Steve Jobs' Reaction to MobileMe Launch, Life at Apple After Jobs and Other Anecdotes

[AidenShaw]

Platitudes aside, you're shifting your point with every post. And Jobs did not pass the buck, at least publicly. Holding people accountable for their job is not the same as shirking responsibility.

I agree with the "Holding people accountable..." sentence.

But you said

Except that this situation wasn't a problem of MobileMe living up to its potential or sucking or being a disappointment. This was a problem with the scalability of the service at launch. A problem not apparent until wide release.

Failing to scale is exactly "not living up to its potential" and "sucking" and "being a disappointment".

And "A problem not apparent until wide release" implies a wholesale failure of QA and project oversite from the bottom to the CEO.

Your point is shiftier than a man in a trench coat offering candy.

See immediately preceding response....

(Do you like dark chocolate or mild chocolate?)

 

[JAT]

I liked how the narcissistic disorder has "take credit, but not blame" as a common point. Fits the turtlenecked one, don't you think?

Is Jobs the author of this story? Missed that.

 

[BaldiMac]

Failing to scale is exactly "not living up to its potential" and "sucking" and "being a disappointment".

I could see your point, except you are taking those terms out of the context that I used them. They clearly referred to the general problems with MobileMe as a service, as opposed the scalability failures at launch.

And "A problem not apparent until wide release" implies a wholesale failure of QA and project oversite from the bottom to the CEO.

Or a bug in the test suite.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Back on topic. . . . I think MM is a fantastic service. Especially iDisk, which works a crap load better with an FTP client like Filezilla or Transmit than it does with the Finder.

So what exactly has changed with MM to make it better?

I bought a year back in 09. I tried to upload some smartphone pictures to the cloud. It was slow as hell and half the time the server dropped me mid-upload. I stopped trying after 8 pictures. Apple came out with that iPhone MobileMe pictures app. Same thing - slow as hell. I then tried using iWeb to upload a website using MobileMe server space. After a couple days, I had sync issues with iDisk. And when I logged onto the MobileMe website, 25% of the time I couldn't log on and the other 75%, the servers were so slow, it felt like the whole website was coded in Flash.

Eventually I realized I'm paying almost $100 just to track my phone on a GPS map. What a waste of money

 

[Thunderhawks]

So what exactly has changed with MM to make it better?

I bought a year back in 09. I tried to upload some smartphone pictures to the cloud. It was slow as hell and half the time the server dropped me mid-upload. I stopped trying after 8 pictures. Apple came out with that iPhone MobileMe pictures app. Same thing - slow as hell. I then tried using iWeb to upload a website using MobileMe server space. After a couple days, I had sync issues with iDisk. And when I logged onto the MobileMe website, 25% of the time I couldn't log on and the other 75%, the servers were so slow, it felt like the whole website was coded in Flash.

Eventually I realized I'm paying almost $100 just to track my phone on a GPS map. What a waste of money

Also discontinued my subscription long time ago when I saw no value in it.
idisk crashed a lot and was slow like molasses.

The name MobileMe is terrible and embarrassing.

All in all, as many posted there are FREE better services for mm.

For every Jobs anecdote that is negative about how he works with people there are most likely plenty of positive ones.
People thrive on negativity and when something works as intended there is no reason to fix it or report about it.

Clearly nothing ever gets accomplished if a team's leaders aren't demanding and addressing failure (whoever decides when or what that is).

The problem is that a lot of "coddled" kids have to learn how to compete in the workplace.

All their lives they were told they are great, get trophies for nothing and when reality hits, they don't know how to cope with it.

 

[AidenShaw]

Or a bug in the test suite.

A "bug in the test suite" is a QA failure. Unless you believe that "IOS recording user locations" was a "bug". In which case we have no need to continue any discussions.

 

[Ochyandkaren]

What i read from this all is:

Jobs wants Apple employees to see their work as an extension of themselves.
When they fail for them to comprehend that they failed themselves and their comrades.


I think Apple for him is like a person.

 

[AidenShaw]

What i read from this all is:

Jobs wants Apple employees to see their work as an extension of themselves.
When they fail for them to comprehend that they failed themselves and their comrades.


I think Apple for him is like a person.

And they'll all be better off when the "life at Apple after Jobs" era arrives.

 

[TennisandMusic]

Sorry but the mythical arrogance of Steve Jobs and Mac users is just that, an urban myth created by a small online community of PC tweakers scared that their past time will be taken away from them in much the same way that you see rednecks sleep with their gun believing Obama is going to jump through their window and take their guns off them.

Dude, the Mac hate in some places is ridiculous, sure, but the arrogance of Steve Jobs isn't "mythical". He has to be one of the most well known arrogant jerks around, go read any biography, or listen to any story from people who know him personally. He's just not a nice guy. Does it matter to people who buy Apple stuff? Well, only if it matters to people who buy Apple stuff.

 

[faroZ06]

As a paying customer from the start of MobileMe, I find this incredibly amusing and wish I could've been in the room when this smack down was being hand delivered hot and fresh.

Yeah, MobileMe is waaaay lacking, at least for its price. $100 per year?! There are so many hosting companies that are cheaper and better. I've heard stories about Jobs getting mad at employees about making imperfect products in a book I skimmed about the creating of the first Mac.

In fact, MobileMe is basically a cheapo monopoly where Apple uses its dominance over Mac users' software to push them into buying MobileMe. Most of the sharing stuff requires it.

For its price, it should have way more space and be able to sync entire user accounts across the internet

 

[faroZ06]

Now that is funny.
I think they must still be going through Therapy.

They must have been locked in a room for a year for what they did. I disabled and corrupted my Ping once I got iTunes 10

 

[caspersoong]

This is really nice. I am sure Steve gives a lot of stress to his employees as he is a perfectionist.

 

[Eolian]

MobileMe at present is sad; Steve et Apple should be embarrassed by what they've put forth. Charging $99 for it is shameful, simple greed.

But I bet they'll fix it up good. With few exceptions - MobileMe being one - Apple over the past 10 years has not shown itself to be incompetent

 

[Malcolm.]

This is really nice. I am sure Steve gives a lot of stress to his employees as he is a perfectionist.

Must be hard being a perfectionist at a company that so rarely attains it.

 

[numlock]

i wouldnt mind it if people got praise when they did well and the opposite when they didnt at my workplace.

as it is currently no responsibility (unless there is blame to pass around) leaves a select few.

so for me to read his reaction to the product and naming new chiefs on the spot is something i would wish for.

 

[rsocal]

I've had MobileMe since the day it launched and I really like it! It keeps my iPhone, iPad and computer in sync. I have not had any problems but I do know it's had a few, but I was lucky to not be effected and Apple always works out the bugs anyway. I don't have any issue with paying $100 for it and I feel it's well worth it!

I sure would've love to have been in the room when that tounge lashing took place. I actually would find it fascinating to sit in on some meetings for tounge lashings as well as the celebrations after a great launch.

 

[Ed State]

A lot of good the dressing down did. MobileMe still blows.

Apple should stop f'n around and buy Dropbox and Mozy, post haste.

 

[law guy]

If you still have your account (MobileMe now), the photos are still on your iDisk.

Yes, the photos on the .mac homepage site never went away (although they weren't stored on iDisk in other than the smallish web versions anyway; the files are on drives, backed up by other drives - that wasn't the issue), it was the months and months ... multiple years of the family photo pages, and the captions, and the template layouts, and the site that were gone. A download file to transfer the html of the site to a different host would have been a nice option.

 

[DocNYz]

Dude, the Mac hate in some places is ridiculous, sure, but the arrogance of Steve Jobs isn't "mythical". He has to be one of the most well known arrogant jerks around, go read any biography, or listen to any story from people who know him personally. He's just not a nice guy. Does it matter to people who buy Apple stuff? Well, only if it matters to people who buy Apple stuff.

Maybe playing in to what you're saying but, who cares? If he gets things done and runs one of the most influential companies of all time, I think he has little time to worry about if how he says something will upset someone. Show me a CEO of that caliber who is polite and calm and I'll be more than impressed, and not their public image. If you don't like how your boss talks to you, quit. If you can't take someone reacting to your failure, get tougher skin or don't fail. If in fact he does **** you over and take your ideas or unfairly treat you, quit or sue. Don't complain and be a passive aggressive bitch about it but keep taking it, there's too much competition in the business world for that.

 

[JAT]

Man, after reading some of these posts, I sure do like my job. And boss.

Must suck for some of you.

 

[jetsetter]

Sadly!

Sadly, i do pay the premium of being a MobileMe customer just because i like the email address i have, how SAD is that? LOL
Otherwise i really don't get much out of it
ie: I-Photo's take ages to transfer across to ME,so that's a Bummer.
Everything else is pretty much available on a FREE account on MSN or similar.
So, i think Jobs has to be concerned that we are paying a lot of money for **** all!

 

[d4rkc4sm]

Man, after reading some of these posts, I sure do like my job. And boss.

Must suck for some of you.

lets celebrate mediocrity

 

[Digital Skunk]

So what exactly has changed with MM to make it better?

I bought a year back in 09. I tried to upload some smartphone pictures to the cloud. It was slow as hell and half the time the server dropped me mid-upload. I stopped trying after 8 pictures. Apple came out with that iPhone MobileMe pictures app. Same thing - slow as hell. I then tried using iWeb to upload a website using MobileMe server space. After a couple days, I had sync issues with iDisk. And when I logged onto the MobileMe website, 25% of the time I couldn't log on and the other 75%, the servers were so slow, it felt like the whole website was coded in Flash.

Eventually I realized I'm paying almost $100 just to track my phone on a GPS map. What a waste of money

All of that has changed . . . .although, none of that has ever happened to me save for the slow upload speeds to the iDisk.

The slow upload speeds were solved using an FTP client instead of the Finder.

Also, it sounds like you were using MM primarily for your iPhone which I personally think is okay, but not worth the $100. I use it primarily for my Mac's syncing, web-hosting, and FTP (iDisk) and in some cases the photo gallery.

It's come a LONG way since iTools/.Mac

One of the biggest issues I see with people getting irrate about MM about is that they are only using parts of the service and comparing each individual part to their 3rd party counterparts. After being in that boat for 6 years, and at that time paying $400 a year for most of those services, that $100 all-in-one package isn't a bad deal, and worth much more than tracking down 6 individual services.

 

[Liquorpuki]

All of that has changed . . . .although, none of that has ever happened to me save for the slow upload speeds to the iDisk.

The slow upload speeds were solved using an FTP client instead of the Finder.

Also, it sounds like you were using MM primarily for your iPhone which I personally think is okay, but not worth the $100. I use it primarily for my Mac's syncing, web-hosting, and FTP (iDisk) and in some cases the photo gallery.

It's come a LONG way since iTools/.Mac

One of the biggest issues I see with people getting irrate about MM about is that they are only using parts of the service and comparing each individual part to their 3rd party counterparts. After being in that boat for 6 years, and at that time paying $400 a year for most of those services, that $100 all-in-one package isn't a bad deal, and worth much more than tracking down 6 individual services.

No I tried photos through the phone once they put out the app, photos through the computer, uploading a website through iWeb on the computer, syncing calendar/contacts (which I eventually decided was pointless since iCal is terrible and Exchange does it better). I wish I knew about the FTP working but I didn't.

I'll give it a second try later, once they figure out iCloud. The way I see it, with Google pushing cloud tech hard and companies like Amazon trying to position, Apple really has no choice but to figure out what they want to do with the cloud and do it well.

 

[Sparky9292]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Can someone post a link on how to FTP into a mobile me account? I thought we were stuck with slow ass WebDAV