Idle thoughts...

[Bluecube]

Can you get a 3G tablet that will allow you to send and receive text messages? I was just thinking that if my iPad had this functionality then I'd not need a mobile phone as I never make/ receive calls.

[blueball]

You can use Skype if you have a credit balance and a Skype In/out number

[Bluecube]

Not quite what I meant. If the SIM card being used has free texts assigned to it then surely there must be apps out there that allow you to send texts through your tablet? For example, you can get numerous Android apps for Android phones that replace the standard text app. Are these unusable on Android tablets?

[nibbler]

Just a guess, but it could be a hardware constraint. Is it the same technology for 3g internet and sending/receiving texts? I would have thought that if a tablet could send texts they would allow it to.

[Bluecube]

I did some research after these initial musings and it seems that it is possible as there are a few US only apps (iOS ones as that's what I've been researching) that allow SMS texts to be sent and received. I get the impression that they're "artificial" texts routed through the app makers network rather than the mobile network proper. There also seems to be a few apps that work on jailbroken iOS devices that allow proper texting but I didn't look too closely at them.

I can't really see it being a hardware issue though I'm no expert. SMS texts are just data being sent out over the mobile network to another phone number. There must be some sort of obstacle otherwise we'd be deluged by such apps.

[blueball]

My vodafone dongle allows me to send/receive SMS from my laptop. I think it may just be that you need to find the app that allows it to happen.