thinkjim.com » iPhone

How to get SMS delivery reports on iPhone 3G 3Gs or iPhone

thinkjim — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:20:50 +0000

Since I received my new iPhone 3G, I’ve been wondering why Apple didn’t add an option for text message delivery reports to the iPhone 3G software (SMS delivery reports). Sometimes when you send a text message you just want to know that its been delivered properly! I used to have delivery receipts turned on permanently on my Nokias and was disappointed when I found I couldn’t turn on delivery reports with my first iPhone (running on vodafone).

Now that I have switched to O2 I’ve discovered that there is a way to get delivery reports for individual text messages! Although this isn’t the blanket solution (built in option) that I’d hoped for it is still useful when you want to confirm that someone has received your text message.

To request an SMS delivery report in the UK (O2) simply add *0# to the beginning of the text message and continue the message as normal. When the SMS is received a delivery report (delivery receipt) will appear as another iChat bubble on your iPhone; below your original message (you get a text message back).

SMS delivery report codes are different for each mobile network and each country. Some mobile networks do not offer SMS delivery report codes. These codes will work on other phones as well as iPhones. Here are some codes for other networks. You need to type the code before your text message, and its probably best to leave a space as some providers require this. They are also case sensitive:

UK Mobile Networks
O2 prefix *0#
Orange prefix RCT
T Mobile prefix *0#
Virgin prefix *0#
Vodafone – No code exists for Vodafone
Channel Islands; Jersey Telecom *0#

US and Australia Cell Networks
US T–Mobile prefix *noti#
Australia Three *not#

European Mobile Networks
Belgium Base prefix *N#
Belgium Proximus prefix *R*
Czechoslovakia o2 prefix YYYY
Denmark prefix *0#
Denmark Bibob prefix *KV#
Denmark Three prefix *NM#
Finland Sonera prefix *0#
Germany T-Mobile *T#
Germany Vodafone D2 prefix *N#
Germany O2 prefix *N#
Germany e-plus prefix *N#
Greece Vodafone GR prefix *#
Greece Wind prefix *0#
Greece Cosmote *0#
Holland T-mobile prefix NM#
Hungary T-mobile prefix *KV# or
Ireland O2 prefix *R*
Ireland meteor prefix *R*
Italy Wind prefix *n#
Luxembourg Tango prefix *0#
Norway Telenor k#
Poland PlusGSM prefix XYZ
Portugal Vodafone prefix *NOT#
Romania Orange prefix *NOT# or *NM#
Slovakia Orange prefix *?#
Spain Movistar prefix *N#
Spain Yoigo prefix *N#
Sweden Telia prefix *KV#
Sweden Comviq prefix KV#
Sweden Telenor prefix ##
Switzerland Swisscom prefix *NOT#

Other Mobile Networks
Vodacom / Mtn prefix rrr
Singapore SINGTEL prefix #R#
Brasil Oi prefix *N#
Brasil Clario prefix *N#
Israel Orange prefix NM#
India Vodafone prefix *NOT#
Qatar Qtel prefix *N#
Maxis Malaysia *N#
Egypt vodafone prefix *VF#
Egypt Mobinil prefix *NM
India Ideal prefix YYYY
India Vodafone prefix *NOT# or *N#
Lebanon MTC Touch prefix *N#
Angola Unitel prefix *N#
Algeria Djezzy prefix *N#
Indonesia telkomsel prefix *N#
Indonesia Satelindo prefix R#
Serbia Telenor prefix *!#
Serbia MTS prefix *!#
Croatia T-Mobile prefix *r* or *r#
Croatia VIP prefix !
Turkey Turkcell prefix *N#
Bangladesh Grameenphone prefix YYYY
Bangadesh banglalink prefix *n#

If you have other codes, please post them in the comments and I will add them. Thanks!

How I Got an iPhone 3G on Launch Day

thinkjim — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:45:37 +0000

Procuring an iPhone 3G on launch day is absolutely as hard as you might imagine. It’s been a rollercoaster of a week, an experiment to see what people will go through to get their technology fix. I was lucky, but many weren’t.

“ Monday July 7th, 8am. New email; O2 now accepting preorders. 8:34am my order is placed, I have a confirmation email. iPhone 3G will be delivered on Friday before 10am.” …was that too easy?…..

Monday

O2’s website worked flawlessly when I used it, but for many it just collapsed. Users were left wondering whether their order had gone through, and were pulling their hair out. By the afternoon the website was closed to pre-orders. iPhone 3G sold out.

Tuesday & Wednesday
Tuesday and Wednesday saw fever pitch speculation over on the O2 forums. Many users had orders in-progress, some [seemingly] failed orders were suddenly appearing, and others were having orders randomly cancelled. We weren’t happy lambs.

The mood was lifted when orders started to change from “in-progress“ to “complete”. I had a sudden addiction to the O2’s order status page and the refresh button.

Thursday
By Thursday we were flapping, many orders were still “in-progress”. Speculation was growing. Why hadn’t our order status changed? did O2 actually have enough stock to fulfill it’s preorders?

I spoke to O2 customer services on three separate occasions during the week and their staff were always polite and helpful. They reassured me the iPhone would arrive on launch day and I wouldn’t be disappointed.

By 5pm on Thursday it was clear it wasn’t going to happen. A final call to O2 confirmed it; they couldn’t fulfill my order and weren’t sure when they would be able to. Their website was talking about availability “by the end of the summer”.

Carphone Warehouse To The Rescue: At 5:15pm I phoned Carphone warehouse and explained my plight. It was a long shot. Their reply? “No Problem”, they would have an iPhone 3G delivered tomorrow …… and do you know what?…… They weren’t joking. I placed an order at 5:15pm on Thursday and received it at 8:30am Friday.

Thoughts
It’s been a difficult week for O2. Nobody is entirely clear how many preorders they took, but there were a lot. Many have criticised O2 for raising expectations and dashing them. It was always going to be hard for O2 to cope, but IMHO their order system should have been capped. They should only have accepted pre-orders for phones they could deliver. But could anyone really have coped with the insatiable demand? probably not.

“Was the iPhone 3G worth it?” don’t ask silly questions!

UPDATE: I’m disappointed to hear that my Carphone Warehouse order may have been fulfilled at the expense of other CPW users who ordered on Monday! in the same way that my 8:30am order with O2 on Monday was passed over for later orders placed at 1PM. Come on guys its not that difficult!

iPhone Visual Voicemail

thinkjim — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:00:27 +0000

Unfortunately visual voicemail is one of the few features not to work on unlocked iphones operating on unsupported phone networks. This leaves a voicemail button that doesn’t work, and begs to be used. The best solution is to programme this button so that it dials your voicemail mailbox (121 on vodafone), when pressed.

All you need to do is dial the following into your iPhone and hit ‘call’ (as if you were going to call the number):

*5005*86*121#

Now any time that you press the voicemail button on your iPhone it will automatically dial your voicemail and you can pickup your messages!

iPhone EDGE settings for Vodafone UK

thinkjim — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:00:16 +0000

Well my unlocked iphone has finally arrived from the US, and I’ve been tweaking it for the last couple of hours so that everything is working properly.

When I tried to fire up Safari on the iPhone I got the error “Could not activate EDGE: you are not subscribed to EDGE”. The EDGE settings (GPRS) that are posted on some of the forums for Vodafone UK are incorrect. You need the following settings to use the web (when not in range of wi-fi) on the UK vodafone network. These settings are correct for my contract with vodafone, not sure about pay as you go.

These are the iPhone EDGE APN settings. In your iphone go to:

> Settings > General -> Network ->EDGE

Enter the following:

APN: internet
Username: web
Password: web

Now go back to safari and try and load a page. Should work!

Update: One user was having problems with these settings and it was because EDGE had been disabled. You need to check it is enabled before using these settings. Some Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers have said that these Vodafone EDGE APN settings work on the PAYG platform as well.