mobileme

Apple apologizes for its MobileMe "push" service (Update)

Apple is the master of hype. Normally, it lives up to that hype. But in its 3G iPhone launch and now with its MobileMe synchronization service, Apple has fallen down. Flat.

Billed as an upgrade to Apple's .Mac service (to which I have subscribed for years), MobileMe is anything but. In fact, as The Register reports, it's not even the push email service that it purports to be. It's IMAP, just as .Mac was.

Email is managed through IMAP, and strictly speaking is pulled by polling the IMAP servers every minute, though that gives a reasonable impression of being pushed....

[C]hanges made using the desktop application are not instantly or automatically reflected on the iPhone or within The Cloud. Such changes need to wait for a synchronisation process, a lag of up to 15 minutes, before they are propagated between the platforms. Not only that but anyone trying to use some of the more advanced IMAP capabilities, such as the APPEND command, will find the MobileMe service unaware that any changes have been made to their e-mail account, at least until a good-old SMTP delivery triggers notification.

Is it really that big of a deal? Perhaps not. But it's also false advertising on Apple's part, and an unworthy "upgrade" on a service that for years has only had one major benefit: The name ".mac." I don't want a lame ".me" email address, and I'm finding that I don't really benefit from the changes to the .Mac service.

Are you getting more mileage from MobileMe?

UPDATE: I just received this from Apple:… Read more

Apple offers 30 days free to MobileMe customers

Amid the shaky launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple's new MobileMe service--a juiced-up revamp of its .Mac offering--also took a blow. Apple has consequently opted to entitle eligible members to 30 days free as a we're-sorry gift.

.Mac accounts had been scheduled to "migrate" to MobileMe last Wednesday evening, but instead produced an outage in which neither service was available. New subscribers, meanwhile, had experienced issues signing up.

"The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was a lot rockier than we had hoped," a details page from Apple explained. The offer isn't for … Read more

Daily Debrief: Apple's MobileMe has a tough time launching

During last week's frenzy over the launch of the iPhone 3G, another Apple product launch got somewhat lost in the shuffle. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, considering the glitches it ran into. The product is MobileMe and its intent is to link all of your Apple applications like mail, photo storage, and music all onto an online server so you can access your media from a variety of sources: home laptop, office computer, iPhone, etc...

In Monday's edition of the Daily Debrief, I talked with CNET.com associate editor Elsa Wenzel who has been dutifully--yet … Read more

MobileMe still sputtering

Apple's MobileMe service promises features which, like the release of Mac OS X Leopard, made me regret the recent purchase of another Windows Vista laptop, at least for a moment.

Having lost two laptops and five years of life history to theft several weeks ago, the allure of having precious data pushed automatically from a laptop to the "cloud," coupled with Time Machine backup, feeds my desire for security as well as my laziness (yes, I review software, and I didn't have a third backup). It seemed MobileMe could serve me better than the new iPhone … Read more

.Mac migration to MobileMe hits some roadblocks

This post has been updated. See below.

The migration of Apple's .Mac service to the new MobileMe service apparently didn't go as smoothly as it could have.

The scheduled changeover of users' .Mac accounts to MobileMe, or .Me accounts, was scheduled for 6 p.m. to midnight PDT Wednesday. The migration was then pushed back to 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

But Thursday at 11 a.m. PDT, neither service was accessible, at least to several people in San Francisco. Reader Deidre Wyeth also complained that .Mac account photos were inaccessible Thursday, and instead the site … Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: Image problems for Microsoft, Viacom

Since filing a $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Viacom has battled its image as a corporate bully, denying consumers the ability to watch its shows where and how they want. Their struggle could be a lesson to other companies fighting over copyright protections. Meanwhile, Microsoft is still having trouble getting its Vista message out to the public. A new tool that tests compatibility with Vista faltered on launch day, a year and a half after Vista's release.

Those stories, and the rest of the day's headlines, in today's daily podcast. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today'… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 761: Debt by data plan

No, not death, but close to it. The race is on for who has the most expensive iPhone plan in the world! Plus Microsoft finally gives us a date for XP SP3, sort of. And we have some security news for you as well as a recap of the digital TV transition. So listen up! Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 761

FAQ: iPhone 3G launch day is Friday http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9983810-37.html

iPhone Jonny: world’s first iPhone 3G owner (in waiting) http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/08/iphone-jonny-worlds-first-iphone-3g-owner-in-waiting/

Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple … Read more

Apple's MobileMe service set to debut

Update at 10:08 a.m. PDT, with clarification on how users' e-mail will be handled.

Apple's MobileMe service is primed to be relaunched this week, ahead of the Friday launch of the iPhone 3G. That means subscribers to .Mac will find the service taken offline for a six-hour stretch as Apple makes the transition, according to a post in MacRumors.com.

The www.mac.com site will go down on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. PDT, leaving .Mac subscribers unable to access the site or use .Mac services, except for .MacMail via their desktop … Read more

Some .Mac users already getting @Me.com e-mail forwarding

While Apple's upcoming MobileMe service has yet to hit retail shelves and overtake the existing .Mac offering, it looks like some users are already getting early benefits of the updated platform including proper e-mail forwarding with the @Me.com alias. MacRumors is reporting that the transition has already begun to take place for some, but not all current .Mac subscribers, meaning if you've got a Yourname@mac.com and somebody sends an e-mail to Yourname@me.com it'll still end up in the right place.

Other MobileMe services still have yet to catch up, including the improved … Read more

Apple's MobileMe vs. Funambol's myFUNAMBOL: An open sync?

Apple introduced a successor to its .Mac product which looks interesting, though not revolutionary: MobileMe. Dubbed "Exchange for the rest of us," MobileMe offers "push e-mail, calendars, and contacts for users, keeping that information up-to-date whether they're viewing it at a computer or an iPhone."

In other words, exactly what Funambol already offers for free (as in cost and as in source code), except Apple is charging $99 per year. What a bargain!

Even worse, Apple inexplicably opted to use closed standards to offer the MobileMe service, as Fabrizio laments:… Read more