Existing users, 
Another undocumented iPhone 1.1.1 feature: Can play MP3/AAC/WAV audio email attachments
Posted 1 October 2007 @ 9am in Uncategorized
iPhone Atlas reader Greg Seecof recently discovered:
“I can now play back audio attachments in email messages. I only tried one, an AAC voicemail file sent from my PhoneValet software but for the first time since I got my iPhone, it played! I was actually crafting a feedback message to Apple regarding this handicap when I discovered it worked now.”
Sure enough, testing confirms that the iPhone’s email client can now (after the 1.1.1 update) download and play audio files in all the QuickTime audio formats it supports, including MP3 AAC and WAV.
Other previously reported, undocumented new features include text message sound settings, international characters, and new options for video playback.
Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.
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13 Comments
Posted by cgavula
1 October 2007 @ 9am
I’m sorry - I think there’s a misspelled word in your news blurb. It is that you can NOW play the content or that you can NOT play the content? Either the title is wrong or the word “not” in the blurb is wrong. Personally, I’ve tried this today and I get an error when playing an attached WAV file. Please clarify what you were trying to say!
–Chris
Posted by gregpins
1 October 2007 @ 11am
You can also play some video attachments. I was able to play a Quicktime movie. There seems to be an audio sync issue and you can’t flip it into landscape mode, but it’s a big step in the right direction.
Posted by Syncopator
1 October 2007 @ 12pm
And another undocumented “feature”:
I’ve been watching episodes of a TV show on my iPhone. Prior to installing 1.1.1, at the end of each movie, a “bubble” would pop up, asking if I wanted to keep or delete the movie. Although I always pressed “delete,” causing the file to be immediately deleted, when I synced the iPhone, unless I remembered to change the settings in iTunes, that movie would be placed right back on the phone! In other words, deleting the file from the iPhone was an *unnecessary* step.
Now, as of 1.1.1, I am no longer asked, at the end of a movie/TV show, if I want to delete the file. It appears that Apple realized it was a silly (i.e., pointless) feature.
Instead, I wish Apple had *left* the feature on the iPhone, but had that setting automatically updated in iTunes upon syncing — thereby informing iTunes to “uncheck” that movie, so it’s not re-transferred to the iPhone. That would have been a much more elegant feature implementation.
Posted by hfm
1 October 2007 @ 12pm
Another undocumented fix in Mail: Deleting a message from an Exchange server now appears to work. It doesn’t even wait for the next sync to notify the server to move it to the Deleted Items folder.
Posted by borisparsley
1 October 2007 @ 12pm
Aww, dangit! Until Mr. Seecof discovered - and you reported - the audio email attachment feature there was nothing preventing me from degrading to 1.0.2 and getting my sweet, sweet 3rd party apps back.I’m very dependent on my voicemail-to-email service.
Decisions!
Posted by HighTechDad
1 October 2007 @ 1pm
I may have uncovered a bug related to the Audio Playback of attachments but I need some confirmation from the end-user community.
The details are on my blog here: http://tinyurl.com/22ax9a
I would appreciate some comments back either here or on my blog.
-HTD
Posted by libertyforall1776
1 October 2007 @ 6pm
Great, now all we need is .m3u playlist support so we can stream music from sites like di.fm in Safari!
Hurry up Apple! I can do this on a Treo today… *sigh*
—–
Ron Paul President 2008 http://ronpaul2008.com
Posted by liminal89
2 October 2007 @ 10am
Actually, the audio e-mail update doesn’t work with the most popular voicemail formats, like those e-mailed from Packet8 or Vonage. So it’s pointless as far as I’m concerned. All I get is an initial QT screen quickly followed by one saying “This movie could not be played.”
Posted by billf6
2 October 2007 @ 11am
I subscribe to Vonage and receive notification of voicemail messages by email, with a QT wav file attached with the actual VM. Iphone will now download the attachment, but when I click on it to play it, iphone says it does not support the file.
Any ideas? Could Vonage have some coding in its wav file that prohibits this, or size an issue?
Thanks.
Bill
Posted by A
2 October 2007 @ 12pm
I have tried to play a WAV, AAC and MP3 file within an email attachment and it only plays mp3. When I try to play AAC or WAV, it says ” cannot play movie file” so I am not sure if this is correct.
Posted by liminal89
2 October 2007 @ 5pm
There are a couple of threads about this in Apple discussion. Here’s one:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5469456�
Apparently it’s a codec issue, and there’s no workaround. Big grrr.
-liminal89
Posted by dwissman
20 October 2007 @ 12pm
WAV file recognized, but will not open. “cannot play movie” message appears. Is there a solution?
Posted by psuskeels
4 February 2008 @ 10pm
You can listen to Vonage voicemails on your iPhone via http://www.vonagent.com (it’s free). It also lets you manage SimulRing/Call Forwarding.
Enjoy!