View, Save and Backup SMS Messages on your iPhone with the Free Syphone Utility

Micromat released a beta of the freeware utility Syphone for use with Apple's iPhone. The program installs on a user's Macintosh and does not alter the iPhone in any way. It allows the user to view, save, and back up their SMS messages. This utility will be welcomed by iPhone users who make frequent use of SMS messaging. They will now be able to archive and view SMS conversations, including those that have been deleted from the iPhone.

Syphone allows an iPhone user with a Macintosh computer to:

• View synced iPhone SMS messages
  
• Archive SMS messages
  
• Import/export SMS messages
  
• View SMS messages offline in an iChat-like interface with selectable
  colors
  
• Open Address Book contacts
  
• View the number of sent and received messages for each contact
  
• Support multiple iPhones

The iPhone has a limit on the number of SMS messages it can store at one time. If this limit is exceeded, existing conversations must be deleted in order to make room for new messages. Syphone allows the user to view and/or save any of these conversations, including those that have been deleted from the iPhone. It uses the familiar iChat format to display archived SMS messages. In addition, if multiple iPhones are synced to a computer, Syphone allows viewing and archiving of messages from any of the iPhones.

Syphone is a free utility that may be downloaded from the Micromat Downloads Web page. Syphone only works on Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.4 or above. [Bill Fox]