ah maybe this is a SIM issue, since when i go into Settings-about phone, it says phone number unknown. meaning that the phone cant recognize my own number?
I have tested it, and that "unknown" is the cause of greyed out picture.
I have 2 sim cards, one is 3UK, and the other one is one2free from Hong Kong. The phone recognises the 3UK phone number but not the one2free (it shows up as unknown).
I have both numbers under the same contact with a avatar / picture.
Nexus one shows up profile pics correctly with my 3UK sim card plugged in, but it greyed out all those pictures when I've plugged in the one2free sim card.
FYI all those messages were sent and received on the one2free (hk) number.
I know (at least in Hong Kong) there are a lot of carriers who don't put the phone number in SIM cards. It wasn't a big problem until now. :/ I wonder if there will be a solution addressing this problem.