7:30pm – 10pm
First, Steve Jobs is back! He’s up-front directing the show and, as has been the case previously, letting others handle the detailed demos and some of the presentations.
NOTE: Some of the links for additional information may not yet reflect these updates.
SPOILER: Sorry, no Beatles in the iTunes Store just yet!
Well it a bit past their “this Summer” timeframe but AT&T has officially announced that iPhone users in the U.S. will finally get access to MMS starting September 25th. From their announcement:
We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.
No word yet on tethering, another feature promised when Apple released iPhone OS version 3.0.
[UPDATE]
Well according to theAppleBlog someone at AT&T (Brad Mays) is talking about tethering and what they’re saying isn’t good news:
As for tethering, by its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect. We expect to offer tethering in the future.
So in “the future” cars will fly, robots will cook dinner and iPhone users will finally get tethering?
Apple has released a bug fix update to the iPhone OS, version 3.0.1, that fixes a very critical security issue which could allow someone to compromise the device by sending a carefully crafted SMS text message. Plug your iPhone into the Mac or PC you normally sync with, select the iPhone in the devices section of iTunes, then perform an update using the appropriate button on the Summary tab.
NOTE: This does not impact iPod touch users since those devices do not support SMS texting.
OK, here’s something that really surprised me: Comcast has released an actual iPhone app and it’s actually quite good!
With it you can check your Comcast email, manage Comcast digital voicemail, forward your Comcast voice line to your iPhone, browse the TV schedule and also check out schedules and trailers for On-Demand movies. All this in a fairly attractively designed app (other than the gratuitous use of the flip animation instead of a standard slide when you bring up program details.)
They could convert this into a killer app if they allow actual channel selection and DVR programming right from the app.
It’s free and available here from the iTunes App Store.
Oh, and in a related note I just got an email from Comcast that they were boosting their default download speeds but you have to cycle power on your cable modem to make use if it. Just unplug the AC cord on it, count to 10 and plug it back in and you should be all set (if you’ve got Comcast Digital Voice you’ll have to remove the cable modem’s backup battery, unplug the AC then plug both back in.)
Plug your iPhone into your Mac, launch iTunes and check for updates on the iPhone summary page and you should be greeted with the news that the new iPhone OS 3.0 is now available for download!
Well, at least you can download it now. I can’t update at the moment because Apple’s activation servers have melted under the load of early updaters.
This update is free for iPhone users but iPod touch will have to pay $9.95 for it.