Tag: iPhone 3G

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How To Enable MMS Through iTunes

It took a ridiculously long time for MMS to be enabled on the iPhone but it is finally here. Here’s how to enable it on your phone if you haven’t done it yet.

1. Download iTunes 9.0.1 (if you don’t already have it).

2. Connect your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS to your computer and open iTunes.

MMS Carrier Settings

3. Once the iPhone MMS update is available, you will see the following message on iTunes: “An update to the carrier settings for your iPhone is available. Would you like to install it now?“. Click “Update Settings“.

MMS Carrier Settings Updated

4. After you click “Update Settings“, iTunes will show the following message: “Your iPhone carrier settings were updated successfully“. Click “Ok“.

5. Reboot your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS. Hold down your power button until the Slide to Power off button appears, slide to power off. When your iPhone is off, press the power button to turn it on again.

You should now have MMS on your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS!

Note: This won’t work on the iPhone 2G.

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iPhone OS 3.0 Review

Although I was less than pleased with the iPhone 3G S, the OS 3.0 has been a bundle of joy so far. The long awaited copy/paste as well as deleting/forwarding individual texts and e-mail multiple pictures at once.

I’ll just go through the top 5 that I thought they were most important and you can view the gallery of photos at the end of the post of some of the other features.

1. Copy and Paste

It is about time that OS update 3.0 finally gives you the ability to copy, cut and paste text. If you double tap on a white space, then Select and Select All appear but if you do it on given word, it is highlighted with the options of copy and cut are displayed. This copy paste works across every app on the phone I tried from Twitterific to Safari to Messages to Mail. It definitely makes things a lot easier when copying a link into Twitterific and then having it use its compress URL feature while using Twitter.

2. Deleting / Forwarding Individual Text Messages

This is probably one of the hit or miss things depending on how much you use the forwarding text message feature. I often get a lot of news or sports update that I want to send over to a friend out of state or even just update my brother, but that was a very tedious task before where you just had to type everything over again.

The way to use it is by going into the messages window, selecting Edit on the top right part of the window. This brings you to an edit screen where you can select a single or multiple messages that you either want to delete or forward on.

3. Undo Feature

If you accidentally delete some text, one that you accidentally cut instead of copying or you pasted something that you didn’t want to, you can just simply shake your iPhone and a pop up appears asking if you want to undo your action. Clever move by Apple, very useful.

4. Landscape Texting / E-mail

Another one of the features that is not for everyone but landscape texting is definitely a good option. If you’re trying to read a long e-mail, it definitely is very useful but for texting or writing an e-mail, there just isn’t enough room for me to use it consistently. The landscape keyboard takes up a lot of real estate of the screen but it’s useful for a long text message… but not necessarily for a long e-mail.

5. Spotlight / E-mail Search

The ability to search across the entire phone is very useful. It searches contacts, calendars as well as the body of e-mail messages amongst others. I don’t see myself using the search feature very often but I can see it being quite useful for others. In the past few days though, I have used it to find an old email and even once for an old calendar event. I guess it is a little efficient if you have a lot of pages of apps and you would rather search for it instead of scrolling to the last page to find it.

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I Won’t Be Getting The iPhone 3G S

I just upgraded to the new OS with it’s new search feature, forward/deleting individual text messages, landscape format in the mail and SMS apps is also a big boost. I will probably post later this week or early next week on my initial impressions but so far, it is good.

As for the new iPhone 3G S (who came up with that name anyways?!), there are many reasons as to why I will not be buying it. You can start listing off the reasons varying from it’s price to lack of new features to even the exclusive carrier that has it.

The price which is $199 16GB and $299 32GB ($399 and $499 for ineligible upgraders) seems relatively reasonably priced with where they were last year and even compare it to other smartphones that are out on the market, I won’t complain too much about the $200 price tag for a new customer. As for the previous customers, you (and me included), signed up for a 2-year contract and for no reason does AT&T (as much as I hate them) have to give you any sort of discount for something you already agreed you would pay for. It would a nice PR performance on their part but expecting this from a company, that will charge you every single penny for the upcoming tethering and continues to delay the MMS capability that even the very simplest of phones have, is too much to ask for.

For me, I just don’t see the need to dish out another $300+ for a phone that is quite similar to the one I already own. I will just wait until next summer as my contract is reaching 20-21 months, right in time for next year’s WWDC.

As for the new features, I am just not very impressed. The compass and maybe the Nike+ capability in the new phone is something I really liked but I can’t say that is enough warrant for ditching the one I have. I will patiently wait for MMS to come out later this summer, possibly go back to JB and use a 5-icon dock and video camera. If you are big video editing enthusiast, I guess you could like the video camera and its capabilities but that are similar to things already available in the 3G (through Jailbreak). I don’t see the need to buy a new phone, re-up your contract for another two years just for that.

AT&T which seems to hold exclusive rights to the iPhone until the end of time seems to be doing all that it can to continuously irritate its current customers. ‘Sympathy’ isn’t a word I will use when describing the plight of the iPhone user considering there are more important things a person can accomplish with another phone and saving their money, but surely a company who is in the business needs to do a better job handling its PR problems — something they seem to have with every major product launch or announcement. Come on guys, you’re bound to get things right soon enough.

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Pokemon On The iPhone 3G?

I think a large market was missed by Nintendo when they decided not to develop some sort of a Pokemon game for the iPhone. It has been quite clear for a long time that the iPhone has become a gaming platform and Pokemon by no means is a graphically intense game that could not be played. You see the games (via roms) available through Cydia.

This guy over at “Loot Ninja” has obviously gone bonkers and if the editor-in-chief’s screen name (drunk pandas) is any indication, they must have obviously been intoxicated on something to make the following claim:

Pokemon on your iPhone is pretty interesting, but I think that this game is a bit silly seeing as the people that own an iPhone are not in the right age group to enjoy Pokemon.

I don’t understand how anyone in their right mind can state that? People with cell phones (including the iPhone) are getting it at a younger and younger age. You see kids as young as freshmen or sophomores in high school with the iPhone and you can’t say that that is not the “right age group”.

Pokemon was became a transcendent game when it came out in 1996 – which was 13 years ago! Let’s just assume that a kid was 10 years old (4th grade) when he started playing at the time the game came out. Today he would be 23 years old and I can tell you from personal experience, that a kid that young at the time would still be very interested in playing Pokemon for the iPhone.

I guarantee that I am not the only one who shares my sentiment. What do you think? Is Pokemon too childish for a mobile device that already has such games as “Wheels on the Bus” and “Toddler Flashcards” amongst countless other children applications that already exist. People need to get away from making excuses for why something should not be done and Nintendo should find a way of getting Pokemon on the iPhone — before I defect to the ways of Cydia and get it myself.

iPhone-Children