“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
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”