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Posts tagged with "mac"

Skype for Mac Beta Gets Facebook Integration

With a blog post published a few minutes ago, Skype has announced a new beta version of its desktop client for OS X, which adds Facebook integration for chat, news feed, and friends’ posts. The new Skype for Mac 5.4, available for download here, allows users to connect with Facebook directly within the app – without having to open Facebook’s website – to start chatting with Facebook friends, like their posts, or read and update the News Feed.

Once authenticated with Facebook in-app, Skype 5.4 will display an additional Facebook tab in the Contacts view, enabling you to filter the buddy list down to only people who are available for IM through Facebook. The cross-platform IM solution seems pretty reliable in this regard, in that I was able to easily find a Facebook friend, and start chatting with her while I was using Skype 5.4 for Mac. She received my messages correctly on Facebook’s website. When another friend tried to contact me on Facebook via chat, a new message showed up in Skype’s sidebar next to his name (the Mac version of Skype also supports Growl notifications).

Similarly, I was able to read posts from my news feed, like them, and even post a status update using Skype 5.4.

Skype has also confirmed this release brings a new advertising platform to the app, although I haven’t been able to personally verify this yet:

We are also introducing an advertising platform in this new release, but if you are a paying Skype consumer or have Skype Credit, you won’t see any display ads; similar to the model that is currently being used in our Skype for Windows client.

Skype 5.4 beta for Mac can be downloaded here. After Microsoft’s acquisition, the company recently brought HD video calling to the Mac with version 5.3, and released a native client for the iPad.

iMessage for OS X To Be Integrated with iChat?

According a series of code strings found by MacRumors in the current version of iChat for OS X Lion, Apple may be building support for the new messaging system first announced at WWDC for iOS 5 devices inside its IM desktop application. The properties found in iChat’s code refer to “read” and “delivery” receipts, two iMessage features that inform users when a message has been read or simply delivered to another device, respectively. These code strings can’t be found in earlier versions of iChat, apparently, and MacRumors believes they can relate to iMessage support being built inside iChat for Lion.

The “timeDelivered” and “timeRead’ fields indicate the tracking of delivery and read receipts for instant messages. These features, however, are not supported in any of iChat’s native messaging protocols, while the same features are offered in Apple’s iMessage protocol. These properties were also not present in previous versions of iChat prior to OS X Lion. We believe the only reason Apple would have added these properties was to build in cross compatibility with their new iMessage protocol.

Ever since its introduction in June, many have wondered whether Apple could support iMessage, a free messaging protocol for iOS devices, on the desktop as well, allowing iOS users to send text messages to Mac users in their Address Book, and vice versa. Unlike FaceTime, iMessage works on both WiFi and 3G, but similarly to Apple’s video-calling solution it’s completely free of charge and works with email addresses and phone numbers – if an iOS user is already in your Address Book and he’s using the same phone number or email, iMessage will work. The service will be iOS 5-only when it launches this Fall, and Apple hasn’t revealed plans for OS X or Windows versions yet. iMessage has been compared to other free messaging solutions, like RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger, or Google’s Huddle.

A few code strings are no confirmation of Apple’s plans to build iMessage for Mac, but if history is of any indication, it would make sense for Apple to support its new app on multiple platforms. Whereas iChat as an app is still nowhere to be seen on iOS, FaceTime as a service was ported to the OS X and later built into every new Mac. For this reason, many are speculating iMessage could follow a similar trend, perhaps as a standalone app, or a service plugin for iChat.

In the past months, a number of fan-made mockups have tried to imagine what an hypothetical iMessage for Mac would look like. Just like the theories floating around, some imagined the service being supported in existing apps like iChat or Mail, others created videos showing iMessage working as a separate app for effortless Mac-iOS communication. Below, we’re embedding an iMessage concept by Jan-Michael Cart.

iMessage is currently available for iOS 5 beta testers, and it’ll publicly launch with iOS 5 and iCloud this Fall.
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Belkin Reveals New Thunderbolt Express Dock

Today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Belkin unveiled the Thunderbolt Express Dock featuring 3 USB ports, a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a Firewire port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. DailyTech notes that this is the same port setup that’s found on the new 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display – it seems very convenient that it’s the same arrangement as what Apple is already using.

The Belkin Express Dock could be very handy for Mac users wanting to expand their current port offering and don’t want to pay $999 for a Thunderbolt display. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced but the price should be reasonably below the cost of a Thunderbolt display. The next question is, will Belkin also include a Thunderbolt cable so you don’t have to dish out an extra $50 for one? [DailyTech]

mLogic’s mDock and mBack Offer Unique Backup Solutions for the Mac

mLogic has introduced two new accessories targeted toward iMacs and MacBook Pros - the mBack and mDock.

The mDock is a docking station and backup solution for your MacBook Pro. It eliminates repetitive plugging and unplugging of your peripherals, backs up your system when the MacBook Pro is docked (much like your iOS device), has front-mounted USB and headphone ports and also charges your iOS device via the “Amigo” that attaches to the back and adds an iPod/iPhone dock and a holder for the MagSafe power adapter. You can plug in such things as monitors, speakers and printers, and it comes with 500 GB or 1 TB of storage for your Time Machine backups. The mDock is $219 for 500 GB and $299 for the 1 TB option.

The mBack attaches onto the back of your iMac’s (or Thunderbolt Display) support stand and is Time Machine-compatible. It comes in 1, 2 & 3 TB versions with USB 2.0 interface. The mBack is $169 for 1 TB, $209 for 2 TB, or $349 for 3 TB.

mLogic was established by industry veteran Roger S. Mabon founder & CEO of G-Technology, Inc. – a leading provider of external disk storage solutions for Apple computers and now part of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (recently purchased by Western Digital Corporation). Their mission is to provide innovative and exciting add-on products for Mac computers. These are very unique and reasonably priced hardware for your Macs that offer multiple solutions all in one device. If this is only the beginning for mLogic, they’ve hit the ground running. We can’t wait to see what else is down the road for mLogic. [via SlashGear]

OS X Lion, MacBook Airs Driving Mac Growth In September Quarter

According to the latest NPD data and a note issued by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster – reported by Business Insider – Mac sales for the first two months of Apple’s Q4 are up 22%, with Wall Street’s estimates averaging 16% growth for the entire quarter. Apple is expected to announce its Q4 results sometime in October, and back at the Q3 earnings call in July the company anticipated there would be a “future product transition” that would affect the September quarter – suggesting the next-generation iPhone would ship before the end of Q4.

As for the Mac, Munster indicates the release of OS X Lion, updated MacBook Airs and Mac minis on July 20 helped contributing to the 22% year-over-year growth in the same period; NPD data suggests Apple could sell between 4.4 and 4.6 million Macs in the quarter. In Q3, Apple sold 3.95 million Macs, and Tim Cook noted the MacBook Pros made up for the majority of Mac sales. It is no secret, however, that ever since the refresh in October 2010 the updated MacBook Air line has been growing in popularity among existing Mac users as well as new customers, with several analysts calling it Apple’s new crown jewel.

Meanwhile, Apple announced 1 million copies of Lion sold after 24 hours of availability, but hasn’t released new data since then. Apple has encouraged customers to upgrade to the new OS thanks to heavy promotion in the Mac App Store and by releasing a USB thumb drive for those unable to download the 4 GB OS installer. Lion also comes pre-installed on the new Macs released this summer, certainly another selling points for the Airs and minis.