AT&T slates iPhone MMS launch for Friday

3G and 3GS owners must first download an update via iTunes

AT&T will officially launch the long-awaited MMS service for the iPhone on Friday, but some users have reported it's already working, according to messages on the company's Facebook site.

"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," AT&T said in a short message on its sanctioned Facebook page. "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."

Several users, however, noted that AT&T had already flipped their MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) switch. "MMS is working on my iPhone in New York," said Eliezer Quinones Wednesday evening in a message on AT&T's Facebook page.

Two weeks ago, other users claimed that AT&T had enabled MMS for their accounts, a move some credited to limited testing by the mobile service provider.

iPhone owners have blasted AT&T for not offering MMS -- which lets users send photos, video and other content attached to text messages -- when the iPhone debuted in 2007. Critics stepped up their complaints in June, when Apple said the new iPhone 3.0 software would support MMS, but implied that AT&T would not immediately offer the service.

Originally, AT&T had pegged MMS availability by the end of summer, which officially ended on Monday.

Several times since June, AT&T explained the delay as necessary to beef up its network to accommodate the expected "record traffic" of MMS.

iPhone 3G and 3GS users will be able to use MMS starting tomorrow; owners of the first-generation iPhone won't, however, due to hardware limitations of the original model.

AT&T 's tethering plans remain unclear. Earlier this month, an AT&T spokeswoman said only that tethering -- which lets mobile phone users access the Internet from a laptop by linking it via Bluetooth to an iPhone's wireless data connection -- would be offered at some point "in the future." However, she did confirm that tethering would not be included in tomorrow's iTunes update.

As AT&T noted, iPhone owners must update their phones using iTunes before using MMS.

New iPod Touch not seen at all in Best Buy ad

Apple has officially confirmed an event for September 9, though some in the crowd may be disappointed. It appears that this will be an all iPod event. So what? The more iPods, the merrier, unless you happen to be a Zune user.

Some thought they may have spotted the new iPod in a recent Best Buy ad, they didn’t. The only change that is rumored is that it will be more like the iPhone 3G and may lose the mirrored back. There also just might be dedicated volume controls on the side but don’t hold your breath.

You can expect price drops to be present on the current iPod line across third party retailers everywhere. I’m still hoping that there will be an iPod Touch classic but it could very well lack WiFi and that wouldn’t be much fun.

Supposedly there will be new firmware for the iPod Touch, iPhone and a new version of iTunes as well.

I’m afraid we’ll all just have to wait a few days until we all know what the great Jobs had had rattling around in his mind. It’s entirely possible that distribution of the new iPods to Apple retail stores has begun… you know, in time for the announcements.

On a side note, once again there WILL NOT, let me repeat that, THERE WILL NOT be an iTunes subscription service. All five of you that care take note, the rest of us do not care about you and never will. I think that the Cnet editors are the only ones that care (seeing as how they test this stuff for free – and I mean those other services out there that have failed to make a dent in the iTunes Store).