Apple Details MobileMe Enhancements Delivered by Latest Software Updates

[wolfshades]

The one thing I like about MobileMe (I've had it for a few months) is synchronization of bookmarks... the only other useful function IMO is calendar sync, but it's horribly buggy. I tried using it for sync'ing an iPhone, iCal on my MBP and Outlook in Win7/BootCamp on my MBP... it totally trashed all my calendar entries. I had entered people's birthdays as recurring all-day events in Outlook. When MobileMe got hold of these they were somehow shifted one hour back when they were created as duplicate events on the iPhone and in iCal. Then MobileMe saw those and said "hey, Outlook doesn't have these so let's copy them there". After this feedback loop had been allowed to continue for a while, each birthday had like 25 duplicate events for each recurring instance. It broke some other stuff as well, can't remember what it was but ultimately I had to cut Outlook out of the MobileMe loop. I don't think I'll be renewing the subscription. DropBox serves me better than iDisk, and syncing the three or so bookmarks that change every month just isn't worth a hundred bucks a year.

*nods* I know what you mean. Seems really weird that iCal and MobileMe has so many hiccups. Some of us (raises hand) are cludging our calendars to make it work as best we can. For ex: I have Exchange at work, and it's locked down tight such that the only way to sync with everything else I own (including a Windows Vista notebook at home with Outlook on it) is to use a separate PDA. In my case, a Palm T|X. So, fine, I'll sync to the notebook and MobileMe will then grab it and sync to my iMac and iPhone. Somewhere along the way, the entries looks different to someone and so I end up with duplicates.

Only seems to happen with birthdays for some strange reason. I gave up trying to figure it out, and just downloaded an iPhone app called "Occasions" - and use that as a birthday reminder. For $.99 it's a pretty sweet product actually, and utilizes the contacts list and gives you an on-screen countdown/reminder.

(And no, I don't own this product, nor work for whoever it is who designed it - it's just a good product and I don't mind saying so. You know, like Shazam)

 

[WhySoSerious]

How do you that? Info or link would be much appreciated.

here's what i did (but i can only get it to work for 1 alias):

1.Set up your main mobile me account on iphone as normal.

2.Then set up an additional email account using the "other" option. enter in your alias and master mobile me password and alias name you want. Once this is entered you need to enter incoming server (mail.me.com) and outgoing smtp server (smtp.me.com). also fill in your outgoing smtp user name and password (master user name and master password). You have to use your main account name in usrname in the server sections, or it will not work.

3. You will now have the main account and the alias set up as seperate accounts. Set your aliases to push. This way your mobile me will receive all mail as push, even the alias. TEST NOW: send an email to your alias account and you should receive it TWICE on your phone (once for the master and once for the alias). If so, it's working so far.

Now, go back into your alias settings and sabotage your incoming settings (just change the user name to something random like "asdfojvew") You can then enter a wrong password in incoming server settings or not, it doesn't matter....and the acct is setup.

4.When you want to send you just have to click on the from section twice to get the rolltop looking menu with which email to send from.

TEST NOW:
send yourself an email to the master mobile me account....you should get 1 email. now send another email to your alias account....you should get 1 email. now try sending from your alias account.

The only screwy thing is, if you send an email from your alias via the iphone, it will not save a copy on the "in the air" MM servers. it's only kept on the iphone.

 

[FreeState]

For some reason my US Holiday subscription is syncing, but not my birthday one. Anyone else having this problem?

Heres how I got mine to work.

In iCal select the birthday calendar on the left - control click and select publish and follow the prompts to publish it.

Select Calendar from the top menu bar and select "Send Publish Email" from that menu.

Send the email to yourself. On your iPhone click on the link it sent and it will subscribe to it.

 

[barefootman]

Finally! I have wanted my iCal subscriptions on my iPhone forever. Bout damn time.

I've got subscribed calendars in iCal but they are not appearing in my iPhone's calendar. 10.6.1 and 3.1 here with MobileMe on and set to push.

It just doesn't work!

 

[barefootman]

Heres how I got mine to work.

In iCal select the birthday calendar on the left - control click and select publish and follow the prompts to publish it.

Select Calendar from the top menu bar and select "Send Publish Email" from that menu.

Send the email to yourself. On your iPhone click on the link it sent and it will subscribe to it.

That's how I had it BEFORE 3.1. That's not automatic syncing of subscribed calendars via MobileMe.

 

[alent1234]

I'm still waiting for MobilMe to use fully encrypted sessions. Right now, only your login is encrypted, but all your personal data that gets sent back and forth is not.

Unlike google, apple was too cheap to license activesync for it's cloud service

 

[jdechko]

Is that Apple's fault or FireFox's? Is it even Apple's responsibility? I have multiple third party applications that sync their info with MobileMe: Transmit, TextExpander, 1Password (use to anyways), Entourage.

Maybe someone at FireFox just needs to add the code...?

I'm blaming Apple, as it's their software, and if they want me to keep using it (not that I'm going to stop anyway), they need to add features for it. For reference, I'm on Windows and am using the Mobile Me control panel.

The Control Panel supports both IE and Safari for Bookmark syncing. The bookmarks are synced in a standard html file, the same as Firefox. I just don't see what the reason is for not supporting the second most popular browser (on both Mac and Windows) in the world (I know why safari is supported).

 

[gibstros]

Pass Code Lock Changed?

In addition to the changes announced, did Apple do something different to the Passcode lock in 3.1? I downloaded the update and my phone still only allows 4 characters for passcode lock. However, my secretary got a new phone today under warranty, direct from Apple. It has 3.1 software, but it allows for a long character string as passcode lock. In addition, while mine simply requires 4 characters and then it unlocks, hers requires that the user manually press an "ok" key to unlock the screen. I have looked and looked though, and I can't seem to find how to enable this feature.

 

[kansai-pj]

Mobileme Aliases

I don't get why, after making all these minor tweaks, Apple still cannot manage to do something as simple as enabling using aliases on the iPhone. Use of my aliases is critical for my professional and personal life. Come on Apple !

 

[WhySoSerious]

I don't get why, after making all these minor tweaks, Apple still cannot manage to do something as simple as enabling using aliases on the iPhone. Use of my aliases is critical for my professional and personal life. Come on Apple !

i agree

 

[sniffies]

Mail rules and filters, Apple, rules and filters!!!!!!!! Can you hear me, Apple???????

 

[djchuckc27]

i just spent 52 dollars on groceries that are only going to last me a week...

i think i'll keep paying 99 bucks a year for this GREAT service.

 

[jacg]

The only screwy thing is, if you send an email from your alias via the iphone, it will not save a copy on the "in the air" MM servers. it's only kept on the iphone.

Thank you for sharing - it's a crafty way to avoid the double message irritation. But it seems there is always a compromise with every workaround and, if I've understood correctly, your method means that mail sent from the iPhone won't appear in the sent folder on my laptop.

The MobileMe email aliases are crippled and should no longer be advertised as a feature for a service that integrates your computer with a mobile device. Or Apple should fix this preferably. I take it everyone has sent feedback? It does seem to help.

 

[rj713]

Hi, I only have a prepaid cell phone that is only turned on occasionally. I frequently turn off the sound on my landline. Having stated this my only use for MM is email and its not worth $99. I would pay $25 for just email but that is not an option. I've had mac mail since the early days when it was free. Now it is more and more dedicated to iphone--I can understand that as its Apples future. But for me, this is the year I quit--I just let my account expire. Ralph

 

[distortedloop]

I'm blaming Apple, as it's their software, and if they want me to keep using it (not that I'm going to stop anyway), they need to add features for it. For reference, I'm on Windows and am using the Mobile Me control panel.

The Control Panel supports both IE and Safari for Bookmark syncing. The bookmarks are synced in a standard html file, the same as Firefox. I just don't see what the reason is for not supporting the second most popular browser (on both Mac and Windows) in the world (I know why safari is supported).

IE is the built-in default browser tied to all versions of the Windows operating system. Safari is the built-in browser tied to all versions of OS X operating system. Firefox, while popular, is not installed on every Windows or Mac computer. On top of that, Firefox is open sourced with constant changes and stability issues, especially on the Mac.

I think you're being unreasonable to expect Apple to provide syncing services automatically for a competitor's product (see footnote) when Apple has provided the tools to do so for any programmer to add it to their software. Instead of bashing a service and using this one lack of feature as an excuse to diss a product many find very useful, why not spend the same effort asking Firefox developers to add a plug-in to Firefox to allow MobileMe syncing. The same logic applies, if Firefox wants you to keep using their product, they should keep adding features (like bookmark syncing through MobileMe).

As I mentioned, I have four different third party apps, some of them freeware, that sync with MobileMe, so it's not hard to do.

There are plenty of easy workarounds for this I am sure anyways. Google search brings up several, including how to use an iDisk folder to sync.

Footnote from above: Safari and Firefox are monetary competitors. Remember it's big money for any browser from Google to have people use their search feature from the search bar. That's how Firefox makes money to pay a huge multi-six-figure-salary to its CEO.

 

[neurobound]

MM is worth the full cost. People just complain because they don't like the fact you have to pay $99 + tax UPFRONT. It's only $0.27 a day. If someone here can honestly provide a realistic claim that they can't afford $0.27 a day for the features MM provides, please post.

It's just the upfront cost that some people can't handle. I see how dropping $99 + tax in one lump sum can cause you to scoff at any product, but really, break it down and it's not much for a years service that works very well.

It isn't that people can't afford it, it's a matter of relative worth. You can email//webhosting/ftp services - with more bandwidth and space, for half the price. With that, they'll often throw in a custom domain name for your email (who wants an @me.com address? I don't)

It IS a cool service, but it is not the quality product and service I expect from apple, and hardly justifies the $9 or so a month it costs. I tried to synch from my PC last night, a 220mb file, it failed about 4 times before I finally gave up for the night. No auto resume, so it had to restart from scratch each time. My network connectivity is solid, nothing else was interrupted.

Today, I try it on my macbook air - figuring perhaps the native software would be more robust. Well, I started the synch a couple hours ago, the progress shows roughly 15%. There's no data I/O or speed display, so you start to wonder if it's even doing anything.

Looking at a network monitor, I discovered that it was xfering at roughly 52kbps. Thats really sad, considering I have 250kbps+ of upload bandwidth readily available.

What I REALLY like about mobileme though, is the synching of contacts, bookmarks, etc. That's awesome.

Will I renew? Unlikely - unless they radically improve the software across the board. Allow me to use my own domain for email (I think you can for your website) Bring the xfer speed up to the 21st century, I'll be onboard - yeah, even at $99 a year. Add a robust file synching system that can actually AUTOMATICALLY RESUME if a network failure occurs.

Apple bothers me here also because they cut out other software vendors from providing a similar service. The SDK doesn't allow access to the contacts/bookmarks, so competition to mobileme will likely never exist - hence the $99 apple demands for inferior bandwidth/connectivity.

$0.27 a day... you can eat an elephant, if you take small enough bites.