Discovered ping! (http://www.pingmessaging.com/Ping!/Ping!.html) yesterday; it seems quite a cool little app for the iphone – namely (once you know another iphone user has it and their username) it allows you to sms them for free. In non-scientific tests it seems as quick, if not quicker, than our carriers SMS.
I can’t see why (when ping! registers with the server) it can’t disclose your mobile number, and allow that to be your username, it would be so much more obvious than e.g. david-goodwin.
It has pretty much no integration with any of the rest of the iphone – e.g. address book etc, and if you delete a thread you seem to need to remember someone’s ID to message them again.
Then again, it’s free to install, messaging is free, and O2 only give me 500 free texts a month.. which get easily gobbled up when you send a message longer than 10-20 words.
ping! would also be free to text people who are abroad; luckily for them I don’t know anyone abroad with an iphone who I’d want to text much (if any).
Ho hum
(I should probably point out – ping relies on push notifications, so there’s no need for it to be running in order for it to receive messages).
I’m really struggling to see the advantages over regular texting. Most everyone I know with an iPhone has unlimited text messaging… you pretty much have no choice.
With the layout of iPhone texting (basically looks like an IM conversation already), that means that Ping doesn’t have the advantage that BBM has for blackberry users (because BB texting has crappy layout).
Plus, Ping is .99 cents now. I signed up, but going to be a tough pitch to get my friends on it… which makes it useless for me.
Um….when I’m sitting at home and watching sumfin on the tv and wanna quickly ping a mate in “chat mode”, Ping is the way to go…using my wifi..it’s the dogs…btw – don’t be living in your parochial world…in Australia everybody isn’t on unlimited txt..and we still have internet quotas!
See also Ping! page on Facebook
It seems a new version has been submitted to Apple (1.2) which will allow for pictures to be sent (similar to MMS, I assume). All good stuff.
You can find Ping! users at the Ping User Directory in Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PING-User-Directory/211339226409?ref=ts