Good morning all. I have been wanting to test out the newest version of AIM for iPhone to see if the push notifications really work as they suggest, and I am quite happy to report that they absolutely do.

What does this mean to you? Well, if you often send SMS messages to people with an iPhone or BlackBerry (and many other phones), this means that you can send messages via AIM in real time using your data plan instead of using your alloted SMS messages.

Additionally, AIM for iPhone allows you to send SMS messages for free to any of your iPhone contacts with mobile numbers via your AIM account. So not only can you communicate on the AIM network using your data plan, you can also communicate using SMS via AIM using your data plan. This seems to me like a great way to avoid spending money on an extra SMS plan.

What makes this extra special nice is that you can also communicate in real time with your AIM buddies using their computers as well. Can this get any better?

There are two versions of the AIM app on the iTunes Store: a free version supported by ads and a $2.99 version with no ads and landscape keyboard capabilities. For some, $2.99 is a small price to pay for a landscape keyboard.

Happy messaging!