SMS Mac - send SMS from Address Book - for a price

Just a word on the widget listed by some from the link:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/email_messaging/freetextmessagescallwave.html

I've been using this widget for the past 6 months or so and up until this past week it was a paid service. I'd pay about 6 cents to text my boyfriend in Ireland from here in the US and it worked great. He could easily reply to the text from his phone and I'd receive the reply on mine. Additionally sending international texts from my phone is a little more than 3 times as much so it was saving me a good amount.

Well as great it is that the service is now free that it's been acquired by CallWave, I find myself wishing it was still a paid service. When I first downloaded the widget, it seemed to be working fine, I was a little down in the dumps that my texts were no longer being logged in a history page that I could access through my account (which was really handy for ensuring I sent the text, reviewing what I had written or seeing what time I had sent it) but oh well. Then a day later I found the texts I was sending would be received with a strange international reply-to #. Therefore, whenever I sent a text, the recipient would go to reply and actually be replying to some random number. I contacted CallWave about this problem and while they were fairly prompt in their reply, they didn't offer me any useful advice on how to correct this and couldn't be sure why it was happening. The reply-to # I found is the reply-to # when a text is sent through another service at gofreesms.com, no idea how they connect though

Which leads me to today. I get an email from callwave notifying me that I have been removed from the IP block-list. I was on the blocklist? I think, utterly confused. I'm still unsure if this was just a big mistake or not. They say it's a result of sending too many messages too fast, or too many of the same message. I had been sending multiple test texts to myself to see if the reply-to # was correct so this is what could have caused this. Completely understandable and I was happy to find that somehow my texts were now showing the correct reply-to # (though when the recipient replies for some reason they must punch in my # again or select me in the address book) I was excited that my problem was resolved but then I read the email further and found something quite annoying. They advised me that in order to avoid being put on the block list again I should limit my text messages to 10 per day. 10 PER DAY?! While this may not be significant for some, this is the main form of communication for me and my boyfriend and limiting my texts to 10 is a bit ridiculous. I would think anyone wishing to have an actual conversation through text would desire sending more than 10 per day.

I replied to them stating I was confused as I was never notified that I had been blocked and inquired as to if the 10 text per day was a hard-fast rule they intend to stick by. I'm still awaiting a reply but as I told them if this is true I will be looking for another service.

So in conclusion to my long rant, it seems like the callwave people are well-intentioned & willing to help; if you only desire to text very lightly, go for it, it's free. But if you want to do text more heavily, this may not be the best option and actually paying for a reliable service may be worth it.

oh, addresses are not shown here.
it's my name at 5 7 1 1 dot org

I'm working on a free addressbook plugin for "any" sms provider.
If you like to join my project (Objective-C), just contact me.
All that needs to be done is Preferences (including configuring stuff for the provider)

I use Don's (no. 8) method all the time. Anytime my phone is in BT range I pair it (and sync it), and address book acts as my caller ID. I only wish that I could use my wired headset plugged into my MBP as a bluetooth 'headset' tho...

Some phones already have integrated SMS via the Address Book/Bluetooh.

If you have a Sony Ericcson for example, you can turn on bluetooth (assuming your phone has already been paired), open the address book, click the bluetooth icon in the Address Book and you should be able to send and receive SMS via the phonebook.


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I had the same setup as well, best config. No need for extra software.

I work in the SMS industry, and I can tell you nothing is for FREE! anytime you see a company offering free SMS in Europe is becuase they are taking your number and the person you are sending it to and adding to spammers databases either legally or other. In the US its still possible to SMS for free due to the simple ability to email your phone eg yournumber@verizon.com comes up as a text message.

personally I use Skype.com as the new version supports sending SMS - its perfect! Yes you pay a little, but I know my numbers are not being stolen. They are also using industry standard gateways, so when you send a text you know it will arrive at the other end.

Doesn't Teleflip do this for free? And you don't even need to know the other person's cell carrier, you just send an email to phonenumber@teleflip.com.

http://www.teleflip.com

Quicksilver + Addressbook Plugin + Teleflip plugin = Free SMS goodness.

Very odd to hear that for such service some money should be paid if it's possible to do the same from Google free of charge...

If you live in germany, you should check out this adressbook-plugin:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22109
It's for the german-sms-provider www.sms77.de. No subscription and the price for one sms starts at 0.035€.