You might recall the big stink raised last year after Apple banned Google Voice from the application store. AT&T and Apple of course played dumb to suggestions that either acted anti-competitively to block an application that poses a significant threat to both the old telco or phone OS business models.

With Uncle Sam sniffing around Apple on numerous fronts, Apple recently eased iPhone developer restrictions and now it appears that the official Google Voice app will finally be arriving on the iPhone. According to Techcrunch, the app has actually already been approved and will pop up soon:

…we’ve gotten word that the official Google Voice application is on its way to the iPhone in the next few weeks. In fact, we’ve heard from a source close to Google that it’s already been approved Google just needs to revamp the application to work with the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities. If you’re a Google Voice user and you’re on an iPhone, this is great news.

As already explored at length, applications like Google Voice are going to speed up the death of concepts like SMS and voice minutes, given that things like mobile VoIP and push IM make them irrelevant. With reduction in that revenue, carriers like AT&T and Verizon are eagerly looking forward to jacking up mobile data costs with new low cap, high overage data plans.

Link to the original article…

The makers of the cool and free textPlus have released a game based on texting, textRace for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPhone Touch.

Fire up those texting fingers and prepare to do battle — the ultimate texting throwdown is here. From the creators of the free, unlimited texting app textPlus, comes textRace, a no holds barred texting game that pits challengers against the clock in a test of speed and accuracy. textRace is free to download for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

The premise is simple: a message appears in the app, and users must accurately retype that message to beat the clock. The faster and more precise they retype it, the more points they earn and levels they unlock. The app’s speed clock and pounding music get the blood pumping, and the fiercest competitors can boast about their high scores by posting them to Facebook.

Bound to be fun for the texter in your family, textRace is in the Apple iTunes Music Store right now for free too.

[ Links: textRace, textPlus ]

I know I mentioned the GOGII textPlus by GOGII running on Android almost two weeks ago, but I didn’t have any screenshots of it running quite yet. Well… now I do – look above.

Additional features make it easy for Android texters to make textPlus their preferred SMS service, including the international ability to send free messages from abroad to friends in the U.S. using a U.S. 10-digit phone number and free Notifications when messages come into the app, even when closed. What’s more, textPlus lets Android users communicate with friends who aren’t using the app – they simply pay for texts through their existing carrier plan.

Combined with Fring also on to the Android platform, Google Android is shaping up to be a good option to my Apple iPhone.

[ Links: GOGII, textPlus ] [ Related: GOGII announces textPlus for Android ]

One of my favorite ways to save money by texting between folks in my contact list on the Apple iPhone was just announced for the Google Android platform.

GOGII, Inc. announces today the launch of textPlus, its popular next generation texting application, on the Android Market. Previously available only on the Apple App Store, the unique textPlus app now brings sponsor-supported free and unlimited messaging to Android users and allows them to have instant group “conversations” in text with friends on most U.S. carriers.

“We’ve already seen overwhelming consumer response to the textPlus app in the Apple App Store thanks to the millions of consumers who’ve embraced our game-changing features – from casual texters to the staggering number of consumers who text as their primary mode of communication,” said Scott Lahman, CEO and co-founder of GOGII. “We’re pleased to make textPlus available to Android users, and offer even more text-happy mobile consumers this tricked-out, next generation texting service.”

By leveraging GOGII’s interactive messaging technology, textPlus allows both old-style texting – one-to-one conversations – and next generation texting – rich, engaging environments and instant group text conversations. A useful ‘reply-all’ feature, similar to email, turns texting into a chatroom that lets users make plans with several friends at once, introduce people to one another or just carry on a group conversation – all in text and all for free.

Additional features make it easy for Android texters to make textPlus their preferred SMS service, including the international ability to send free messages from abroad to friends in the U.S. using a U.S. 10-digit phone number and free Notifications when messages come into the app, even when closed. What’s more, textPlus lets Android users communicate with friends who aren’t using the app – they simply pay for texts through their existing carrier plan.

GOGII expects the textPlus Android app to be met with the same degree of consumer fervor on the Android Market that it has on the Apple App Store. To date, the textPlus app has already seen almost 3.5 million downloads, and over 350 million messages have been sent using the service since June. And while only the top 5% of applications in the Apple App Store reach 100,000 unique monthly visitors, textPlus exceeded that by over 7 times in its second month of release.

This truly makes my excuse to not go look at the Google Nexus One Phone that much harder. textPlus for the Android platform is to be released very soon now.

Hey GOGII, a Nokia N900 version soon perhaps? Please? Thanks Beth for the tip!

[ Links: GOGII, textPlus ] [ Related: Apple iPhone textPlus 2.1 Update ]

Not too long ago I was talking about the GOGII textPlus 2.0 update for the Apple iPhone [ article here ] but GOGII added some worthy updates to this version that remains free and is a free way to send SMS between up to 50 folks in your contact list at once.

GOGII, Inc. takes another giant step toward revolutionizing the way people text today by making it possible to reach out to and communicate with up to 50 people at a time using a single free text message. The company’s flagship next generation texting application, textPlus, now lets users create “personal communities” that can be reached in a moment’s notice via text – today’s most ubiquitous mobile communication mode.

“People have used email group messages, listserves and the ‘reply all’ features on email to coordinate organizations and groups for years,” said Scott Lahman, CEO and Co-Founder of GOGII. “But the fact is emails aren’t received or read as quickly as text messages. We’re bringing email-like functionality to texting so that every member of every work softball team, soccer parent group, high school clique, book club or Saturday night bar crawl can be reached in an instant.”

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can download the free textPlus 2.1 app from the Apple App Store, then become “community managers” by creating names for their various groups within the app. A community manager can invite up to 50 members to join a group (members don’t need to have the app or use an iPhone – they simply need to have a phone that is text-enabled), and send one text to the entire community name to initiate a conversation. In textPlus’s chatroom-like environment, everyone in the group receives the text and everyone sees all the replies.

GOGII (pronounced “go-jee”) has upped the ante for this free app that allows for free text messaging between now communities of folks now. Just… hint hint please add a method to text people overseas and I’ll be 100% happy(-ier). Go get it now.

[ Links: textPlus 2.1, GOGII ] [ Related: textPlus 2.0 ]

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably still stuck on the anemic AT&T SMS package of 200 text messages and find yourself over each and every month. It’s not that I’m cheap, but that overage per month adds up over time and I’ve wanted a good, reliable way to send messages to people and do it for free. Some methods of sending “free SMS” via the web can’t be replied to by the person you’ve sent a message or they might not know that it is indeed you that’s doing the sending.

GOGII, Inc. [ site here ] has recently updated their textPlus Apple iPhone application to version 2.0 and added the ability for people to simply respond to your free username via textPlus 2.0 and you’ll receive the message whether you’re in the app or via the Apple iPhone 3.0 enabled push notifications when you’re not in the app.

textPlus 2.0’s highly anticipated usernames give non-app users in the U.S. the ability to start text conversations with their friends using textPlus. All they need to do is text a friend’s username to 60611, and the conversation begins. In fact, with usernames, textPlus users no longer even need a phone number to send or receive texts from inside the U.S.

New to users outside the U.S., textPlus 2.0 offers a convenient, cost effective alternative to international texting. Because textPlus 2.0 usernames are accessible worldwide, textPlus users who have registered a username can send and receive text messages for free to and from other textPlus users, anywhere. So, a textPlus user on a WiFi network located in the United Kingdom can now engage in a username-to-username text conversation with another textPlus user in the United States, Japan, France or anywhere else in the world, for free.

Not only is this a way for me to save money per month on my constant SMS overages, but my friends – one or groups of more than one – overseas or on other cellphone networks can easily contact me for free directly as well. This is definitely a new model for texting.

There are a few, unobtrusive ads that are included in the app, and normally I avoid ad supported apps. But they’re seriously not in the way… and besides, the app works great and is free, but textPlus 2.0 is definitely worth a download for your Apple iPhone. Setup to get my account up and running and my phone number verified took less than 2 minutes. All for free.

[ GOGII ] [ textPlus ] [ Related: Apple iPhone 3GS ]