Indeed, it seems that’s what Google’s plan is. Google employee Dori Storbeck, who is the community manager for Hangouts and chat said that “SMS integration is coming soon” in a reply in one of her Google+ posts. This confirms that users will be able to replace their text messaging service with the Google+ Hangouts interface.

Of course, this wasn’t the only confirmation that we’ve been hearing about. As it turns out, one of the permissions listed for the app in the Google Play store mentions the ability to read and send SMS messages, meaning that the feature could already be in the app, but simply just needs turned on by the folks in Mountain View.

Google+ Hangouts was announced during the Google I/O keynote yesterday, and it’s available for Android, iOS, and Chrome. However, the SMS integration will most likely only be available for Android, as we would have a hard believing that such a feature would come to iOS, knowing that Apple likes to keep things a bit more tight around the waist.

You can grab the Google+ Hangouts app right now for both Android and iOS, and Chrome users should already be seeing the new service if they have automatic updates enabled. You’ll be able to chat with friends on their mobile devices while you type away in the browser. There’s no word of a desktop app, but seeing has Google isn’t into that with Hangouts, we probably won’t see on anytime soon.

VIA: The Next Web

Services like Apple’s iMessage and popular third-party title WhatsApp have become widespread, routing chat messages over the data network rather than using SMS or MMS. That usually means far lower cost, with basic text using tiny amounts of data versus the inflated per-message charge that SMS currently demands.

The simplicity and spread of IM, particularly on smartphones, will see SMS continue to lose pace in comparison to its cheaper counterpart. By 2014, Informa predicts, nearly 50bn IM messages will be sent every day; in contrast, the research firm expects around 21bn SMS to be sent daily in the same period.

Nonetheless, despite the rise of IM applications, Informa still sees a role for SMS, if only in developing markets where smartphone penetration is less advanced. For those with low-cost devices that lack either stable data connections or any app support whatsoever, traditional text messages may still present the best approach for non-voice communication.

[via BBC]

With the Twilio API and the Google App Engine, developers are able to go above and beyond just “one-to-one” messaging and VoIP calls. They can easily build a group messaging app, implement messaging capabilities that will allow users to send business cards via SMS text messaging, develop an “on-call scheduling” system on their app, enable voice conferencing within their app, and much more.

Developers are offered 2,000 free text messages or voice minutes to help them get started with the API integration. Now that Twilio is integrated with the Google App Engine, there are 250,000 active developers have access to its solution. These developers have already developed a total of 1 million registered apps on Google’s App Engine, meaning that Twilio has potentially discovered a huge goldmine for its services.

Twilio isn’t the only one benefiting from this partnership, however. Google is also hoping that Twilio will be able to attract developers away from other platforms like Amazon Web Services. In order to do so, Google needs to offer developers a lot more functions that they can implement into their apps, as well as offer developers a way to create highly scalable apps. The Google App Engine product manager, Chris Ramsdale, stated,

“Finding a way to run applications quickly, securely and at scale is a hurdle for a variety of developers across web ad mobile, which App Engine is a strong solution for.”

[via Twilio]

With the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, those who sign up will get locally-relevant alerts about abductions on top of “Presidential and Imminent threat alerts.” Rolled out by CTIA, the FCC, and FEMA, WEA offers one particularly useful improvement over WAA. Those who are signed up to receive WEA will get AMBER Alerts for the area they’re presently in, regardless of whether or not they live in that area.

The announcement gives an example of someone from Chicago who is visiting Boston. If that person is signed up to receive Wireless Emergency Alerts and an abduction happens in Boston, they’ll get the alert despite the fact that they’re normally in Chicago. On the flip side, alerts for abductions that occur in Chicago while this person is in Boston won’t be sent to their phone.

So, mobile AMBER Alerts aren’t going away, they’re just being rolled into a more comprehensive alert system. The Wireless AMBER Alert system is scheduled to go dark on December 31, 2012 after running since 2005. We’ll likely hear more about this shut down as we get closer to December 31, so stay tuned.

Lawmakers are currently considering amending the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act in order to make it more relevant in today’s internet era, and the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association and other enforcement groups want to have a say during the amendment. They argue that text messaging conversations often contain evidence that can be vital to investigations, and current policies among US cellular providers are claimed to be inadequate.

Currently, most carriers store rudimentary data for text messages from the past few months, but the actual content of the text messages are usually only held onto for a few days. According to a Justice Department memo from last year, Verizon stores detailed SMS logs for between three and five days, while AT&T and T-Mobile keep no such records whatsoever. Carriers might have changed their policies since then, but regardless, standardizing a new logging practice for a specific amount of time would give law enforcement agencies confidence that the logs are there if they need them.

Obviously, this will no doubt spark privacy concerns, and the privacy advocates will be out in full force. While your text messages will most likely not be bothered with as long as you’re a good boy or girl, knowing that carriers and law enforcement have access to your detailed SMS logs from the past two years certainly isn’t assuring.

[via CNET]

While SMS was officially born 20 years ago today, the concept had been in the works for several years before that. Matti Makkonen is dubbed as “the father of SMS”, and in 1984, he put forward the idea of a mobile phone messaging service. Unfortunately, Makkonen takes little credit for the phenomenon, mentioning that other folks were the ones who worked on the technology and made it a reality. Because of that, he rarely gives interviews, but BBC News was able to chat with him for a little, bit strictly over SMS.

Makkonen says that he never envisioned text messaging to be like what it is today. He never considered it as a “separate issue,” and that it “was just a feature in the revolutionary mobile communications system. Very useful for quick business needs.” Makkonen also never patented the idea, thus not making money from licenses and such, but he says that SMS really isn’t a “patentable innovation” in the first place.

Nokia, in 1993, became the first company to make GSM handsets capable of text messaging, but the use of the service really didn’t take off at all at the beginning. In 1995, people were only sending an average of 0.4 text messages per month. Fast forward 15 years later to 2010, and people sent over 6.1 trillion messages that year, or roughly 193,000 per second.

[via BBC News]

The two gentlemen ran a company called Tetrus Telecoms, which sent out hundreds of thousands of spam text messages per day. The text messages, which were sent on behalf of claims management companies looking for compensation cases to pass on to lawyers, read, “CLAIM TODAY, you may be entitled to £3500 for the accident you had. To CLAIM free reply CLAIM to this message. To opt out text STOP”.

In order to make it possible to sent these hundreds of thousands of spam text messages, Niebel and McNeish used up around 70 mobile phone SIM cards per day, but they brought in over £7,000 (almost $11,200) in sales every day, but the company’s directors were earning thousands more than that. The SIM would be inserted in a card reader that was connected to a computer, and text messages would be continuously sent until each SIM card’s text message limit had been reached.

In their defense, Niebel and McNeish claim that the company had permission to send out the texts because the users on the lists they were using had given their consent to be contacted, and Niebel said he provided evidence to the court to prove it. Needless to say, the two gentlemen will be challenging the fine.

[via Android Community]

During the third quarter this year, “there was a decline in both the total number of text messages as well as the total messaging revenue in the market” for the first time in the US. However, this doesn’t mean that people are sending less messages over mobile devices. IP messaging services like Apple’s iMessage and RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger are slowly taking over traditional SMS.

Numbers wise, in the third quarter of this year, mobile phone owners sent an average of 678 texts per month, which is down from 696 texts a month in the previous quarter. This isn’t a huge decline, but it’s the first ever decline that has been recorded. And it’s not a big concern for users, and it’s also not a big deal for carriers, since a bulk of their revenue comes from data plans.

The downward trend in text messaging is also apparent with businesses who offer mobile devices to employees. Tero Kuittinen, vice president of Alekstra, a company that helps people manage mobile phone costs, said that employees at ten of its locations were sending around 5 to 10% fewer text messages than a year ago. The adoption of smartphones has definitely led to a new era of messaging friends and family, where traditional SMS is no longer becoming the norm.

[via CNET]

The HTC DROID DNA suffered another leak today, this one saying that it’ll be available at Verizon starting in early December, and we learned that Jelly Bean installs are on the rise, but at a pretty slow rate. A new iPad fourth-gen teardown gives us a look at more of the same, and Apple says that it’s willing to pay Motorola just one dollar per iPhone in patent fees. Smartphone market share in the US has remained more or less the same, and we got a closer look at the iPad fourth-gen’s GPU today.

A new Android vulnerability has been discovered, opening up users to SMS phishing, while one clever do-it-yourselfer has already managed to fit the iPad mini into the dashboard of his car. Apple has lost the right to sell the iPhone in Mexico, and Moshi showed off its new line of iPad mini accessories today. We learned today that we’ve had humans living on the International Space Station for 12 consecutive years, and one unfortunate BitTorrent sharer has been hit with a hefty $1.5 million fine. Verizon told us that its cell sites are improving in areas that have been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, Overhaul Games actually bumped the release date of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition up by a couple of days, and the Mars Curiosity rover took a very cool picture of itself.

Finally today, we have a brand new column and two pretty big reviews for you to check out. Chris Burns tells us why we’re in the age of the smartphone ecosystem rather than the age of smartphone specs, while Vincent Nguyen gives us his reviews of the highly-anticipated Samsung Nexus 10 and LG Nexus 4. That does it for tonight ladies and gentlemen, we hope you have a great weekend!

SMS phishing is just like how it sounds. If you downloads an app infected with malware, the app can make it appear as if you’re receiving text messages from someone on your phone’s contact list. Obviously, these fake text messages can solicit personal information from you, such as passwords for user accounts and bank information.

Google has confirmed the vulnerability and has said that a fix will be issued “in a future Android release.” Whether if this will be in an incremental update, such as Android 4.2.1, or even the next major release of Android, like the rumored Android 4.3 Key Lime Pie, isn’t yet known, but it seems Google isn’t too worried about it at this point.

For now, however, the researchers recommend simply just taking extreme caution when downloading and installing apps, especially from unknown sources. Plus, they recommend users pay close attention to text messages and confirm that you’re actually talking to someone you know, rather than a bot that is attempting to steal personal information.

[via Engadget]

This update brings both the iPhone and the iPod touch up to a new generation while the iPad will just have to wait a bit longer. On that note, you might also want to note that this version still does not include one of the only plusses that the Android version has over iOS: in-app SMS messaging integration from the rest of your phone. You’ve got a fully updated user interface here that does bring the app up to the already lovely looking Android version of the app, but SMS integration still does not exist.

It’s odd then that recent reports have Facebook developers being forced to use Android devices until their main Android app is up to snuff – or at least up to the quality that the iPhone version is. It would appear that the Messenger app does not live in the same universe. This version of the app is optimized for iOS 6 as well, and will be making full use of your iPhone 5 screen size.

The favorites list will more than likely be your most-loved feature here, with everyone’s massive cross-section of friends, colleagues, and business contacts quite often lending itself to a less than optimal friend-finding experience. Add your buddies to a smaller list and make the whole thing streamlined! This app is available for download or update in the iTunes app store right this minute – grab it now!

AdaptiveMobile’s Cathal McDaid attempted the exploit on Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices and found that it worked on none of those. The reason for this is because most handsets step around the flaw by not showing the Reply-Address at all. McDaid warns that any devices which show the Reply-Address are less secure than those which don’t, so this problem isn’t necessarily exclusive to iPhone – it’s just that the majority of the devices tested don’t show the address in the first place.

After the vulnerability came to light, Apple made a statement to Engadget, instructing texters to use iMessage instead of SMS, as iMessage is more secure. “Apple takes security very seriously,” the statement reads. “When using iMessage instead of SMS, addresses are verified which protects against these kinds of spoofing attacks. One of the limitations of SMS is that it allows messages to be sent with spoofed addresses to any phone, so we urge customers to be extremely careful if they’re directed to an unknown website or address over SMS.”

Obviously, iMessage is an exclusive feature of iOS, so when communicating with other devices that aren’t an iPhone, SMS has to be used. It’s still a bit unsettling, but really, staying secure does fall on the shoulders of the users in this case. It kind of goes without saying that it isn’t a good idea to share personal information on your phone, and if you get a suspicious looking message, it’s probably a good idea to follow up before sending off information that could come back to haunt you (for instance, call your bank and check with it if you get a message claiming to be from it). It may not be the most desirable solution to these problems, but it’s a lot better than having personal information out in the open thanks to one bogus text.

Okay, so here’s the deal. When you register your iMessages app, it look at the phone number on your SIM card and then apparently never looks at your SIM card again. It never ties this information to your Apple ID or anything else that registers the app to your actual phone. As such, some iPhone users have found out that if you use iMessages from one iPhone, and then put the SIM card in another iPhone, the same iMessages account appears in both phones.

That’s right. Even the original phone, without a SIM card, still has an active iMessages app. And even if the SIM card finds its way back to the original iPhone, any other iPhone it had contact with will have access to the same iMessages conversations. So if you let your friend borrow your iPhone, or you happen to lose it, or you take it in for repairs at a shady store, anyone who had access to your SIM card can infiltrate your iMessages account.

Even if you perform a remote wipe, it won’t change the fact that the third-party iPhones have registered your SIM card. The only way to cut off access to those “spying” iPhones is to call your carrier and completely deactivate your SIM card. The third-party phones see everything, including message you send and messages you receive. And they can even pretend to be you and send out messages of their own. Now of course, this requires someone else to physically have access to your SIM card and have an extra iPhone lying around without its own SIM card. Chances are that won’t happen to the average iPhone owners. But it is a glitch, and something as private as text messaging conversations will always be a hot button issue. For now, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of software fix on the way.

[via The Verge]

Although it’s good that Microsoft has found a fix for the bug in Windows Phone devices, the exploit may also affect its other applications. So far it’s known to work not only through SMS messages but also through Facebook chat or Windows Live Messenger. The malicious code could be used to crash Windows Live Messenger in a way that would prevent all your contacts from signing in.

Microsoft is still investigating its other products that may be affected, including its desktop applications. Salameh revealed that the following applications are vulnerable to the SMS attack string: Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Silverlight-based apps, Visual Studio 2010, Expressions Blend, and Windows Presentation Foundation-based apps.

[via The Verge]

The concept behind iMessage is straightforward: rather than route text, audio and photo conversations via SMS and MMS, if iOS 5 figures you’re talking to another iMessage user, they’re fired off over your data connection instead. It’s the iChat app for iOS we’ve been waiting for, only with zero hurdles to usability – you don’t have to tell your iPhone if you’re wanting to use SMS or data, since it figures it out itself.

Google has an IM system in the shape of Google Talk and, in the latest version of Android, Gingerbread 2.3.4, it has voice and video support too. The particular strength of GTalk, however, is in its cross-platform support. Gmail users can log into GTalk in the browser, while PC users have the choice of a standalone chat client too. That standalone client supports file transfers, as well, and a few years back Google added group chat support. Problem is, it doesn’t consistently offer the same features across the board.

Most of the challenge is joining the dots, not inking them in the first place. But Google’s real hidden weapon is in WebRTC, the open-source project it kicked off after acquiring GIPS last year. Using a combination of straightforward HTML and JavaScript, WebRTC puts video conferencing into the browser rather than demanding a specific client-side app.

Although in reasonably early stages of development today, eventually WebRTC will offer a far more open, easily-accessed way to hold voice and video calls than the popular existing systems like Skype and, more recently, Apple’s FaceTime. Google has already confirmed that its GTalk team is working on shifting the platform from iSAC to WebRTC; the search giant is also working with Mozilla, the IETF and W3C to cement WebRTC into a set of open standards which developers can use at their whim.

As those pieces slot into place, Google will have a system that works on Android phones, Android tablets, Chrome OS based Chromebooks, in the browser – whether you’re using Chrome, or any standards-compliant alternative – and anywhere else developers decide to leverage it. GIPS had already cooked up iOS and Windows Mobile versions prior to being acquired: if Google can add the same functionality to its existing Google Talk for BlackBerry, iOS and other platforms, that’s a foot not just on Android devices but across the board in a way that neither iMessage nor BBM offer.

WebRTC will undoubtedly take time to polish. Nonetheless, Google isn’t far from a mobile/tablet/desktop inter-connected iMessage alternative in GTalk. Carriers should probably get used to the idea of some sleepless nights to come, as two of the biggest smartphone platforms in the world get very serious about doing messaging on their own terms.

His “well-connected” informant says the carriers only found out about iMessage when Jobs revealed the new service on-stage. It could well have significant implications to carrier revenue, too; while iMessage does use a data connection, potentially adding to the amount of data allowance each user will require, it could also significantly reduce SMS and MMS use.

Both messaging services are still huge cash-cows that the carriers have been used to milking. While third-party apps for iOS (and other platforms) have eaten into those revenues, Apple’s homegrown functionality – which will be an integral part of iOS 5, and thus hit the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd/4th-gen and the iPad/iPad 2, will be far more broadly adopted.

Gruber himself says he will be canceling his SMS plan as soon as iMessage is available, and he’s unlikely to be the only person thinking that way. iOS 5 ships this fall.

The Sydsvenskan newspaper spoke with Anders Åsberg, the head of marketing and development at Posten AB, the Swedish postal service. This idea is a new one, “We’re very interested and are just now looking into a solution.” He mentions that there isn’t a more significant risk of forgery with the new system. For all of you Swedes out there, this doesn’t mean a rate hike either. The cost of postage should remain the same. Posten AB just wants to make it easier for it’s customers to send mail. The SMS messages will replace stamps on all letters and packages up to 2kg.

Denmark plans on allowing it’s postal customers to use a similar service. They’re about ready to get started with this program. It should launch on April 1.

We talk a lot about SMS messages here on Slashgear. Brush up on the latest SMS news here.

[via The Local]

According to the research firm, there will be 7 trillion SMS messages sent globally in 2011. I think my wife will make half of those. Those 7 trillion texts will be generated by a total of 4.2 billion mobile subscribers and include SMS, MMS, mobile email, and IM messaging according to ABI.

Part of the reason for the huge number of SMS messages in 2011 is the low penetration of PCs in some parts of the world leading the people there to use smartphones and other devices for sending and receiving emails. Despite the huge number of messages, ABI expect revenue for SMS and MMS messages to decline.

“The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences. During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding.” FCC

The plans also include more complex interaction between 911 systems and various types of automated sensors, such as chemical detectors and alarms. Medical devices and in-car systems including On-Star could also be integrated, allowing for more immediate reports of issues. It’s unclear when the FCC expects the new systems to be rolled out.

Notifications for Twitter Messages will also be available for Twitter for iPhone as it already is for SMS and Twitter for Blackberry. Soon this feature will also be available for Twitter for Android and Twitter for Windows Phone as well. To turn this all on, just go to twitter.com/devices and check the boxes under “text message notifications.”

[Via Twitter Blog]

Once downloaded the user has to use the app to text “!chat” to the textPlus 60611 short code. After that, they can add as many contacts from the device as they want into a group to send out a text message to.

The group messaging option is free on plans with MetroPCS costing $45 and $50 monthly and the user can send as many text messages as they want with the application. textPlus us a popular app with the maker claiming 3.5 billion messages have been sent with the app across all platforms it is offered for since it launched in 2009.

[via Android Community]

Some users have complained that SMS messages get stuck in the HD2′s outbox and refuse to send, and despite the company’s best efforts there are still owners unable to use text messaging reliably.  We didn’t experience any issues with our HD2 review unit, it has to be said, but this is obviously a frustrating situation for owners of HTC’s Windows Mobile flagship to be experiencing.  Let us know in the comments how the update goes for you.

[Thanks Ollie!]

Only those handsets from a specific German manufacturing batch can be suitable reprogrammed, out of more than 200 million produced since the Nokia 1100′s launch in 2003.  The one-time passwords at risk – known as transaction authentication numbers (TAN) – are those sent to online banking users by SMS.

Suspicions were raised when police contacted Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations six months ago over news that a 1100 had been sold for €5,000; the €25,000 model sold just ten days ago.  Ultrascan is yet to obtain an affected handset to test out the exploit.

[via The Mobiler]

Existing Peek users who have already been sending SMS messages through Peek’s texting gateway system will still have access to the service, but future buyers will only be able to get the functionality by picking up the Peek Pronto.  SMS support was added to the Peek Classic back in November 2008.

The Peek Classic is priced at $49.95, while the Peek Pronto – which adds Exchange support, up to five simultaneous email accounts, on-device searching and more attachment compatibility – is priced at $79.95.  Both devices require a monthly service charge of $19.95.

Video overview after the cut

The Pronto is also said to run faster than the original Peek, and the company is also promoting its unlimited texting abilities.  There’s also on-device searching, together with support for PDF and DOC attachments, as well as the regular picture attachment support. 

Battery life for the Peek Pronto is estimated at 4-5 days with typical usage, and the whole thing weighs 3.8oz and measures 4 x 2.7 x 0.4 inches.  The display is 2.5-inches QVGA resolution and there’s 8MB of onboard memory, triband US GPRS connectivity and a 104MHz ARM7 TI chipset running Peek’s own Peekux OS.  The original Peek remains on sale for $49.95 with the same monthly service charge.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3822631[/vimeo]

Press Release:

PEEK PRONTO FACT SHEET

Peek Pronto:
Mobile messaging device

Peek Pronto
Features

Simple, but powerful
Building on the successful launch of its Peek mobile email device, Peek (www.GetPeek.com) is adding an exciting new product to its lineup – the Peek Pronto. Peek Pronto responds to the growing demand for mobile messaging that is both affordable and powerful.

Peek Pronto builds on the original Peek – not by
adding unnecessary bells and whistles – but by further enhancing
the core functionality of mobile messaging. The key features of
Peek Pronto are:

* push email;
* unlimited email and texting;
* compatibility with Microsoft Exchange;
* ability to view images/PDF/doc files;
* access to up to five email accounts;
* ability to search for emails on the device;
* 50% improvement in speed of the
software;
* larger font size option.

Peek Pronto retails for $79.95. A flat monthly fee of just $19.95
provides the user with unlimited emails and unlimited text
messages – substantially cheaper than a comparable
smartphone plan (for details see www.Peekonomics.com).

While Peek Pronto offers powerful new features, it continues
Peek’s philosophy of a stylish device that is easy-to-buy and
easy-to-use. There are no contracts to sign, and no hidden fees
or “gotcha” charges.

Peek Pronto takes just 2 minutes to setup and works
automatically with all major email providers including Yahoo!,
Hotmail, GmailTM, AOL and many more.

Peek Pronto’s full QWERTY keyboard makes typing easy, and its
large color screen and straightforward navigation makes mobile
messaging simple.

3/18/09 Pronto Fact Sheet 2

Peek Pronto is perfect for the busy person who needs to be
connected on the go, but does not want to pay a fortune for the
privilege.

Specifications Size:
Height = 102 mm (~ 4.02 inches)
Width = 68 mm (~ 2.7 inches)
Depth = 10.1 mm (~ 0.42 inches)
Weight = 109 grams

Color:
Charcoal Gray

Display:
2.5” diagonal
QVGA (Quarter VGA) which is 240 pixels high by 320 pixels wide
Languages: English

Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charge: via power adapter
Battery life: average two to three days with typical usage

Availability Available exclusively at Amazon.com from March 24, 2009 until
March 31, 2009

Available online at www.GetPeek.com from April 1, 2009

Available at select Radio Shack stores nationwide from April 8,
2009

Pricing

Peek Pronto retail price: $79.95
Peek Pronto monthly service: $19.95

Peek and GetPeek are the exclusive trademarks of Peek, Inc.

The XACT | TRAX, a GPS tracking device useful for keeping tabs on pets, people and property, uses a custom web portal to locate where on Earth the tracker is.  You can also set “geo fences” using the web portal, and you’ll be alerted via the web or SMS when your tracker leaves the fenced-in area.

We don’t have an availability date or a cost for this device as of yet, but we do know that there won’t be a recurring subscription.  Keep checking in regularly for more on the XACT | TRAX.

[via Engadget]

Dubbed an “all-in-one solution”, the WAVE-HOME features a 7 inch screen, built-in speakers and comes with a handset that acts as both a VOIP phone and a remote control.  The device also has a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam.  So what all is the WAVE-HOME capable of?

• VOIP
• web surfing
• video chat
• SMS/MMS
• taking photos
• displaying photos, videos
• playing music files, FM radio
• widgets (weather, news, traffic, etc.)

As you can see, iRiver is really positioning the WAVE-HOME as a “do everything” multimedia and communications center.  They want this sucker sitting on your desk at the office or on the coffee table in the living room.  It sounds cool so far and we can’t wait to see it in action.

We’re going to try and get some hands-on time with the device a little later on today.  We’ll update afterwards with more information, and, hopefully, a price range and release date.

Rather than introduce a new app, sending an SMS uses the existing email system.  Instead of an email address, the phone number goes in the To: field; Peek’s servers shuttle it out accordingly.  There are a few limitations, particularly the fact that Sprint MVNOs don’t seem to be receiving Peek text messages, but a workaround with Virgin Mobile could be to add “@vmobl.com” to the end of the recipient’s phone number.

Image viewing, meanwhile, now includes “almost anything related to images” including bmp, gif, png and others.  That’s in addition to jpeg files, which Peek already supported.  No updated software is required on the Peek device itself, the new features should just work.

You can also pick up a new Peek handheld for $79, down from $99.

[via jkOnTheRun]

Frechin describes it as “a discreet, fluid and visual experience (digital matter) in the home context” and “a hybrid, multi-functional object that is both physical and digital.”  Whether you buy into the design-speak or not, WaSnake is undoubtedly clever.  The idea is that the house has it’s own mobile number to which messages could be sent, as well as specific RSS news feeds that turn it into a personalised, domestic ticker.

A computer interface uses a straightforward “widgets” layout to create rules and programmes for what gets displayed.  Different widgets can be linked to different chunks of display.  Sadly it doesn’t look like this will be a commercial release.

[via NewLaunches]

It works with distances of up to 1000 meters up to 56 divers at a time, has a 9 hour battery life that is rechargeable. That’s just the beginning, it’s been tested underwater for up to 180 minutes, on a single dive, it has a gyro-compensated 3D compass built in, as well as a dive logger, and the SOS function is literally at the touch of a button.

It will work at depth over 200 feet and you can connect up to 14 divers on a single UDI frequency. And, if a diver does send and SOS, you can trace and find them by the UDI they are using. This is a great device for dive teams and compared to the high prices of other dive communication systems, the roughly $1200 price tag that we’ve heard this will fetch, isn’t bad.

Now, to keep this post news worthy I thought you might be interested to know that at least in the UK, and likely in the US too, your “Happy New Year” text messages tonight could be delayed up to a full 6 hours due to the strain on SMS networks. 77% of the people in London that sent text messages last New Year’s found that they arrived late and 23% found that their best wishes were more than 6 hours late.

So, if you like to keep things impersonal (I do) or just don’t like wasting your minutes on a phone call, try using email or instant messaging as data networks likely won’t experience as much of a strain and your message won’t be so late. Like I said Happy New Year, and I can’t wait to see what this one brings.

Texters to experience 6 hour delays on New Year’s Eve [via pocket-lint]

Photo Credit: agrowknow

It will however take care of SMS, and can do some management when it comes to incoming calls, like send certain calls straight to voicemail (your marital counterpart) or something of that nature. There are even different types of secretary’s, so you can at least still get the pleasure of firing your secretary and hiring a new one, in seconds.

If you are more the faithful business type, you can take a picture of someone (your wife, your favorite actor or actress, you get the idea) and put it on the avatar. You can apparently also train them to be smarter (probably a lot like speech recognition software, the more you use it, the more it learns), plus we all know we’d much rather have a calm voice telling us to wake up or answer the phone instead of some ungodly annoying ringtone.

3D virtual secretary loves you for your power [via CrunchGear]

It has Bluetooth 2.0, Quad-Band GSM, Dual-Band UMTS, and a talk time of about 3 hours. There is the 2MP cam that has up to a 4x digital zoom, and other than all the video and music services that come with it, it has Java, and SMS, MMS, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! instant messengers built in.

It still has the 3G HSDPA/UMTS and it will work with the Video Share service that allows you to share real time video with other participating members. The phone works with the Napster service at the outrageous price of $1.99 per track for 5 for $7.49. The SLM will also work with mobile XM radio and AT&T’s MusicID service.

So, basically its still the decent clamshell, and the extremely overpriced music download service. I suppose for $150 you could do worse as far as phones go, but you could probably do better too, although I will make note of something I noticed, if you like thin phones, this one looks highly reminiscent of the Fin which was 11mm, this one measures in at .51 inches thick or close to 13mm, so it’s fairly thin.

Well Cre8txt, a UK based company, has got a solution, you plug this remote looking thing into your computer and it will work its magic and do translations for you. It appears to work both ways, both converting their l33t sp3@k into common English and also offering you the option to speak their language, to an extent.

It apparently works a lot like SMS with the keypad on this thing. The only downside is you can no longer blame their further bastardization of the English language for neglecting to comprehend what they are saying.

Keypad translates texting gibberish [via crave]

With messaging prices on the rise for a la carte messages, this may be the best way to send a message to a cellular user. I mean, Sprint just upped their prices to $.20 per message a la carte and everyone else is still sitting at $.15 per message, for now.

So if you need to send a message use your phone’s web capabilities to access your email account and send it that way. Or get on a computer, log into your Yahoo account and send them and SMS message.

Yahoo Adds Phone Message Support [via uberreview]

Inside the glass sphere is a fast-rotating multicolour LED array which takes advantage of persistence-of-vision to give the impression of a scrolling message floating in space.  Since it has a SIM card slot all you need is a mains power supply and you’re sorted – no networking or complicated setup required – and before long people can send you a variety of filth for the 85 LEDs to spell out in glorious technicolour.

It’s available now for £1,389.68 ($2,578).

Product Page [via Shiny Shiny]

Before you get too cocky, you’ll have to turn that T9 off and refrain from using any ridiculous abbreviations or shorthand.  So far 150 have signed up and organisers LG are expecting more to turn up on the day.

To all those competing: gd lck!

R u rdy 4 wrlds fastest txt msg? [Reuters]

Troikart [via The Red Ferret Journal]