Apple has taken down the download links to the Messages for OS X beta application just weeks before the Mountain Lion launch. Don’t fret though; it’s likely only temporary as Apple begins making preparations to take their next-generation SMS application out of beta and into prime time with Mountain Lion.
If you were in on the beta, you know full well that there were still some kinks that needed to be ironed out of the release before it got fully incorporated into OS X. It sounds like Apple may have addressed most of these concerns in Mountain Lion. The previous home of the Messages beta application now forwards to the Mountain Lion page instead of displaying a download link for the beta package.
The Messages application allows users to sync conversations between the Messages application on their iOS device (via SMS or iMessage) and then have those messages forwarded and synced across all OS X and iOS devices that carry the same account.
There’s one thing we can learn from this, though. Apple’s clearly better at taking their beta packages out of testing and into reality than Google. How long did it take Google to kick the beta tag in their Gmail application? Was it five years?
Source: Cult of Mac
