messager

The first world is fixated on smartphones that can handle videoconferencing and first-person shooters, but Google and Orange announced a service today that's geared for a population whose phones only have that most basic of data-transfer abilities, text messaging.

Google and Orange, the mobile arm of France Telecom, announced a partnership today to bring a service called Gmail SMS Chat to four additional countries in Africa--Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, and Niger--and to launch it as a trial program in Egypt. The service already is available in Senegal, Uganda, and Kenya, but will reach the new countries in … Read more

Knowing who sent you a text message before even looking at your phone is extremely convenient, especially if you are the type who receives many SMS messages daily. One way to know who is on the other end of that SMS you just received, is to customize the text alert, based on a contact, on your iPhone. It is a simple process to set up, but one that is easy to miss if you aren't paying attention.

While this capability has been around for those in the jailbreak community from early on, it's a fairly new feature having been introduced in iOS 4.2. 

… Read more

Attaching smileys to instant messages, texts, and e-mail can be a fun and easy way to add character to your messages. Whether you're trying to convey extreme joy :D or sorrow :'(, there are some extra smileys built into your Android phone's keyboard that you may not know about. However, finding them is just a couple of finger presses away.

Step 1: Open the app you want to send a message from.

Step 2: Tap the screen where you want to start typing so the keyboard will pop up.

Step 3: Press and hold on the happy smiley face … Read more

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Thursday, June 30.

A hands-on look at Google+, using Google+ The CNET News staff takes a look at Google's new social-networking site. We like how Circles lets users segment friends, but we think the way the system suggests connections is challenging. Check out the new social service. More

Behind the scenes at TechShop (photos) As maker hub TechShop expands with a new location in San Jose, Calif., CNET's Boonsri Dickinson takes a tour of the San Francisco … Read more

Yesterday's batch of free iPhone games got me in the mood for more free stuff. I mean, even cheap deals cost money, right? Sometimes you just gotta give the credit card a rest.

With that in mind, I've rounded up a handful of freebies for today. Nothing earth-shattering, but some worthwhile stuff to satisfy your daily-deal sweet tooth.

First up, Amazon is offering a free $2 credit for use at its MP3 store. Just click that link and enter code CLOUDMP3. Presto: you've got two bucks to blow on the songs or album of your choice. (If … Read more

Sending group messages to family and friends is a great way to communicate with everyone without having to retype or copy and paste a message over and over. The iPhone just so happens to be capable of sending and receiving group messages. Even though the phone used in the video is running iOS 5, this feature has been around for a while and is not iOS 5 specific.

Enabling this feature is simple:

Go to Settings > Messages > Group Messaging and turn it on. That's it!

Now, when you send a group message, if the other user has … Read more

The Gmail app gives you quick access to your Google e-mail account (or multiple accounts) right from your Android mobile device. As expected, it integrates nicely with your other Android applications as well as with your device's contacts.

Gmail for Android packs all of the e-mail basics like composing, reading, deleting, and replying into a simple, user-friendly interface. Like its full Web browser counterpart, it also lets you browse through your messages by label, and even apply labels to messages. Adding Stars, reporting Spam, and creating a Signature are also simple.

While the Gmail app is strong at all … Read more

Apple could sign up as many as 150 million iPhone users to its new iCloud service, according to projections based on a survey from RBC Capital Markets.

In a report released today, RBC found that 76 percent of the 1,500 iPhone users polled from June 7 to 14 intend to use the iCloud service. Unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, iCloud will allow iOS device users to store, access, and sync their iTunes content online.

iMessage also should be a hot item, according to RBC. The survey found 73 percent of iPhone users plan to … Read more

Yahoo Mail for Android gives you quick access to your Yahoo e-mail account (or multiple accounts) right from your mobile device. As a mobile mail client, we really couldn't ask for more. It's clean, user-friendly, and it includes some added bonuses that make it feel very much like its desktop counterpart. For instance, composing messages is a much richer experience than in other mobile e-mail apps, thanks to all the formatting tools that Yahoo Mail offers. It lets you make text bold, italicized, or underlined. It even lets you change font color, size, or add emoticons.

Overall, we … Read more