How’s that new beta of Messages treating you? If you’re running OS X Lion 10.7.3 and have no plans to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion when it’s released this summer, you’d better prepare to go back to iChat: Messages will be exclusive to the lion that roams the mountains after release.
MacRumors has done a bit of digging with the new Messages beta Apple released on Thursday morning and is reporting back to the troops with its findings.
First up, the mountain of evidence for higher resolution Mac displays continues to grow. Dubbed “HiDPI” after being discovered in OS X Lion back in July, 2011, these graphics would essentially offer double-resolution “Retina Displays” for the Mac, with four times the normal pixels.
With iOS, Retina Display graphics are indicated with a “@2x” suffix -- and hey, wouldn’t you know it, the new Messages beta app “shows several graphics that come in multi-part TIFFs that include regular and double resolution versions,” MacRumors reveals. It’s not quite a leap of faith to assume that Apple is preparing OS X Mountain Lion for Retina Display support on the Mac -- although whether or not it will arrive with OS X 10.8 this summer remains to be seen.
Finally, OS X Lion users shouldn’t get too comfortable with their Messages beta -- according to Consomac, “Messages will no longer be available for Lion users once the beta expires.” Exactly when that fateful day will arrive is unknown, but here’s what beta users will see when it comes:
“Thank you for participating in the Messages Beta program,” the message reads. “With the inclusion of Messages in OS X Mountain Lion, the Messages Beta program has ended. To continue using Messages, please visit the Mac App Store and purchase OS X Mountain Lion.”
Kind of a bummer, but not totally unexpected, given that Messages is a high-profile feature of OS X Mountain Lion to begin with.
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