So THAT'S what the 5.6 carrier update does

Thanks to the fine folks over at iPhone Savior, it looks like we know what the 5.6 carrier update for AT&T accomplished - it's the one that came right with the 3.1.2 OS update.

"When sending photos or videos in an MMS message, the progress bar would stall at about 90% then result in an error ending with a (!) red exclamation point next to the MMS message. The associated message failed to be properly sent, though standard text messages worked as normal. The 5.6 patch addressed that particular MMS issue."

Well that makes sense because that was happening to a lot of people, myself included. Rebooting the phone temporarily fixed the problem, but it always came back.

Read on for my short - but relevant - rant/suggestion.

It drives me insane when I update something on my computer - whether it's iPhone related or not - and I'm not told what I'm updating.

Apple is notorious for this, although I must say that with 3.1.2 they explained everything I needed to know up front. But that whole "bug fixes" thing drives me crazy. I have no reason to believe there aren't actually bug fixes, but which bug fixes? My bug fixes? Someone else's bug fixes? When someone writes me to talk to me about a problem they're having, well, I'd love to be able to tell them which update fixes it. Instead, I'm left with bug fixes.

The carrier updates -- in this case from AT&T -- usually don't explain anything, with the exception of the much-publicized 5.5 which added MMS functionality in the first place. But knowing that this fix was for the red exclamation point error (my official name for it) - well, that would have been most helpful.

So to recap - I'm looking for more openness when it comes to describing what's new in software updates and carrier fixes.

Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter. I'm all ears.

Thanks for calling.

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