Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Most people were pleased to be able to add the new service. However, as might be expected with anything that is new, others were not enthralled with the new capability -- one that many other less-expensive mobile phones have had for years."

Not sure how your MMS experience was, but mine so far has been pretty painless. And while I haven't had any major problems sending or receiving photos (or videos), a couple times I experienced a bit of a delay just before it finished sending a photo. There have been some complaints about video quality, but the one time I received one as a test it turned out fine. How about you? How was your experience?

"It's already known that AT&T is activating MMS for the iPhone on Friday, but the company has now narrowed the time frame to within a few hours."

AT&T has predicted noon Pacific time tomorrow for the availability for MMS. Users will need to update their devices via iTunes, and the AT&T Facebook page will have all the information in case you have questions. Woo Hoo! Hope it works and it isn't a network failure. That would be bad. How do you think it will go?

"AT&T is bringing Multimedia Messaging to the iPhone on September 25. But if you can't wait ten days or so, here's how to get it now."

This isn't a for sure workaround, as there have been reports that it doesn't work. However, if you are impatient and can't wait 7 days, and have some familiarity with the terminal, this how-to article walks you through how to add it to your iPhone now. 3G or 3GS only though!

"Some iPhone users are reporting that AT&T has enabled MMS on their accounts. Though the feature isn't yet available to everyone, it indicates that AT&T is working on a gradual rollout rather than a full-on switch flipping on September 25."

If you go to Settings > General > Network and find a "Cellular Data Network" in the menu then you should have it enabled. Or if you see a camera icon in your SMS application. No info on the specific areas it is happening in, seems random according to the Ars article, but I do know one thing for sure: I don't have it yet. 

"Hear that? It's the sound of iPhones ringing around the country to the tone of "Hallelujah!"

Announced yesterday afternoon, AT&T says they will roll out MMS on September 25th this year, but only for 3G and 3GS iPhones. They also noted in their press release that "wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry." Hmm, according to this story they aren't handling the traffic so well. Personally, I don't have any problems with AT&T in my area but perhaps we are just lucky? How about you?

Well, this is somewhat interesting news... Many of us assumed that AT&T was going to end up charging for MMS whenever it did get around to making it available for the iPhone (after all, it's not like AT&T has any other devices that do MMS so the delay is totally understandable), but according to AT&T's own documents, if you have a text messaging bundle, you'll have MMS when the time comes.

Sounds good to me, now can we get our collective butts moving on it, already? Honestly making iPhone users wait for MMS when the rest of the network has phones that (as AT&T brags about) are MMS enabled already is just flat out dumb.

Gone is the SMS app. Hello to Messages. In Apple's implementation of MMS (which will only be available on the iPhone 3G after the upgrade; sorry first gen owners) you can send pictures, web sites, contacts, and even location links (that's my personal favorite). In one example mentioned, you could theoretically send a friend a pushpin in Google Maps to exactly where you are. Sure will make those impromptu meetups at a new cafe a lot easier, right?

MMS is the only feature added yesterday that I don't care at all about, but I will say that the ability to MMS other info (map links, contacts, etc) makes it more appealing to me. I can only hope that AT&T doesn't decide to slam people like my wife and I who are paying for unlimited messaging already with even more fees so we can use the feature. I guess we'll know in a few weeks.

"The oft-bemoaned lack of certain, um... capabilities of the the iPhone is forcing individual companies to take desperate measures, it seems. It's not entirely clear, but MacWorld says it's confirmed with Telia that the Swedish-Finnish carrier's developing an MMS-enabling app for the iPhone. MacWorld says the app will hit the market in the next two months, which is great news for everyone in Sweden."

Honestly, I'm not terribly worried about if the iPhone will ever get MMS capabilities. I've had my fair share of phones that had the feature over the years and I don't think I've ever actually used it. It's just not that important to me, but nonetheless there are a vocal group of folks who think the inability to not send a picture of yourself to some girl your flirting with is utterly a dealbreaker so for them this may be the final push they need to buy the iPhone. Your mileage may vary. If you live in Sweden. Maybe.