OS X Mountain Lion will arrive this summer.  Apple has a preview up on their website.  Cool, but you know what is better?  The ability to download Messages, a beta program that works with Lion, yet is an official part of OS X Mountain Lion.  So what is Messages?

Well, if you own an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad than your familiar with iMessage.  It allows you to text, send pics, videos, attachments, contacts and more between any of the aforementioned devices at $0 cost.  And now, thanks to Messages, which all together replaces iChat, you can perform this very same feat from your computer…and more.  The more is the ability to engage in a Facetime chat from your computer to presumambly an iPhone or iPod Touch, something not previously available in iChat.  You can also pick up your conversations from any device as it should (we’re stressing should because iCloud is wonky with syncing contacts) sync your discussions to every iOS device.  We haven’t tested Messages yet ourselves, but that said you can download Messages directly from Apple by hitting the source link below.

Apple hasn’t stated it outright on their page, but we’re thinking it will work with Gchat and other protocols, such as Jabber and a few others.  

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