iMessage

WhatsApp Messenger (iPhone|Android) lets you chat for free with anyone else who owns the app and offers a few extra useful features to make text messaging more fun. With this chat app installed on your smartphone, you'll save a little money on text charges through your carrier and across platforms. The only catch is that you'll have to persuade your most frequent texting buddies to download the app, too, but once they see WhatsApp's advantages, they'll probably give it a try.

Like iMessage for iOS, WhatsApp Messenger shows your chats in little text bubbles, gives … Read more

WhatsApp Messenger (iPhone|Android) lets you chat for free with anyone else who owns the app and offers a few extra useful features to make text messaging more fun. With this chat app installed on your smartphone, you'll save a little money on text charges through your carrier and across platforms. The only catch is that you'll have to persuade your most frequent texting buddies to download the app, too, but once they see WhatsApp's advantages, they'll probably give it a try.

Like iMessage for iOS, WhatsApp Messenger shows your chats in little text bubbles, gives … Read more

Apple's iMessage and FaceTime networks are once again experiencing outages.

The outage, which is the second this week, began just before 8 a.m. PT, and once again affects "some users," according to Apple's system status page.

Both services experienced a similar outage this past Tuesday that lasted more than five hours.

iMessage is Apple's proprietary messaging platform that works between iOS and OS X users. FaceTime is the company's live video chat service, also for those two platforms. In January, Apple said that iMessage users were sending more than 2 billion messages a … Read more

Two of Apple's communication networks, iMessage and FaceTime, are currently experiencing outages for some users.

According to Apple's fancy system status page, the issues for the two services began just after noon PT.

iMessage, of course, is Apple's proprietary messaging platform that works between iOS and OS X users. FaceTime is the company's live video chat service, also for those two platforms. Affected users report being unable to send or receive iMessages or FaceTime video calls.

This is not the first outage for either service, though iMessage has historically experienced more problems. This latest follows one … Read more

A mobile communications company is suing Apple for allegedly infringing on its patents with messaging services on devices like the iPhone and the iPad, patent blog Patently Apple reported today.

Mobile Telecommunications Technologies claims Apple has infringed on seven patents and filed a suit involving Apple's iMessage, Airport Express, Airport Extreme, and Time Capsule and devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The company is essentially saying Apple shouldn't offer iMessage or any other messaging services including text messaging, iCloud, or e-mail.

Mobile Telecommunications Technologies runs communications service SkyTel, which provides paging and messaging services to U.… Read more

Apple's nearly year-and-a-half old iMessage service has been found to be vulnerable to an attack that uses a flood of messages, or messages so long that the application is rendered unstable.

According to a report from The Next Web, a small group of developers have found themselves the target of an attack that does one of those things -- sending what could be thousands of messages.

The source is suspected to be someone with involvement in pirated iOS software, who could have gotten some basic information needed to send another user a message through Apple's messaging service, The … Read more

At a time when mobile instant messaging is available in so many ways -- standard SMS, for free via through Facebook Messenger and through Apple's iMessage for iOS users -- you might think that a free messaging app wouldn't stand a chance as a standalone business.

Ted Livingston, a 25-year-old mobile wunderkind based in Waterloo, Ontario, is out to prove doubters wrong.

His app, Kik, became a viral sensation when it launched in the fall of 2010 -- it added 2 million users in 22 days -- and now claims more than 30 million registered users. More impressive … Read more

An iMessage security hole discovered earlier this year has reportedly been patched in iOS 6.

Revealed in February, the bug allowed texts through iMessage to continue to appear even after the phone's account information had been wiped, the SIM card deactivated, or the password changed. This meant that a stolen iPhone could still receive text messages intended for the device's owner.

The Next Web reported that a source with knowledge of the matter said that the issue was resolved in iOS 6 after Apple pushed through several new checks for iMessage. One critical tweak requires users who change … Read more

Apple will be ending its beta program on December 14 for testing its new Messages service that is part of OS X Mountain Lion and iOS.

In releases of OS X prior to Mountain Lion, Apple included its iChat instant messaging program that consolidated numerous messaging services such as Jabber, AIM, and Yahoo chat into one interface; however, this did not integrate with Apple's own iMessage and FaceTime services that it included in the iPhone as alternatives to SMS messaging.

To tackle this gap, Apple released Messages Beta for OS X in February as part of the Mountain Lion … Read more