MMS for iPhone 2G and tethering on OS 3.1.2 explained, not for the faint of heart

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Nokia Siemens Networks made quite a bit of noise at last year's CTIA by introducing an LTE solution for North America, and during this year's run-up to Mobile World Congress, it's vying for attention once more. The outfit's Flexi Multiradio Base Station is an understandably flexible solution that "meets the needs of new and existing 2G and 3G operators who can use their existing infrastructure to deploy new network-wide technologies via simple software upgrade to 3G or LTE." The true multiradio base station should ease concerns from operators worried over divvying up investment dollars for supporting various technologies, and it's even backwards compatible with existing Flexi Base Stations for those looking to spruce up their current hardware. For the consumer, this device could help carriers ease into LTE deployment more quickly, as the whole cut-and-run approach to simply axing one technology and moving over suddenly to another doesn't seem to sit well with most mega-corps.
You've had a nice run, 2G, but the time has come to start looking beyond to bigger, better and (most importantly) faster things. With LTE just over the horizon, NTT DoCoMo is proactively announcing the phase out of its mova and DoPa 2G services. The 2G mova services encompass car phone and Pre-Call prepaid -- which got their roots in March of 1993 -- while the 2G DoPa packet communication service sprouted up four years after that. Both of these longtime favorites will be disconnected at the close of 2012, with the company noting that "associated services and related billing plans will also be terminated at the same time." Anyone still relying on this stuff will be contacted sometime over the next three years to ensure that they aren't shocked and surprised when December 2012 arrives, and they'll be encouraged to make the not-at-all-painful shift to FOMA 3G services. It's better in the fast lane, we promise.
It turns out that January of this year is the very first month in history that Japanese retailers brought on no stock of 2G phones, and as amazing of a statistic is that is, we have to admit -- we're just a little surprised this didn't happen, like, several years ago. As of the end of February, about 85 percent of Japan's mobile users (read: everyone in the country, we think) were on 3G handsets, another statistic that is both surprising and, at the same time, elicits a bit of an "it took that long?" response from us. Whatever; any way you slice it, these guys and gals are still way better off in the high-speed mobile data department than anyone else we can think of, so we'll err on the side of awe and just simply be impressed at the fact that it's no longer possible to get a crappy phone in the entire country of Japan.
We noticed a little gem in Cingular's press release triumphantly announcing completion of their GSM network integration: "Unlike some competitive services, all 3G services and features, such as Cingular Video, are also available on the company's EDGE network." Really now, is that so? This after customer complaints prompted the company to pull its 3G handsets off the market in EDGE regions just a few short months ago? The verbage of the press release certainly seems to line up nicely with intelligence we're getting, which suggests that the carrier's had a change of heart and intends to once again stock store shelves nationwide with its high-speed devices, possibly on or around November 1. Among those devices should be the lustworthy Hermes-based 8525 -- that is, if the stars are aligned correctly and Cingular's execs wake up on the right sides of their beds that morning.
New Softbank property Vodafone K.K. has announced four new 3G handsets -- along with the 2G Toshiba V304T "simplephone" -- that will be released this summer in Japan, including Sharp's 905SH clamshell with a 2 megapixel camera and One Seg digital TV reception. Also seen before was Voda's version of Nokia's N71, dubbed the 804NK, which sports those same multimedia and smartphone features along with obvious addition of bilingual menus. Like the three models mentioned previously, the Toshiba 705T and Sharp 705SH SLIMIA also sport clamshell designs, with the Tosh featuring external music controls and the Sharp (pictured) rocking dual cameras. Additionally, a sixth model, Sharp's 2G V403SH (also a flip phone), was announced as getting a summer makeover, and will now come in your choice of cloth beige or cloth blue.
In a move sure to excite both business travelers and wandering geeks, Qualcomm announced earlier this week
that it expects to ship chips for high-speed world phones by the end of this year. Handsets with the new Qualcomm
chipsets will be able to access both EV-DO services on CDMA networks as well as W-CDMA-powered GSM UMTS networks,
effectively allowing for 3G connections almost anywhere in the world. Even customers not willing to shell out the big
bucks that these first models will cost will still benefit from the new chips, as prices on current-gen 2G and 2.5G
world phones will drop accordingly as a result of their new mid-tier market status.








