Apple admits to lost MobileMe messages, bad karma
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jul 26th 2008 11:44AM
posted Jul 26th 2008 11:44AM
Apple's Push-like MobileMe launch has been such a debacle that they're now in damage control mode. As a result, some poor soul has been tasked by Steve Jobs to post status updates "every other day or so." The first update is already revealing:- Last Friday, 1% of MobileMe subscribers were affected by a "serious problem" with one of Apple's mail server.
- Limited web access has been restored to those accounts but full access won't be sorted until next week.
- Of these 1%, Apple admits to losing "approximately 10%" of the messages received between July 16 and July 18.
| Stable as a rock for me now. | |
|---|---|
| Still seeing hiccups but I'm not giving up. | |
| $99 per year for this!? Fail. |
MobileWhoCares. I wouldn't pay $99 per year for this.
I'd be pissed off if a FREE email provider's service was this bad - Steve Jobs should accept responsibility and resign. Perhaps he should focus on making CGI movies instead - at least Pixar didn't accidentally lose 10% of Wall-E...
I can't really think of a single reason anyone would pay for Mobile Me. It was a bad deal when it was called .Mac, and now it just seems to be more broken than ever.
Given how bad iTunes and Quicktime are on Windows, very buggy iPhone 2.0 software (and shoddy launch they've had, despite the sales figures), lying about Push, and the general failure of Mobile Me, I don't think that they're really inspiring a lot of confidence in the next generation of would-be switchers.
@ Mike Cearn
Sales figures don't bear out your insights, but hey I'm sure you don't work in share trading - if you do think about a career change.
Oh and by the way I'm not an Apple Fanboy, Shareholder or Fanboy, just can't stand poor analysis
I only use it because our company website is hosted by them, allowing very easy and simple updates through iWeb. I don't know any programming, so this is a blessing to me! I host our email through gmail, so email has been unaffected. I did not have access to me.com until last week, but that doesn't really matter to me because I don't ever really need it. My site has been unaffected, and that's all I care!
Oh, and I know that many of you will laugh off the fact that I use iWeb and mac.com/me.com...but for those of us that don't know and programming (or need to continuously update our sites quickly and easily), it's not a bad solution.iWeb is so easy to use, and gives me 1 button publishing. It's all I want and it serves me well!
@mymaclife
I believe he was referring to people that would consider picking up an iPhone or subscribing to MobileMe after the early adopters (in this case = beta testers) have had the first go-round.
I don't get why you guys have covered MobileMe, and not Live Mesh. Considering, Live Mesh is a device synchronization service (and free!), and works well from what I've heard, it should make sense to put this on Engadget. Plus it can work with all mobile phones, not just iPhone.
http://mesh.com/
WHERE IS GOOGLE'S VERSION? I Love Gmail, Calendar, Reader, etc. We just need a PUSH version that functions like MobileME or Exchange!
@Quikboy
I agree 100% about LiveMesh, I'm in the beta testing and it works wonderfully. I synchronize all my programming data and I can retrieve it from anywhere, plus I'll eventually be able to sync data files with my phone...yet somehow that slipped through unnoticed...
It's actually cheaper than any other hosting service out there now, if you don't count the "free" offerings from Google and Yahoo and Microsoft (I say "free" because you're always forced to watch ads with them). Apple marketing made a mistake saying "$99 a year", they really should have said "$8.25 a month" or "25 cents a day". If you compare them to Earthlink, MobileMe gets you 4x more storage and 10x more bandwidth for $1.75 less, plus synchronization of all your files and access to web-based versions of all the iLife applications so it's literally like having your computer everywhere. The only difference is that you don't have a dialup number - but you don't get dialup access with the "free" services either.
See, I already had a dot mac account. the storage space is ample, the web hosting is easily configurable to take your domain name, iWeb works perfectly with it, and iDisk is crazy useful. I already feel my $99 per year is well worth it. and i was a excited for the added features, but i haven't tried anything until i get my address book in proper order first. it will erase the differences on my iPhone if i enable it. Why aren't I fixing it now? cause i'm lazy.
@LondonConsultant
who cares about e-mails ?
comparing e-mails to 10% of Wall-E, you talk bullshit.
you are the first to throw the stone.
steve jobs will resign for 10% of fucking lost e-mails that nobody cares about, cos for me an e-mail is never lost ?
$99 ? there goes the debate over Xbox Live
@mymaclife
He was simply stating his opinion based on actual observation. He even included what you said and noted that sales figures don't back up his opinion. Apple sales figures have never represented true quality/value and have always been skewed by fanatic sheeple tendencies anyway. People would buy the iTurd if such a thing existed.
quik,
it's still in tech preview/beta, so it really shouldn't be compared until in release form. but yes, it's good stuff.
MobileFail hahaha. I wouldn't pay for this, at least not anytime soon.
Well, I am paying for it now... Signed up on July 11th. Didn;t think it was going to be soo bad !
Its become a MobileMess (As the Wall Street Journal Editor says....)
Well... enjoy flushing your money down the toilet then.
Apple is rotten to the core. iNcompetence.
Incompetence.
I always wondered what the "i" stood for.
Does it stand for "incompetence" ?
wow apple talk about QA.
more beta testing...
Judging by the stability of my iPhone 2.0 software, Apple have been sitting about basking in their own self glory than doing any QA recently.
Really, really disappointed with the quality of their software recently. I don't know a single iPhone or iTouch user who hasn't had a hellish time upgrading their device to 2.0 (myself included)
@phil, while i haven't had a "hellish time" exactly, the 2.0 iphone software is sluggish and buggy, i agree. this is really lame.
SERIOUSLY!
I used to be a fan boy, now I'm just bitter. This is what replaced .Mac? I think this qualifies as a step backward.
At least on the iPhone 2.0 update you don't notice the missing e-mail as much because your ability to respond to them lags to the point of not working (keyboard).
Go Apple!
Since i upgraded my iPod Touch to 2.0 it has been slow, buggy when it does work, and it crashes alot, and for some reason my battery life has jumped out the window... :(
For those of you who UPGRADED and are having problems, be warned: you cannot restore a Jailbroken setup when you upgrade. You MUST set it up as a new iPod / iPhone. This does suck, but that's the dues you pay for jailbreaking.
I upgraded my iPT, and until I reset it up as a brand new one, about half of the apps were not working.
@lostarchitect
No, it has been a completely hellish experience. First, it took 7 hours to activate my phone the day the 2.0 FW came out. I have had lockups, crashes while answering calls, lost data, and at times I have to tap multiple times to do something as simple as closing a browser "tab".
Then last night we are sitting at a bar and a song I never heard of was playing so I pull out my iPhone to run Shazam (a cool app that does song recognition) to find what it is. The problem - the app was gone. In fact, all my apps were gone, both free and paid ones. So I try to re-download this one app. I get the usuall UAC-esqe dialog box (you know, the same one that Apple makes fun of Microsoft in a commercial for, but on a phone it is OK), but this time it asks me for my user and pass, as opposed to the usual password. It starts downloading, then freezes during the install portion. Holding down any combination of buttons does nothing, the only thing that worked was to let the battery completely drain.
To tie this all into Mobile Me, a few months ago Apple had to change their updater because it was installing Safari in a slimy way. A few days ago I was trying to config my new video card, and discovered a new applet in control panel. When you install iTunes 7.7 they install Mobile Me on your computer. No questions asking me if I want it installed, they install more bloat that does not even work without permission.
Never had any problems with .mac and all fine since the mobileme switch (maybe people in the UK have had a better time) I however don't really use the e-mail facilities but use everything else that mobileme has to offer (and that's what justifies the price)
And as for ipod touch/iphone upgrades, better add 4 onto the 'had no problems at all list' 3 upgrades and one new purchase and all fine.
Not a 'fanboy' but hate it when ignorant people like to jump on any bandwagon going to have a dig just because they have nothing better to do with their time. there are far less 'fanboys' about than there are 'hateboys'!!
@paul-i
Wait, so people are having problems with Apple software, and they deserve being called ignorant? Apple has said there are problems, and calling the people who are encountering problems ignorant makes you, by the very definition of the term (as much as you may protest), a fan boy.
What should people be doing, keeping their mouth shut, pay their monthly fee (and, like with the Touch pay to download the software) and praise Apple? I could go on and on listing bugs with this software update beyond those I listed above (how my phone is now always hot, goto wikipedia.com and try entering a serch term and watch Safari go into an epileptic fit, how the app store says there are 3 software updates, install one of them and it forgets the other 2 until hours later, and more), but I am just ignorant! These are not Apple bugs, we are all just haters.
@nohone
i said **i** haven't had a hellish experience. i didn't say you hadn't, therefore your wording, when directed towards me, doesn't make sense.
Apple hasn't had QA since the mid 90's or at least nothing of real substance. Sorry but EVERY fucking product that Apple releases that is a V1 is bug infested.....says the person who had a first gen MacBook Pro before Apple replaced it with a second gen after taking it in for repairs the 4th time in 6 months. We won't even talk about SO X.0. Or the mess that was Tiger when it came out. Leopard wasn't exactly the picture of perfection either when it launched. Apple makes shit first gen stuff, lets the users beta test their wares, and fixes the problem in the next go around. The only time Apple EVER makes good is when a class action lawsuit is either looming or is obviously going to happen.
Only then do they step up and "do the right thing".
It would be nice if Apple would take some of that insane profit they make off of ever purchase and put it into some REAL QA testing. But hey. The fanbois will never hold apple's feet to the fire so the behavior will continue.
I'm not a fanboy of Microsoft or Apple, but I think it's ironic that a lot of apple supporters tout the "it just works" slogan as their reasoning for being a fanboy.
.Mac NEVER worked... nice to see MobileMe is carrying on the tradition.
fair enough, but remember: this isn't a mac. it's a service from apple. not the same thing. my mac has for the most part worked very well.
@ lostarchitect, I think he meant the dot-Mac service.
Yes, that's what he said: ".mac"
@mrbula
no, he was talking about "it just works", which is not a slogan for .mac. i really think people should be more precise with their language and actually say what they want to say.
I think it's hilarious that when a part of Apple goes south, instead of admitting they f*cked, the fanboys say " oh well that slogan doesn't apply to that division of Apple". Good Job, Mr. Jobs, Good Job...
that really is hilarious. I am sure on this basis that Union Carbide will now be claiming that the Bhopal disaster was not really THEIR DISASTER because it did not represent THEM. They would take the profits though.
.mac, me, "i"ncompetence... they are all Apple patents. Apple is responsible for them all.
How about refund people money? Making people pay for something that deserve to be no more than "beta" is just outrages.
Only Apple is allowed to get away with this kind of crap.
I think this engadget post: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/16/apple-apologizes-for-its-mobileme-mess-admits-bungle-on-push/ says it all.
Basically they gave everyone an extra month free of charge.
Not to sound like a total fanboy buut.... Apple is a pretty customer-oriented company: price drops on every new generation product, iPhone refunds (although it was their mistake), etc. I personally haven't used MobileMe but I'm under the impression that no web service like this can last or become a success if it involves monthly/yearly fees... plus who the hell needs it... they are just trying to cover up the .mac fail with.. what's turning out to be... another fail...
I think 400 people (so far), as well as the above commenters, have misunderstood the question: "how's MobileMe working for you?" Emphasis on "you", as in, "you who are a current subscriber".
Can't speak to that? Then keep it to yourself. Don't think it's worth the price? Then don't subscribe. I don't see how it negatively impacts you.
I've had no problems.
exacly. It's an amazing service.
$99 a year? That's 27 cents a day.. That's cheap, get over it.
@superugly
Yea, it is cheap... really really crappy in fact. You DONT loose peoples e-mails if you're hosting them and charging $99 a year to. That's something only a free service could get away with.
That's not cheap you brainwashed zombie. That's .27 per day no one else pays for the same services. I have all the exact same services with almost 99.997% uptime and pay nothing. For some reason people think it's cool to have an email address @mac.com but I don't see the point. I know 3 people personally that see this as something they cannot live without and I'm entrenched in macs nearly 24/7 along with many steve zombies.
Do yourself a favor, "switch" to Google and sign up for a free push email service and have google automatically forward to that account. That way if the push service hiccups, google won't and you always have an archive.
I love Apple, but I have never loved .Mac/MobileMe.
The price is horrible for what essentially comes down to an email address with webmail. Yes I'm aware there are other features and there's always exceptions to the rule, but I'm willing to bet those features are seriously underused.
I'd rather spend money on a custom domain and real hosting than ever pay for this.
It is really very simple: $99 per year for this!??! Even if it was running full speed, that is still too much!
Apple fanboys have always overpaid to bask in the Apple light. When you think about it, Apple could charge $199 and the fanboys would still pay.
@AL
I'm a fanboy, and think this is a huge fiasco and wouldn't pay for it...
So in a sense... being an asshole sucks.