AT&T to enable MMS for iPhone 3G and 3GS on Sept. 25

124

Comments

  • Reply 61 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    You know, as happy as I am to finally be getting it, I really do have to jump on the WTF Wagon here. How the hell is it possible that AT&T has been unable or unwilling to enable MMS for TWO FREAKING YEARS? I mean really...you mean to tell me that it's taken them two years to get their network ready for some goddamned picture messages---while in the meantime we've been surfing, e-mailing, gaming, downloading, etc? I just can't buy that. I can download apps from the app store under 10MB, but I can't send or receive a 1MB picture?



    Don't even get me started on quality of voice service. It is horrible. As I posted in another thread, AT&T is the worst cell service I've ever had, hands down. Dropped calls are constant (at least 1 every other day, usually more). Service drops in and out. Actual call quality is highly suspect most of the time. I get distortion. I often get corrupted calls...where it connects and then I hear what sounds like a F***ing alien eating a fax machine. I get calls that don't end properly.



    Oohh...and how about delayed voicemails/recent call notifications and texts? This seems to happen on regular phones as well.



    Apple has to be aware of these problems. I can only assume that if the pressure gets high enough, they'll go multi-carrier next year. If so, AT&T is going to be in a world of hurt. They'll lose customers almost as fast as they got them. People like me, who will be at the end of their contracts, will bail for Verizon.



    /rant



    AT&T has clearly dropped the ball here in many ways but we can't just compare the data of regular Internet to thatnof MMS. While it uses the same "series of tubes" the content is stored on AT&T's servers. With the Push Notification Server needing to be reworked to accomodate a the iPhone traffic, the iPhone being the only phone in Flickr's top 5 devices posting images and just the shear amount of data that the iPhone uses AT&T may be a little too cautious here.



    I'd rather have them delay it until it works well instead the current situation of selling iPhones into a saturated network which means that despite the billions hey spend it's still just catchup and will likely never be good enough until the iPhone sales at AT&T subside for awhile.



    Originally, MMS was designed for 3G networks but with the slow uptake by carriers the service was made to work with EDGE and GPRS. I had hoped that Apple's requirement for a 3G network was so that larger files could be sent, but so far the 3.1 version of the iPhone only has the MMS turned on with no other special feature. Oh yeah, if this goes live on Sept 25th then v3.1 will also be released that day.
  • Reply 62 of 83
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    I've had MMS and tethering since the 3.0 update (in Australia), I sent 1 MMS to test it, it works, I received 1 MMS to test it, that works too.



    Seriously it's overrated by the time the compressed pictures make it through the phone networks they look like crap on the iPhones screen, sure on your dinky little 160x120 screen from 4 years ago the pictures may have looked ok but it is a service that sucks.



    This is why I never used it much over the last five or six years, email is elevenbillionty times better.



    I use tethering a lot more, I was getting tyres this morning and tethered my MacBook via bluetooth, maybe AT&T needs to do what we do here, limit data use I get 1 GB of data so watch what I use, so does everyone else.



    Bandwidth is a shared resource, it's not infinite maybe it's time to dump the see how much I can get, epeen contest, hogs who destroy the experience for everyone else.
  • Reply 63 of 83
    Edited for stupidity.
  • Reply 64 of 83
    tofinotofino Posts: 697member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    SNIP



    While other overseas carriers have had MMS capability available since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has been late to the game, SNIP



    umm... no reason to look 'overseas'.



    mms and tethering are both working in canada on rogers, a company not usually known for its generosity.



    so far both features are included with the (3 year!) higher end plans and pricing will be decided in december. i suspect this is going to be a bait and switch situation, but there's hoping....



    yeah right...
  • Reply 65 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    Yet, they offered the ability to email photos over EDGE right off the bat. They offered web browsing over EDGE, even though web browsing often requires much more data than a single emailed photo. You don't see a disconnect here?



    I'm actually surprised to see a Moderator of a Forum give a "real" unbiased opinion.



    I think everyone in the tech industry has seen this for a while but Apple Apologists continue to give Apple a pass for a "Feature" that has been on Free phones for years.



    Nice post & the reason the iPhone will be my last Apple product among countless other control issues that the App Store has to deal with.



    I want control of what goes on my phone & that includes Flash.



    Just because it sucks on Safari doesn?t mean it doesn?t Rock on every other platform.
  • Reply 66 of 83
    desarcdesarc Posts: 642member
    wow. so much bitching about having to wait another 3 days to use antiquated messaging on a cell phone. how have you all survived this long with only email, posting videos directly to facebook, and the entire internet? if you don't like it, switch carriers and use a blackberry.



    relax.
  • Reply 67 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by desarc View Post


    wow. so much bitching about having to wait another 3 days to use antiquated messaging on a cell phone. how have you all survived this long with only email, posting videos directly to facebook, and the entire internet? if you don't like it, switch carriers and use a blackberry.



    relax.



    I think you have that wrong. Apple had to pull it's commercials for NOT having the Internet in your pocket.



    Flash is the largest mainstream video distribution on the Internet and the iPhone will Never have it.



    If I can't watch a CNN video on my phone I don't have the Internet in my pocket.

    Maybe when the Apple gets over the control issues you'll have the Internet in your pocket.

    Until then look to Android and HTC (Yes Winmo) with Adobe working with Palm and the Pre and Blackberry on the way.



    They have the Internet in your pocket. Until then I have 55,000 useless Apps and Safari on my iPhone.





    There is not an App for that.
  • Reply 68 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NonVendorFan View Post


    I think you have that wrong. Apple had to pull it's commercials for NOT having the Internet in your pocket.



    Flash is the largest mainstream video distribution on the Internet and the iPhone will Never have it.



    There is not an App for that.







    ...and if you read another of today's AI articles, everyone is saying it's no big deal that snow leopard downgrades it, praising clicktoflash for eliminating all of the flash banners from sites such as... ummm, who uses annoying flash ad banners?
  • Reply 69 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by desarc View Post


    ...and if you read another of today's AI articles, everyone is saying it's no big deal that snow leopard downgrades it, praising clicktoflash for eliminating all of the flash banners from sites such as... ummm, who uses annoying flash ad banners?



    As I said in my previous post. Just because Flash sucks on the OSX & Safari doesn't mean it doesn't rock on every other platform. Flash player is on 98% of all computers in the world because it is the platform of choice to distribute video.



    You can just as easily put an ad banner up in GIF. I don't see AppleInsider turning down the Flash Revenue.



    Hulu, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC have all chosen Flash is their means of distributing video.



    Turn it off on your Mac. I choose to love the way it performs on my PC and with my HDMI cable hooked up to my TV I have the best of the Internet and FREE TV.



    Pay for it on iTunes. This is why Apple lost the War in the 90's.
  • Reply 70 of 83
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    ADOBE flash player, made by ADOBE, distributed by ADOBE, developers HAVE to buy software from ADOBE to use it.



    For someone who wants to whine about Apple's supposed "closed" system you sure do seem to like probably THE most closed system of all i.e. ADOBE Flash where you wait for updates at ADOBE's whim.



    No doubt your search for a better phone experience will probably lead you to one that uses WebKit that open source project developed by Apple.



    Roll on HTML 5 and the death of ADOBE's plug in tyranny!





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NonVendorFan View Post


    As I said in my previous post. Just because Flash sucks on the OSX & Safari doesn't mean it doesn't rock on every other platform. Flash player is on 98% of all computers in the world because it is the platform of choice to distribute video.



    You can just as easily put an ad banner up in GIF. I don't see AppleInsider turning down the Flash Revenue.



    Hulu, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC have all chosen Flash is their means of distributing video.



    Turn it off on your Mac. I choose to love the way it performs on my PC and with my HDMI cable hooked up to my TV I have the best of the Internet and FREE TV.



    Pay for it on iTunes. This is why Apple lost the War in the 90's.



    btw I am watching a CNN story on my iPhone as I type this on my Macbook.



    It works fine WITHOUT ADOBE...



    ...a drunk mother ran off and left her car.



    Get the News addict App there's a lot of the sites you mentioned with video's.



    The sites come to the iPhone, not the other way around.
  • Reply 71 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NonVendorFan View Post


    I think you have that wrong. Apple had to pull it's commercials for NOT having the Internet in your pocket.



    Flash is the largest mainstream video distribution on the Internet and the iPhone will Never have it.



    If I can't watch a CNN video on my phone I don't have the Internet in my pocket.

    Maybe when the Apple gets over the control issues you'll have the Internet in your pocket.

    Until then look to Android and HTC (Yes Winmo) with Adobe working with Palm and the Pre and Blackberry on the way.



    They have the Internet in your pocket. Until then I have 55,000 useless Apps and Safari on my iPhone.





    There is not an App for that.



    Apple had to pull its commercials in the UK for advertising that it had the FULL internet on the iPhone. That is fine as it?s not correct if you include plugins, but even with Flash it?s still not the FULL internet because it wouldn?t have Silverlight, Windows Media, ActiveSync, Java, Real, or any of the thousands of plugins that are out there.Then there are the variances between browsers and the fact that Apple is using a mobile browser that didn?t pass a lot of the HTML5 specs, so any site that is using IE-only (Trident engine) tags or newer tags that the iPhone WebKit engine wasn?t capable of would still make the commercial false. However, you seem to be concluding that the statement is false BECAUSE they didn?t have an Adobe Flash plugin.



    It?s interesting that you said that "Adobe is working with Palm [& RiM]?. Why didn?t Adobe have a Flash plugin ready a long time ago? Why is that Apple said that they would welcome a Flash plugin if Adobe could actually make one that was decent? Why has Adobe repeatedly made more and more excuses for a mobile Flash plugin if it?s so easy to do and it works so well?



    Yes, we all want to have our streaming media everywhere we are, but simply having a plugin titled Flash will not do that. Have you checked the FAQ for Hulu and other sites to see what version of Flash is required? I can?t even get Hulu to play 480p video on 1.8GHz Acer AspireOne well, so it?s a bit odd to think that it?s Apple fault for not fixing Flash for Adobe.



    As for your comment about 55k useless apps and Safari on the iPhone, it?s clear that you don?t own an iPhone nor have never seen the stats of data and app usage among iPhone users.
  • Reply 72 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by xtss33 View Post


    . And they wonder why they lost their land-line phone customers. Clueless.



    err, what's a land line?















    Lol
  • Reply 73 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chris_CA View Post


    Yes it is. Summer as in "when AT&T told me "late summer"" is not a proper noun identifying a specific season (Summer). It is a more generic time of the year as in, the latter part of August and September is considered late summer (not Summer).





    Again, the FIRST DAY OF FALL IS September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT.



    How can 3 days after the beginning of fall be considered "late summer"?



    Maybe AT&T needs to put "late summer" in their terms list defined as "in reality, early fall"
  • Reply 74 of 83
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ptysell View Post


    Again, the FIRST DAY OF FALL IS September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT.



    How can 3 days after the beginning of fall be considered "late summer"?



    Maybe AT&T needs to put "late summer" in their terms list defined as "in reality, early fall"



    It's just gone Spring in Australia, that's another six months until "late summer".
  • Reply 75 of 83
    "We truly appreciate our customers? patience and hope they'll understand our desire to get it right from the start."





    And why do I have the feeling they'll still get it wrong!
  • Reply 76 of 83
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Turley Muller View Post


    I don't think AT&T deserves as much blame and ridicule as many are giving it. AT&T is certainly to blame, but considering the circumstances I think these problems would definitely occur on any other cell network in the US.



    I really don't think so. AT&T had a crappy 3G network to begin with. Verizon's was far superior (and is). They knew the iPhone was going to be huge. They made the deal with Apple and crossed their fingers that they could rig their network not to look like assholes. "Go to bed and hope it all turns out OK in the morning." That's what they did.



    Quote:



    The amount of consumption from iPhone users is astronomical. I got buddies doing 2-3GB a month, I only do about 200MB because I am on WiFi most always. Before the iPhone, These folks and I were maybe using 10MB, if even that. My point is that iPhone users consume 100's times more network capacity. I don't think anyone disputes that.



    I agree, but AT&T had to know this. In fact, I'm sure they did. I think they knew their network couldn't handle it and did the deal anyway.



    Quote:



    Consider that AT&T's subscriber base has increased about 25% in last two years. Long-term network infrastructure planning & investment had been generally based around sub growth. However, AT&Ts sub growth might have only been 25%, but consumption probably doubled or tripled, or more due to the iPhone. Now all of a sudden, one needs a network backbone 3X as big!



    So in their network planning they just utterly ignored the iPhone's potential impact? Come on.



    Quote:



    I get the sense that AT&T was in denial for some time, and tried quick and dirty fixes to its burgeoning problems instead of doing some heavy investment to get ahead of the problem. I think AT&T would be more aggressive with WiFi in urban areas to offload heavy data usage, but I have also heard that AT&T has backhaul problems so that wouldn't help much anyhow.



    Agreed there. Quick and dirty, indeed.









    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    Yet, they offered the ability to email photos over EDGE right off the bat. They offered web browsing over EDGE, even though web browsing often requires much more data than a single emailed photo. You don't see a disconnect here?



    DING DING DING! We have a winner. It makes no sense whatsoever.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    ....sounds like a F***ing alien eating a fax machine!



    Me too,





    Thanks guys. That was the best description I could come up with. It's pretty accurate.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Logisticaldron View Post


    AT&T has clearly dropped the ball here in many ways but we can't just compare the data of regular Internet to thatnof MMS. While it uses the same "series of tubes" the content is stored on AT&T's servers. With the Push Notification Server needing to be reworked to accomodate a the iPhone traffic, the iPhone being the only phone in Flickr's top 5 devices posting images and just the shear amount of data that the iPhone uses AT&T may be a little too cautious here.



    The problem is not their servers. The problem is the actual towers that comprise the network can't handle the volume of data and the number of simultaneous connections. We can absolutely compare MMS to "other" data usage...it's the same network. Right now we have "regular" phone users doing MMS with no problem. We also have iPhone users who now use 10-100x the data of those users. So let me get this straight: Adding MMS to one kind of phone will add so much data as to strain the network? This, despite the average MMS being perhaps 1/10th the size of e-mailed photos?



    Quote:



    I'd rather have them delay it until it works well instead the current situation of selling iPhones into a saturated network which means that despite the billions hey spend it's still just catchup and will likely never be good enough until the iPhone sales at AT&T subside for awhile.



    If it really took them two years to get this ready, then their more incompetent than I thought.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by desarc View Post


    wow. so much bitching about having to wait another 3 days to use antiquated messaging on a cell phone. how have you all survived this long with only email, posting videos directly to facebook, and the entire internet? if you don't like it, switch carriers and use a blackberry.



    relax.



    You're not reading then. I don't really care about the 3 days. I care about two years. I care about shitty call quality. I care about delayed voicemails, dropped calls, etc. And I care about not being able to receive a simple picture message from friends and family without going online.
  • Reply 77 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    ADOBE flash player, made by ADOBE, distributed by ADOBE, developers HAVE to buy software from ADOBE to use it.



    For someone who wants to whine about Apple's supposed "closed" system you sure do seem to like probably THE most closed system of all i.e. ADOBE Flash where you wait for updates at ADOBE's whim.



    No doubt your search for a better phone experience will probably lead you to one that uses WebKit that open source project developed by Apple.



    Roll on HTML 5 and the death of ADOBE's plug in tyranny!









    btw I am watching a CNN story on my iPhone as I type this on my Macbook.



    It works fine WITHOUT ADOBE...



    ...a drunk mother ran off and left her car.



    Get the News addict App there's a lot of the sites you mentioned with video's.



    The sites come to the iPhone, not the other way around.



    That's because CNN puts partial news feeds into a format that will work on the iPhone.



    Try it stock from Safari and go to Politics and click on political ticker. Squares.



    It still doesn't negate that Flash is a world standard for distributing Video.



    I don?t want a site to ?have? to put their content into a format the iPhone will accept.

    I want the Internet in my pocket. Not what Apple and App Store Applications tell me I want to see.
  • Reply 78 of 83
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ptysell View Post


    Um....fall starts

    September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT

    exactly.



    Now, when AT&T told me "late summer" I expected late summer, not "early fall"......



    Septermber 25, 2009 IS NOT "late summer"



    They're a whole 3 days late. So sue them.



    Oh, wait. Someone already did.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JesC View Post


    We need to overload the ATT servers on the 25th! We sould text ourselves with "ATT SUCKS" 1000x. Copy & Paste SMS war!



    Wow. So you're PROUD of the fact that you're a juvenile delinquent?



    Just how would crashing AT&T's network make anyone's life better?









    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aquia33 View Post


    Note to Apple: Do not announce a capability until your partner carriers are ready to support it within a "reasonable" timeframe. Apple controls MOST of the user experience? except where the carrier needs to supply part of the function



    In most of the world, 3 months IS a reasonable time frame. Apple announced it in June and it will be available in Sept.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tomkarl View Post


    I told you that if enough of us called and demanded it, they would turn it on.



    And you think they wouldn't have turned it on if you hadn't 'demanded' it?
  • Reply 79 of 83
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NonVendorFan View Post


    It still doesn't negate that Flash is a world standard for distributing Video.



    I don?t want a site to ?have? to put their content into a format the iPhone will accept.

    I want the Internet in my pocket. Not what Apple and App Store Applications tell me I want to see.



    Better yet, maybe companies could put their content into an industry standard - like html 5. Then it will work fine on ALL systems. If companies used web standards, coding for the Internet would be far easier and the results would be far better-for everyone.



    Flash is a dog on EVERY platform. You hear Windows users complaining about it just as much as Mac users.
  • Reply 80 of 83
    Finally.
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