If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5 or higher, or OS X Mountain Lion, you can cut out the carrier cash grab and use iMessage to send absolutely free text (SMS), picture and video (MMS), location, and contact messages to anyone else who's also using similar Apple devices.

While it sounds simple, and it is, there are a few important things to pay attention to.

Identity crisis

Right now Apple uses two different systems for linking you to your iMessages. If you have an iPod touch, iPad, or Mac, your Apple ID email address will how you send and receive iMessages. If you have more than one Apple ID, iMessage will use whichever one you log into in Settings. Anyone you send an iMessage to will see it coming from that Apple ID, and anyone who wants to send you an iMessage will need to send it to that Apple ID.

If you have an iPhone, your iPhone telephone number will be used to identify use for sending and receiving iMessages, just like SMS and MMS messages on a regular phone. However, your Apple ID email address can be used as well, but will currently be treated separately.

What that means is, if someone iMessages your telephone number, it will only show up on your iPhone. If someone iMessages your Apple ID, it will show up on any iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac logged into that Apple ID.

If that sounds confusing, don't worry. With iOS 6, set for release this September, Apple will allow you to "merge" your iPhone phone number and Apple ID so all your iMessages will go to all your devices, regardless of whether or not they're sent to your phone number or email address.

Color conflict

If you're using an iPod touch, iPad, or Mac, you can only ever send iMessages. If you're using an iPhone, however, you can send both iMessages and standard SMS/MMS messages as well. (You need that in order to contact people who don't use Apple phones, including people on regular feature phones.)

To make it easier to tell the difference, Apple color codes all iMessages with blue bubbles, and all SMS/MMS messages with green bubbles. If you send a message and the bubble around it is blue, you're using iMessage. If the bubble is green, you're using SMS/MMS. If iMessage is offline, your iPhone may try to send over SMS/MMS, so keep an eye on it if you want to avoid charges, especially international charges outside of any texting plan you might have.

How to set up iMessage

Prior to being able to send iMessages, you'll need to set it up.

• How to set up and activate iMessage on iPhone
• How to set up and activate iMessage on iPad and iPod touch
• How to set up and activate iMessage on the Mac

How to send an iMessage on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad

Once you're set up, you're ready to go. If you've ever sent a text message with your iPhone, you already know how to send an iMessage -- it uses the same Messages app. If you're brand new to the iPhone, or to iPod or iPad, here's how it's done.

1. Launch the Messages app from the Home screen
2. Tap the new message button in the top right.

3. Tap the blue "+" buttonin the upper right hand corner to choose which contact you want to iMessage.
4. Scroll through your contacts and tap on the phone numberor Apple ID email addressyou'd like to send an iMessage to.

5. If your contact is using an iMessage-enabled device, the send button will turn blue**. You may also notice that you can start typing someone's name in the 'to' field and a blue bubble will auto-populate next to addresses or phone numbers that are iMessage ready.

6. If your contact isn't using iMessage, but you're using their phone number, the send button will turn green**. You can still seen the message, but it will use SMS/MMS instead of iMessage
7. If your contact isn't using iMessage and you're sending to their Apple ID email address, you'll see a redbubble around their name with an "X" next to it indicating that it's not a valid iMessage address.

8. Type in your message and tap send.

That's it! You've just sent an iMessage from iOS!

How to send an iMessage on Mac OS X

1. Open up iMessage in your dock.

2. Click the new message button to the right of the search field.
3. Start typing the name of the person in your address book that you'd like to iMessage. You'll notice that some names have blue bubbles next to them and some won't. The ones that do are addresses that you can send iMessages to because they are either Apple ID's or phone numbers associated with an iPhone with iMessage enabled.

4. Once you've selected the person you'd like to send a message to, just type out your message and hit send. You're done!

Another idea we've been talking around a lot, both in articles and on the iMore show and the Iterate podcast, is the future of Apple's virtual personal assistant, Siri and what it means for current graphical user interfaces. While working on the iOS 6 Siri previews, however, it began to coalesce. Watching the WWDC 2012 keynote, Apple senior vice president of iOS, Scott Forstall showed off the updates planned for Siri in iOS 6, and used an interesting turn of phrase -- "you can even tap to watch the trailer right here in Siri".

Not "using Siri". Not "with Siri". "In Siri."

Siri has never been part of the original iOS Home page system, Spring Board. It's always been a layer unto itself. Siri even includes a robust system of widgets, including alarms and timers, messaging and email, Facebook and Twitter, maps and locations, and info sheets including restaurants, sports, movies, and more. Unlike Android, you can't pin any of them persistently to the Home screen. They exist only in Siri.

It's a parallel interface layer that uses natural language -- voice -- instead of multitouch -- gestures. Right now it's an extremely limited, not always reliable one, but it is one. With iOS 6, it can even launch apps, just like the Home screen's Spring Board.

It's not hard to imagine Siri continuing to improve and expand until it can do pretty much everything the Home screen, Spring Board system can do, only with voice rather than multitouch gestures.

All major revolutions in computing have been as a result of the mainstreaming of a new and more accessible interface paradigm. The Apple II popularized command-line interfaces (CLI). The Mac popularized graphical user interfaces (GUI). The iPhone popularized multitouch user interfaces. Even the iPod's success could arguably be tied, at least in part, to the advent of the clickwheel as interface.

Could Siri popularize natural language user interfaces? Could the next big shift, and the next huge adaption curve in the mainstream market come when Siri is ready for prime time? Could natural language interface do to multitouch and GUI what multitouch and GUI did to the command-line?

As much as Minority Report teased us with multitouch before Apple put it into hundreds of millions of hands, natural language has been teased even longer. Star Trek had "Computer". 2001 had "HAL". Knight Rider had "KITT". And on and on. Collectively, we've had hundreds if not thousands of science fiction stories promising a future filled with machines that we could not only talk to, but that we could talk with. It's the only step left before Mitchel Gant, Firefox, and having to think in Russian...

Google's reaching for this future as well. Google Now tries to do what Siri does and even more. Siri parses queries and tries to understand context. Google Now tries to predict context before you even query it. Palm talked about this for webOS years ago -- your phone knows where you are, what time your appointment is, and what traffic is like, so why should you have to carry that cognitive load? Why can't your phone realize you'll be late, alert you, provide alternate directions, and email your contact to let them know you're running late? Palm never delivered on that dream, but Google Now is starting too.

Again, it's not hard to imagine Apple will implement similar features into Siri, since the iPhone and Apple's new Maps system, among other things, can provide similar information.

And, as Apple tried to prove at the wrong time, in the wrong way, with the wrong device -- the buttonless iPod shuffle -- when natural language is the interface, the size of the screen, even the existence of a screen, stops mattering. Computers can become tiny, wearable, embeddable, invisible.

The migration from CLI to GUI to multitouch has all been driven by the urge to democratize computing. (The more people who can use computers, the more people you can sell computers to.)

When natural language becomes easier to use than multitouch, and mainstream users start using them more, we just might see the next great transition in interface, and the next great expansion in computer user base.

And Apple will have spent years position Siri to be there.

Apple II. Mac. iPhone. Siri.

If you've got a jailbroken iPhone and fancy being able to draw or sketch pictures that you can text or iMessage to your contacts, you may want to check out Grafiti in Cydia. It'll allow you to do just that without adding an extra icon to your Home screen. Instead it integrates with the existing stock Messages app.

Grafiti is available in Cydia and ties in natively with the default Messages app. It's also compatible with BiteSMS for those that prefer it over the stock Messages app. Once you've got Grafiti installed you'll just need to enable it. If you've already got the Emogi keyboard enabled, you're good to do. If you don't, you'll need to activate it. To do so, just pop into Settings, General, and Keyboards. Add the Emoji keyboard (or any additional keyboard for that matter. You really just need to have the multiple keyboard option within Messages).

Now pop into the Messages app and tap and hold on the globe that's near the bottom left corner. Tap the Grafiti keyboard. That's pretty much all there is to it. You'll see a drawing palette off to the right that you can use your finder to draw in. You can adjust the sliders off to the side in order to change colors.

Once you're done drawing your message you can click done and it'll auto-insert the image as an MMS into the send field. Tap send and you're done. The recipient on the other end will receive it as a picture message.

While there probably isn't a lot of practical applications for this tweak, it's a cool little tweak nonetheless. If you like to draw pictures and be able to send them to others quickly, it can cut out an app and a few steps where traditionally you'd have to draw your image in a separate app, save it to your camera roll, and then insert it into a text message. It'd be nice to see the developer release an update that allows you to draw full screen as the current drawing area is pretty small and hard to work with.

$0.99 - Cydia Search Link

A couple of weeks ago iMore reported that Apple would be holding their iPhone 5 event on September 12, 2012. We've since learned that iPhone 5 pre-orders are currently planned to begin that same day, at least in the U.S. Release is still planned for 9 days later, on September 21, 2012. We've also learned that the second wave of iPhone launches, the ones in international markets, will begin in the first week of October, likely October 5.

The information on Apple pre-orders comes from sources that have provided iMore with accurate iPhone related launch dates in the past. The information on the international launches comes from sources that have provided our network, Mobile Nations, with accurate information in the past.

While iPhone events and pre-orders haven't always occurred at the same time, last year Apple introduced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, and made pre-orders available the following Friday on October 7. This year, it sounds like they're being even more aggressive.

The first round of releases, which included the U.S., followed on October 14, 2011. The second round of releases followed on October 28, 2011.

While in the past, especially when it came to the iPad, Apple took a while to ramp up international distribution, both the iPhone 4S and the new iPad 3 were released internationally quickly and broadly.

So, these dates do line up with past Apple release schedules.

Last week iMore reported that Apple planned to roll their new, smaller Dock connector out across their full range of iOS devices this fall, including the new iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano, iPad, and iPad mini. We have not, however, been able to learn launch dates for all of those devices. In the past, Apple has made new iPod devices available quickly, if not immediately following the event, but has also had several weeks between announcement and release, especially for brand new devices.

If all of this information pans out, and Apple not only refreshes their entire iOS product line, but also introduces the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini, it will make for one of the most, if not the most significant Apple events in the history of the company.

In 2010, Apple staggered new iOS device launches. iPad was released in the spring, iPhone in the summer, and iPod in the fall. Last year, iPad remained in the spring, iPhone moved to the fall, and iPod touch wasn't updated beyond a color option.

However, just like the Apple of today is capable of releasing new iOS and OS X versions on a yearly schedule, they may well be rich, talented, and organized enough to have a complete iOS product portfolio primed and ready to go to market right in time for the lucrative holiday season.

Nothing is confirmed until an Apple executive holds it up on stage, or Apple puts out a press releases, but if the September 12 event date proves accurate, we'll find out in just under a month.

The BlackBerry Music Gateway is a great way to connect to and control your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad music to your existing speakers and stereo system, at home or on the go

Okay. Yes. Sure. It's made by Research in Motion (RIM) and called the BlackBerry Music Gateway, but thanks to the universal standard that is Bluetooth, this mighty little marvel works not only fine with Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad -- it works fantastically well. You connect it to your existing home theater/stereo system, your car or camper audio, your boat or backyard boom box, tap to connect, and make with the music. It really is just that simple, and just that awesome.

The BlackBerry Music Gateway box includes the device itself, a micro-USB cable, an AC adapter, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio jack, and a 3.5mm to left- and right stereo connectors (RCA). Again, the device is small. Compared to an Apple TV or Apple Airport Extreme, both of which can stream audio over Wi-Fi, it's positively tiny. It's not much bigger than a chicken nugget or an iPod nano. It's that small.

It's also ridiculously easy to set up. Plug it in and connect. That's it. Seriously.

You do have some choices, however. You can charge the BlackBerry Music Gateway with the USB cable, either by plugging it into a handy USB port on your computer or MacBook, or into the AC adapter. Then you slip it into a pocket and take it with you anywhere and everywhere, ready to jack into any audio source you come across. I tried it in my car's AUX in, my friend's home theater, and an old ghetto blaster someone had left on the deck since the 80s... and it worked perfectly with all of them.

You can also plug it into the AC adapter, and the AC adapter into the grid, and just leave the BlackBerry Music Gateway in one place, hidden away, ready to use whenever you want. I tried that at home -- hooking it into my Pioneer 7.1 receiver and just leaving it on. That way I was only ever a remote button push and iPhone play button away from room-booming sound.

Speaking of iPhone, and iOS devices in general, pairing is a snap. No fuss, no codes, no muss. Simply tap Settings, BlueTooth, wait for iOS to discover the BlackBerry Music Gateway, and then tap to connect.

If the iPhone had NFC, it would be even faster, since the BlackBerry Music Gateway supports NFC connection as well. So, if you have a non-Apple device with NFC, just knock the NFC and go. If you're all in on Apple, you'll have to wait and see what the next iPhone brings to see if we can join the near-field communication revolution...

In the meantime, the BlackBerry Music Gateway supports all the basic Bluetooth controls you need, including pause and play, and even volume. Tap the AirPly button to select between iPhone/iPod/iPad and BlackBerry Music Gateway, then drag your finger across the volume slider to pick the perfect level for your intimate dinner, house party, or road trip.

If you're worried about Bluetooth mangling your music, don't be. Companies like Jawbone have proven that even highly compressed audio transport protocols can still produce great sound, and the BlackBerry Music Gateway shows they're no exception to that rule.

Also, don't let the Music gateway name fool you -- you can use the BlackBerry Music Gateway with any type of audio, even movies and video games. If you want to fill the room with cinematic sound, or take your gaming to the next sound level, you can do that too. I tried it with my iPad watching Dark Knight and playing Real Racing 2 and the sound was far, far -- far! -- better than the tiny, tinny Apple speakers in every situation.

The only real tradeoff is this -- unlike cabled audio systems, the BlackBerry Music Gateway can't charge your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad while it's streaming music. So, if you've relied on a USB to Dock connector cable in the past to keep your device alive while it was playing, you'll have to either charge separately, or get a dedicated cable to charge while you're streaming over Bluetooth.

Now, for double the price you could get an Apple TV that will stream video as well as audio, and AirPort Express that will act as a router as well as a music gateway, or something like the Jawbone JAMBOX that includes built-in speakers. But that's at double the price, and for things way beyond what the BlackBerry Music Gateway excels at -- inexpensively putting your audio on your existing sound system.

It's also platform independent, so if you have iPhones but your friends or family have Androids, BlackBerry phones, or anything else, you're all good to go.

The good

• Incredible small and convenient
• Simple and easy to pair
• Relatively inexpensive
• Includes both 3.5 and stereo RCA connectors
• Excellent sound quality, even for Bluetooth
• Supports NFC... even though Apple doesn't yet

The bad

• Requires existing speaker system

The bottom line

There are alternatives to the BlackBerry Music Gateway that do substantially more, but they cost substantially more as well. The BlackBerry Music Gateway won't replace your Apple TV or AirPlay system, but it will certainly complement it. If you already have a great speaker system in your home, car, cottage, etc. and you just want a cheap, convenient way to stream your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad audio to it, you want the BlackBerry Music Gateway.

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The BBC has eventually released an update to its hugely popular TV catch up app, BBC iPlayer. BBC iPlayer is only available for UK customers who pay their license fees and it offers a full 7 day catch up service of all BBC TV and radio programs. The update to BBC iPlayer, finally brings retina quality video for the new third generation iPad and a few more improvements too.

You asked for better playback so we've improved the video performance. Better accessibility, including more Voice Over controls to make it even easier to enjoy BBC iPlayer's fantastic content. Beautiful retina graphics for the new iPad. Bug fixes and general tidying, so you'll notice even smoother performance.

The BBC iPlayer app gives you access to all of the previous seven days of BBC TV programs as well as all radio programs too. You can stream the content over 3G or WiFi and even use AirPlay to send the content to your Apple TV.

As it stands, the update only covers the UK version of the app and not the iPlayer Global app which covers Canada and eleven European countries. We would assume that an update to the BBC iPlayer Global app won't be that far behind. Unfortunately, there is still no news on the iPlayer Global app being released in the U.S. We can only assume that it is being held up due to licensing issues or huge resistance from the American TV networks who don't want any more competition in an already highly competitive market place.

If you are in the UK and want to grab the free update to BBC iPlayer, you can get it from the App Store via the link below. If you give it a whirl, let us know if you notice the improvements with retina video.

Free - Download Now