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So you want to set up your new SIM-free T610 for picture messaging and other WAP-over-GPRS services on Vodafone UK?

Assumptions

You bought a SIM-free T610 and have a Vodafone pay as you talk (PAYT) SIM card. You called Vodafone and asked them to activate GPRS for your account.

What is Vodafone live!?

Vodafone promotes a "revolutionary new service" called Vodafone live! This is not a new technology, just the name under which several mostly-standard WAP-over-GPRS services are marketed—including picture/ photo messaging (which utilizes MMS; FAQ here). You don't need to have bought your phone from Vodafone in order to use picture messaging or any of the other live! services on offer. When you have set up picture messaging this will reset the homepage on your phone to the Vodafone live! homepage rather than to Sony Ericsson, giving you access to the Vodafone menu. When you are connected a little world icon will show that a GPRS session is in progress:

Set up your T610 for Vodafone live!

Use Vodafone's online configuration tool:

http://mmsota.vizzavi.co.uk/

This will send the settings to your phone as a text message (SMS). There are also manual instructions available. What this does is create a new WAP Profile and Data Account for use with an APN for MMS, using these settings (on PAYT):

WAP Profile name: Vodafonelive!
APN: pp.vodafone.co.uk
User name: wap
Password: wap
Data accounts name: Vodafonelive!
IP address: 212.183.137.012
Message server: http://mms.vodafone.co.uk/servlets/mms

Some of these settings will be different if you are on contract (i.e. the APN you'll receive is "wap.vodafone.co.uk"). Does it matter? I don't know.

Note: These settings are the same as you need for setting up Mobile Internet (e-mail and web)—except for a different (but seemingly unimportant) WAP Profile and Data Account name. So if you've already set up Mobile Internet, you don't actually need to use this configuration tool. To complete MMS setup in this case, on the T610 go to Messages > Picture > Options > WAP Profile and select Vodafone GPRS. Also check that the message server URL is entered as above (Messages > Picture > Options > Message Server).

Can I send a picture message only to an MMS phone?

No. If the other phone doesn't support picture messages, it supposedly will receive an SMS instead containing a URL so that the recipient can view the message on the web. I tried sending a MMS to my old Siemens S25 and ended up with a two part SMS containing gibberish.

However, you can also send a MMS message (+/- photo, animation, text, sound) to anyone with an e-mail address. They arrive from an address in the format "phonenumber@mmsom.vodafone.co.uk", and the picture will be received as a .jpg file attachment. However, it is not possible to reply to these message via e-mail to the sender's phone.

Some phones that support MMS can only handle pictures at 120x160 resolution. However, you can use your T610 to send a picture message via e-mail that has a resolution of 288x352 (and you'll want to: see below).

Tip: Don't expect the T610 to replace your digital camera. The facility to e-mail a picture from anywhere to anyone is undoubtedly cool—but the image quality is poor.

Here is an example (of an ex-Christmas tree) at 288x352 pixels:

Here is the same tree, from the same position, with picture size set to 120x160 pixels. Note how this effectively creates a crop:

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