One of the worst parts about the iPhone is the fact that you cannot send or receive MMS messages.  I had the same problem with my Treo as I did not pay for the MMS package, but with the iPhone it is particularly annoying because the phone is so advanced and every other media aspect of it works so damn well.

When you receive an MMS it has a note from ATT and a link to www.viewmymessage.com.  This link either ends in a /1 or a /2.  I don't even know what the /1 or /2 is for, but my guess it is a lazy form of load balancing on the part of ATT.

ATT should be really ashamed of viewmymessage.com.  It tarnishes the ATT logo which is on top of the page.  The site is an incredible pain is the ass to use.  I have never even been able to get it to work in any browser other than IE.  The system takes forever to load and probably 80% of the time gives me quirky browser errors.

Tonight when trying to view a message I saw the following 400 error in IE:

I kept trying again and again.  Finally I checked in Firefox to see what it would show.  Invalid path /2en/en/2en/en/jp...

If Apple is never going to support MMS then ATT needs to at least fix their website:

1. Make viewmymessage.com compatible with Firefox and Safari
2. When receiving an MMS on an iPhone, make the link seamless so Safari can view the message easily
3. Fix viewmymessage.com so if you type the horrendous MSG ID incorrectly it at least includes it for you on the error page so you don't have to go back to your phone and look

This weekend I had the chance to spend a few hours at the great State Fair of Oklahoma.  The Fair is always great fun and this year didn't disappoint.  I managed to limit myself to one Cheesedog and I avoided all the sweets altogether (my last experience with fried Oreos taught me a solid lesson)

Unfortunately, I went during the day and thus got a bit sunburned and missed out on all the crazy nighttime lights on the ride.  However, the heat didn't stop my god-daughter from enjoying the rides (at least the ones that didn't go too high!)

The ONEsite team and I just returned from the first ever Web 2.0 NYC conference.  The show was at a large convention center in Manhattan and was right next door to the Interop expo.

ONEsite was a sponsor of the show and we had a great booth.  Several members from the team helped work the booth including Thad, Andy, Robby, Elichia, Bob and I.

This was my first expo and I very much enjoyed it.  We met a lot of great people and had the opportunity to demonstrate in person all of the terrific communities running on the ONEsite platform.  It is quite thrilling to be able to demo a live site on demand very much similar to what a potential client is describing they desire to build.  The ONEsite platform powers thousands of communities ranging from small startups, to trade-specific communities, to massive social networks for large media brands.

I'm very proud of what we've built at ONEsite and know that the best is yet to come!

My cell phone bill is quite outrageous.  It includes fees for the voice plans itself, for unlimited 3G data and then for unlimited texts.  Until recently I didn't have the unlimited texts option, but I was constantly going over the number of allowed messages on the $5/mo plan from ATT.  It seems as though I am paying more for text messages than I was several years ago...  even though the cellular networks can now transfer many more bits than previously.

Fortunately, Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin feels my pain.  He is starting an inquiry into the rising cost of SMS messages and seeking to determine if the consolidation in the wireless industry is one reason for the increase in costs.  "This conduct is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace," stated the former president of Kohl's department stores.

I am all for free markets, but the telecommunication industry always deserves closer inspection by the public.

I've had my iPhone for a few weeks now and am thus far incredibly impressed with the device.  Even though it has its major flaws the phone makes you feel like you're finally in the 21st century.

First I'll tick off my biggest annoyance  1) battery life  2) no MMS 3) no way to toggle Push settings via a timer 4) Apple is slow at approving application updates

I came from using a Treo 650 and the Treo would last for several days of heavy use before needing to be recharged.  By heavy use I mean hours of talk time, EDGE data downloading, etc.  With my iPhone I am finding I have to charge it twice a day.  It's a small sacrifice to make but I am sure that if I travel I'll need to bring one of those battery quickchargers (since my Macbook itself doesn't hold a charge too long, and

The most phone I've had with my iPhone thus far is using the 'Remote' iPhone app to control the music playlist at Thad's wedding.  Thad put me in charge of downloading wedding songs from iTunes and organizing them into a playlist.  He suggested I use 'Remote' to control the list during the wedding reception.

I hadn't yet used 'Remote' so I dug into it.  I found out that 'Remote' only worked on a wifi connection.  So I brought one of my old Linksys WRT54GS wireless routers to the wedding.  We had horrible luck with the A/V equipment at the wedding--but the router itself worked quite well.  I set up a 'wedding' wifi connection and had a laptop and my iPhone connect to it.

'Remote' was great fun to use, but it seemed incredibly finicky.  When it worked it worked flawlessly, but oftentimes it just wouldn't find the iTunes library even thougg I had a perfect wifi signal.  The highlight of my DJ'ing was when I got to start a Red Light Green Light game with the girls on stage dancing to Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl.

On a side note, I hit a few buttons on my Treo today just for kicks and I saw that my Treo still has a 54% battery charge.  The Treo has been unplugged for maybe 3 weeks now.  I am sure if it had its cell antenna on it would have only lasted a week or so, but it's still impressive that it's holding such a charge on stand-by.  I was loyal to Palm/Handspring for years and I do hope that they make a comeback.

With the iPhone it seems as though I have to charge my phone twice a day in order to ensure that I'll be able to talk on the phone later.  I am travelling next week and am going to be looking at rapid backup chargers to ensure that I'll have juice whenever I need it.