“After a week of intense testing of [Apple’s MobileMe] service, I can’t recommend it, at least not in its current state. It’s a great idea, but, as of now, MobileMe has too many flaws to keep its promises,” Walter S. Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“I am not referring to the launch glitches that plagued MobileMe earlier this month, such as servers that couldn’t keep up with the traffic and email outages that, for some users, persist as I write this. Those were bad, but they have eased considerably. Apple already has apologized for them and is giving customers an extra 30 days on their subscriptions to make up for the poor start. The problems I am citing are systemic,” Mossberg reports.
“In my tests, using two Macs, two Dell computers and two iPhones, I ran into problem after problem. One big issue is that while changes made on the Web site or the iPhone are instantly pushed to the computers, changes made on computers are only synced every 15 minutes, at best. Apple has admitted that this is a problem, and says it is working on it,” Mossberg reports.
“If Apple does get MobileMe working smoothly, it could be a terrific service. But it’s way too ragged now,” Mossberg reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple screwed the pooch with their MobileMe launch. First impressions mean everything. See: Newton. It’s painfully obvious that heads should roll over this mess. To those responsible: you failed. Miserably. If Jobs hasn’t axed you yet, he should have. He probably wants you to try to fix it first, but, come on Steve: “Bozo Alert!” Get someone on this who knows what the hell they’re doing. Apple MobileMe employees: Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, we hear that Microsoft is looking for people; you’ll fit in just fine up there. In fact, so far, this whole MobileMe thing is positively Microsoftian, and that’s being overly kind.
Related articles:Apple’s MobileMe and iWeb continue to have major issues – July 18, 2008
Apple’s MobileMe Team apologizes to customers, gives users free 30-day extension – July 16, 2008
MobileMe users demand refund from Apple – July 14, 2008
Apple’s MobileMe service delayed ahead of iPhone launch – July 10, 2008
Am I the only one who isn’t having problems with MobileMe? Okay, I get that “push” should not mean “in 15 minutes” but other than the cheap thrill of seeing a change pop up live on the screen, the service has lived up to my expectations. Before MobileMe, keeping my contacts and calendar sync’d by USB or through the old .Mac iSync system was a pain.
I have the service and I like it. A LOT.
Yeah there are some glitches, but 90% of the execution has been great in my test so far.
Not sure I need sync more than every 15 mins, but yeah narrowing that down wouldn’t be bad.
Still does stuff on my phone that it never did before. And I like it!
if anyone but uncle walt had said it…
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And you thought Mossy was a paid Apple Astroturfer.
Idisk performance has been crap most of the time…
Judging by the problems he said he had and the ones I know I had, I would say that Mossberg went rather easy on Apple here. MobileMe is simply a non-working service at this point.
It’s impossible to gloss over that fact.
If Microsoft were behind this mess, it would be a huuuge deal, but Apple is getting somewhat of a “pass” based on their (mostly) good performance previous to this fiasco.
“The whole thing so far is positively Microsoftian, and that’s being overly kind.”
It’s now standardly Appleian. What major product launch has Apple not screwed the pooch on recently?
actually half of my calendars are subscriptions to other calendars which don’t get pushed through to my iphone.
I can use the online version but it gives me problems in creating entries as it switches to the mobile version which doesn’t allow edits.
Only problem I have is that my calendar when viewed on the web is all messed up. Times are wrong, events are moved.
But on both the computer and the phone everything is exceptional.
Oh and that there’s not a way to choose “All Calendars” as the default calendar on the iPhone.
iCal suggests you split your calendar into work and home and then the phone makes you choose which is the default, as if people aren’t whole human beings.
Now that I will say is very dumb. You can get it to view ALL, but if you reset or something like that, you only see half or less of your calendar.
Thought I’d lost everything one day, but was just in a stupid default view.
And still MobileMe rocks my world!
Despite the problems it’s an awesome service.
I say don’t listen to Mossberg on this one!
“And you thought Mossy was a paid Apple Astroturfer.”
Looks like Steve’s cut him off. In the last few months he’s been writing articles that are actually objective.
I agree with Mac User – not perfect on push but it has been living up to my expectations quite well.
I have had some problems with iDisk uploads. Also, the web app seems to freeze or quit. I get an error message saying that the script is taking to long to execute. I also want my bookmarks back in online form the way they were in dot mac. Apple, I love the new look, but the implementation sucks.
I personally know 3 people who have NOT HAD ACCESS to any of their MobileMeEMAIL FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK! Apple, what the hell is GOING ON OVER THERE? NO EMAIL FOR 7 DAYS?! THIS IS RIDICULOUS AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED!
I, myself, had ZERO ability to sync my MobileMe account until 2 days ago. At least that’s finally working for me, but not having email for 7 days? TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Especially for a PAID SERVICE.
Check out the postings on Apple’s Discussion Boards — people are literally losing business over this, because it is their only email account! I say it’s time to switch everything to Gmail and Google’s apps instead.
APPLE, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!
Actually my MobileMe is working perfectly..no complaints at all.
But all our computers are Macs!
All great achievers need to fail miserably sometimes. It keeps them from getting overly confident. This is a good thing for Apple. It will remind them that everything they touch doesn’t automatically turn to gold.
Apple’s last royal f__k-up was the Cube in July 2000. One huge failure every 8 years is just about right to keep you on your toes. Plus, let’s look at another bright side; when Apple gets MobileMe fixed maybe they will give it a new name to indicate it ain’t the same POS. MobileMe is really a hooky name.
I haven’t had any problems with mobileme. I would say though I don’t have an iPhone, I wish I did, so I don’t know all of the problems that iPhone users are experiencing.
I also like it a lot. I got the impression all the info transfer would happen instantly or close to. ‘Non-working service’ technically isn’t correct. It is slower than we would like. I’m sure the 15 minutes will soon be diminished. Remember the conversations about the lack of 3G and that happened.
me.com is nice and quick for me now. I’m surprised they’re not using the browser-side database features yet (HTML 5 feature). That’s probably coming, and would go a long way to speeding things up further, but for now, it does seem to be doing some form of caching.
My email was out for a totally of 3.25 hours a few days ago. The only time. I feel sorry for those still having mail problems.
And Mail.app does get messages “pushed” nearly instantly most of the time, since MobileMe uses the IMAP IDLE command, which is the recommended way to do Push email.
Just need iCal and Address Book updated with Push.
Yes well… I’m still a onepercenter with no email.
Just as well I use another mail solution for day-to-day stuff.
As it is, I can sit back and let Apple resolve things in its own time, but it could have been dvital, and may well be for others.
Not so hot ;(
This is nowhere near Microsoft. Apple will most likely have it fixed in a month or two. Microsoft would declare them features, and fix them in two years when the next version comes out.
I’m going to have to agree with Goatberg on this one. The potential of what it promises is amazing. But the problems I’m having really make this an un-fun “upgrade”.
First off, iPhone problems (please see daringfireball.net) such as glitchy screen performance and slow response time on some apps (Apple and 3rd party) are just plain annoying. What really sucks with Mail on the iPhone though is when I delete emails that have been pushed from MobileMe. I can delete them one at a time or in batch but when I do… THEY SHOW UP AGAIN AS UNREAD MESSAGES. WTF?! I JUST deleted them and they’re right back in the inbox. Unacceptable.
I even went so far as to completely re-install the iPhone 2.0 OS without using my personal backup. Still glitchy. Not good at all. Not Apple.
On the Mac, things seem to work just fine except for the 15 minute delay. That is also unacceptable. Apple, do not fall into the MS trap. You are the light in the darkness. Please stop doing this. Fix the problems and move on.
The sad thing is that it took me about 5 days to get my new iPhone to actually start synching with mobile me, even though all my information was there and showing.. I ended up having three different databases.. my computer, mobile me and the iphone.. None would update the other over the air..
Not bragging, but I’m very knowledgeable with macs. I always apply only combo updaters, repair permissions, etc..
I eventually found the problem to be corruption in the Sync Services folder with the help of other Mac folks on the apple discussion boards.. After deleting the contents of that folder, my service is now working great.
The rest of my family, who all rely on me to update their macs would have been totally screwed as regular users having no idea how to fix the problems.. Many of them had the same problems. One of my sister’s is part of the 1% without e-mail for a week now.
My MobileMe is working perfectly, I have no complaints. It was offline for a few days during the transition, but anyone who thought this would be smooth is a fool.
The MobileMe account I use for work can’t publish iWeb sites at the moment, but I just put the files for the client into my public folder (password protected PDFs) and send them the link for that instead. Always have a Plan B.
No complaints from me.
Tip: ALWAYS archive your Mailboxes before a transition like this. Never rely on a 3rd party, no matter who they are, to preserve your data, you are asking for trouble.
A valid complaint, however, you can FORCE it to Sync right away………
Is anyone else getting a lot of spam since the conversion to @me.com e-mails?
I had been on teetering on the 3G purchase, but finally decided to go for it.
I’m giving MobileMe a trial run now. Had all the problems many had. I can accept that. What I still can’t accept is the crappy product this is for $100 a year.
My suggestions for immediate improvement:
1. Include a customized domain name with the cost;
2. Allow for IMAP to gmail and others. Why should I have to forward my GMAIL account here;
3. iPhone needs a setting to customize the sent from / reply to e-mail address;
4. Option for iPhone consolidated in box; and
5. I know this is pushing the envelope… but a database for web programmers. I would then kill my hosting account with another vendor. Prefer — MySQL.
I know #5 will never happen, and I suppose I can live with that. But the other 4 – MobileMe and iPhone changes would make me a subscriber when my trial ends. Without those, no money from me.
“Apple screwed the pooch with their MobileMe launch.”
MOOF ! ! !
iPhone launch screw ups…
MobileMe launch screw ups…
What’s next? I haven’t had the time to read the full Lord Mossberger review yet, but does he mention the lack of full IE support? How ridiculous is that?! It’s by far the most used browser ANYWHERE, every other developer can make Web 2.0 and AJAX work on IE7, but not Apple? What a load of crap.
And here come the “IE is crap” flames… Whatever your take on IE, you can’t disagree with the FACTS I’ve presented.
well, I’ve been using the “Back to My Mac” and “screen sharing” from the office to home and I am in love!!!! I’ve always wanted the “home server” but had no desire to shell out the cash for a dynamic IP address to make everything run smoothly. Now I have access to the 600gb of music sitting on my kitchen table hooked up to an aging g4 iMac. Music streams great… no lag or buffering needed! seriously, this is the best thing EVER!!!!! The best part is, after years of trying to figure out a way to make this happen, I found it by accident. I have no problem throwing down $$$ every year to keep this option.
the best side effect – I can now freak my roomate out by cranking up really bad songs in iTunes without being there! HAHAHHHA!
Seriously tho, best.feature. ever. at least for me! Now, we’ll see how my opinion changes once I play with the rest of the services.
Still no major problems here.
MobileMe had a rough start the first week, but it’s working fine for me now. I absolutely love the wireless syncing of my contacts, calendars and bookmarks. Even if it were only every 15 minutes on the iPhone, it would still be worth it. I hated having to manually sync via USB so that recently added data would sync.
When I enter something on my Mac and want to see it right away on my iPhone, I just click the “Sync Now” option in the iSync menu on the top right corner of my Mac’s screen. Funny how nobody ever mentions you CAN manually execute a sync whenever you want. I mean, while I’m sitting at my desk, do I really need my iPhone to be updated more than every 15 minutes with the stuff that’s on my computer?
If you’re gonna shut your computer down or pack it up to bring it with you, just do a quick sync before you go. If you’re leaving your Mac running, then just walk away, your iPhone will get the info you JUST updated within 15 minutes. If you updated the info on your computer more than 15 minutes ago, your iPhone already has it!
I waited until the week following the release of 2.0 and MobileMe and I have had no trouble at all.
For some people, MobileMe’s web gallery alone will be worth the price of admission. I have never seen any similar service that is even close to being this easy to use. It does everything except take the pictures for you!
I do understand that some people have experienced service interruptions; and the performance of the MobileMe website is still sluggish. But what we are witnessing here is the not very graceful introduction of something that’s going to be really good. Just wait.
I really like the push email to my account. Some of the photo gallery is working in a squirrelish fashion, but otherwise, it’s not bad. I do wish I could pick a set of pictures to upload from the iPhone instead of one-at-a-time.
Great concept, let’s get it working 100% of the time and the planets will once again align.
I’m maintaining the faith.
“All great achievers need to fail miserably sometimes.”
Except lately Apple is failing ALL THE TIME.
I’ll chime in as well and say that I’ve been having good luck with Mobile Me. No problems here!
is anyone using the webmail and when they reply to a message it immediately saves a draft? This is great but then when I hit “send” it doesn’t delete the partially saved draft.
I am using a Vista computer for webmail at work. It pushes nicely to my home and now I have 6 drafts at home too.
maybe you guys should give RIM some credit for how reliable their email service is…
@Mac User since 1984;
No, you are not alone. No glitches here, not enough to scream about anyway. Push works fine, battery life is good on the iPhone & it gets the messages 90% of the time before my Mac does!
Since I get a corporate discount, that discounted amount is fine by me for the good service I’ve gotten since it was free lo those many years ago!
Funny name and some small glitches like the one above but over all this is much better than .Mac was, I’m getting a lot more use out of it already. It works well for me (2 macs and an iPhone) and will probably get better.
“maybe you guys should give RIM some credit for how reliable their email service is…”
Except for all those dead nights that morphed into dead DAYS?
LOL! You need a better example…
The problems will be resolved, I suspect if some of you were in the room with this, you’d might get a clue as to how complicated this really is and sometimes no matter how much testing you do, you cannot anticipate what will happen under real live conditions.. Which is why some people are having no issues and others are.
Course, making sure that the features were documented and not trying to change the meaning of “push” would have solved some issues from the start.
@baritus
I agree. I think things will work better and I am happy that things eventually will be really slick if you are a person who uses multiple devices.
@ anyone:
I’ve never used idisk (even with .mac) and am wondering a question: Is the only folder that isn’t password protected the /Public folder? Can any access the other folders if they have the password? Can more folders be created?
Thanks
neither apple nor microsoft know much about cloud services…I would have preferred to see a google partnership here
No Mobile Me probs here.
i had .mac and i love my mac, ipods and iphone, but apple screwed the pooch on this one.
their customer support has been down right negligent and their advertising failed to mention some key pieces of information (ie. MobileMe won’t sync with Outlook if you are using exchange which most of the working world uses).
still got love for you apple, but you need to get these problems resolved and do some damage control.
I have 2 3G iPhones and both work as advertised with MobileMe. No email down time, no refusal to sync. At first I thought I did have a problem with contacts not syncing but that turned out to be that 15 minute delay between a change in your Mac and seeing a change on your phone.
Now if they would only fix whatever the problems are with that pesky 1% group then maybe they can get on with providing me with A SIMPLE PERIODIC REMINDER BEEP when I’ve missed a call or message. (How stupid not to have that.)
Well finally somebody speaks up on this. I agree with another poster that had anyone else said it, the nasty flames would have begun. Mossberg is right. My MobileMe has been down for one whole week now. I have missed a number of important emails, but took the initiative to contact those from whom I was expecting messages and have them send me information to another address.
Apple has really disappointed a true fan this time around. I live with Apple products and I am one of the greatest advocates. Do you know how embarrassing it has been to tell people my email (Apple Email) has been down for a whole week and no explanation or estimated time to restore has been provided?
This is why I like Walt–He says it like it is.
He usually is as rabid for Apple as most of us here, but when it’s bad, he says so.
That speaks highly of his credibility, and makes his Apple recomendations that much more valid.
Push finally started working for me last night. First time since the launch, I’ve got three of my friends who still don’t have it running.
@MobileMe non sell
its $80 on amazon
I love MobileMe. Since I got my new iPhone, I have only connected it to my computer maybe 3 times for a backup and to sync something I downloaded. I can now buy my iTunes songs, get my apps, have my calendars and bookmarks sync’d w/o having to tether to my desktop. It seems to me one of the things people bitched about when the iPhone first came out was no wireless sync’ing. Now they are bitching again because it exists???
And all this mess at the expense of .Mac services many of us valued!
I WANT MY ICARDS BACK!!
edit that above post…. my iphone just sync’d with mobile me, and I lost ALL my contacts.
I’ve had a mac since ’84, and .mac since just the idisk days. This is a total screw the pooch apple. Worse that the iMovie 08 launch.
Oops! Forgot my signature:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/macsmiley/2652541101/
And the “MDN are mindless fanboys” crowd instantly evaporates.
I’m just gonna turn the thing off in settings and sync it with the computer manually. Sad really, cause it worked fine with the gen 1 iPhone.
What’s so sad about the failures in the launch of MobileMe is that this will both leave a bad taste in the mouths of new Apple customers (of Macs, iPhones and iPod Touches), and will act as a deterrent to sales of iPhones. Some day, we might find out what the root causes were. I’m sure it’s a mix of technical failures, bad programming, poor management and hubris.
While Steve Jobs isn’t in there doing the coding, the failures point to a black eye on what has been an incredible run for Apple. Year after year, we’ve been delighted and amazed at how well Apple has done things, so the failures many of us are experiencing with MobileMe only amplify the shock.
I’m a long-time Apple customer. I’ve used .Mac from day one. Seeing that many of the functions of .Mac, homepage, iDisk and other components have been disabled (or in the case of HomePage, as of October, it will be turned off), functions that I have come to make a critical component of my business, I am upset. Why turn these off when thousands, if not millions of people like me consider this to be the reason why we pay $100 per year?
Looking back, I wonder if Apple reached too far, and spread itself too thin, trying to have everything ready at the same time as the iPhone 3G launch. Would it have made sense to have delayed the launch of MobileMe? Perhaps waiting until everyone inside Apple knew that the software was rock solid would have made sense – you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I also wonder if the development team for MobileMe had designed in enough scale to handle an explosion of new users worldwide – my hunch is that architecturally, somebody really goofed on the back-end programming of the databases and servers.
Another concern for me is that it’s not like the team tasked with this was starting from scratch. .Mac wasn’t perfect, but it got the job done. I wonder (without knowing if this would be possible architecturally) to have built parts of MobileMe on top of .Mac, which might have allowed for a smoother transition. The bottom line though, and I work for a software company, is NEVER SHIP UNTIL IT’S ROCK SOLID. That’s rule #1. Rule #2: re-read Rule #1.
I see a world of potential in MobileMe. But it boils down to execution and the ability to scale. If you look at the Apple Support message boards for MobileMe, there are a ton of very frustrated and upset customers. It’s simply not the experience that we have come to know, love and expect from Apple. This episode will likely ruin a few careers. My hope is that Apple can fix this quickly, LEARN from the mistakes, continue to reach out to make things right with its customers, and do much better going forward. This appears to be as much a failure of management, project planning, architecture, programming, testing and quality assurance. If you work in software like I do, a failure like this hits just about every software company eventually. In my experience, it’s usually some mid-level VP who created a fiefdom inside the corporation, and their arrogance and bad management causes a boulder to roll down the hill. But that mentality is poisoning what should have been a brilliant moment for Apple.
Sad.
Let’s hope it gets better. And soon.
mine’s working great so far, especially with the iPhone
I would like for my calendar subscriptions to sync, though
I signed up for a mobileme trial account after launch and I still can’t log on to the website to try the web apps. Now I signed up via the US side of things, but I’m currently traveling in Mexico, so I don’t know if my IP address is keeping me out of logging in on the site. (I had the same problem for a long time trying to download the iPhone SDK kit, Apple not allowing those outside the US to download it. That has since been resolved.)
I am, however, able to login via System Preferences … but it’s squirrelly about my login. It seems for the Apple ID login, either appending the “@me.com” works as well as leaving it off entirely, but if I don’t consistently login with the same format, it’s as if I logged in as another user and then my sync settings get all screwed up.
A couple of early glitches, but MM has been great for me ever since. However, neither my anecdotal evidence nor Walt’s tells the whole story. Clearly, even though some of us are having great experiences, many are not. Until everyone gets the benefit of the god experience, MM is not a success.
I haven’t even been able to renew my account without getting the cryptic “ERROR” page. They really must not want me as a customer.
Maybe the ERROR is that I’m giving them another $100.
“if anyone but uncle walt had said it..”
Not true. You imply that everything Apple does, no matter how good or bad, people just swallow it and and ask for more. If anything Mac users tend to be pickier than most, I mean how could you be considered picky and be a Windows user.
No. If somethings rotten, people aren’t going to give Apple a free pass. Usually if people are vocal against a tech writer about an Apple article it’s usually because the article is full of inaccuracies and FUD.
“What major product launch has Apple not screwed the pooch on recently?”
MacBook Air.
iPhone 3G. (Sorry, waiting in line doesn’t count.)
Application store
how about those for starters.
AND, they STILL haven’t fixed the comment issue when publishing to iWeb, even though they updated it yesterday.
I have been using .Mac since December 2000 and I’ve been enjoying it, that is until the change to mobileme. Boy this sucks!
I’m glad I can sync my iPhone in iTunes! Using mobileme will delete all contacts on the phone at random occasions which is a little inconvenient. Calendars are a complete mess while using iTunes will get them all on the iPhone.
No syncing of bookmarks, they are only pushed towards the iPhone.
Pushing of my .mac mail will work sometimes, but it is as Mossberg explains, using custom mailboxes on your mac will delete those messages on your iPhone.
Mobile Me website never displays accurately what’s on my mac, although I’ve been resetting sync data from mac to mobileme over, and over and over.
For now my account WON’T automatically renew in 90 days
I agree. MobileMe.com stinks so far. I’ve used Mac.com for years….loved it. But since the switch….nothing but slow response, etc – it’s frustrating and has led to the first time I’ve considered cancelling it.
MobileMe is something that should be free, not something that should cost $100/year. Why can Google offer so many web services for free (including free email and storage) but Apple needs to charge for it?
Apple is not infallible. Can you say Apple III?????
But, I think MobilMe is a good direction to go, and is a big part of Apple’s future plans to integrate all the various Apple devices. So, they will work on it and they will get it right. As my old grandpappy used to say “Never buy release 1.0” or something like that.
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I could not agree more.
So far, MobileMe’s syncing ability has been working fine (if you accept the 15 minute delay.)
Calling something Microsoftian is never kind.
Bookmark syncing from my G5 to my iBook hasn’t worked for weeks. I hoped MobileMe would fix this. Fat chance. I’ve tried all the workrounds, resets, fixes, I could find and none worked. If I wasn’t so attached to my .mac address I’d cancel my subscription. Dot Mac / Mobile Me is Apple’s biggest pile of s— and the frustrating thing is it could be really good.
Apart from the horrible name and a rocky first few days, I am very happy with MobileMe. (After I checked the new ‘Use IDLE command if server supports it’ box in the MobileMe Mail account’s advanced preference box it seems to push my mail OK.)
But there is clearly a significant number of folk whose experience has not been so good, and Apple needs to fix that soon.
Am I a fanboy – maybe.
The key issue here is that Apple are pushing the boundaries to deliver exciting new services in linking phones, computers and the web.
I’ve experienced many many company tech introductions and upgrades that have been complete disasters – it seems to go with the IT territory. Apple are attempting to deliver services to vast numbers of people who all want every feature to work instantly.
Should Apple do more public, free betas, maybe. Should they sip payment dates if the service isn’t as advertised, again yes.
Let’s just look at what turds Microsoft have delivered recently to add some perspective to the failings of Apple.
Uh, I hate to tell you this, but Apple discontinued bookmark synching. In one of the few things the company has communicated clearly related to MobileMe, Apple stated repeatedly that this feature would be discontinued, and urged users to back up their bookmarks.
Sorry you didn’t get the memo, old chum.
What?? Colonel Sanders actually saying something negative about Apple.
I haven’t had any problems whatsoever.
For $100, it’s been one of the best buying decisions I made, 2ndonly to the iPhone 3G
I have 6 MobileMe accounts (4 email only) and they have all been working fine. I feel sorry for the 1%.
My main apps are for sale on Apple’s servers and have not heard of any problems from customers…
It’s been spotty for me. Like right now, I cannot even access my calendar. It just spins and spins and spins and spins – nothing happens. Also, it doesn’t allow me to click on the address book when composing a new email. I can’t keep all those email addresses committed to memory. I really hope Apple fixes these annoying little glitches in performance and availability really soon.
Oh Uncle Walt,
Not retired yet? Again, please do so and let the younger generation take over. It’s like listening to my grandfather tell me about my iPhone.
Once again, no offense.
@Jordan
Yeah I know IE is the most used browser, but web developers shouldnt have to cater to it to make it work right. As far as I am concerned I wish all web developers would boycot all support for it until Microsoft gets their browser right. That should keep M$ busy for another 6 years or so the way they are going
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MobileMe sucks the big one if you were a regular .mac user. They have taken away so many great services, it really pisses me off!
What happened to groups from .mac???????? That was very useful now it’s gone. Bummer.
@Beechwoods wrote:
Uh, I hate to tell you this, but Apple discontinued bookmark synching. In one of the few things the company has communicated clearly related to MobileMe, Apple stated repeatedly that this feature would be discontinued, and urged users to back up their bookmarks.
Sorry you didn’t get the memo, old chum.
Got the mail, backed ’em up, lost nothing…… BUT
.mac preferences, now renamed mobileme, keep syncing (data is being transferred) and give time and date of last sync when hovered over.
When connecting iPhone without enabling mobileme you can:
sync your address book contacts (by group if you want to)
sync yahoo address book
sync google addresses
sync iCal calendars, you can select any calendar you have (even subscriptions) and have them on your iPhone, even the birthday calendar!
sync your mail-accounts, this doesn’t sync your mail, it only fills all necessary info in the iPhone so you don’t have to retype it all. Downloading the mail is left to your iPhone.
sync your bookmarks for the iPhone Safari.
All the above works fantastic, downturn is you have to connect your iPhone to your Mac.
Now we have the new and fantastic Mobileme® which in theory does all of the above and will push your .mac email to your iPhone if it works.
However only standard calendars will be synced, subscriptions and birthday-calendar will be lost, and no way of adding in iTunes because you have selected mobileme.
I ended up with an empty address book, it showed up fine on the site but nothing would appear in my iPhone. Your mileage may vary, however.
Mail-account info got synced to my iPhone, nice…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> no, this doesn’t sync the actual messages either.
Mobileme takes over bookmark-syncing to the iPhone so it does sync your bookmarks (or doesn’t it?) In my case it didn’t, but since it is selected, you won’t be able to have iTunes control it.
So, Mobileme created a disaster area from what was a fine working combination…
Solution:
On the iPhone in mobileme preferences only turn on email. When (if) it works your mail will be pushed to the iPhone. Control over the other options will return to iTunes and all will be fine, you just have to connect the cable…
Syncing with my iPhone and MacBook now works (sort of) just a little problem remains,
To create this working solution and due to Mobileme data inconsistencies I had to unregister 1 G4DP, 1 iBook and my iMac. Thank you Apple!
Stop being mean to Newton! What did Newton ever do to you??
(sniff) I miss it…
MobileMe is about $50 too expensive.
Too bad Apple probably won’t screw over the early adopters on this one and drop the price by 50%.
@Crazylegs: based on the issues with MobileMe and it not being true ‘push’, I’m sticking with my current BlackBerry, and waiting anxiously for the Verizon Wireless exclusive BlackBerry ThunderStorm.
even the best have problems…
it seems STEVE JOBS RUSHED THE iPhone… so many issues with it…. defective units, 3G problems etc… Mobileme… his diet issues…. God, Jobs… WAKE UP
SORRY TO SCREAM.. BUT NO ONE HAS BLOGGED ABOUT THIS AND NEED ATTENTION!! HTML EMAIL PLEASE!!
I am apple fanboy all-right but .mac and me have to be worst web email. Besides a re-sknned interface and touting drag and drop functionality – the fundamental basic feature of viewing (inline pictures and not attachments), editing, forwarding of rich text is a pathetic omission besides many other screw ups and I cannot believe I have been paying for this crap since iTools days. Before you tell me about IMAP – this is for access from work where I cannot access IMAP – I need full functional we mail
“No. If somethings rotten, people aren’t going to give Apple a free pass. “
How do you explain the 400k suckers that went out and got AppleTVs?
Hey guys, I love you like you were my own brothers and sisters, but MDN’s transition – was it to new servers? – a few weeks back didn’t go exactly smoothly, did it? I remember you asking for patience while your tech people sorted it out. So maybe you shouldn’t be too harsh with Apple’s MobileMe team. That said, there are signs that Apple is biting off a bit more than it can easily chew these days, and their people must be going flat out to keep up. Let’s wish them a bit of time to catch their breath before heading into the next ultra-competitive challenge.
OMG!!! An Apple product that is not 100% perfect from day one. STOP the World, I need to get off.
Oh, wait, Vista is a year old and still sucks. 300 Million dollars worth of suck. LOL
And to MacDailyNews, ahhhh, hmmmmm, well, just Bite Me. You are beginning to sound like an Ms Troll here. If there are still major problems after 30 days, then OK. flame on. But how about treating Apple with at least some of the tolerance that we give Microsoft. ????? Just a thought.
en
“MacDailyNews Take: Apple screwed the pooch with their MobileMe launch. First impressions mean everything. See: Newton. It’s painfully obvious that heads should roll over this mess. To those responsible: you failed. Miserably. If Jobs hasn’t axed you yet, he should have. He probably wants you to try to fix it first, but, come on Steve: “Bozo Alert!” Get someone on this who knows what the hell they’re doing”