MMS

Apple and AT&T get to tackle yet another class action lawsuit regarding delayed MMS support on American iPhone. This time, the case's plaintiff, Alabama resident Clyde Franklin, has charged both Apple and AT&T of misleading the public on MMS availability, with promises that it would become an option on the iPhone 3G and 3GS with the arrival of the v3.0 firmware. It did not, and Franklin notes that only a small disclaimer on the Apple website made mention that AT&T support would only come in "late summer."

Nearly three days after finally activating its long-awaited multimedia messaging service for the iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets, wireless carrier AT&T said today it was “pleased with the rollout” despite continuing user complaints on its own Facebook page. The user base might not entirely agree. According to Macworld, many iPhone users complained late into the weekend and early today about the service not working or taking too long to send a photo. The service was activated mid-day Friday nationwide, after AT&T took heat from customers in June about not having it available when the iPhone 3GS launched. The complaints began rolling in later Friday.

Most of you have probably heard by now that AT&T rolled out MMS today for US iPhone owners. But as the day went on, I got the impression that not everyone fully understands what this means. So for this first edition of iPA Explains, I'll be going over what MMS is, how to get it, and how it works. Let's begin.

AT&T's carrier settings update that will enable MMS on iPhones running iPhone OS 3.0 and later is now live and available for download in iTunes. To get it, just plug the iPhone into iTunes, wait for it to check for updates, and select "Download and Update" when the prompt appears.

AT&T has posted an update on their Facebook Page letting everyone know that the new carrier settings that will enable MMS on the iPhone will be available in iTunes at some time in the late morning on Friday. Full text after the break.

Trade web site DSLReports has cited an internal source claiming wireless carrier AT&T to be "extremely nervous" about the impending launch of MMS for the iPhone scheduled for this Friday. Per the story, early testing of the service has apparently already placed a strain on the company's MMS servers, resulting in a test outage yesterday and a last-minute rush to beef up capacity beyond the measures already taken.

AT&T has begun sending text messages to iPhone users notifying them about the launch of MMS support for iPhones starting on Friday September 25. The new service will finally make it possible for iPhone users in the US to send and receive picture messages over the SMS portion of the cell network.

AT&T not only may have been telling the truth about its upcoming MMS feature for the iPhone, but may be launching the feature ahead of schedule per MacRumors with The Unofficial Apple Weblog kicking in to say that several readers have reported that MMS has stated working for them.

After much anticipation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone OS 3.1 software update at the "Rock and Roll" media event on Wednesday, September 9th. The new firmware, a free download for iPhone OS 3.0 users, adds the following fixes and changes:

Yesterday AT&T finally announced that MMS would be coming to the iPhone in the United States on September 24th. Today they followed up their press release with a video statement from their online figurehead, "Seth the Blogger Guy", in which Seth explains what has taken AT&T so long to announce MMS. Video after the break.