Apple's done a decent job of implementing features that we've all been clamoring for into its forthcoming OS 3.0, and aside from
copy and paste, there's probably no one single feature add bigger than this. You heard right --
multimedia messaging (MMS) is at long last coming to the iPhone 3G (sorry, first-gen iPhone owners) after years of
dealing strictly with SMS. During the
keynote, Apple was
pretty remarkably short with details, simply noting that MMS "support" would be added. Frankly, we don't expect anything mind-blowing; it'll probably look a lot like the current SMS setup, and it'll definitely make AT&T happy when you start firing away picture messages without first subscribing to an unlimited messaging plan.
Update: Apple's
official PR on the subject has given us just a bit more to chew on. We're told that MMS will enable iPhone 3G users to "send and receive photos, contacts, audio files and locations with the Messages app," hinting that Apple may just smash MMS and SMS together into a single 'Messages' app in OS 3.0. Also of note, owners will also be able to "forward and delete multiple messages."
posted Mar 17th 2009 12:51PM
Thank. God.
Only for iPhone 3G
Yes....ONLY for 3G
@ Dan
It'll make it's way to 2G along with A2DP by 3rd party apps. The hardware is already there in the iPhone, a couple of hacks and presto...MMS and A2DP on iPhone 2g.
Why are us 1st generation iPhone users locked out of MMS? Is there something in the hardware the restricts us from getting MMS? Please explain! *lost*
Another couple of years and Apple fans will be thanking God that Apple invented MMS...
I'm sure some ditsy 15yr old girl in UGG boots is bragging to all of her friends that her iPhone can send picture messages.
@Sax25,
Nope, and I know this for a fact as I'm happily receiving MMS messages on my 1st gen device using SwirlyMMS. Apple are just being greedy corporate arseholes.
@sax25
Another source has posted this from the Apple Q&A session
Quote:
"Q: Is there a physical hardware problem on the first-gen iPhone that prevents it from doing MMS?
A: It’s a different radio, so it is a physical issue."
I wonder if it will playback MMS video clips sent to me by other phones, or if iPhone's MMS is limited to photos, audio, and text?
iPhone is my first phone in nearly a decade that hasn't support MMS, up until now, so I am glad this feature is coming as plenty of my friends and family use MMS all the time.
Wait!
These fuckers are abandoning 1st gen iPhone owners for some of the new functionality - am I correct?
@BKM72
That might be what was said but I highly doubt it. My guess, AT&T and Apple didn't include MMS in their initial revenue sharing agreement or there was some agreement that MMS would not come to the 1st gen iPhone. Apple didn't allow the MMS update to carry over to 1st gen iPhones to protect that agreement, because they make money on that agreement. 3G iPhone owners have to add a messaging plan unlike 1st gen iPhone subs. My guess, everything is always about the $$$$.
"A: It’s a different radio, so it is a physical issue."
I'm no phone engineer, but that is very wrong. MMS uses the same radio as all SMS, data, and voice communication. There is only one radio for cellular communication. The only other radio transceivers are for Bluetooth, Wi-fi, and GPS (receiver only).
I think the hardware excuse works for lack of A2DP on the 1st gen, but not for lack of MMS.
what have you got to say now apple haters?
Finally... !!!!
That's good for iPhone owners.
"Me too"
"late to the party"
"copycat"
"stolen from (x)"
"playing catchup"
If it's good for others, it works here too.
I'm waiting for Zak to withdraw all comments about how no-one wants/needs MMS because e-mail is an option.
I also love to see that Apple pays attention.
They've been working on this for quite awhile I assume.
And to all the "My Nokia had MMS in 2002" butt plugs. -- Your Nokia couldn't do 1/256th of the stuff the iPhone can do. MMS was OBVIOUSLY an oversite by Apple.
You dont say "oooops" and flip a switch. They had bigger ideas. Some of the basic ones were unfortunately left out.
I love when my iPhone hating friends actually pick it up and start playing with it.
Conversation quickly goes from "iPhone sucks".....to "Damn, I gotta get one of these. How much are they again?"
BKM72:
Kiss my ass. Nokias used to be able to do way more than the iPhone. Now with the 3.0, iPhone just finally caught up. Yea, the iPhone's interface kicks Nokia's ass, but all this deleting multiple messages and forwarding multiple messages thing has long been in Nokias. You don't know a single thing and just start blabbing.
@PK
I've had several phones. Some of them were even Nokia's.......even.
Looky......big red (-) thingy
@PK
Damn.......You really are a Tool.
Not kinda.......but seriously.
Go play with your Nokia........tell us how you like it.
I was glad that iPhones didn't support MMS. MMS is a scam! (its the cell phone companies, not Apple who is screwing us.) Boycott MMS until prices drop!
I'm sorry, you were saying?
I dunno where you're from, but MMS here in Australia only costs on average 5 cents more than a standard SMS
AT&T in the USA charges $0.30 USD for each picture message you send OR receive. Send it to 6 friends, that's $1.80 USD! If you accidentally hit "send all" you'll be in for quite a bill.
MMS is free for me and all of my friends
Well that's because you're on on AT&T. Almost every other cell phone provider it's only $0.25 per message, or free if you have a messaging plan. It's too bad for $100 a month you still have to pay $0.30 per MMS.
Dumbass, just pay for the unlimited. If you actually use SMS and MMS moderately, a large package plan or even unlimited is worth it and very cheap.
Directly from AT&T website.
Messaging 1500
Includes:
* 1500 messages per month
Four ways to message for one low price
1500 text, picture, video, and Instant Messaging (IM) messages per month. Additional messages are 5 cents each.
I don't think they charge per message as long as you have a messaging bundle. Pay attention to the terms and details of these packages.
krasi beat me to it. a message is a message, no matter what kind it is if you have a messaging plan with at&t. get yourself some knowledge.
Yikes, you're right. No additional charges for MMS, IF you have a messaging plan. You only get those charges I was talking about if you have NO SMS plan.
$240 USD for a year of unlimited TEXTING (pictures, ect) is still a ton of money.
Your an idiot. SMS is the scam. Sending a text message cost the carriers nothing. It's was an unused part of the spectrum that didn't carry voice. So, the carrieres decieded to find a way to bank off of it. So they found morons like you to pay for it and think your getting a great deal for your 20 for Unlimited texting. MMS is a different beast altogether and actually requires a seperate function of wireless data. In this case 3G. Costly to implement and use.
Do your research and shut your yap...
That is all...
@G Nes
You're saying MMS requires 3G? Whoa...... No, like not even close. Like forget in the same ballpark, try different cities that's so wrong. Explain how my wife's old GSM/GPRS enabled Samsung phone from 4 years ago could do MMS? Maybe you should take your own advice, just sayin'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service
"At the time, 2G GSM was in the process of evolving into the 2.5G GPRS of roughly double the performance. A short 160 character limit no longer made sense, so the "Third-Generation Partnership Program" (3GPP) proposed extending the existing SMS standard to allow messages of any length. Additionally, they proposed adding MIME support for file attachments, and real multimedia support. However, modifying display systems to handle any sort of media format was a more difficult problem, so 3GPP partnered with the WAP standards process to produce MMS.[3]
Since then, MMS has been deployed worldwide and across both GSM/GPRS and CDMA networks. The first commercial MMS launched worldwide was in March 2002 by Telenor, in Norway, using Acision infrastructure."
Which is exactly what he said... SMS uses the messaging channel, MMS actually requires a data connection. He never said it NEEDS 3G, he just said it needs to use the data connection, in this case (referring to the iPhone) a 3G connection. Didn't have to be such a dick about it.
@g nes & squid7085:
so you guys are saying that the iphone can ONLY send and receive mms messages when 3g is available? my t68i, t616 and s710 all did it without 3g. what makes the iphone so different? where did you two get this information from?
This presentation is such a fucking joke. The SDK stuff was awesome, and it looks like devs and App store customers are in for some good stuff, but it is hilarious to watch Apple add in features from 2002 and act like it's innovation. They should have left that stuff out of the presentation and let people figure it out on their own, because they are basically admitting there is egg on their face and acting like it was part of a delicious breakfast.
Only took 'em 2 years, eh?
Imagine what they could to with five... A2DP maybe?
Now now, don't get too excited now. That's at least a decade!
dude i know! my t68i from 2002 had mms!
Oh my fucking god! Did your t68i also have a 3.5" screen with internet, a great music player, an App store with many different apps and games?
@patrik's 7:
ummm, actually it did have internet and it didn't need an App store with many different apps and games that you had to pay for. it had bluetooth and infrared AND MMS so you got all that for free. and the screen had 256 colors while most others were still monochrome. that, as most other sony ericssons, was a revolutionary phone. but because apple's marketing team wasn't behind them, alot of people never heard of them and now think it's sooooo cool that apple would allow their "smartphone" to do this with a free upgrade.
Anyone know when its expected for apple to release this new version to current iPhone users?
the only thing to make today perfect is A2DP Bluetooth or tethering
Dude. A2DP and tethering were both announced today. Read the coverage?
Only for iPhone 3G?!?!?!?
What the hell? Why iPhone 3G only? What hardware can be different there? Huh?
A2DP is there (stereo bluetooth) but tethering is still missing.
Looks like MMS/A2DP won't be available for 1st gen iPhone. Sorry guys/gals.
Tethering is there, subject to individual carriers. Read the Q&A.
Tethering as in connect the phone to a PDA/computer/netbook/tablet using USB cable/BT, computer recognizes phone as modem, dial a connection string, and connect to the internet.
thank you!!!
Thanks for beta testing the iPhone 1G for us, loyal customers! Here is your reward! A big stick of no MMS up your @$$!
That's why my next phone won't be an iPhone.
That is why my next phone will no longer be an iPhone.
Now you can just get the iPhone 3G S because you are upgrade eligible, and it has MMS. ALso has video and Faster speed .you'll like it.!
MMS? I wouldn't be suprised if people starts to think MMS is an Apple invention! :D
If Iphone was the invention of the year! :D
It is a big deal today! something that has been invented and used for almost 10 years
has came to Apple! What a bunch of losers!
Developed in the early 2000's, picture messaging became widespread in Europe and Asia around 2002 and then became popular in the US as MMS capable handsets began to hit the market around 2004/2005...
Apple and Apple fans you are destined to play catch up for the rest of your life!
Currently iphone is FOLLOWING BACK 4-5 years prior Nokia's specs..
Believe me, they are formulating the spin as we speak.
Yeah make EVERYONE with a 1st go out and buy a new one this june...HELLO...it will be 2 years for a lot of customers in June, PERFECT timing for everyone with a 1st gen to go out and buy a new one. Can you smell it??? Its called marketing...and a whole bunch of other things...nice apple...really nice.
I'm incredibly upset that the first iphone won't have MMS. My past two phones could do MMS. I thought they were going to avoid these kinds of market segmenting. I can see the A2DP but to send a picture message? They better just release a new iPhone this summer so I can get it.
But when you bought your first gen iPhone you knew it did not have the MMS ability. So why are you complaining about it almost two years later?
You should be happy you are getting any of these OS updates for free. Other cell phone makers rarely (if ever) give free software updates that actually adds anything useful.
It didn't have MMS when you bought it, so it's a bit much to expect it to get more features for free later honestly.
So charge me for it. I'd rather pay 10 bucks for a software upgrade (like the iPod touch 2G) than shell out half a grand for a new device entirely. Not to mention the fact that I don't actually want the new device, the old one looks better.
To be honest, I didn't know that MMS was not available when I bought it. Not because I am an idiot, but because I didn't realize I would need to look for it, considering it is a standard feature on all cell phones on the market.
Okay, so I can't have MMS on my 1st gen. That's okay. I'll just buy a Palm Pre. I bet that'll have MMS
Or get SwirlyMMS, which I've been using for the best part of a year now with no complaints?
Sure, it sucks a bit, but if you actually are a first gen iPhone owner – and not just being duplicitous – then you've lived without MMS for up to 21 months now... And it's probably time to trade up your phone after 2 years, anyway.
My thoughts exactly! Palm Pre here I come. Im so sick of Apple's back peddling crap.
I am getting really sick of this, yeah, its a bummer, but when you bought the phone you should have never expected upgrades. Apple is being MUCH more generous than any other company when it comes to OS updates. Its VERY common in the industry to just make you buy a new phone for new features. Apple surely does not need to give you access to the 3.0 update, let alone a FREE update. Go to the Pre, thats fine, but don't expect a lot of software updates, Palm used to be notorious for doing that exact thing, making you get a new device to get the new software.
I'm a 1st gen iPhone user and I think I can live without MMS or Stereo BT. Hopefully those are the only two, he said it in a way that there might be more left out. Anyways I think it's pretty appealing since the free throwaway phones have MMS. Oh well, new iPhone in the June when Steve gets back.
Wow, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Apple-hating troll brigade today. Go drown your sorrows in your haterade, losers - but cheer up: you'll always have "no physical keyboard" and "no replaceable battery" to whine and cry about.
You mean I don't have to remember if the person I want to email this picture to has Verizon or T-mo or is is Sprint...crap!
Cheers to Apple, my days of xxx-xxxx@vzwpix.com are over!
Am I wrong? I saw no mention of actual picture messaging. Audio, adding contacts, and location seemed to be the main features.
picture messaging is mms.
@ slamEVIL
actually if you break "mms" down it stands for multimedia messaging service...that could be any form of media not necessarily a picture
Quoted from Gizmodo's Live Blog,
"The BIG news is that they’re adding support for MMS (as we spotted earlier). You can send and receive Photos right over the network."
This really isn't that exciting. The majority of this is all stuff that normal phones already have (i.e. palm pre) So apple hasn't made any advancements there. AND, most of this stuff was already availble to those who already had their phones jailbroken (ie swirly mms, which DOES work on first gen iphone, screw you apple)
GODDAMNIT! I was so excited and then I read "sorry, first-gen iPhone owners".
Sweet. Now I can pay exorbitant fees to for something I get for free already (e-mail). I can't wait.
MMS is for suckers.
No MMS is for people with friends who don't have e-mail enabled phones.
no, it's totally different. you can mms with a messaging package. you need an internet package for email. and like what mark anderson was getting at: if you couldn't send a picture of your dog from your $200 phone to your mother and grandmother on their free with contract motorolas that don't have email capabilities before, now you can.
So Apple's finally catching up?
Oh my god! apple has somehow invented a way to send my pictures wirelessly through a cellular network. Thats amazing... its like its 2002 all over again!
Bullsh*t about hardware limitation. Pure Bullsh*t.
I actually got excited about this, because I've been wanting MMS on my iPhone for so long... until I see it's only for the 3G! I'm still a 1st Gen'er and never get all the 'cool' stuffs :(
Just jailbreak your phone and be done with it. My wife has had MMS (SwirlyMMS) and landscape keyboard (iRealSMS) for almost a year now on her 1st Gen iPhone. It most certainly ISN'T limited by the hardware. Apple probably just chooses to conveniently leave it out for 1st Gen iPhones to force people who want this to buy the iPhone 3G.
All these simple "new" features are laughable given that every other mobile OS has had these for years. Get yourself a Windows Mobile handset and you'll be amazed at all the different things a phone in your pocket can do that the iPhone doesn't.
@ Ryan Keep in mind that we in America cannot use those third party applications, because AT&T Blocked iPhone connections from their MMS servers.
@ pipersdragon
is it possible to tell att that your using lets say a bb pearl and then just put your sim card in your iphone and voila you can mms all day?
im on tmobile so i dont know i was just wondering
My Sony Ericsson T300 had mms and that was 7 years ago!
pathetic iphone!!!
No mms for original iphone? that's bullsh1t fck u Apple
MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. Meaning images, audio, and video. I was asking if it included pictures as well as the more clearly stated audio.
Stereo BT I can understand hardware limitations, but MMS? Really? What possible hardware limitation could there be? Seriously. I'm calling BS on this one. The fact that they didn't offer a reason just screams BS, because Apple loves explaining why they choose not to offer some feature. Look at the time spent on explaining away background processes. Something's fishy here. I'm looking at you AT&T. Unlimited data, unlimited txt messaging...... you're not covered on MMS are you? And Apple just bent over a took it for them. 3G only, because 3G subs have to ADD a messaging plan. That Palm Pre and Sprint Unl. Everything Plan is looking mighty tasty right now.
I'd be surprised if it's the carriers' fault. It seems more like work Apple just didn't want to have.
Hawkman, upon rereading my post, I agree with you. I didn't mean for it to seem like AT&T was at fault here. not sure it's the work but the lost revenue they would probably run into by renegotiating the original revenue sharing or loosing the kickback they get from AT&T on the monthly fees from that agreement. I was writing that pretty annoyed and it came through, but I lay blame at Apple for bending over and taking it and I blame AT&T for enforcing it. This proves once again that these companies are more concerned with shareholder satisfaction than customer satisfaction.
Seriously, I'm a pretty easy-going person and understand a business model when you're trying to turn a few bucks here and there, but let me ask this: Why can't the 1st Gen iPhone handle MMS with its hardware configuration? Is it because I don't have a GPS chip in my phone? I mean, really? 3G doesn't matter when it comes to sending or receiving pics since phones have been doing it on Edge for quite some time now. So, perhaps I've missed something in my haste, but please feel free to enlighten me with a legitimate hardware reason the 1st Gen iPhone can't handle something as trivial as MMS with a software update.
No, GPS has nothing to do with MMS. As Ryan R. said, the MMS program for jailbroken phones suggests Apple's claim that it's a hardware issue is pretty much a lie. They're basically saying "Hey original iPhone users - fuck you! PS Give us $200 for another phone."
Either that, or it's contract issues with AT&T that they don't want to address.
Although ultimately, my feeling is that as my iPhone never had MMS, expecting it to show up after two years would be a little presumptuous. Still mildly annoying, though.
In all honesty – it was probably more work to support the 1st gen phone, and there's not an awful lot of profit in making 2-year-old hardware better so that users don't have to upgrade.
There hasn't been a modem firmware update for the original iPhone in the software releases since the 3G came out – new functionality arrives, it seems, because it works anyway (and keeps the device up to date and App Store-compatible) – but they're not going the extra mile to support new features in the first gen phone where they don't have to.
I'm a first gen owner, and whilst I don't like being left out, I have to admit that I've already had several orders of magnitude more new features from Apple than I had with any other smartphone. So I can't complain.
That's exactly my point though. Since GPS, Bluetooth, nor 3G exclusivity has anything to do with MMS, I'm looking for a legitimate reason Apple claims hardware restrictions for not including it on the 1st Gen. I wouldn't nearly be as offended if they said, "We're looking to get a return with our newer devices, and the first step in phasing out the first release of the iPhone is to no longer support it with premium features to be included in the 3G iPhone and future-release devices." That would at least make sense from a business perspective and would be an honest answer, but to claim the hardware in the 1st Gen is incapable of a trivial task on a proven network and infrastructure is absurd and an insult without any hardware specs backing up their statement as to why it is not possible. If it were an option to pay for premium features on an older device, then by all means - charge me for it because again, from a business perspective it would make sense. Maybe I'm asking for too much in an honest answer.
In the UK we've had a MMS app for a few months now (from the app store - not jailbroken). I've been using it on my 1st gen iPhone no problem.
I suspect that you're right – they're not being entirely honest about it. My point was only that maybe this is something that has to be written on a per-radio basis, to some extent, so that they're _technically_ telling the truth when they talk about different hardware. Even if that's the case, this seems like a situation where a straight answer might have made some of us feel a little better.
welcome to 1995! everyone! wooo hoo!!!