via This Is My Next I love iMessage and use it daily to stay in touch with friends and family.

It offers a few key advantages over standard SMS, making it a total winner in my book. Unlimited text and picture messaging at no extra cost. Telling me when someone has read my message (if he or she chooses to disclose that). It's great.

But iMessage can't touch SMS when it comes to one very basic feature -- blocking someone.

I thought it would be as easy as blocking the phone number through my carrier. But because an iMessage account is paired to your email address as well as your phone number, undesired messages still weasel their way through. iMessages are sent over your 3G or Wi-Fi data connection, so carriers can't block them.

The only way to totally cut ties with someone who's using iMessage is to block his phone number through your carrier and turn off iMessage in your Settings app. But if you turn iMessage back on, you'll receive all the messages sent in the time that you had it turned off.

This is an unacceptable solution for someone who has come to rely on iMessage as I have. Apple should allow you to block other Apple IDs on its end so you can continue to send free iMessages to the people you still want to talk to.

How long do we have to wait for iMessage to catch up to SMS?