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FreedomPop pals up with TextPlus to offer free SMS
FreedomPop's made a name for itself by selling cases that enable iPod Touch users to get at least 500MB of data each month for free, and now the company has partnered with TextPlus to give users the ability to send SMS messages as well. Along with a basic free plan, FreedomPop will offer three pricing tiers, maxing out at $15 for unlimited text and 1,000 voice minutes. The partnership will come to full fruition sometime in the first quarter, though the company doesn't specify any additional details. We have the press release ready for your perusal below the break.
TextPlus goes beyond free texting, boosts communities
When I bought my iPhone 3GS, one of the helpful Apple retail guys told me to give textPlus a try for sending text messages, as I'd bought into the cheapest texting plan AT&T offers. I've since graduated to unlimited texting, and had left textPlus by the wayside until I found out it had a blossoming community angle to the service. While you can still send free texts until your fingers fall off, the latest version of textPlus (an ad-supported app, although there's a paid version as well) allows you to create, participate and join in Communities, which are much like topical group chat rooms seen on AIM back in the early days of the service. Once you've set up a basic account using not much more than your name, zip code and birthdate, textPlus looks a lot like a big chat application. You have access to your own Address Book and can send a simple text to anyone with a mobile number and the ability to receive texts. They can text you right back, and it'll appear in your Conversations panel. This is an easy way to see basic conversations, and if you're texting from a "dumb" phone you can still use the service as a simple conduit. This works one-on-one and in groups, although there are various commands for simple text input that'll allow you to traverse group conversations and name yourself, etc. Read on for more...
Kleiner Perkins iFund doubles to $200m, investing in iPad apps from Shazam, ngmoco and more
Apple said it expects the iPad to be a "second gold rush" of app development as consumers rush to add content to their new devices, and it looks like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers agrees: the venture capital firm just announced that it's expanding the iFund to $200 million to invest in iPad app development. If you'll recall, the iFund was originally announced alongside the iPhone OS 2.0 SDK, and provided $100 million in total investments to 14 iPhone app developers like Shazam, ngmoco, and Shopkick -- companies responsible for 18 apps that have hit the App Store Top 10. Keep in mind that this money was promised before the iPhone App Store was even launched -- so given how that bet paid off, it's not surprising that KPCB's decided to double down on the iPad, which looks like it'll have even higher app prices. Along with the announcement, some iFund devs announced the following iPad apps: Pinger: Doodle Buddy and Starsmash Booyah: MyTown, a popular location-based game Shazam: Shazam, optimized for the new screen size, ngmoco: Flick Fishing, a new MMO called CastleCraft, Charadium (described as "massively multiplayer Pictionary"), God Finger, We Rule, WarpGate, and one more we missed -- anyone catch it? GOGII: TextPlus Nothing too surprising here, but it looks like the heavy hitters are going to be on the iPad bandwagon from day one -- and pushing hard for this thing to be a success.
The iPillow is cheaper than an iPhone, cuddles better, still no Flash
There's something about Apple's products that just makes people want to cuddle them -- we've talked about lots and lots (and lots) of Apple products turned into pillow form. Here's another: Drew Olanoff's (from Blame Drew's Cancer) mother made this iPhone pillow for him while he was recovering from chemotherapy. It's handmade and super cute -- I especially like the stylish icons, including the textPlus icon, which is Drew's own iPhone app. There's also a stitched Home button (which you can see in the full picture), and there's even a pocket on the side, sized just right for an actual iPhone of course. Awesome. [via Unpluggd]
