Apple: Shut Down MobileMe Immediately

[MacBytes]

http://www.macbytes.com/images/bytessig.gif (http://www.macbytes.com)

Category: Opinion/Interviews
Link: Apple: Shut Down MobileMe Immediately (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20080806085700)
Description:: Jason D. O'Grady at ZDNet thinks Apple should "shut down" MobileMe immediately, and refund everyone's money.

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[Kilamite]

Yes, that'll be helpful for those of us who have had this service for over a year and become dependant on our .Mac/MobileMe email addresses.

After all, to me, it is what I paid my money for. I renewed by .Mac account before I even knew MobileMe was coming - the service I paid for I still have, and I have no problems with it at all.

It has launched, and while it was a dodgy start with a lot of problems, some that still need to be ironed out, I don't have a single problem with the service.

But remember, I was a paying .Mac member and when MobileMe came along, aside from the hickup start, the services I had in .Mac are still there in MobileMe working flawlessly for me. Email, iDisk, Calendar, Contacts, Syncing, Web Gallery.

[Apple Ink]

I think this O'Grady person has gone O'Greasy..... Idiot.
Dunno why are people still catching on it! Its supposed to be fixed now yet the poll in the article foolishly says..... "Shutdown untill fixed"

[sanPietro98]

This is a ridiculous idea. Apple finally has MobileMe working and they want to shut it down for six months? I really think these authors are blowing things out of proportion. They already gave us a free month to cover the missteps in the .mac to MobileMe transition and I'm satisfied. Since then I've had no problems whatsoever.

[kcroy]

MobileMe is great for me. My wife and I both have iPhones, and it is great sharing our calendar and contacts almost instantly. I also host several part time/ extra income business websites through the service. I like every aspect of MobileMe and I have no complaints. If they keep improving on it, well, that's great too. I guess I just don't see what everyone is complaining about, so I am sorry for your bad luck, but knowing Apple, they will make up for it. :)

[supercres]

Not to mention the people who, after a few days of transition from .Mac, have never had a problem with MobileMe. Dimwit.

[jholzner]

What a drama queen. Yeah, they really messed up the launch and I was a mad as the next person with all the issues I had. But, it's working now so what's the point in shutting it down? He says friends and family lost contact "from the cloud." Perhaps they weren't being synced from their Mac? I dunno, but it's working now so no point in closing shop now. Plus, I've been using my @mac.com email address for 8 years now! I'd prefer not to lose that.

[danuff]

I think this O'Grady person has gone O'Greasy..... Idiot.
Dunno why are people still catching on it! Its supposed to be fixed now yet the poll in the article foolishly says..... "Shutdown untill fixed"

Is it me, or does it seem that web sites like ZDNet seem to be bios against Apple no matter what they do?

Yes, Mobile Me DID have its problems, and yes, Apple DID make mistakes with its roll out, but Apple seems to have worked out most of the bugs.

Just another ZDNet bios article - too little, too late.

Dan

[Apple Ink]

Is it me, or does it seem that web sites like ZDNet seem to be bios against Apple no matter what they do?

Yes, Mobile Me DID have its problems, and yes, Apple DID make mistakes with its roll out, but Apple seems to have worked out most of the bugs.

Just another ZDNet bios article - too little, too late.

Dan

Dunno about biased or not but Im sure they're outdated!

And yes, we're on the same page here!

[danny_w]

Yes, that'll be helpful for those of us who have had this service for over a year and become dependant on our .Mac/MobileMe email addresses.

After all, to me, it is what I paid my money for. I renewed by .Mac account before I even knew MobileMe was coming - the service I paid for I still have, and I have no problems with it at all.

It has launched, and while it was a dodgy start with a lot of problems, some that still need to be ironed out, I don't have a single problem with the service.

But remember, I was a paying .Mac member and when MobileMe came along, aside from the hickup start, the services I had in .Mac are still there in MobileMe working flawlessly for me. Email, iDisk, Calendar, Contacts, Syncing, Web Gallery.
Perhaps you didn't use many functions of .mac so you don't miss the ones they took away. None of us have the service that we had under .mac - among the things now missing are groups, aliases (soon to be "phased out" according to MobileMe chat), iCards, use with IE (or ANY Linux browser), web access to bookmarks, .Mac slides, email-only accounts, most features using 10.3 or older, online access to published/subscribed to calendars, etc, etc, etc. In addition, the aliases that you now have are useless for hiding your main address - your main address shows in long headers now (it didn't used to do so). In my business we NEVER take away features that have already been made available to our users, no matter how much overhead is needed to support the old features. The lack of support for IE (and IE6 in particular) is a major sticking point with a very large group of users who can no longer access their web email from work, and who don't have a choice to change browsers. Only Apple (and Microsoft) would do such a thing; it's getting hard to tell them apart these days.

[Apple Ink]

They're taking away aliases? Where did you get that? I think since they didnt pull @mac Im sure neither will they aliases!

[plumbingandtech]

Yes. Let's all listen to Jason, sure. :rolleyes:

[irmongoose]

Brought to you by ZDNet, also known for hiring such inane dorks as George Ou and Jason Perlow. Move on, nothing new here...


irmongoose

[roland.g]

Sure they made mistakes. But Mr. Powerpage, unfortunately your credibility isn't worth anything just like all the dime a dozen bloggers and eviewers across the internet, regurgitating the same garbage.

[LEStudios]

I have a Mac Mini and a 16GB 1st Generation iPhone I never had problems with MobileMe at all. In fact I think it's a real deal because we didn't have Push Contacts, Calendars and email plus we got twice as much storage for the same price where we would had to pay twice as much. The thing is that Apple have made software and hardware so simple to use. That if Apple have a problem that not a common thing. Because of that Apple really put more effort into things right the first time. Basically they trying to separate themselves from the problematic corporation known as Microsoft. Lets look at Vista launch look at the problems with that and some still ongoing today and good as Xbox 360 and especialy Xbox Live their still hardware failures (Red Rings of Death). MobileMe, 3G iPhone launch the same day yeah that is a lot, but it's working now. iPhone whether 2G or 3G is worth every penny and the world sees that now. I got more faith in Apple today just as I was in Middle School learning programming on the Apple IIe computer. This company never let me down once. My business is maintained on that singular integrity. If anyone cannot work with Apple hardware and or be creative using their software then they are without a doubt a true idiot.

[IJ Reilly]

They're taking away aliases? Where did you get that? I think since they didnt pull @mac Im sure neither will they aliases!

Nope, aliases work fine, but AFIAK, there's currently no way to add any new ones, as there was under .Mac.

[roland.g]

I just added a new alias, right through the web interface.

[Apple Ink]

Nope, aliases work fine, but AFIAK, there's currently no way to add any new ones, as there was under .Mac.

Ahemm.... I just added an alias!
In MMe mail web app.... click on prefs (right at the top with the gear icon).
Aliases (with a blue @ icon) and add!

[Iroganai]

What a sensationalistic article ... Sure the MobileMe launch was a mess,
a terrible mess, but I've been dependent on the service for five years.
Why do they need to shut down and refund ?
The thing to be done is to make it better. And to bring back the .Mac bookmark.

[aprilfools]

I have been a .mac subscriber for three years. I didnt find the transition all that bad. But than again I don't own an iPhone and could give a crap about the iPhone or it's supposed integration with mobile me.

Mobile Me work for me, in fact the www.me.com website works fine. I can see my mail, address book, etc.. and it looks 100% better than it did with .mac. What is everybody complaining about? 1% of the user base had problems? Big deal.

[roland.g]

The only knocks I have on MobileMe.

1. the name is dumb. .Mac was fine. I understand a broader PC/iPhone market taking .Mac out, but not sure MobileMe was the answer for naming.
2. the cloud is even dumber. Really, that was just a poor marketing explaining of cyberspace/serverspace.
3. the error messages/laggyness of the webapp seems to be worse than .Mac.
4. expanded folders, subfolders in the mail left pane though I uncheck the preference. I want the short list and will drill down when necessary.
5. sync/push/notification working MUCH MUCH better but still leaves a bit to be desired.
6. in contacts I can sort First Last and display as First Last, but when I click the address icon in the new message pane in webmail, the addresses are listed last name first, with no preference to change.
7. subscription calendars are now pushing to webapp but not to the iPhone, when they synced before under the old system. Well sorry, but I want them on my phone too, even if that means manually creating a new cal in iCal and porting over manually all the birthdays that the address book has so that I get them in both places.

As a .Mac subscriber since it was free and called iTools back in 2000/2001, this has been my primary email for a long time and I use the services, incl. iDisk, Mail, homepage, .Mac web gallery, etc. The transition was not fun since I had no access to my .Mac mail for 3 days at work while they got Me.com running and several more days before it was 100% uptime. And still another week before it was bug-free. But I understand they should have had a better implementation timeline and strategy. Oh well. There are like I mentioned things I would like to see improved upon. Especially for my $100 a year. But I've been paying that for a long time and just got a big upgrade, especially with my iPhone and push, so I'm not going to complain that my $100 now gives me more services and better integration with my Mac and phone.

[Apple Ink]

The only knocks I have on MobileMe.

1. the name is dumb. .Mac was fine. I understand a broader PC/iPhone market taking .Mac out, but not sure MobileMe was the answer for naming.
2. the cloud is even dumber. Really, that was just a poor marketing explaining of cyberspace/serverspace.
3. the error messages/laggyness of the webapp seems to be worse than .Mac.
4. expanded folders, subfolders in the mail left pane though I uncheck the preference. I want the short list and will drill down when necessary.
5. sync/push/notification working MUCH MUCH better but still leaves a bit to be desired.
6. in contacts I can sort First Last and display as First Last, but when I click the address icon in the new message pane in webmail, the addresses are listed last name first, with no preference to change.
7. subscription calendars are now pushing to webapp but not to the iPhone, when they synced before under the old system. Well sorry, but I want them on my phone too, even if that means manually creating a new cal in iCal and porting over manually all the birthdays that the address book has so that I get them in both places.

As a .Mac subscriber since it was free and called iTools back in 2000/2001, this has been my primary email for a long time and I use the services, incl. iDisk, Mail, homepage, .Mac web gallery, etc. The transition was not fun since I had no access to my .Mac mail for 3 days at work while they got Me.com running and several more days before it was 100% uptime. And still another week before it was bug-free. But I understand they should have had a better implementation timeline and strategy. Oh well. There are like I mentioned things I would like to see improved upon. Especially for my $100 a year. But I've been paying that for a long time and just got a big upgrade, especially with my iPhone and push, so I'm not going to complain that my $100 now gives me more services and better integration with my Mac and phone.

Just one question..... did you pay full $100 to renew?:eek::p
I have unchecked the autorenew option and get a box for about $50-60 from ebay!

[roland.g]

Just one question..... did you pay full $100 to renew?:eek::p
I have unchecked the autorenew option and get a box for about $50-60 from ebay!

I think just about every year I have gotten a $20-30 rebate from Apple discounting to $70 or 80. The eBay thing sounds like too much of a hassle.

[IJ Reilly]

I just added a new alias, right through the web interface.

Ahemm.... I just added an alias!
In MMe mail web app.... click on prefs (right at the top with the gear icon).
Aliases (with a blue @ icon) and add!

Ah, thanks both. I looked for this option on the first couple of days of mobileme but could not find it. I think it must have been enabled recently.

[Apple Ink]

I think just about every year I have gotten a $20-30 rebate from Apple discounting to $70 or 80. The eBay thing sounds like too much of a hassle.

Nah... it really isnt!
You pay through paypal! Within minutes the guy receives payment and mails you the code! You enter the code and all set!:D:apple:

[tgildred]

Hey, I just wasted a minute of my time reading that nonsense, maybe they should shut ZDNet down!

[nagromme]

iTools/.Mac/MobileMe was NEVER a smart buy for most people, becayse most people will pay the value of all the things it does, and yet only use a couple of them. But for some it's a good buy, so obviously don't shut it down.

The important thing is that Apple shouldn't force people to buy it. Which they don't. And that they should acknowledge and rectify temporary transition problems. Which they have done. And that they make internal changes to prevent such errors in the future. Which they have also done.

[surferfromuk]

Hey, I just wasted a minute of my time reading that nonsense, maybe they should shut ZDNet down!

Good point. It's bordering on tabloid style sensationalism & hysteria