Heh, the author of this article may be exaggerating a bit.

The carrier sim can block access to the apn/mms settings; an AT&T sim usually does.

I've used the sim-swap trick (with a t-mobile sim) on my iPhone 4S to change the apn without issue... On iOS 5 and iOS 6. And I know of at least four others that are on StraightTalk using iOS 6. Guess my anecdotal evidence is greater than the authors.

Except when you buy an explicitly unlocked phone, you expect to be able to use different SIM cards, and some carrier SIM cards don't work in the unlocked phone because you can't set the MVNO setting in iOS 6.x (you could prior to that)

My guess is that its just a 'bug' and it only affects a 'minority' of the users, so its not on the stop ship list. But I have no insights into Apple or their process.

Why should anyone have to set this themseleves anyway? I thought carriers pushed these settings through some kind of magic "carrier settings" text message? I don't understand why his carrier can't sort this out for him? I'm pretty sure they can change the APN remotely because I found a way to tether my laptop to my sony erricson way back when it had unlimited data (because WAP was so crap that no-one used much data). My memory may be wrong but I think they changed the APN for WAP access to one which actually had a password by sending out one of these, then shut off the APN people were using for surfing the web on their laptops through a tethered phone.

Because that doesn't work on the iPhone. iOS has those settings baked in.

I ditched my iPhone when I got tired of my tethering options randomly disappearing/reappearing on minor iOS updates without a chance to override that. Even though my carrier allowed and supported tethering, the options would just disappear because the APN settings for the carrier were not present in the phone and couldn't be uploaded on some iOS versions.

Somehow Android "just worked". Figure that.

This article is incorrect. I've used a 3GS with iOS 6 up until recently when I picked up my nexus 4 and I use a MVNO. I've been on straight talk for quite some time and have had no issues. I've used this site unlockit.co.nz and downloaded the profile to make the changes. To my knowledges these are just files you could create with the desired APN settings and host up on your own personal computer via nginx or apache and browse internally to download/install.

To create a straight talk APN profile on my nexus 4 I needed to have a sim card installed in the phone. For some odd reason Android OS does not allow one to access the APN settings area without a sim card in the phone.

This is probably not a Apple thing, but a carrier thing saying if you buy a phone from me it's locked to me so no APN for you.

I have full access to those options, but someone else I know on a different carrier does not.

iPhone APN settings can be modified using the iPhone Configuration Utility.[0] In fact, T-Mobile provides an easy-to-download, easy-to-install "profile" (a file specifying the APN) created with this tool.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1465

The configuration profiles are even easier to use then editing the information on the device itself.

The only problem is that end-users might not be aware of it and I am not sure what the answer from the Geniuses might be.

There is nothing to stop the service provider from offering a profile on their website. With a short URL the costumer could set it up right from the store using the wifi connection and 2 taps. These profiles can even be signed.

This will only let you change the settings for data, but won't work for MMS. This was the problem raised by the initial post by Nathan Anderson. (please correct me if I'm wrong though)

I'm in the US on AT&T locked and have full access to my APN settings

Honestly, this is somewhat odd/surprising since AT&T has been known not to allow access to the APN settings, as opposed to T-mobile for example.

hmm ... I still have full access to the APN settings ( Unlocked iPhone 4s from the US, German carrier). Is this just a problem in the US? I guess it depends on the carrier doesn't it?

Me too. This is with a Chinese iPhone in Europe.

I noticed that my carrier settings get erased on OS upgrades, though, which is annoying.

Me three. I've got a new (bought on friday unlocked from an apple shop) iPhone 5 and I've used the magic text message to change the APN settings.

Just not true. The settings are still there and were in the iOS6 betas as well. I know because I would have been affected.

Even if the settings were gone from the UI it would still be possible to set them with profiles, which can be distributed via the operators website.

Some "advanced" settings that could only be set with profiles have even moved into the UI in later versions of iOS, like Cisco VPN, S/MIME.

This post is extremely bad and is just a rehash of the original post by Nathan Anderson with added misunderstandings, errors and drama.