‘Tis the season for iOS 6 compatibility updates! BiteSMS was recently updated to version 7.0 with support for iOS 6 (with 7.1 quickly released afterwards to fix bugs introduced into the iOS 5 version). The new version introduces the ability to send iMessage texts through the command-line interface, though it only seems to work in iOS 6. BiteSMS licenses are also selling for half price as a holiday promotion, so if you don’t like seeing adds, it will only cost $5 for a full license. (Credits are unaffected.)

BiteSMS 7.1 Cydia Tweak

BiteSMS 7.1 on an iPad 3, running iOS 5.1.1.

We saw the beta in late September, but a few features were added in the meantime. The full list of changes includes the option of using Facebook contact pictures, if you haven’t already imported contact photos onto your device–as well as link colors in themes working correctly.

As a CLI fanatic, I was most excited to test out the command-line interface -send feature. You can access it, while logged in as “mobile,” by typing:

/Applications/biteSMS.app/biteSMS -send -iMessage to@address “text_msg”

Unfortunately this feature is only in the iOS 6 version of BiteSMS. Indeed, all the new features only apply to the new operating system, making 7.1 effectively a release of BiteSMS 6.3 for everyone still using iOS 5–which is a shame because the full iOS 6 untethered jailbreak has not yet been released. You can still use the -carrier and -bite commands for sending ordinary SMS messages through your carrier or BiteSMS credits respectively.

Of course, the 50% off price for a license is good for everyone, regardless of your current OS. The new features, nice as they are, aren’t groundbreaking and it is not going to hamper your enjoyment of what is already a great tweak. As of right now the added features are just something to look forward to when an iOS 6 jailbreak is finally released.

BiteSMS 7.1 Change Log

BiteSMS’ official change log.

BiteSMS can be found in the BigBoss repository on Cydia and is free to install. Licenses for ad-free use and text message credits are both available from BiteSMS’ site.

Would you pay $5 to get rid of ads in BiteSMS? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.