—Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Patent:Gizmodo has linked to a patent that Apple applied for concerning instant messaging on the iPhone. The patent lumps telephony-based instant messages (SMS and MMS) and internet-based instant messages together—I’m not sure what the benefit of including SMS in an IM application would be, but MMS could allow people to send files to each other. The patent writes that instant messages may include “graphics, photos, audio files, video files and/or other attachments”.

—Comunidad: Spanish-language social community company Comunidad will launch mobile services, including on-deck and off-deck programming for live and on-demand audio and video, SMS and premium SMS services. Comunidad claims 2 million subscribers throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the hispanic population of the United States. UVuMobile will run the site. (release)

—Photobucket: Intercasting is quick off the bat with Photobucket’s new API, launching a wireless-to-web photo-sharing mobile application that lets Photobucket users upload the photos on their phone to Photobucket and transfer them within the site.

—Social API: Hook Mobile has launched MobileHook API, which will let developers push multimedia, including photos, video, audio, and slideshows, from social networking applications to mobile phones, via MMS. The API takes care of the complex layers of application integration, media transcoding, wireless carrier approval and message delivery.