iPhone and mp3s?

[brown rhino]

Now that other phone companies are being allowed to get in on the iPhone act I'm thinking of getting one next year when my Vodafone contract is up for renewal. However, can someone help me with the following?
Do iPhone's play mp3s? I'm guessing that the phone uses iTunes, like a standard iPod, for it's music player abilities but what about ringtones and message alerts?
Will I have to transfer/convert all my current tones etc to whatever coding Apple uses?
If someone sends me a funny mp3 as an MMS or through bluetooth, will it play/save/allow me to use it?
Cheers in advance for your help.

 

[RobM]

They do indeed play MP3s, there is no need to convert them.

You wont be able to receive any form of data, MP3 or otherwise, via Bluetooth as this functionality doesn't exist on the iPhone. I've not tested the theory over MMS or email though...

 

[brown rhino]

You wont be able to receive any form of data, MP3 or otherwise, via Bluetooth as this functionality doesn't exist on the iPhone.

Really? What about the new 3GS iPhone? That's really a massive step backwards isn't it, surely? You've knocked me for six a bit there as something like that is a big blow. Swapping daft videos, funny songs, pics etc via bluetooth is one of the great functions of modern mobiles and I wouldn't want to give it up.

 

[RobM]

It's slowly becoming the norm, with the iPhone and most Android handsets not supporting it either.

If this really is a deal breaker or something you cannot live without, the iPhone wont deliver for you.

 

[Omegac]

MP3's received via e-mail will play, but you can't then use them as an MP3 ringtone like you can say on a Nokia. Not tried MMS either, e-mail is free, hence why the iPhone didn't originally have MMS....

 

[muffins]

Unless you jail break you cant use custom sms tones, and if you do jail break the iPhone uses the .caf extension for them. And then you can only have 6 that are renamed as the original ones.

Ringtones can only be loaded to the phone via itunes and they use the .m4r extension.

No ringtones or videos can be swapped via bluetooth.

 

[brown rhino]

Thanks for the info everyone. Looks like I won't be getting one.
As silly as some of the above functions seem, I like having them on my phone and don't want the iPhone enough to give them up.