Apple Shuts Down MobileMe, Data Available for 'Limited Time'

Don’t annoy users!

It just made me think about a post by John Gruber (Daring Fireball) taking issue with the trust of a post on 'Virtual Pants' about the default apps on iOS in the wake of the popularity of Chrome for iOS.

The fact is that Apple refused to make iCloud compatible with Snow Leopard*, and reduced its scope significantly in relation to the MobileMe one-stop-shop, cloud synced environment; so many user have been dissipated to many other products, including those of rivals like Google.

My Macs' dock and my iPhone home screen look very different now, and to be honest it has taught me that Apple doesn't make the best everything.

Still, when major rivals are trying to establish broad user environments, it looks like a bit of an own goal!

* and yet iCloud works with Vista!

I waited until the last minute to migrate to iCloud because I don't plan on upgrading my iPhone 3G until the next version comes out this September or October. These instructions were helpful in getting my iPhone 3G to sync with iCloud. http://macmanusnl.wordpress.com/201...-officially-unsupported-iphone-3g-sync-works/

I can't upgrade to Lion because my Intel MacMini is not a Core 2 machine. I tried to get Snow Leopard's Address Book to sync with iCloud, but kept getting duplicates, and finally decided that it wasn't worth the trouble since I don't really use address book ever. I was able to get iCal on Snow Leopard to successfully sync with iCloud.

I can comfortably coast along for a few months now until I can upgrade my hardware.

fabian9 said:

still hope there'll be something equivalent to iDisk in the future, but with Apple's push to having no accessible file system, I doubt it'll happen.

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My guess is:

Apple has no interest in providing a place for general storage.
But over time they will improve iCloud's ability to store app-related documents. E.g., right now, documents are stored and accessed by app only. But a major workflow that many of us use and makes the most sense in many, many use cases is to store documents by project. E.g., I might have a set of documents related to a proposal or class or project that I update/view/create together. I think Apple will support this use case at some point. (I think the delay isn't due to the complexities of grouping documents, of course -- the must bigger question is how to put in place a system where the apps, too, can work together to support this use case.)

JackieTreehorn said:

Too bad. For me, web-publishing with mobileme and iWeb was a breeze. Wish Apple offered an alternative for web-publishing...

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If you have an iPad, you could try Simpl app - an easy way to build a website.

Jon - Founder, Simpl
http://www.simpl.com

bedifferent said:

Also, isn't "Documents in the Cloud" supposedly going to replace iDisk with [eventual] "drag and drop" functionality via Finder and iOS?

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I don't think that's the direction they want to take. Remember Jobs saying, "A lot of us have been working for 10 years to get rid of the file system so the user doesn’t have to learn about it"

aurichie said:

I guess Apple wasn't bluffing afterall and mobileme will be killed off. I think I better download all my photos tomorrow morning or I'll lose them all. I really didn't think Apple would kill this product until the gallery was replaced with a new solution.

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I think they're doing that with Shared Photo Streams.

WTH Apple, no warning or heads up? Shessh

/sarcasm

I finally and reluctantly ended up migrating from MM to iCloud a couple of days ago. Initial observations? The flexibility with Calendar alerts is so much worse in iCloud. Maximum of 48hrs notice and no option to alert via email. I cant understand for the life of me why this is so restrictive compared to how it was with MM.

michaelvoigt said:

Now, my photos are no longer available.

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The problem might be that if you can't read, you will not be happy with Apple services.

Such a sad day

MobileMe is far superior to iCloud! It's a shame it had to be closed because people are to stupid to comprehend how to use MobileMe's services!

michaelvoigt said:

.

They are a very large and profitable company. Why? - wouldn't they just leave all of the galleries up?
:

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I guess there just weren't enough of us using the galleries; it didn't take off. It's all about sharing iPhone photos now.

Anaemik said:

I finally and reluctantly anded up migrating from MM to iCloud a couple of days ago. Initial observations? The flexibility with Calendar alerts is so much worse in iCloud. Maximum of 48hrs notice and no option to alert via email. I cant understand for the life of me why this is so restrictive compared to how it was with MM.

Click to expand...

I know right! What about iDisk?!?! Way better then Dropbox or Google drive!
Your email only works in 10.7 or above which is commie BS! You have to manually add it to 10.5 or 10.6 & still it's doesn't work right! I had to upgrade my 10.6 just for Fing Apple Mail.... should not have to do that.

This whole iCloud thing is so un-Apple...

And I had less problems with MobileMe than I've been having with iCloud. But to be fair, I haven't had a lot of problems with iCloud, but they have been maddening...

MrCubes said:

Genuine question.

All those bemoaning the loss of iDisk: what are you missing you can't get from, say, DropBox?
I've not touched iDisk since DropBox arrived - and I never liked touching it before that. That's just me - but I'm failing to see what iDisk gave *anyone* that DropBox doesn't (and much better). Perhaps iWeb integration (which is also going (gone?), of course, so that's not really a reason to miss iDisk?

Have I been missing some killer feature of iDisk all this time?

Agreed that iCloud is far from perfect at this time, and is maybe still even a step back from MobileMe in terms of (current) stability and performance. I really hope that improves as Apple do seem to be betting a lot on it - and when Apple does that the whole eco-system gets dragged along for the ride.

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I agree. iDisk had very small storage amounts for a pay service, and it was incredibly slow most of the time. There have been far better alternatives for a long time. Even Microsoft had a better storage option... please don't throw eggs. Thank you.

iSee said:

My guess is:

Apple has no interest in providing a place for general storage.

Click to expand...

But wasn't Apple going to go to the cloud with iWork? I thought they were going in that direction, but is it as iWork being SAAS or actually the whole thing being a cloud based offering?

sananda said:

I guess there just weren't enough of us using the galleries; it didn't take off. It's all about sharing iPhone photos now.

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There were millions using it! Just not millions enough or those millions signed up paid and never used it.

In fact I have several clients... Well wait ALL my clients signed up for MM and didn't know why or what to do or that they had an email or iDisk or website or contacts or anything.... I think that's why it failed.

Apple should have made a ton of common craft type training videos for MM! It would have helped.

Bye

Iweb was too slow delivering videos. Vimeo works much better for me.

bedifferent said:

Also, isn't "Documents in the Cloud" supposedly going to replace iDisk with [eventual] "drag and drop" functionality via Finder and iOS?

Click to expand...

It's a viable replacement only if it supports all file types as it did in iDisk.

Options for change

if your hardware means you can't go beyond Snow Leopard and you don't want to switch to Vista or W7; or if you rely on some particular MobileMe features not covered by iCloud:

email: mac.com / me.com isn't effected regardless of whether you can change to iCloud because it's just an IMAP service.

calendar: this may be time to get a gmail account anyway!
contacts: as above.

Safari Bookmarks: this may be time to switch to FireFox, you can sync bookmarks between machines (using Firefox Sync and Firefox Home on your iPhone).

Notes: try Simplenote!

iWeb: you can still use iWeb.app but you must move your site/s to a new web host (watch the ScreenCastsOnline video SCOM0345 - with some discounts for UK2.net / WestHost).

iDisk: plenty of options but for me it's Microsoft's SkyDrive and Live Mesh (the later syncs existing folders between machines - brilliant!).

MobileMe Gallery: just go Flickr (pro). An alternative worth checking out is ZangZing.

Yojimbo: You could try Evernote, but there is a workaround using Dropbox but it has limitations - see the Yojimbo website.

iBank: there is a workaround using CloudSafe.com (free up to 2GB) for the WebDAV sync to your iPhone iBank app.

Hope this helps other .Mac and MobileMe pioneers. It does remind me just how comprehensive MobileMe actually was - and I think, ahead of its time.

I never knew they had .mac, but then why they came up with .me. i would've pretty comfortable with .mac too if they would've added those service in it. now me.com is shutting down, things are moving to icloud but the cloud id ends in @me not in @icloud. MESS!

Apple, your web service outlook is almost opposite of hardware/software you make.

look at google, all the service ends in @gmail.com. period. no confusion. you sign in to chrome browser, chrome OS, gmail, docs etc etc. thats cool.

Please, Apple just simplify. i don't like signing into icloud using gmail ID!

Too late i guess.

iDisk still shows on my iPad, and I can see all the folders, but clicking on one gives error 100
a shame they did not launch a minor upgrade to IOS Today to clear this reference out, to emphasise it is History!!

akbarali.ch said:

I never knew they had .mac, but then why they came up with .me. i would've pretty comfortable with .mac too if they would've added those service in it. now me.com is shutting down, things are moving to icloud but the cloud id ends in @me not in @icloud. MESS!

Apple, your web service outlook is almost opposite of hardware/software you make.

look at google, all the service ends in @gmail.com. period. no confusion. you sign in to chrome browser, chrome OS, gmail, docs etc etc. thats cool.

Please, Apple just simplify. i don't like signing into icloud using gmail ID!

Too late i guess.

Click to expand...

Can you use/sign in to gmail using a .me ID ?

just curious mind you.

MacAddict1978 said:

I agree. iDisk had very small storage amounts for a pay service, and it was incredibly slow most of the time. There have been far better alternatives for a long time. Even Microsoft had a better storage option... please don't throw eggs. Thank you.

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I tried iDisk at one point but found it of rather limited use for me. I did have an iWeb page up, but I never updated it. It did get a fair amount of traffic though. It was on the Arecibo observatory that I had the chance to tour while in Puerto Rico.

So... software update to remove references to MobileMe from Apple apps and the OS?

I'm just waiting for the screaming, gnashing of teeth, and rending of clothing when MobileMe totally and completely shuts down and all of those folks who didn't get all of their stuff off go nuts howling about how they got screwed by Apple.

(Cynical and assume-the-worst SOB...aren't I!)