Send SMS from AIM
by Volker Weber
MacOS X Hints reports that you can now send SMS messages from AIM (and iChat).
With today's release of AIM4.6b1.1131, the capability has been added to allow AIM users to send SMS messages to mobile phones. All you do is type the message you want to send as an SMS into a new IM window and change the screenname field to +16175551212 . Replace 6175551212 with the phone number of the SMS-capable mobile phone. The "+1" is the country code, which is required; however, I don't think AOL supports non-US numbers yet, but they do plan to. To utilize this cool feature in iChat, simply type Shift-Command-N for a "New Chat with Person," and enter the phone number in the above format. When you send the message, you'll receive confirmation from AOL that it was sent. Pretty neat!
I checked it out with Ed and indeed it does work. I also checked it out with my own mobile which is in country code +49 and it does not. I am not holding my breath, since mobile carriers make huge profits ripping off their teeanage customers with this service. I doubt they will ever take messages from AOL for free.
