AT&T enters 21st century, adds MMS to iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

I quite like the iChat style bubbles on my phone when using MMS. I find it's much more easy to manage previously sent & recieve text. However, my dad wishes there was a way to turn it off because he use his phone for business. Maybe in an update one day. Is MMS that big of deal to anyone who posts on this blog? I don't really know anyone among my friends and family who uses MMS on their phone.

That's not a hard reset, Paul, that's simply a power down, power up cycle.. There's a harder reset available, which clears some stuff out of flash. Last time I had a phone that did MMS, it was $0.25 a pop (thanks, Verizon). I sent 0 MMS messages--very nearly the number of SMS messages I sent. I fully expect to keep my record intact with the iPhone, except possibly for tests. And virtually no one knows my iPhone's number, so incoming MMS messages are unlikely. Hmmm...Apple just offered me iPhone Configuration Utility on the Win7RC running in bootcamp on my old MacBook--which the iPhone never touches. Along with the pre-checked "opportunity" to install iTunes and Quicktime, which I don't want on Windows machines. Thanks, Apple. At least they didn't pre-check Safari, which IMHO has no place on Windows at all. (I need to have their updater available to be ready to accept updates for the bootcamp stuff.)

Delmont, "How else do you send photos if not for MMS?" As an attachment to email. The upside is that you can send to anyone with an email address rather than just to people's cell phones. The downside is that you can't use that to send to people who only have a feature phone and no email - if there's anyone without email still around...

So, do we think "tethering" is the next thing on Apple's iPhone To Do list? I'm hoping "offering decent call quality" is next on AT&T's.

I apreciate what you're saying about using email to send photos. But for those of us with the dumb old flip phones, MMS has always been the method. And to go via email, that all requires extra steps to retrieve. With MMS, it's the same as a simple text message to retrieve. Yes, it's about having choices :-) Oh and I did have Safari checked marked by default for me this morning too.

@Mike Haha :)

"Needless to say, this being Apple and AT&T, the complaints have already begun rolling in. I'm sure they'll get it right eventually." I thought Apple always gets a pass, but on the other hand, now it's suddenly needless to even mention that they start getting complaints the minute they put something out. Which is it? Also, seeing as iPhone MMS has been working like a dream here in Europe for months, I take it Paul is either purposefully making Apple look bad for something that's AT&T's fault - just like he's tried to do before. I guess he assumes his readers are idiots, or he's an idiot himself. Which is it?

I am with the others here that don't need or want to use MMS. On my blackberry, images just pop up instantly in email attachments, which on my phone require no extra steps to get. I have a folder (the default) that lumps SMS, MMS and email all together.

Nice title. I wouldn't call it an understatement to say that apple re-invented the phone for the 21st century. as for mms, meh. Very few people really even use that. I didn't miss not having it.

@Waethorn, US carriers do have extensive peering relationships and they have and continue to share towers and each others' services - leasing space, time and engineering where it makes sense. We do all the technology for a large turn-key wireless engineering firm that provides the engineering, tower construction, and maintenance to all carriers in 17 states and as such, have a clear understanding of the relationships. A key revenue component for all of them is within peering relationships and associated fees - it is what contributes to lower over all costs for consumers. Also, SMS data costs the carriers nothing at all in terms of signal and bandwidth. SMS rides a servicing channel that is ever present on all mobile phones. It is perhaps the industry's dirtiest and best kept secret as they charge an alarming amount of money for something that costs them nothing at all in the context of data as you've associated it here. Data plans themselves are very costly for consumers and caps do apply - as I am sure you know. Carriers do mine all communications and they maintain an alarming clarity over what each mobile device is doing at any given time and too little regulation is either applied, or understood. They couch their mining in the context of billing requirements and service delivery, but each, working with external companies, cross-correlates data and they create profiles with what I assess as being shockingly detailed. Their ability to support one another with data exchanges is also an area of concern. It's skeery stuff and this is exactly the kind of thing where big government is needed - to regulate and fine the crap out of corporations that harm the people; however, increasingly, corporations and government are one in the same and this, much more than costs, should give all of us, regardless of country, or political stance, great cause for concern.

Bloody hell, why is the US so far behind the rest of the world in mobile tech? Geez, good ol' isolated Australia has had it for the best part of a decade! And two of your major networks are still using crappy CDMA 1xEv-do. Christ - get with the times.

Hard reset? Surely you mean soft reset as in a full boot, and not a complete device wipe!

@topherkey1 Because we are...?

That is true, Windows is nothing but a headache: http://www.thehenry.net/2009/09/mac-as-car-and-pc-as-car.html

Delmont said: "And Mike, you're not always right." Delmont, I'm afraid you're mistaken there. mikegalos@msn.com is always right.