iMessage

Hands-on with Couria, an upcoming quick reply and quick compose tweak for iOS 8

Couria is a quick reply and quick compose tweak for iOS that originally debuted back in the iOS 7 days. Today, the Messaging landscape for jailbroken devices is significantly different, with a key major player, biteSMS, now defunct.

With this in mind, a few tweaks that are currently in the works are hoping to reinvigorate the Messaging app tweak genre. One of them, Couria, plays heavily on the infrastructure already put in place by Apple, piggybacking on the native quick reply feature in iOS 8.

How to use Facebook stickers in iMessage conversations

One of the things that I learned while visiting Korea last year is that Koreans love using an app called KakaoTalk. Kakao is a messaging app that pretty much everyone in Korea uses. It's an app that's instantly recognizable due to the bright, colorful, animated stickers that litter the conversations of passersby.

I've always thought that it would be cool if iMessage users could use animated stickers within the Messages app, and now it's a reality thanks to a new jailbreak tweak called StickerMe. StickerMe takes the stickers available within the Facebook Messenger app, and brings them to an iMessage conversation near you.

Apple enables two-step verification for FaceTime and iMessages

Apple has enabled two-step verification for its FaceTime and iMessage services, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The move will force users who have the authentication system enabled to input an app-specific password when logging into either of the two services.

For those unfamiliar with the term, two-step verification is an opt-in system that adds an additional layer of security to Apple ID accounts. It requires users to input authentication codes when logging into iCloud on new devices, the web, and now iMessage and FaceTime.

BlackBerry calls upon US government to force Apple to port iMessage to its smartphones

Disregarding for a moment the fact that Apple has never actually made any promises regarding bringing iMessage to other platforms (unlike FaceTime, but that's a topic for another story), the embattled smartphone maker BlackBerry wants Apple's messaging platform on its smartphones so badly that it's calling on the United States government to intervene and do something about it.

It's not a joke: BlackBerry CEO John Chen penned a post over at the company blog proposing just that.

In a nutshell, rather than let the market dictate what any company should do, he's demanding that the Cupertino firm make iMessage cross-platform.

Judge green-lights lawsuit against Apple over text message delivery issue

Federal judge Lucy Koh has green-lighted a lawsuit against Apple over its long-standing iMessage issue that causes some former iPhone users to not receive their text messages, reports Reuters. The lawsuit was filed in May by San Jose, California resident Adrienne Moore.

Moore says Apple didn't properly warn her that she'd quit receiving text messages after switching from an iPhone to a Galaxy S5. There's no word yet on what kind of damages Moore is asking for, but she is seeking class action status, which would allow others to join the suit.

The EFF ranks iMessage and FaceTime as most secure mass-market messaging options

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (or EFF) has posted a new Secure Messaging Scorecard, which ranks popular messaging offerings based on their security measures. The Scorecard uses a variety of metrics, such as methods of encryption and user privacy, and Apple's messaging options faired rather well.

While dedicated secure messaging apps like ChatSecure and CryptoCat scored the highest, the EFF found Apple's iMessage and FaceTime systems to be "the best of the mass-market options." The two services were found more secure than several high profile apps, including BlackBerry Messenger and Skype.

How to manage group iMessages in OS X Yosemite

Like iOS 8, OS X Yosemite brings tons of new features to the table when it comes to iMessage. You can now do interesting things like rename iMessage Conversations, add additional participants to a group message conversation, and leave a group iMessage conversation outright.

Have a look at our video walkthrough after the break, which showcases these three new group iMessage features in OS X Yosemite.

The best new features of iOS 8

Admittedly, the myriad of new and useful capabilities that Apple's just-released iOS 8 brings to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are going to prove hugely popular with mainstream users, to say the least. With iOS 8, Apple is appeasing harsh critics who'd frequently point out that Android is capable of things iOS cannot do, and then some more.

iOS 8 opens up Apple's mobile operating system to third-party development to a much greater extent than ever before. And stemming from relaxed policies, iOS 8 boosts on-the-go productivity with deeper inter-app sharing while implementing some of the features our Android friends have grown accustomed to, but in a typical hassle-free Apple fashion, things like third-party keyboards, custom actions, photo editing extensions within the context of Photos and Camera apps and way more.

And though evolutionary rather than revolutionary, we have no doubt in our minds that iOS 8 is going to significantly improve the functionality of Apple's mobile platform, and perhaps even give some folks less reasons to jailbreak.

To celebrate today's release of the free iOS 8 software update, we proudly present you this detailed overview of more than two dozen iOS 8 features we think you're going to fall in love with at first sight.

Rumor: Apple planning to acquire social network Path

Apple is close to announcing an acquisition of the social network Path, according to a report from PandoDaily, in an attempt to bolster its social offerings. According to a lone-source said to be placed within Apple's engineering team: “It’s almost done, if not signed already, but it’s essentially a done deal.”