Apple gives MobileMe users free 60 day extension for the "issues"

Apple is definitely righting their wrongs with MobileMe. MobileMe hasn't been an easy transition for Apple and they are making up for it. Apple will be giving all current MobileMe subscribers a free 60 day extension on top of the 30 day extension they announced on July 16th. As a MobileMe user I am very happy to hear Apple admit the issues, and try to make up for it with a 60 day extension (can't knock them for that).

Labels: apple, mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 8/18/2008 09:37:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Steve Jobs' email to the MobileMe team Ars Technica has published an internal Apple email that Steve Jobs sent to the MobileMe team regarding the botched launch of MobileMe.

Team,

The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. There are several things we could have done better:

– MobileMe was simply not up to Apple's standards – it clearly needed more time and testing.

– Rather than launch MobileMe as a monolithic service, we could have launched over-the-air syncing with iPhone to begin with, followed by the web applications one by one – Mail first, followed 30 days later (if things went well with Mail) by Calendar, then 30 days later by Contacts.

– It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.

We are taking many steps to learn from this experience so that we can grow MobileMe into a service that our customers will love. One step that I can share with you today is that the MobileMe team will now report to Eddy Cue, who will lead all of our internet services – iTunes, the App Store and, starting today, MobileMe. Eddy's new title will be Vice President, Internet Services and he will now report directly to me.

The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.

Steve

Labels: apple, mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 8/05/2008 05:35:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple now posting near-daily MobileMe outage updates "Taking the matter head-on, Apple is now fully acknowledging the problems it's had with MobileMe in the past two weeks as well as the attempts to fix it -- to the point where company chief Steve Jobs is involved.

An anonymous Apple worker has been tasked by Jobs with providing multiple updates per week on a dedicated status page that explain at least some of why the company's new push data service has failed and what has been fixed." Via AppleInsider .

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/26/2008 12:25:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  David Pogue's MobileMe review goes from "magic and impressive" to "MobileMess" Following in Walt Mossberg's MobileMe review , David Pogue of The New York Times has posted a follow up to his 1st MobileMe review . In his first review he did mention "issues" with MobileMe, but did find "magic" in the disaster.

"Once everything’s ready, the magic is impressive. Make a change on your Mac, watch it appear on your iPhone and your PC. Add a new friend to the address book in Outlook Express on your Windows XP machine, and watch it appear in Windows Contacts on your Vista PC. Change an appointment in iCal on the kitchen Mac, and know that it will wirelessly sprout onto your traveling spouse’s iPhone four states away. And your Web bookmarks are the same everywhere."

David Pogue has posted a follow up review today titled "Apple's MobileMess" .

"And it's a little mind-boggling that today, nearly two weeks after MobileMe's official opening, Apple still hasn't solved the problem. That's got to be a record in the short history of cloud computing.

But the real problem is how Apple is responding. For a company that's so brilliant at marketing, it seems to have absolutely no clue about crisis management.

It's amazing that Apple doesn't recognize this situation. This is an airplane that's stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working bathroom. And the pilot doesn't come on the P.A. system to tell the customers what the problem is, what's being done to fix it, how much longer they might be stuck, and how he empathizes with their plight. Instead, he comes on once every three hours to repeat the same thing: "We apologize for the inconvenience."

MobileMess, indeed."

Hopefully the message from these reviews will make it clear to Apple that even their biggest fans won't drink the kool-aid if it's not made right. It's time for Apple to address, admit, and hopefully fix what has now turned into the "MobileMess".

Labels: apple, mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/24/2008 06:45:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Walt Mossberg reviews MobileMe

Walt Mossberg has reviewed Apple's MobileMe and for the first time it's not a glowing review of an Apple product. I'm a MobileMe subscriber and can honestly say that Apple has dropped the ball on it. The software is so buggy and unreliable, to call it frustrating is a high compliment. Apple has still yet to really address the issues publicly and claims it's only effecting 1% of MobileMe users (every MobileMe user I know just happens to fall into that 1%). Apple needs to address the issues and address them quickly.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/24/2008 10:58:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple apologizes for MobileMe launch, extends subscriptions, removes "push" description If you're a current MobileMe user you'll know that the transition from .Mac to MobileMe didn't go exactly as Apple had planned. There were outages, syncing problems, and users were not able to login to MobileMe. Apple has apologized for the rocky transition and will be giving subscribers a 30 day extension to their MobileMe subscription.

“The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped but everything is now up and running,” Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld. “We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge.”

Apple has also announced that they will stop using the word "push" to describe everything in MobileMe. Users quickly found out that information wasn't being automatically "pushed", but actually a delay of 15 minutes to get information synced from a computer to the cloud and then "pushed" to other devices. Changes to and from the iPhone and Web apps are immediate though. Via MacWorld .

Labels: apple, mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/16/2008 11:40:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  MobileMe + iCal Subscriptions = : ( I'm having a few issues with MobileMe, most of which I'll live with, knowing that it will get better (fingers crossed).

• My Contacts are exactly pushing. I'm creating groups in MobileMe but they are not appearing on my phone. My fix: turn off Contact Pushing and then re-enabling it. Writer's note: they are pushing down to my Mac.
• MobileMe is slowwwwww.....

But here's the one that's kicking me when I'm down, beating a dead horse, etc. etc. etc.

• MobileMe does not sync calendar subscriptions. Arrrgh!

I use a few iCal subscriptions from iCalShare.com. For those of you that aren't aware of iCal subscriptions, it's a nice way of adding a specific calendar without manually adding the data. Also, it will automatically update the information.

For example, I use the NFL schedule calendar. I enter one little link and it adds the entire NFL schedule into my calendar, saving me a boat-load of time. I also use a DVD release calendar, which will populate my iCal with upcoming DVD releases, automatically updating the calendar for future releases. Between my Fantasy Football League (Go Roman Togas!) and my obsession with movies, I need these calendars.

Unfortunately, MobileMe does not sync these calendars (yet). Apple's support page states that this is a symptom of a problem but does not offer a resolution. It does, however, say that the "article will be updated as more information becomes available."

A Google search lead me to JeffCroft.com. It's reassuring that I'm not the only one going through iCal withdrawal but it does suck that we have to experience it at all.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Rocco Mandaglio, Staff Writer @ 7/12/2008 06:11:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  MobileMe Status

Is the uncertainty of MobileMe driving you crazy? Have you already given up? Or are you (like me) checking every 45 seconds? Now there is no need to go to me.com and cringe when it bounces to Apple's MobileMe Info Page.

Now, created for your viewing pleasure: http://ismobilemeup.com/ Thanks to Chris Thompson who posted this in the TUAW comments.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Rocco Mandaglio, Staff Writer @ 7/10/2008 09:46:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  iPhone Dev Team Jailbreaks and Unlocks iPhone 2.0 Firmware Gizmodo is reporting that the iPhone Dev Team has already unlocked and jailbroken the just released today iPhone 2.0 Firmware. Don't believe me? Here's Gizmodo's proof:

"If you were wondering how I was doing push email tests on iPhone OS 2.0 and Vodafone UK, this is the reason why. The code wizard commandos at the iPhone Dev Team have been working on this non-stop since the early days of beta testing. In fact, I had iPhone OS 2.0 running on my iPhone since last week. That was version 5A345, two below 5A347, but identical in functionality.

Now that the official iPhone OS 2.0 is out, the iPhone Dev Team will release their Pwnage tool for everyone to unlock and jailbreak their iPhones soon."

Here's Gizmodo's video of MobileMe's Push Mail on an unlocked & Jailbroken iPhone 2.0 . Who would have thought 2.0 would be jailbroken and unlocked already???

Labels: iphone, jailbreak, mobileme, software, unlock

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/10/2008 05:14:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  MobileMe is Live!

***Update: Me.com and Mac.com now redirect you to the apple.com/mobileme page.***

***MobileMe*** is currently down.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Rocco Mandaglio, Staff Writer @ 7/10/2008 07:00:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  .Mac is Down As expected, .Mac is down.

Labels: mac, mobileme

  ¶ posted by Rocco Mandaglio, Staff Writer @ 7/10/2008 12:19:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Get MobileMe Now

The folks @ GearLive have found the link to download MobileMe NOW. I downloaded MobileMe, installed it, but until the service goes "live" you can't use any of the services (you can sync your information). The services are expected to turn on between 8 p.m PDT - 2 a.m. PDT.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/09/2008 10:09:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple will launch MobileMe on July 9th

When signing into .mac the message above shows that Apple will be launching MobileMe on Wednesday, July 9th between 6 p.m. - 12 a.m. PT.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/07/2008 11:11:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Me.com Mail System Fully Working Gizmodo is reporting that Apple's new MobileMe mail service is fully working. Check out Gizmodo for easy instructions on how to set it up.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 7/07/2008 08:32:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple switches on Me.com email addresses It looks like Apple has migrated some of its .Mac email addresses to use the new MobileMe service. I just sent a test email to my .Mac address and inserted the @me.com (in place of the @mac.com) address and sure enough the email popped up on my iPhone, MacBook Air, and Treo 755p.

Apple is allowing current .Mac users use their @mac.com & @me.com address, making it a seamless transition . If you're a current .Mac subscriber try and see if your @me.com is switched on. Just send an email to your current .Mac email, and change it from (your @.mac name to your @me.com). Chances are Apple has already transitioned you.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 6/29/2008 08:15:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Just received this from the MobileMe Team

My .Mac membership automatically renewed yesterday, so the news of MobileMe left me wondering how Apple was going to handle current .Mac members.

The MobileMe Team states that in July all .Mac members will be upgraded to MobileMe. You can keep using your existing mac.com email address, and you'll also be issued a me.com email address. The choice is yours.

Labels: mobileme

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 6/09/2008 05:41:00 PM 0 comments links to this post