One of the the stranger changes in Leopard was the loss of the ability to dial (and send text messages) from the Address Book to a Bluetooth paired cell phone. Fortunately, however, Nova Media has released its Phone plugins to return this functionality to the Leopard Address Book and other applications through a system-wide Service.

When installed it allows you to call a number or send a text message just by right-clicking on the number in the Address Book (or selecting it elsewhere and invoking Phone plugins from the Services menu). It works with a number of phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson; check the compatibility list for details. Annoyingly the iPhone is not compatible.

Nova Media Phone plugins is $9.95 and a demo is available.

[via Hawk Wings]

So you're the groom at a wedding this last Saturday. You realize, 10 minutes before the ceremony, that you forgot to print out your vows. You try to get an HP printer to plug and play with a Windows Vista laptop, but no dice-- they're playing "Here Comes the Bride," and Windows is only telling you "Found New Hardware." So what do you do?

If you're bob.blog, you just email the document to your iPhone, and voila-- the groom reads his vows right off of the gadget of the year for 2007. Pretty darn nifty. No word, however, on if the bride sent her "I do" via SMS.

Now, it's not the first time an iPhone has made a wedding possible, but it is, from what we can tell, the very first actual iPhone-assisted wedding ceremony (Update: Not true-- see below). Just think what we'll be able to do with wedding software when the SDK hits. With this ringtone, iTheeWed!

Thanks, Ben!

Update: It's not the first time this has happened-- TUAW's own Mike Rose tells me that he can personally attest to this having been done before. He attended a wedding where the groom read his vows right off of the iPhone. Looks like a burgeoning market of vow-reading software to me.

The amazing Joshua Bryant has followed up his matte-styled iChat bubbles with a new iPhone version for SMS messaging. If you're tired of dated, shiny bubbles and want to add a little flat pastel styling to your SMS conversations, iPhone Matte will do the job. Pick from any of 9 smooth colors.

When we mentioned Mark/Space's upcoming Missing Sync for iPhone a while back, we noted that one of its signature features was SMS text message archiving from your iPhone onto your Mac. Well if you don't feel like waiting (or paying), Micromat has released a free utility Syphone that does exactly that. Syphone "lets you view, save, and back up your SMS messages" which comes in handy given the storage limits of the iPhone. The application itself installs only on your Mac and "does not alter the iPhone in any way."

Syphone is presently in beta and is a free download from Micromat.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Alan dropped a quick note about a chance for our UK readers to get a free iTunes song. Those of you overseas may have been complaining that Apple treats you like second class citizens, but Britons, worry not, because they're bribing you with a song. Send an SMS with the words "ROCK," "POP," "LIVE," or "ITUNES" to 85100, and Apple will send you back a code for a free song on the iTunes UK store.

The promotion ends on September 30th, so you've got to get it done quick, and this is definitely a YMMV situation. It won't work outside of the UK, and I even tried to send the code using iChat, but no dice -- apparently it has to come from a phone number there. It's not exactly free, either -- as you may have figured out, it's actually the cost of sending and receiving an SMS. If that's more than £0.99, it's not worth it.

But if you're in the UK and have an itchy SMS finger, send it along and see what happens.

TUAW reader digitalintrigue discovered a brilliant little hack to send RSS feed updates as SMS messages. He headed over to RSSfwd.com, subscribed to an RSS feed and sent the results over to his iphone-number@cingularme.com SMS e-mail address. Now when his RSS feeds update, he gets an instant message on his iPhone.

If you've got a lot of SMS messages on your iPhone plan, this is a great way to keep up on your most important feeds without having to check your email all the time. If you have limited SMS messages, maybe not so good. Digitalintrigue reports that if the blog post has too many characters for a normal SMS, the iPhone formats the multiple SMS messages into a single large text bubble.

The hardest part of the process is actually confirming your subscription. My confirmation email/SMS split across many messages--8 in my case--and the URL was split as well. I had to type it in by hand. Once confirmed, the SMS updates worked without incident. Make sure to copy the unsubscribe URL after confirming and keep it on hand in case you decide to remove the feed at a later date.

Thanks digitalintrigue.

RU big n2 texting? Chek these 6 tips u need to no FTW. TUAW hopes they will help joo wid iphone txting. NP, our pleasure noob, newb or no.

1. Don't sign up for extra texts during activation. (See update) The default SMS-add-ons are expensive and limited. If you did sign up for them then call up AT&T, cancel the add on and request this $5 all-you-can eat unlimited messaging plan instead. TUAW reader Leo signed up and reports the $5 plan is indeed iPhone compatible--at least with the postpaid (normal) phone plan. Be persistent. The AT&T rep may have to search around to find the right plan. Ask for the option that adds unlimited mobile-to-mobile text messaging for $5 per month. Read more about this option at the Howard Forums. Remember, the mobile-to-mobile texts do not include Google SMS, AIM Mobile, Facebook or any other non-cellphone texts. If you use those services, you still might get charged per message. (Update: This unlimited plan may be limited only to other AT&T phones--in which case, you may want to just sign up for the normal messaging plans.) Update 2: According to a post at the MacRumor forums, you can add both that unlimited in-network messaging and 200 additional SMS msgs for $5/month.

2. You can send text messages to an iPhone by e-mail. Yeah, yeah, a lot of you already know about this. But many of our readers do not. And for you guys, here's how to do it: send your text message to phonenumber@cingularme.com (e.g. 7035551212@cingularme.com, just use the numbers, no hyphens, etc). Keep your message brief. Both the subject line and the message arrive on the iPhone.

3. It costs USD $0.15 to send and receive texts on an iPhone when using a prepaid plan. The money comes out of your account balance. If you're paying, say, 10 cents a minute, then a text would cost you one and a half minutes. Adjust the math according to your specific plan. (Mine is $0.15/minute, so one text is one minute.) This does not apply if you've added the $5/month all-you-can-eat text plan.

4. If you're on a limited prepaid plan, you'll receive a notification after each and every text. Yup, every single text you receive, every single text you send will cause the iPhone to display a message along the lines of "Your last transaction cost 0.15 USD. Your account balance is (whatever) USD". You must tap "Dismiss" every time. What a complete pain. Worse, at least in my experience, you have to dismiss this message before viewing the actual text you just received. AT&T says this is a feature, not a bug: "Your updated balance will be sent to your phone automatically after every call. you can also dial *777# at any time to see your current balance." I've tried this and it works.

5. All the Google SMS services work I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to use Google SMS but I tested it out and it certainly works. I texted fish tacos 80224 to Google and it replied with several local fish taco restaurants. Convenient when you're out of WiFi range and Safari with EDGE is responding too slowly.

6. SMS is not email SMS is limited to 160 characters per message. You can find any number of SMS FAQs via a Google search.

kthxbai Leo, Jordan Golson, and Brian Rose and everyone else who tipped us off about message features and annoyances.

As you might have heard, I ended up waiting in line for my iPhone at the Sherman Oaks, CA Apple Store. Yes, I managed to get one on Friday evening (two, in fact) and went with the 8GB variety. I was very excited to get the device and had a great experience in line with my fellow enthusiasts -- even with the long wait. All in all, a very pleasant time with some very interesting people who were just as excited to be there as I was.

Once I got home from the Apple Store, I proceeded through the activation of my iPhone via iTunes. When it got to the screen allowing me to port my existing mobile number over to AT&T, I hesitated, thinking I would play it safe and test out the iPhone a little before committing 100% to AT&T. So, I opted for a new number and went on through the activation process.

However, now that I've had the chance to use the device for a couple days, I will most likely port my number from T-Mobile over to AT&T. I anticipate being able to do that with a minimum of fuss but I will, of course, detail my experiences, good or bad, when I do it tomorrow via the AT&T "Porting Department."

After going through the entire activation process, I received the activation text message from AT&T about ten minutes later and was good to go to make calls, access the Internet via EDGE, etc. So, unlike some others, activation was a painless process for me. Immediately, I went to work on the iPhone. First, I adjusted my settings in iTunes to sync the various information, songs, podcasts, TV shows or movies that I wanted on my iPhone.

Reader CrazyRower sends word of something small, but cool coming to iChat in Leopard. According to screenshots from an account named after Apple's favorite designer, sending a message to an SMS number is now builtin to the iChat File menu.

As we've reported before, this is hardly a new feature-- you can do it with your iChat (or any other AIM enabled program; I did it on Adium) right now. All you have to do is go up to File, then New Chat, and instead of the AIM account name, just type "+1" and then any SMS enabled number. And whoever you message can even reply from the phone, and their reply will appear right back in your chat window.

But it is cool that it will be built right in to iChat's menu. You'll be able to send driving directions to your non-iPhone (or just bother your girlfriend with text messages while chatting online at work) that much easier.

As a Palm user I've been jealous ever since Missing Sync for Windows Mobile added support for syncing notes from Yojimbo last year. Fortunately, Mark/Space has finally stepped up to the plate and the newly released version 6.0 of Missing Sync for Palm adds Yojimbo syncing as well (Mark/Space's own Notebook and Entourage 2004 are also supported for notes). Other new features include some Treo specific features for importing video as well as the Treo's SMS message history. Also new is video encoding support. All in all this looks like a substantial upgrade for Palm users, particularly those with Treos.

The Missing Sync for Palm OS is $39.95 and an upgrade from the previous version is $24.95.

One of the Treo's best features is its threaded SMS application that makes your SMS messages appear like a chat session. In fact, the iPhone appears to take up and improve this SMS functionality by presenting text messages in an iChat like interface. Well, until that happens, those of us using a Treo may find FunkeeStory to be useful. It syncs your Palm Treo's SMS history to your Mac through a conduit compatible with Palm Desktop or Missing Sync. So when you sync your Treo 650/680/700p to your Mac, your texting history will show up on in FunkeeStory, to be saved, sorted, and searched.

Overall, this seems like a nice idea, since if you're a heavy SMS user you'll probably find that your text messages are a kind of personal history, and the Treo will only hold so many messages before it starts overwriting the earlier ones. Unfortunately, FunkeeStory is a bit pricey at $19.95, but a 10 sync demo is available

German-based Nova Media landed on our radar last year with their iSync plugin that supports more phones than Mac OS X's default set. Not content with mere syncing, however, the company also makes an Address Book plugin, recently updated with more supported models, that allows phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson to shake hands with Apple's contact manager for all sorts of phone call integration. Sending calls to voicemail, replying via an SMS, logging the call and even starting one are all possible from within Address Book. And while AB supports these operations with the default batch of iSync-supported phones, Nova Media's Address Book plugin enables these operations with a large set of Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones that Apple likely never will support.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a demo available for download, but at roughly $8.50 USD (Euro 6,50), I bet it would be hard to go wrong. After all, I can say from personal experience that $8.50 would be a small price to pay for the satisfying ability of clicking a button in a Mac OS X dialog to send someone directly to voicemail.

If you're familiar with Quicksilver's ability to send email without ever having to touch an actual message, this hint might not be too groundbreaking for you. However, if you're looking for a way to easily send SMS messages and/or still looking for good examples of Quicksilver's far-reaching power, this might be right up your alley: Mac OS X Hints has a short tip on how you can use Quicksilver to send SMS via the Apple Mail plugin (note: Mail.app isn't actually needed when using this method; the plugin simply calls a Mail.app-related service to do the sending). All you need is the recipient's phone number and their network's email gateway, such as XXXXXXXXXX@cingularme.com (at least in the US; I'm unfamiliar with how texting like this works in other countries), and you're all set. The hint goes even further by recommending you simply enter these addresses into your contact's Address Book cards as actual email addresses. Then you can simply call up their entries from Quicksilver (via its Address Book plugin) instead of having to remember and manually enter them each time you get your SMS on.

Since we found it, SMS Mac has stirred conflict between price and convenience for us here at TUAW, but I nevertheless felt it pertinent to blog the latest v2.1. Besides the $10/yearly price and $5/50 SMS messages, quit a bit has changed from that original version. It now includes both a Dashboard and Yahoo! Widget, the ability to send SMSes to Address Book Groups, better features for delivery report handling and more.

If money were no object, I would call SMS Mac one of the most functional and convenient desktop SMS utilities I've ever seen. Unfortunately, its high price and yearly subscription model have scared this blogger off to find a more reasonable alternative.

If you're finished with smacking your MacBook to make it do your bidding, maybe you can move on to tilting it and playing with the some mood lighting (in the Pro models) to really get things done? Lilt is a new app that harnesses the power of of Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor (found in PowerBooks, MBs and MBPs) and the ambient light sensor (PowerBooks and MBPs only) to allow you to trigger the launch of applications, files and scripts. With AppleScript support, the possibilities are of course almost limitless, but the basic examples the developer Jonathan Nathan uses include waving your hand over the ambient light sensor to change tracks in iTunes, as well as tilting the machine back to hear the time spoken to you. Naturally, Lilt includes plenty of built-in actions like locking the screen, speaking text, controlling the volume and launching apps, just to help you hit the ground running.

Until November 30th, Lilt is offered as a pre-release version, free of restrictions. After that, the price rises to a mere $5. Not bad for a whole new way to boss your notebook around, and with Lilt, the odds are far less that you might give it a black eye.