I am back from the road trip. I’ll write more about that tomorrow. The big news for tonight is that I am successfully sending and receiving photos on MMS on T-Mobile USA on the 10iii using 4.4.0.64.
Using MMS Log app, I watched the errors, then messed with the MMS settings. I decided, out of desperation really, to change from fast.t-mobile.com to epc.tmobile.com and IP6 only, and that was the magic combination.
I have successfully sent MMSes containing a text message with a photo from my phone to a couple of other people, and they confirmed receipt and sent me multiple MMSes with photos attached.
And @808 - last year I observed a tower climber up on the T-Mobile tower nearest where my wife works. That same day, her 3G coverage/calling near that tower disappeared. My theory was they were starting to peel off 3G radios to the barest of minimum for coverage and replacing them with 5G radios utilizing those frequency bands. I theorize that for the next month, you could travel to a different metro area and you would still get a 3G call out on your XA2. But yeah, the 10iii is the best SFOS experience yet - by a long shot.
I used GPS this weekend and I turned it on initially in SW suburb of Chicago, then turned it off until I was in mid-MO. It snapped right to where I was in MO within two seconds. I had installed MLS Manager before I got on the road, so that may have helped. It truly has been the most pleasurable, though not yet perfect, SFOS experience I have ever had. For the first time, I am starting to consider that I may have a device that will beat out the N9 for my favorite phone - and that’s saying a lot in my book.