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I hate SMS, so one of the great announcements of today WWDC Keynote was that Apple would be rolling their own messaging solution, called iMessage, into iOS 5.

Since almost everyone I know has an iPhone, this seems like a nice solution. I’m not the only one excited: Apple Has Finally Stuck A Dagger Into SMS. I Love It.

And for those time when you actually do need to message non-iOS users, there’s free Google Voice. Dear carriers: suck it.

Update: More iOS 5 details from Engadget including some good bits on iMessage.  Gruber also quips:

I’ll cancel my SMS plan as soon as this ships.

(A well-informed little birdie tells me that Apple’s phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages when we did: during [the] keynote.)

The official adaptation of the designer board game Carcassonne has landed on the iTunes App store. The TUAW Review does a nice job of summing up what’s so wonderful about this game itself as well as the strengths & weaknesses of the iOS adaptation.

I think the developers, TheCodingMonkeys, have really knocked the Carcassonne App out of the park. It’s one of the best examples of gaming on iOS yet. I especially appreciate the ability to play several multiplayer games at once and have the app notify me when it’s my turn to play on any one of them. This enables real pick-up/put-down gameplay that’s perfect for the iPhone on the go. But even if you don’t play with people, the CPU players are pretty good and can present quite a challenge (if you want them to).  Furthermore, despite the fact that it’s only optimized for the iPhone right now, I’ve found the game to be very playable when pixel doubled on the iPad.

The game is on sale for just $4.99 which is a steal for something with this kind of functionality and replayability. That price goes up to $9.99 when the iPad upgrade, which will be free to existing owners, goes live later this year. If you do pick it up, be sure to send me a friend request so we can play some games and remember, “Sharing is Caring.”

I picked up the new This American Life Application for iPhone and iPod Touch this morning and I’m quite enjoying it so far (iTunes Store Link).  Ars Technica gives a good rundown of the app’s features, but, if you’re a TAL fan with an iPhone, I don’t think you could find a better way to spend 3 bucks.

Catan is my favorite board game, the iPhone is my favorite… thing I carry around. Put them together and you’ve got some dangerously awesome potential. I can’t wait!

Loads of good stuff announced today for the iPhone OS 3.0. Engadget has the details.

Apple is, unsurprisingly, not going to stand still and let Google Android and Palm WebOS get the upper hand on features. They pretty much went down the wish list of features for the update and checked of every one of them: copy/paste, push notifications, better Bluetooth support, and so on. Pretty much the only feature left out is background apps which Apple again dissed as a large source of battery drain.

Flash is also still a no-show, but that’s not a surprise, nor something I think Apple plans on addressing anytime soon. In any case, I still don’t think Flash would be any good on any phone device at this time.

Consumers get it this summer… I can’t wait.