If you haven’t done so already, you should get out the iPhone cable and update your carrier settings. The long awaited MMS is finally here, delayed for what seemed an eternity by the ever-failing AT&T.
For the update to take effect you’ll need to reboot your phone. From there, though, you’ll have a nifty little picture icon next to the message line of every text. The service allows you to send pictures and video at no extra charge, assuming you’ve already got some sort of bundled plan.
AT&T has announced plans for the iPhone MMS rollout via its Facebook page. We’ve known for some time that the service would be coming on Friday, but the how and when wasn’t so clear.
From the company’s Facebook page:
MMS Update: We know you’ve been eager for this service so we wanted to offer a quick update on the launch plans for MMS on Friday, Sept. 25. Late morning, Pacific Time, on Friday, the new carrier settings update enabling MMS should be live and ready to download through iTunes. We’ll provide the steps and all of the details you need right here at that time.
For my fellow east-coasters, that means we’ll be waiting until early afternoon before plugging and unplugging our phones for updates. Some people are speculating that AT&T is nervous about the update, and rightfully so. This is the kind of update that has been anticipated for so long that it is likely to kill AT&T’s networks in a lot of places. And if the service fails on day one, the public will be calling for the bodies of AT&T executives.
Mum’s not always the best word when it comes to gadgets. Sometimes it can be better for companies to leak information little by little to generate a little excitement and anticipation for a product. That’s never really been Apple’s SOP, but they will occasionally announce products way ahead of schedule. With the rumored Apple tablet, though, the company’s been quiet, and Microsoft just might be positioned to take advantage of the silence.
Today Gizmodo leaked the first news of a Microsoft tablet called “Courier.” It’s a dual-touchscreen device that uses a blend of gestures and a stylus for control. The whole thing is built like a notebook, you know, the paper kind, with a camera on the backend. Gizmodo even has a video to make the thing look much cooler than it actually is.
I’m pretty skeptical about the whole situation. First, the Giz article was written under the byline “The Paperboy,” which, if you read Gizmodo, you’ll recognize is not a regular contributor. There’s also the fact that no one else seemed to get the exclusive news + video (also granted, it was shown at the Gizmodo Gallery), and frankly, the video looks too good to be true. Granted, the whole thing is shot around the alluring concept of being a young design professional. The controls are clean, if a little complicated at times, and show plenty of eye-candy, but that’s how almost every device video comes off. As one Giz commenter reminded me, even the HP TouchSmart looked great over video. It turned out to be a terribly limited platform with somewhat clunky controls.
Gizmodo promises more in-depth coverage on the device as the week goes on. I’ll wait to pass more judgment until I see a hands-on. For now, I think Microsoft is doing something really smart here. Nothing like imprinting the way a tablet “should work” into consumers minds to generate buzz. Apple’s device will have to be truly fantastic to get attention after this.
Amazon’s seen some relative success in the electronic hardware market (though how much success they just won’t say) and it looks like the company would like to see a little more. The online everything store is launching its own line of electronics accessories called AmazonBasics.
So far the site only has storage media and cabling, but you can also find guides for everyday setup and a troubleshooting. Amazon is also showing off new “Frustration-Free” packaging that supposed to be “easy to open and easy to recycle.”
The site, on the other hand, is probably frustration-inducing for companies selling marked up cables through Amazon. Those guys just won’t be able to match the $8 HDMI cables without compromising their precious perceived quality. Amazon must see some pretty nice cash down the line to be willing to fleece old partners like this.
Earlier this week Palm held its Q1 earnings conference call for the 2010 fiscal year. Most everyone in the industry was looking forward to the call because it meant we might get some hard numbers around the Palm Pre sales speculation. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and from the sound of things the Pre may not be doing the bang-up job some people thought.
You may recall this quote from Roger McNamee, one of Palm’s most prominent investors.
You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.
Well, according to Palm, the company shipped 823,000 units this quarter, and its carrier partners “sold through” 810,000, of which the “vast majority” were the Palm Pre. Now vast could mean anything, but for argument’s sake let’s put Pre sales at 500,000. That’s really not bad, and better than some analysts expectations, but Palm and its investors obviously overstated the success of this phone from the beginning, and that can’t make the company happy.
Palm goes on to say that success isn’t tied to a single device and that the WebOS platform will be the golden boy of the smartphone industry. Blah blah blah. Unless Palm can woo some talented developers and stop squelching the ones it has, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the company change hands in the next few years (see, I’m getting good at this research thing).
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