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Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

post #1 of 16
7/24/08 at 9:41am
Thread Starter 
And I concur, it's just too flaky.

Apple’s MobileMe Is Far Too Flawed To Be Reliable | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD
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post #2 of 16
7/24/08 at 10:27am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
When my Apple Mail program used rules I had set up to automatically file certain emails into local folders instead of leaving them in the inbox, they simply disappeared from my MobileMe account on the iPhone and the Web site. Avoiding this requires a tedious editing of all your rules.
My wife sees something similar: her desktop Mail folders are not created or synced in MobileMe.

Quote:
But in my tests, using two Macs, two Dell (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.
This seems silly: typical disconnect between technology pundit and normal user. What "normal" person has two Macs, two PCs, and an iPhone and is working on the same data simultaneously on all four? Besides a super power user for the WJS, who is going to hop between five systems to edit the same addresses and emails within ten minutes?

I'm intrigued by MobileMe, and normal use would be checking it once every few hours between work and home. And a 15 minute sync delay is short enough that it would be on an iPhone by the time you got off the computer and got on the road to go to a party.
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post #3 of 16
7/24/08 at 11:12am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
This seems silly: typical disconnect between technology pundit and normal user. What "normal" person has two Macs, two PCs, and an iPhone and is working on the same data simultaneously on all four? Besides a super power user for the WJS, who is going to hop between five systems to edit the same addresses and emails within ten minutes?
I synch 4 Macs and one iPhone, and regularly use a PC that I don't (yet?) synch, and also have a neglected Mac I don't synch. I never thought of myself as a super power user -- the most powerful Mac I currently own is a 1.6 GHz Intel Mac Mini. I'm writing this on a 5.5 year old PowerBook.

I also think that Mossberg's article is essentially correct -- MobileMe -- not ready for prime time. Sure, as a long time .Mac (and iTools before it) user, I'm stuck with it -- I have no choice. Indeed synching actually works much better than it did under .Mac But email has been a disaster.

That said: I think Apple will fix it. This is way too high profile to be swept under the rug. Once they fix it, it will be worthwhile, except it is missing one HUGE feature -- domain names/hosting.
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post #4 of 16
7/24/08 at 11:59am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

I agree 100% with Ted.

MobileMe is far from perfect. Mossberg hit it on the nose that
everything pushes properly as it should except when using a laptop
and having to rely on sync which does not happen automatically.

In addition, in order to push my non-MobileMe emails I had to go
through an elaborate setup by having everything forwarded through
GMAIL to MobileMe.

The one thing I am confident of is that Apple will fix this. Mr.
Mossberg's article will be a huge help as it will serve as a wake-up
call to Apple to do what they need to do.
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post #5 of 16
7/24/08 at 12:56pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Todorov
I synch 4 Macs and one iPhone, and regularly use a PC that I don't (yet?) synch, and also have a neglected Mac I don't synch. I never thought of myself as a super power user -- the most powerful Mac I currently own is a 1.6 GHz Intel Mac Mini. I'm writing this on a 5.5 year old PowerBook
I wasn't clear: normal people have multiple PCs. But do most people edit the exact same data on multiple PCs within in a 15-minute window, causing synching problems? This particular complaint seems unlikely for most people, even those with multiple computers and an iPhone. (but I've not used the service so maybe this really bites people)

I didn't see any value in .Mac, but MobileMe is intriguing with its online calendar, mail, and addresses. While not a pressing issue, I'm annoyed by my data scattered across a phone, a PDA, and the computer. MobileMe might unify everything. I'm looking forward to Apple fixing all the other problems.

An aside: my wife first watched the overview video and was completely puzzled why everything was kept "in the Clown". What did clowns have to do with her Mac and her email? I had to explain that it was "cloud"; a geek term now made mundane by Apple
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post #6 of 16
7/24/08 at 1:31pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

If you thought Mossberg was harsh, wait 'til you read David Pogue's article

DaveF: I don't want to take the time explaining the scenario, but yes, it can definitely happen to the most innocent of multiple machine users. But, in the scheme of things it isn't a big deal. Reviewers point it out, because it makes Apple guilty of (initially) false advertising ("push" and all that).
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post #7 of 16
7/24/08 at 1:45pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Woah
Quote:
Maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea for Apple to launch four enormously complex initiatives — the iPhone 3G, the App Store, the iPhone 2.0 software update and MobileMe — all on the same day.

Ya think? That they even tried is just HUBRIS.
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post #8 of 16
7/24/08 at 2:05pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
Woah
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Pogue
Maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea for Apple to launch four enormously complex initiatives — the iPhone 3G, the App Store, the iPhone 2.0 software update and MobileMe — all on the same day
Ya think? That they even tried is just HUBRIS.
Yes but if Apple didn't live and breath hubris, there would have been no iPhone in the first place. To think that they could come out of nowhere with a phone that would turn the entire industry on its head required not just hubris but balls the size of small planets. We want Apple to keep swinging for the fences -- just bring your glove and watch out for foul balls. (OK, enough mixed metaphors).
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post #9 of 16
7/24/08 at 4:50pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Todorov
DaveF: I don't want to take the time explaining the scenario, but yes, it can definitely happen to the most innocent of multiple machine users. But, in the scheme of things it isn't a big deal. Reviewers point it out, because it makes Apple guilty of (initially) false advertising ("push" and all that).
If you have a chance, I'm interested in how this sync error plays out.

I'm just glad my wife has only suffered the initial few days of outage: that letter to Pogue from the poor woman who lost all her email is terrifiying. There's something profoundly broken when a failure in the online backup system also destroys local data.
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post #10 of 16
7/25/08 at 4:44am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
If you have a chance, I'm interested in how this sync error plays out.

I'm just glad my wife has only suffered the initial few days of outage: that letter to Pogue from the poor woman who lost all her email is terrifiying. There's something profoundly broken when a failure in the online backup system also destroys local data.
E-mail: there is a Mailbox:Archive Mailbox option in Mail and I'd advise everyone to do it often. It saves all your mail locally where MobileMe can't touch it. You can then recover the whole thing, at worse you'd lose the Mail since the last backup -- not years worth of stuff. I'll do another Archive, just as soon as my Drobo arrives, which is hopefully by Monday at the latest.

I'll tell you one synch error that's driving me bananas -- every day I'm getting a totally bogus Synching Email accounts thing to keep deleted messages on the server (which I DON'T WANT) and there is no option to say -- NO. Just allow or cancel -- and cancel means it will try again the next time it synchs, and allow means it keeps doing it again and again anyway.
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post #11 of 16
7/25/08 at 6:18am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Todorov
E-mail: there is a Mailbox:Archive Mailbox option in Mail and I'd advise everyone to do it often. It saves all your mail locally where MobileMe can't touch it.
Good tip. I assume that using Time Machine also keeps email safe in case of MobileMe implosion.
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post #12 of 16
7/27/08 at 11:04am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
...
The one thing I am confident of is that Apple will fix this. Mr.
Mossberg's article will be a huge help as it will serve as a wake-up
call to Apple to do what they need to do.

I really hope they do. At least this is a start.

I was hoping that MobileMe would be a usefull mobile email/calendar/contacts for me to use from home and work, but unfortunately it's not
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post #13 of 16
8/18/08 at 8:07pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

FWIW, in addition to the 30 day extension that Apple gave MobileMe users earlier, I just got notice that Apple is adding another 60 day extension on top of that.

They seem to be owning up to the problems.

-Keith
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post #14 of 16
8/19/08 at 2:27am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Yes, got that same notice in my email this morning.

The only problem I have with MobileMe at this point is that
while information seems to sync instantly between my iPhone
and desktop, there is a significant delay to sync information
on my Macbook Pro.

In fact, this is a common problem from what I read. The laptop
relies on a sync function that even in automatic mode only updates
every few minutes.

Sometimes I have to wait 10 minutes for email that appeared on
my iPhone to get pushed to my laptop.
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post #15 of 16
8/19/08 at 4:14am

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Sometimes I have to wait 10 minutes for email that appeared on
my iPhone to get pushed to my laptop.
Go into the Mail preferences on your MacBook -- you should be able to get it to check the for new mail once a minute.

Ted
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post #16 of 16
8/19/08 at 6:30pm

Re: Mossberg sez don't get Mobile .Me

If you are anxious and don't want to wait 10-15 minutes for your desktop data to sync with MobileMe and the iPhone, you can always initiate a sync manually from the Sync menu at the top of the screen.

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