After six long days, Apple has issued an official statement on the debacle that was / is the
MobileMe transition, and has offered a 30-day extension to contracts as an olive branch to disgruntled users. According to a form letter being sent to subscribers, the company openly admits that the switch to MobileMe was "a lot rockier than hoped," and claims that the service is now running smoothly. Additionally (and somewhat surprisingly) Apple rescinded its use of the word "push" to cover all of its services, conceding that while there is indeed push to-and-from iPhones and the "cloud," computers are still being polled every 15 minutes... which is the same as .Mac (and honestly Apple, you didn't know that wasn't technically push?). We suppose this would be all well and good provided that MobileMe was actually functioning as advertised, but indications from readers -- and our own testing -- suggest otherwise. Customers are still having difficulties with email and syncing between iPhones and the cloud (duplicate messages, deleted messages that don't leave the inbox, etc.), the advertised "auto-complete" on mail addressing doesn't function at all, and calendars are plagued with small moving / deletion problems, as well as being unable to sync subscriptions... and that's just off the top of our head (see the company's support forums for more). The 30-day extension is a nice gesture Apple, but we're thinking customers would prefer a service that works as advertised.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted July 16th 2008 11:21AM
As if it would be a big deal to just provide real push from Mac and PC...
It just ... the more I think about it, the more it bugs me. The iPhone is a LESS advanced development platform with a LESS advanced processor and LESS advanced infrastructure. It has a SLOWER internet connection than most PCs and Macs, yet it can Push to the cloud?
Why?
Why can the iPhone push to cloud but not Macs and PCs? It just boggles my fucking mind. Instead of posting apology letters, send out a fucking preference pane with mobilemed daemon, I don't care if it takes up 120mb of RAM, and have it push to the cloud every time a change occurs! I mean come on, you have developers that can code these insane ass web apps, but you can't write a simple background daemon that will push updates to the cloud as they are made?
Fucking hell.
Well, to be fair, the sync architecture on Windows is nearly non-existant, and the sync architecture on OS X was designed around a service that polls apps, rather than gets notified of changes by apps.
The iPhone was already having work done of a push architecture (via the ActiveSync license).
Seems to be the implementation pitfalls are in different classes on each platform. Hell, I don't think a Mac dev hooking into the sync framework *can* notify the system of changes. It just gets asked if there were.
Do you have any idea of what it takes to develop, market and deliver a project as big as MobileMe? Well, it takes a looong time, so give Apple a break.
Just because they had control over delivery dates, doesn't mean they HAVE to deliver it when it's ready.
Apple is going as far as giving you an extra month, how ungrateful can you people be? How many companies out there, would deliver an obviously unfinished product, apologize and not say WHEN is going to come out of BETA.
And Apple does all that, without even messing her hair.
@Kolenka
Sync architecture may not exist on regular Windows, but that's why there is MS Exchange - which is exactly why exchange was created.
I agree with Ted that if Apple is going to offer "push" email that at the very least they just offer the end-user with the option to mess with the settings themselves. I prefer windows but I know that there are a decent number of mac users who are experienced in coding and could (most-likely) develop one on their own.
Apple needs to realize that opening things up actually improves build quality. Look at Firefox 3.
I think it's a software issue - the applications on the iPhone/iPod touch support push as part of the 2.0 update. Leopard's applications didn't have it from launch, and an update may need to be paid for (SabOx).
Snow Leopard will have exchange support built-in, so it'll support push from its applications at launch. Hence I think push will be available once Snow Leopard is released.
It's either SabOx preventing the update, or the fact that native push support is already being developed as part of Snow Leopard. They wouldn't backport a major feature of the new OS, especially whilst it's still under intensive development.
i love Apples.
But....no one can really say hand on heart that Apple "just works". My sister made me laugh yesterday when she said "actually it would be fair to say ' Apple only just works' ".
i do love apples.
I told her that she was being inflammatory and unfair, and that Apple sometimes works quite well, but that Apple tends to have belt and braces approach to product release, and tends to Beta test with consumers.
@ted. push from the desktop will require a software update to Mac OS, I believe. The sync stuff is in the system preferences, is it not?
I'm surprised and irritated that Apple overlooked this component.
Dave, I love my Firefox 3, but it is not bug free. Crashes on me about once a day, give or take.
Firefox bugs reported today: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?product=Core&product=Firefox&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED,NEW,ASSIGNED,REOPENED,RESOLVED&chfield=[Bug%20creation]&chfieldfrom=-24h
I'm not suggesting that Firefox is worse or better than Apple, but all projects more complex than Hello World will have bugs.
Nonetheless Apple needs to get on this and have a solution for everything within a couple of weeks.
@ Craig - They have already released two updates for Mac OS X.
Oh well, at least in the letter they implied that they are working on it. I have calmed down since my most recent post.
Ted, I know most of us have a bigger brain than you so that's why we don't post stupid rants about technology that can't be grasped.
Chances are for computers to sync more than 15 minutes to the 'cloud' will required for Mac OS X, a software update to the applications involved.
For Windows, it will require pretty much creating that sync application if it's not already done with the iTunes 7.7 update that adds Control Panel support for MobileMe.
Further, in Outlook, calendars sync via Exchange servers... thousands of them across thousands of corporations not to Microsoft directly.
Apple is taking on the whole thing on every device. Can you grasp the hardware requirements to pull this off fluidly in real-time?
Clearly you cannot. So wipe your snotty little nose and play nice like the rest of the kids in the sandbox before someone comes along and delivers a Tonka truck to your whiny little face.
------
Ok, I feel better. But seriously, I'm just glad to be here and be along for the ride even though I use MobileMe and my iPhone to sync my personal and business calendars -- some from iCal some from Exchange servers. It works decent so far and I don't expect perfection with the flip of a switch. I also think if we expect that from them we should expect those results from ourselves first. I have a feeling few of the ranters wouldn't know what quality looks like in their own work because it rarely appears amidst their crying, fingerpointing and assigning blame.
Is it just me or is the whole App store/Firmware 2.0 update sort of.. underwhelming at best?
SimStapler? Really? Though, I do admit it's amusing.
And more importantly, I've experienced a lot of applications crashing on me and had to restart the iPhone a couple times. I'm *really* hoping this will be fixed soon as I still think the iPhone is one of the best gadgets I've ever used.
@Fozzy Bear - I'm sorry, have I insulted you personally? My bad. I didn't know that mildly criticizing Apple would break your precious little heart.
It's quite simple:
If updating iCal, Apple Mail, Addressbook, Safari and creating a new Preference Pane for MobileMe is what it takes to complete MobileMe, then do so BEFORE you release it, not after.
@ Ted
hahahahha... just busting your balls...
it all works... just compy to cloud takes 15 min... you ever climbed to the heavens? not that easy...
it'll come... apple has made a habit of releasing stuff that's not perfect and refining it over time... meanwhile... people aren't sitting around wondering what's taking so long. this was done a short few months... so far i'm pretty pleased with... just wish ical could sync faster... but i can be patient.
@Ted, OK, but obviously they did not include the enhancements to the sync. This will need to be done.
I don't know why the mobileme windows app is in the control panel. Should be an outlook plugin so anytime I add a new contact or calendar item it knows and can push it to the cloud.
@Alex L.
Altough you're low ranked I've got to agree with you! Mobile Me seams like a big step foward from .Mac and a migration of thousands of accounts in a couple of days is not an easy thing to do!
It's really unfortunate that it didn't worked as they planed in the first place but people cmon... I seriously don't know many companies that would send a letter like this one just saying they made a mistake and give you 1 month for free. In my opinion thats the way to do business, acknowledge your mistakes and correct them. Apple did take a step in the right direction here!!! Still hoping everything falls into place in less than a month!
Sounds like Mobile ME is the successor to Windows ME.
2 for 1. You just earned your steakhouse burger.
There goes my profits on the Apple Stock I bought last month (see details here : http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2008/06/oh-noi-just-bought-16k-worth-of-apple.html ). Appleista is coming back to bite me. Still I am holding on for the long term so once they get past these initial glitches, all should be good. Fingers crossed.
Mobile Me cannot be the successor to Windows ME as Vista already has that title.
@Andy
Let me know when you are going to buy stocks in the future so I know what to short!
I still have problems. iWeb doesn't want to publish and I can't get MobileMe to replace .Mac in my System preferences. They actually told me at the Apple store that for users running Tiger you won't see a new icon in System Pref. Anyone have the same problems?
Mobile Meh
du scheisch archloch du
Yeah, NICE. In Minneapolis we don't even have phones yet! Way to go Apple/AT&T.
Boom.
One more thing...
At least its nice for them to offer you some compensation without you having to ask when they mess up.
Usually for me, when I complain all I get is "go read the terms and conditions - our service isnt guaranteed" approach...
You actually take that? After a CS or Supervisor can't help me I go to the BBB.
Get results, pansy.
@Kris
Well done to you for being immune to T&Cs.
So what did you get after speaking to CS/Supervisor then the BBB when you mobile phone lost reception in the basement or when you got a BSOD?
I think it's always a classy move when a manufacturer not only admits their mistakes, but follows it up with compensation.
It's going to take a fair amount of time for them to work the cobwebs out on the definition of "push" but once it's implemented correctly they should have a decent product for those looking to extend their mobile experience.
Thats some good stuff right there Apple.
And people wonder why they're fans are so diehard loyal...
The letter just sounds genuine. No bullshit. Just a simple apology and explanation. And then informing the customer of what they're going to do about it.
Seriously Apple please make the next version of iPhone banging so I can jump on board...I beg you to release me from Sprint.
I'd rather have a working product than some BS apology, but maybe that's just me...
@Warren. Of course. But since they screwed up, an admission, apology and a little compensation is better than what you'd get from, say, Dell. I speak from personal experience.
Apple screwed up, this is true. At least they aren't being dicks about it too...
Because they're stupid.
Really? I'm reading:
"Sorry baby, forgive me, I lied, it's my fault, here treat yourself on me."
I never received an email about this. O_o
Good to know that Apple has gotten it working though.
I guess it doesn't "just work".
LOL THAT WAS SO FUNNY!!!
Sounds like they pushed MobileMe out because they sensed LIVE MESH competition.
The mesh team should release the Mac Client any day now. That's a free service !
But if you are using a Mac you probably don't want anything to do with Microsoft anyway, I know I don't.
I know. I am on the LIVE MESH beta and it is simply amazing. I can not live without it. People try it for yourself that's all I can say. By the way...it's free.
In the case of Micro$oft most likely Live Mess is more appropriate.
COMMON
Live Mesh is great and free! And it's also a platform to program against to make your own app sync.
@Andrew: I'm not really a apple = 'pay for every single thing'-fan
Mesh has been good, the sync occurs within about 15 seconds of the change from any device (to/from cloud), and most of the other clients (Mac, mobile) should be out by PDC in October, if not before.
It's mostly just synching right now, but much more to come.
MobileMe will be great when it's working correctly. Should be an interesting comparison, although they aren't really direct competitors, except in pure data sync.
@ard:
Oh, the irony. Criticizing a Microsoft product that you most likely have never used and is a competitor of an Apple product, in the very article where Apple says "Yep, our version of the product sucks."
does anyone know if family membership is going to work now, you can upgrade from single account to family account or that is still not working
all this apple hub bub for now reason. its a phone, not a life changing event. I really don't get all this Apple business. The company revels in the fact that its customer are paying through the nose for their devices, and like drones, Apple consumers continue the trend, and just making apple coffers that much richer, and all the phones are still plagued with problems. You would think that they would do some quality control, guess not.
Exaggerate much? The iPhones are not more expensive than the competition, they're not "plagued with problems", and they have very good quality control.