The hacks are pretty hardcore, and demand not just a jailbroken iPhone, but a working knowledge of the handset's operating system internals. Basically, I wouldn't recommend anyone who enjoys having a not-bricked iPhone try either one. Anyway! The former comes by way of the Hackint0sh forums, courtesy of user Whiterat:

1. Backup original CommCenter (goes without saying...)
2. Replace CommCenter in: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreTelephony.framework/Support/ with a patched one.
3. Chmod the new CommCenter to 755
4. Open /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/M68AP.plist and insert a true boolean value for "mms" under capabilities

and the latter, from the Dev Team Wiki, step-ified by The Beat Mix (the instructions are too long to include here; just check them out at the link).

If they're soooooo dangerous, then why even mention them? Because in their respective forums, the chatter around the hacks is that they'll make their way to the Cydia jailbreak app store before too long, and both be installable with little more than a tap. [MuscleNerd's Twitter via 9to5Mac]

Click image to enlarge

It is pretty simple and absolutely brilliant: To launch a new deodorant in Uruguay, the Lowe Ginkgo agency in Montevideo created an incomplete ad. The ad showed a purrty neekeed girl in a suggestive pose. It didn't, however, show any of her naughty bits. Instead, it came with blank spaces and the following text:

To complete this ad send AXE to 2345 after 9 pm.

The message made a server to send a multimedia message to your cellphone with the rest of the ad, so you could admire the complete image. The Mad Men would be proud. [Direct Daily]

Kyle Irving of Minneapolis was told he would have MMS when he purchased his iPhone in late June, yet it took another two months to arrive, which surely is a crime heinous enough to warrant yet another go-nowhere class-action lawsuit. The Minnesota suit will be grouped with similar suits from other states, though it's not clear exactly how much money in damages is being sought.

Not to make light of AT&T's inability to get MMS, a long-established and fairly basic feature, onto its top-selling phone, but suing for having to go two months without MMS is awfully silly. [Twin Cities, thanks Ponies!]

The roll out is limited and seemingly very random, with iPhones gaining the ability across the U.S.

Perhaps this is an early test to see if that dubious AT&T network can finally handle this "new" feature? [Consumerist - Thanks, Tipsters!]

AT&T admits they're late, saying "it was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one" so they needed the extra to "to make sure our network is ready to handle what we expect will be a record volume of MMS traffic." Which I think means if MMS doesn't work, everybody can ream the shit out of them for it. At least it's free.

The wait for tethering continues though, with "no set date." They simply "expect to offer it in the future." Again, 'cause the network isn't ready: "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."

One out of two ain't bad, right?

An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers

We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We've been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches – and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.

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.

We're riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that's resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we're working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

We thank you for your business and look forward to keeping you updated on our initiatives.

But first! Some words from our lawyers my conscience: These are, no matter how you cut it, not sanctioned. That means they could screw with your phone's brains, and more likely, with your delicate relationship with AT&T. If you're not particularly intrepid when it comes to technology, your warranty and, uhh, contract law, you should probably just wait it out.

Our first method comes from Giz reader Aaron Krill, who has posted a comprehensive guide—a sort of super-powered update to our old 3.0 tethering hack—to enabling both tethering and MMS specifically on AT&T. It's not the simplest procedure, but it's approachable, and doesn't require jailbreaking like before. The gist:

• Enable IPCC updates on iTunes 8.2
• Update IPCC files
• Spoof AT&T's website into thinking you have an other phone

If MMS doesn't really matter to you (be honest!) you can try this simpler, tethering-only method that allegedly works on all carriers (though it was tested on the UK's O2 network—written by Richard Lai and spotlighted by Engadget. The shorter gist:

• Visit a website on your iPhone and download a new carrier profile
• TETHER!

Let us know how it works in the comments. UPDATE: Some people are reporting that these hacks can screw with your visual voicemail. Careful!

Apparently, because people were using MMS with the iPhone 3.0 betas, AT&T put an opt-out on all iPhone accounts. So, theoretically, if AT&T manually (yes...manually) removes all of these opt-outs, MMS would work just fine.

As for the tethering delay, BGR also noted that AT&T is still in the process of hammering out a pricing plan—possibly as much as $70 per month for unlimited data/tethering. None of this is confirmed of course, but $70 a month for an unlimited data plan with tethering would be way to damn much. [BGR]

The guys at winandmac say they've noticed a change in the YouTube app's stream handling. Now, instead of defaulting to the low-res OTA version of a YouTube video when connected via 3G, the app plays the high-res version previously reserved for Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, in our comments and over at the iPhone Blog, AT&T-bound Beta 5 users are reporting that the simple MMS stopgap hack is no longer possible.

It's only been few hours since Beta 5 burst forth into this world, naked and screaming, so more changes are bound to bubble up to the surface—there are already rumblings that new anti-tethering measures have been implemented, but this hasn't been confirmed (and may have more to do with new security features in iTunes 8.2 than iPhone OS). [winandmac and the iPhone Blog]

Here are the highlights:

•No video recording at launch, though they seem to think such a thing will be added via update. (We knew this already)
•MMS support is confirmed
•They imply that Office 2007 documents work fine on Pre, though they don't specify if it's read-only
•Custom ringtones are a go, as are ringback tones
•When in USB mode, all calls will be automatically routed to voicemail.
•IM Services: Google Talk and AIM at launch.
•The color for calendar events can be chosen manually on the Pre, or sync'ed with the colors you've got set up in Exchange
•Cookies can be disabled in the browser
•No pictbridge profile yet, so no wireless photo printing.

Again, none of this information is confirmed. Although that bit about automatic redirect to voicemail when in USB mode seems absurd to me. [insidesprintnow via MobileCrunch]

This is the method that has worked for us and a few others that we have confirmed solid—if you know of any shortcuts or another way to enable MMS, let us know in the comments. Update: If you've been having issues, Giz reader Justin adds some additional steps (now numbered 3 and 4) that he says has worked for him and several others. Let us know it goes.

What You'll Need
• iPhone 3G running OS 3.0
• Another AT&T phone (non-iPhone)
• This carrier file
• SIM ejector tool (or paperclip)

Prep Your iPhone
1. Download the carrier file.

2. Connect your iPhone to your computer. Open iTunes, and option or ctrl click (depending on whether you're Mac or PC) "check for upgrade" which will open up your file browser. Select the .ipcc file. This is just a carrier file, it doesn't do anything to your OS or data. Uploading it to your phone will just take a couple of seconds.

3. To make sure the update worked, go to Settings->General->About and look for "Carrier." It should say "AT&T 5."
4. Then go to ettings->General->Network->Cellular Data Network. It should say wap.cingular in the APN box, WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM in the Username and CINGULAR1 in the Password field. Reboot your phone (you can do this after you take the SIM card out).

The Workaround


5.Take your SIM out of your iPhone and pop it into a phone that's capable of MMS. Make sure it's registered to your account on AT&T's site (go into your account manager), replacing the iPhone as your listed phone. You might have to do this manually. I made a couple calls with the phone to make sure it registered

6. Go here, to AT&T's MediaNet site, and register your phone number. You'll get an SMS with a 4-digit code to confirm. Punch it in at the website.

MMS, Baby

7. Put your SIM card back in your iPhone. MMS should be working now! It's kind of pokey (about 30 seconds to send a picture) and it's dropped a message or two, but we were able to send pictures to people on multiple carriers and receive video from a phone on T-Mobile. It definitely works, and works pretty well. The interface for playing back MMS video (pictured up top) is slick, too.

8. Wonder how you ever did without it.

Word of Caution

We're rocking an unlimited family messaging plan, so we're not worried about any charges for blasting out tons of MMS messages. If you're worried about account weirdness, you might wanna hold off. You could always ask your local AT&T guy to make sure you're not getting hosed, just tell him you're a developer (you've got iPhone 3.0, after all). Also if you're squeamish about unofficial OS files, obviously.

Big thanks to Scratic, who showed this method to us. If you know a better way, let us know!

Besides the honking red record button in the center, there's a toggle to switch between the still camera and video recording. Inside the configuration files where the screen was discovered were mentions of an "auto-focus camera," "magnetometer" (digital compass), and "Voice Control."

One question though—in order to get the screenshot to appear, the configuration files had to be modified to tell the firmware that a video camera was present. Given the other capabilities mentioned, like the auto-focus camera, it seems like this means Apple could restrict video recording to the next iPhone only, even though the video recording possible with jailbreak apps now shows the current hardware is capable of doing it.

Still, pretty exciting, especially since we just got video MMS to work on our iPhone, thanks to Scratic:

Updated: BGR snagged some additional screenshots of the iPhone 3.0 interface, which include more screens of the video recording.

[MacRumors, Boy Genius Report]

Just in case you don't know, the update adds full HTML email, better web browsing, Office doc editing, remote server search, media player upgrades and more—so it is definitely worth getting right away. On a related note, Sprint has enabled BlackBerry users running OS 4.5 to send and receive MMS (text messages with embedded media). Its a banner day to be a Crackberry addict. [AT&T and BlackBerry via BGR and BGR]

The service was created by two (overly?) careful real estate firm owners in Pittsburg who demanded their agents take pictures of all clients they meet for future legal protection. Once your message is in their hands, it cannot be erased or retrieved, and can only be accessed with a subpoena or a court order. I'm no lawyer, but instead of being a legal safeguard service, isn't what we have here basically a great way to blackmail via text? Video support is coming soon. [My Mobile Witness via AP]