messaging
Software
Ping Is Like A Free SMS Client For iPhone And iPod Touch Users
10:00AM Jason Chen | This Ping app by the guy who made PushGmail is a mix between text messaging and instant messaging. What you need to know is that it’s free and it’s fast. More »
Business
4:55AM Jesus Diaz | I really hope this iPhone patent gets implemented. Not because I personally need it, but because it’s cool: Apple has designed a method to transfer messages or archives to whoever you are talking with on the phone, in real time: More »
Apple Patents In-Call Messaging And File Transfer
4:55AM Jesus Diaz | I really hope this iPhone patent gets implemented. Not because I personally need it, but because it’s cool: Apple has designed a method to transfer messages or archives to whoever you are talking with on the phone, in real time: More »
Phones
9:30AM Nick Broughall | Yesterday morning, Nokia showed off the new E75 sideways slider handset that Jesus got a look at back at Mobile World Congress. And while he thought it was a well made phone that lacked any really distinguishing features, the Aussie launch will coincide with Nokia’s new messaging service, which brings push email to your Symbian device from any POP or IMAP account, including Gmail. More »
Nokia Takes On BlackBerry With The E75 Slider And Their New Email Service
9:30AM Nick Broughall | Yesterday morning, Nokia showed off the new E75 sideways slider handset that Jesus got a look at back at Mobile World Congress. And while he thought it was a well made phone that lacked any really distinguishing features, the Aussie launch will coincide with Nokia’s new messaging service, which brings push email to your Symbian device from any POP or IMAP account, including Gmail. More »
Gadgets
Rumour: Peek Pronto Is Peek’s Business Email Device
9:50AM Matt Buchanan | Now you see it, now you don’t: This teaser for the Peek Pronto was up briefly, sent by a reader, but it’s gone now. Mysterious! Except that URL pretty much explains it all: “Peek for Business.” More »
Networks
Verizon Charging $US0.03 to Text Its Customers, Could Murder SMS-Based Services
8:00PM John Herrman | Verizon has decided to start asking for $US0.03 per message from anyone who wants to send mobile-terminated messages to its customers, possible strangling SMS-based services like Google SMS, Yahoo! oneSearch. The move will also penalise any other company that uses text message notifications for its customers (though the change won’t affect rates for mobile-to-mobile messaging.) Like others, Verizon used to charge a fraction of a cent to text their subscribers, during which time lots companies built up SMS notification services for everything from social networking to banking — services which may now be too expensive to operate. More »
Peripherals
iBuddy Meatspace Instant Message Notification Guy Now On Sale
4:40AM Jason Chen | That iBuddy MSN emote guy we caw back at CES is now on sale at Brando for US$20. If you don’t remember, you can set up notifications on your MSN buddies, so that when they sign on, the iBuddy goes nuts and flaps its wings. It also recognises up to eight emotes and blinks/flaps/explodes accordingly. Sucks that it’s only MSN-compatible out of the box, but should be easily hackable to support just about all networks. [Brando] More »
Software
Hands-On Google Talk for iPhone (Verdict: Stick with Installer.app)
4:30AM Benny Goldman | Google’s brand new Gtalk webapp for the iPhone is as crappy as I expected it would be. It has a nice design, and sending messages was easy, but at the end of the day it’s still running in Safari—which means if you get a call you are signed out of chat. And unlike other web-based IM apps, Gtalk doesn’t work in the background, so interruptions as simple as going to the home screen sign you out too. Also, there are no preference settings, so you are stuck looking at your whole contact list, online and off. Gtalk’s AIM support is also curiously absent from this release. In short, this program sucks. If you’re looking for a solid IM solution before the App store opens, I strongly recommend Agile Mobile’s AM client recently released on Installer, which I’ve been playing around with. More »
Networks
T-Mobile Raises Text Message Prices (Meaning You Can Ditch Your Contract)
12:45AM Matt Buchanan | T-Mobile is hiking its SMS rate to 20 cents a text (up from 15), effective Aug. 29. Annoying, unless you want to get out of your T-Mobile contract. Raising prices is typically considered a material breach of contract, meaning you can weasel out of it with a bit of elbow grease and persistence (to show that it’s a “materially adverse change” to your contract), avoiding that hefty early termination fee. More »
Phones
iPhone 3G Getting MMS Support?
3:12AM Jason Chen | iPhoneAtlas claims to have received an internal AT&T memo detailing what the iPhone 3G MMS app might look like. Even iPhoneAtlas doesn’t believe that these photos are 100% real, and lookin at the button layout and the UI design, we can pretty much say that these things better NOT be real. The memo doesn’t list what kind of pricing will be on this mythical MMS plan, but since the iPhone won’t have any included messages on AT&T by default, expect to be paying a little extra for picture messaging if this pans out. Likelihood of this being true? Not so good. [iPhoneAtlas via Boy Genius Report] More »
Software
