Hasta La Gadget!

iMessage is a convenient way for iOS users to swap messages, and it seems that extends to those engaging in less-than-honest dealings, particularly of the drug variety in this case. The folks over at CNET got their hands on an internal Drug Enforcement Administration memo that details an investigation and the difficulty suspects who use Apple‘s messaging system pose.

Obviously this is good news for those who are hyper-conscious of their privacy and the snooping attempts of others, but not for government agencies trying to finger suspects for crimes. According to the DEA document, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices.” iMessage uses end-to-end encryption, and is massively popular, with the service having been used to transmit billions of chat messages.

It seems that as part of the investigation discussed, DEA agents received court permission to grab suspects’ text message logs from Verizon, only to discover blocks of obviously missing content. That content, it turns out, was because the individuals under surveillance were intermittently using iMessage. According to the DEA, those messages can’t be grabbed using Title III interceptions, trace devices, or trap devices.

This is part of an ongoing problem for law enforcement, with various government agencies having pursued and actively pursuing measures to add ways for them to access these messages. The ACLU has another view of the issue, however, with its senior policy analyst Christopher Soghoian stating, “The real issue is why the phone companies in 2013 are still delivering an unencrypted audio and text service to users. It’s disgraceful.”

[via CNET]

Apple’s iMessage encryption foils snooping, leaked DEA document reveals is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re here at Facebook’s phone event, where they just announced Facebook Home, a new home screen of sorts built for Android devices. The company is going a little deeper in depth on some of the new features, one of which is a new messaging system called Chat Heads, which essentially allows you to message your Facebook friends in a new way.

Facebook Chat Heads works in any app that you’re in, so if someone messages you while you’re playing around in another app, a “chat head” will pop up in the corner, letting you know that you received a message from this friend of yours. From there you can tap on the head to reply to the message.

Facebook addresses the problems with messaging on smartphones today, including the fact messaging is treated like “just another app.” This means that you’re switching between apps, which can become really annoying. Facebook notes that you should be talking to people, not apps.

You can also move the picture around to different parts of the screen, and when you’re done with the conversation, you can toss it off the screen to get it out of your way. It looks pretty slick, and really easy to use at that.

Facebook announces Chat Heads messaging service is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There’s a newcomer to the world of mobile messaging apps, and one with a standout feature that sets it apart from services like Whatsapp, or Kik Messenger. The newcomer is called Chorus.im and it allows mobile users to access its service directly from their mobile web browsers without needing to download their app. The messaging service features a uniform design throughout its stand-alone app, desktop browser version, and mobile browser version.

Chorus.im is very simple to get started with. You can sign up using your email, or you can just link your Facebook or Google account to the service. To start a chat message, all you need to do is invite a contact via phone number or email to initiate a conversation. The contact can join in by clicking the “join” button sent to their emails. This will be efficient for contacting buyers or sellers from Craigslist or eBay. You are able to have an instant chat with the person without needing to divulge your phone numbers. This allows users to use what Chorus.im says are “disposable chats”.

When using Chorus.im on your desktop’s web browser, you will receive notifications on the bottom right of your screen. Push notifications have yet to make it to the mobile browser version of Chorus.im, which is why the startup has launched stand-alone apps. They’re hoping to incorporate mobile browser push notifications within the next few years. While using the Android app, I noticed that there are still many bugs that need to be worked on, but that’s not surprising considering this service is still new. Android users may experience screen blackouts from time to time.

In the future, Chorus.im will start advancing more towards being a browser app. Eventually, the service will get rid of its stand-alone mobile apps. Chorus.im will have a difficult time prying users away from Whatsapp, or convincing users that it’s different from Facebook Messenger, which allows users to message via their desktop or mobile device. Nonetheless, having “disposable chats” will be a major selling point for Chorus.im, and when it is able to enable push notifications through mobile browsers, it’ll be a major contender in the messenger market.

[via Forbes]

Chorus.im brings mobile messaging to your browser is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today the folks at Google have been tipped to be pushing all (if not most) of their chat apps and ecosystems together into a single entity called Babble. This single chat system would take everything that is Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts, Voice, and Messenger, combining them into a final product that spans the entirety of your Google-made universe. With Babble, Google will have its Gmail for chat.

If you log in on your desktop computer, your Android smartphone, your Chromebook, or anything in-between, today you’re able to access your Gmail account. Not quite so solid is the connection between the many odds and ends in Google’s chat environment. If Google did indeed create a single chat service for any and all environments, anyone would be able to work with it as easily as they do Gmail – app or no.

The word on the street today is that Google Babble would work on many – if not all – mobile products as well as in-browser for desktop machines. BlackBerry own BBM – BlackBerry Messenger – continues to be one of their “unique” services that users love to a degree that keeps them stuck tight to the hardware. Apple uses Messages which now works between mobile and desktop machines seamlessly.

Even the app called WhatsApp has been trying to capitalize on the one-app cross-platform messaging gap that exists in the Google universe right this minute. So what’s holding Google back?

Perhaps nothing! If Google Babble does exist, you may want to bank on it being revealed around or at Google I/O 2013 – that’s starting on the 14th of May – coming up quick! Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on Google’s recent innovations with Hangouts in Google+ to see what we very well may be experiencing in Babble soon!

[via Geek]

Google Babble and the future of chat singularity is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Path hasn’t held the same grip on social networkers as Facebook or Twitter, in part because it’s almost too social — you can’t really control which friends (or friends of friends) see a post. The solution in Path 3.0? Recreate your Trapper Keeper from grade school, apparently. Along with introducing a much-appreciated private messaging system that lets two or more friends share text, maps, media and voice messages, the update lets us slap expressive stickers into the conversation when a basic emoticon just won’t do. Of course, that’s also how Path hopes to get a few extra bucks: two sticker packs come free, while others lurk in the same shop as custom photo filters. If you just have to tell buddies that Stacey was soooooo gross in chemistry class, you can get Path 3.0 today on iOS, and shortly on Android.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Path

Source: App Store, Google Play