AT&T said it would finally be turning on MMS for US customers. On mid-day Friday you will be able to update your iPhone with new carrier setting which will enable MMS. This has been a long time coming and has been hampered by the overwhelming iPhone sales and underwhelming network capability. Lets hope we have enough bandwidth for such simple messaging capability come Friday.
The one feature strangely missing from the incredible iPhone is MMS. Everyone has MMS except iPhone and this has caused some confusion and anger amongst its users. AT&T has explained all of this in a press release from today. The network was to blame and they admit this to their credit. Finally a simple feature gets added this month. Read the press release after the jump:
We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We’ve been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches – and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.
We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.
We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. 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. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.
We thank you for your business and look forward to keeping you updated on our initiatives.
[AT&T]
We take a look at the new iPhone & iPod Touch stands from iBend. They have combined with Occupy Baby in the App Store and offer their products together for a very reasonable price.
We are giving away three iBends. If you would like to win, please subscribe, comment on youtube and wait 1 week. After September 10th, 2009 we will draw the winners randomly.
[iBend]
I had another issue with my AT&T account. Like many I talk to or hear on podcasts, I repeatedly have to call AT&T due to billing issues, features not working and various other issues I have encountered.
Today I spoke with AT&T and this time it was due to my bill being 107 dollars over the normal total. At first I was annoyed as I thought they were charging me for data on the iPhone. After speaking with an AT&T representative named Ed, I was very satisfied. He scrupulously went over the bill charge-by-charge and explained the overages. Apparently they were for minutes used over the regular 700 plus rollover I had previously. The plan I have has 5 phones on it and we generally stay under 700 minutes as we usually are talking to someone else on an AT&T cell phone. Ed at AT&T was nice enough to explain the charges and then instead of telling me I was out of luck, he offered to up my plan to 1400 for the next billing cycle and credit me back the $107 overage charge. When he was done doing that he then credited me another 100 free rollover minutes to make sure I did not have overage charges again.
I was stunned. Not only did they solve my issue quickly and explain everything, but he was nice enough to figure out a way so I could pay the company he works for less money and keep me happy. If this is the kind of service we continue to see from AT&T then my thoughts of changing carriers when the iPhone is no longer under just their grasp may all be but a vapor.
I forgot to mention…When my call initially dropped he called me right back. Maybe AT&T has been listening to the cries of the people… finally a good experience on AT&T.
Tom Tom has finally arrived for the iPhone in the United States and Canada. We saw the app go up for New Zealand just a half a day or so and now the region specific versions are now available. It’s not all good news though. The price of the app in the US & Canada is $99, New Zealand is $94.99, Western Europe is $139.99 and Australia is $79.99.
If you don’t have a GPS already that may seem like a decent deal, but as for myself who paid just $99 for a Tom Tom One XL not long ago this is not quite the deal I was hoping for. While there are already reports of the software working as well as a Tom Tom (as you would expect), the price tag will be sure to turn some away. If this app was $49 I would have already pulled the trigger and added it to the already vast array of my apps, but with a slightly prohibitive price it will be interesting to see how well this app does. Will you be buying this app? Let us know.
