The Tech Bench

Reports are that AT&T is slowly enabling MMS for some iPhones users ahead of the mass rollout slated for the September 25.

The early rollout appears to be random and may be AT&Ts attempt to lessen the initial impact of millions of U.S. iPhone users testing out their new MMS capabilities on launch day.

So how can you tell/check if you’ve got MMS enabled?

The iPhone 3.0+ software already has MMS enabled. AT&T has listed iPhone accounts as having MMS disabled, so all AT&T has to do is change the status of your account and you’ll get MMS enabled. No software upgrade should be necessary. When you take a pic, you should see the send MMS option if you have MMS enabled.

I for one have been eagerly awaiting for MMS on the iPhone and plan to give AT&Ts network a workout when the feature is enabled. It’ll be interesting to see how their network holds up.

[ Consumerist ] [ MMS Opt-Out Codes? ]

x2 iPhone 3G S 32GB Black

After about 1.5 hours in line, I’m finally in possession of two new iPhone 3G S’s. I arrived at 5:30AM just as the sun was coming up. The store opened at 7AM to handle pre-orders, since there were no pre-order customers waiting, everybody was let in (5 customers at a time).

It took all of 20 minutes to get in, pick up 2 phones, and get out.

Stay tuned for more iPhone 3G S reviews throughout the day. I’m looking forward to shooting a video and getting lost so I have to use the compass .

As of last year, all AT&T iPhone customers have access to free Wi-Fi at any AT&T hotspot. There are a lot of these hotspots (every Starbucks) so finding reliable, free Wi-Fi in a city is pretty easy.

As part of the iPhone 3.0 update, AT&T has made accessing these Wi-Fi hotspots much easier by automatically joining these networks without having to authenticate your account.

Previously you had to type in your phone number, wait for a text from AT&T and then login each time you joined.

Now you do the above procedure once, and from then on you’ll auto join any AT&T hotspot automatically. Pretty slick.

Soon after the release of the iPhone 3.0 software today, I decided to test out the Find My iPhone feature. This requires a subscription to MobileMe.

Find My iPhone

1. Download and install v3.0 of the iPhone software.

2. Enable Find My iPhone on your iPhone. This can be done in Settings> Mail, Contact, Calendars> Your MobileMe Account> Find My iPhone

3. Log in to MobileMe. Click the Account tab.

4. Click Find My iPhone on the left hand side of the page.

5. Click Update Location. When I first logged in I noticed my location had already been tracked from earlier in the morning. This was prior to installing the 3.0 update. It appears the phone’s last location (and possible other locations) are already trackable without having 3.0 installed.

My location before I even installed the 3.0 update!

6. Wait a few minutes for the location to be found. Inside our building I was able to get a large crosshairs (I’m assuming it was using WiFi), when I walked outside the crosshairs got more targeted and smaller. Didn’t appear to get the GPS dot I’m used to seeing on the iPhone.

Inside Building

Outside Building

7. Viola! Your location is found. There’s also the handy Display a Message or Play a Sound feature. When you click it you’re prompted to enter a message. Type in a message to yourself (or whoever has your phone), and check the box to play a sound for 2 minutes. Great for finding the phone if buried deep inside the couch.

8. Seconds later a notification shows on the phone, along with an email confirmation.

Remote Wipe

In case of theft or other unauthorized access, you can completely erase your iPhone using Remote Wipe. The last available option on the Find My iPhone list, click it and your phone erases itself.

[ MobileMe iPhone 3.0 Features ]

Apple has released the iPhone 3.0 software update.

The update is 230MB and took about 20 mins from start to finish.

So far everything has been running smoothly.

To download the update, connect your iPhone to your computer and select the “Check for Update” button in the iPhone section of iTunes.

If you’re like me, you can’t wait to install the 3.0 update on your iPhone/Touch tomorrow.

Hopefully this rollout will go smooth, but the 2.0 update most ceratinly did not.

The Apple servers had problems leaving a lot of customer’s phones unusable for most of the day. I started my update first thing at about 8am and it was around 3pm before I could use my phone.

The message boards were filled with people who were outraged that they lost use of their phone.

Before you install the update, make sure that people’s updates are running smooth (check Twitter) and that you can be without your phone for a few hours (if needed.)

Can’t wait to install the iPhone 3.0 update?

Well, if you join the iPhone developer program, you can download and install the 3.0 (Golden Master) update on your iPhone or Touch today.

The hitch? You have to pay the $99 standard program fee to join.

If you’re at all interested in developing an app for the iPhone platform, this may be a good time to enroll. At least you’ll get to show off the new software to all of your iPhone buddies (until the public release June 17th.)

[ Apple iPhone Developer Program ]

With the release of the 3.0 iPhone software on June 17th comes a new feature called Find My iPhone.

This new feature requires MobileMe and will work with all iPhones. Once you enable the feature on your iPhone, you’ll be able to log into me.com and bring up your iPhone’s approximate location on a map.

In addition to the location of your iPhone, you’ll also be able to display custom messages on your iPhone’s screen like, “I left my phone at your place, I’ll be back in a bit to pick it up.”

If you loose your iPhone at home (it’s always in the couch,) you can play an alert sound to lead you to it. A feature I know I’ll use.

If you’re a secret agent (or at least like the idea of being one) you can “leave” your iPhone with someone to track their location. This definitely brings up some privacy concerns, but since you have to sacrifice use of your phone, I doubt this will be an issue.

Speaking of privacy, you’ll also be able to remotely wipe all of the data on your iPhone. This feature is currently available for some enterprise customers and will come in handy in the case your iPhone is stolen. If you later find your iPhone, you can just re-sync to bring everything back.

MobileMe users also get some great file sharing and mobile iDisk access for the iPhone and iPod Touch with the new 3.0 software.

These added features make MobileMe an easier sell and add significant value to existing users.

[ MobileMe iPhone 3.0 Features ]