iMessages on the Mac
Apple just announced that we would be seeing the release of Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion this summer, barely 12 months after the release of 10.7 Lion. Most features seem to point to a continuation of the convergence of OS X and iOS. The upgrade will overall certainly be worth the cheap upgrade price Apple has adopted with the previous releases of OS X. Perhaps the feature I was the most excited about is the addition of iMessages. Although the concept is extremely simple, Apple is essentially bringing texting to Macs. Perhaps even more exciting, Apple went ahead and released a beta version for 10.7 Lion. It is certainly delivering on its promise; the implementation is flawless and it syncs amazingly well with iMessages on the iPhone and iPad. I was surprised that the background notification even disappeared on the iPhone when I switched app on the Mac and the iMessage became "read". The speed of synching is truly amazing, the notification disappeared as soon as I hit "Command-Tab" on the Mac. I do have negative comments about the app however. It is mostly design-wise; it feels like an app that came with Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar. The design is really 2002 and Apple needs to rework it. Rumours are also floating on the web that the icon is a ripoff of HipChat, but frankly, they shouldn't have bothered copying another app, the icon needs a redesign as well to make it worthy of Mountain Lion.
Here is a direct download link to the beta of Messages for Mac (OS X Lion 10.7.3 required).
Going back to Snow Leopard’s Dashboard
Lion is an improvement on almost every front, but Dashboard took a hit when it comes to functionality. To me, the real strength of the Dashboard is that my desktop stays in the background. With 10.7's Dashboard, it is also no longer possible to bring widgets back to the desktop. If you don't yet know this tip, it is possible to bring widgets out of the Dashboard with the developer mode enabled. To enable the developer mode, simply paste this line in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
For this to be possible in Lion, however, we have to go back to 10.6's Dashboard. To do so, open System Preferences, click on "Mission Control" and uncheck "Show Dashboard as a space":
The return of A New Mac Tip Every Day
You might remember my work from the first version of A New Mac Tip Every Day. I stopped publishing on this site a few years ago as I felt I could no longer bring enough value to the site. With the releases of new Apple software, I have kept running into amazing new hidden features that have made me wish A New Mac Tip Every Day still existed, so here it is. There might not be a new post a day, but I will certainly be posting many new tips over the next few weeks. Since OS X and iOS are converging more than ever, all Mac, iPhone and iPad tips will be posted here.