as part of the repair, which linked up the customer's phone to that employee's iMessage account. That resulted in … Read more