In case anyone missed it, last week marked the release of YouMail in Cydia. At SaurikIT, we are pretty excited about this one (mostly as it was our idea to make it happen ;P). The key idea is a free (improved) alternative to Visual Voicemail for all those users out there who either:

A) can't use AT&T/Verizon's offering (because they have an unlocked phone on another carrier, like T-Mobile), or

B) are simply looking for something better: accessible from anywhere (web, e-email), supporting custom per-caller greetings, or simply fast human transcription (for those tired of interpreting the output of Google Voice's automated version ;P).

Getting a setup like this integrated into the Phone app is the kind of thing I've been wanting to get done for a long time now (I consider these major improvements to be what jailbreaking is about), which is what led me to start approaching companies about offering this service to our users almost two years ago.

One of the key constraints, however, was price: I wanted this in as many peoples' hands as I could (I know there are well over half a million iPhones on T-Mobile alone). It was incredibly compelling then, when YouMail, the largest of these offerings, said that their model allows them to offer the "better than visual voicemail" experience for FREE.

So, what we've come out with is an extension that ties your YouMail account into the native Phone app, replacing (upgrading ;P) the Voicemail button.

In future releases, Dustin (the lead developer of this project) hopes to continue adding more YouMail features, including fast access to transcriptions and the ability to record greetings directly from the Phone app; but, for now, all of this functionality (and even more) is already accessible thanks to the rich website provided by YouMail.

If nothing else, we hope that people give it a try.

-J