Apple Reportedly Open to Restoring MobileMe Features Lost in iCloud Transition

[MacRumors]

AppleInsider reports that it has heard from a customer who emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing dismay over the discontinuation of several MobileMe features as the service is transitioned to iCloud. Surprisingly, the customer reports that he received a personal phone call from Cook's office noting that the company is indeed "open" to bringing some of the features back if customer demand supports their return.

"Specifically, I bemoaned the loss of sync services (syncing application preferences, keychain, etc.) and the loss of iDisk," the reader said of his initial email to Cook . "I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from his office just now.

According to Cook's people, while there are no plans to add those particular services to iCloud at this time, "Apple is open to it if there's enough feedback on the subject."

It is unclear exactly what aspect of the customer's email triggered a personal phone call from Apple's staff, as phone responses have typically been limited to resolving technical issues where discussions over the phone could expedite the resolution of the problems. Apple executives have on occasion personally responded to customer emails, with Steve Jobs being the highest-profile responder from the company over the past few years. Tim Cook has carried on that tradition since becoming CEO late last month, with other executives also taking part in responding to emails delegated by Cook.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Open to Restoring MobileMe Features Lost in iCloud Transition

 

[Qwaf]

I think we'll see some of these services return later on, a year or so from now. They want to be a bit more sure when it comes to iCloud, they want to approach it in typical Apple way.

You know, focus on a few key features and functionality and make sure that is right, instead of trying to do too many things at once. You know, especially after the mess that was the MobileMe launch.

 

[Small White Car]

Glad to hear it, but I'm sorry he use this opportunity to complain about iDisk, of all things. Apple should have killed that years ago.

But good job on the keychain complaint. I hope many more folks conplain about that.

 

[Duzer]

This is one of the reasons i love apple so much. i dont believe ive heard any story of Gates taking the time and emailing or calling his customers and giving personal feedback. Its nice to see a company offer/give what the public wants and showing they hear you.

 

[alent1234]

why do people even pay for MobileMe?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

I liked some of the features so it would be nice for them to come back.

 

[ConnYoungy]

It'd be nice if we could keep note sync and all the other things that sync over mobile me

on a similar note it'd be nice to have reminders and iMessages as mac apps

 

[Benjamins]

why do people even pay for MobileMe?

because they like the service?

 

[Plas00]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Sync would be awesome to be carried over, I could use Gallery too but I'm still to see how I can use the iCloud offerings to adapt my workflow over the one I have with MobileMe but definitely syncing of key chain, preferences, dock, etc. will be missed.

 

[alent1234]

because they like the service?

gmail is free
personal websites are 1990's
file sync is done better and cheaper by the competition

what is the draw?

 

[jav6454]

iDisk!!!! and Photo Gallery

gmail is free
personal websites are 1990's
file sync is done better and cheaper by the competition

what is the draw?

How about, Address Book, Calendars, Photo Gallery? True, you can find most services free, but Apple offered everything under one roof and integrated into their devices. Best of all, ad free!

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Glad to hear it, but I'm sorry he use this opportunity to complain about iDisk, of all things. Apple should have killed that years ago.

iDisk is fine & in OS integration makes it a breeze to use. No third party apps or installs required. The only bad part about it was the speed (and that was an OS issue. Transmit et al can access it at full speed).

 

[*LTD*]

why do people even pay for MobileMe?

It's actually the best service of its kind, especially its integration with iOS, where iDisk shines in particular.

I'd rather trust Apple with my dollar (which makes them accountable for the service) than trust a free service, much less one run by Google. Google is accountable to no one.

 

[ouimetnick]

Fix iDisk, bring back gallery, and all the MobileMe goodies. Apple, some of us are actually power users, and liked those features. Don't forget about us!

 

[hayesk]

gmail is free
personal websites are 1990's
file sync is done better and cheaper by the competition

what is the draw?

GMail is free because you are their product.

Some people aren't slaves to trends and want to use what they like no matter if irrelevant people think it's "1990s" or not.

MobileMe never left user accounts wide open like DropBox did.

 

[Small White Car]

iDisk is fine & in OS integration makes it a breeze to use. No third party apps or installs required. The only bad part about it was the speed (and that was an OS issue. Transmit et al can access it at full speed).

So the "only" bad part is that it didn't work well?

That's one heck of an "only."

And don't say it's an OS issue when Dropbox seems to work just fine. Surely Apple could figure out their OS as well as the Dropbox team did.

 

[meli]

I still miss remote access of Safari's bookmarks. Apple dropped that feature in the transition from .mac to MobileMe.

 

[Ultimacn]

Are you for real?

This is one of the reasons i love apple so much. i dont believe ive heard any story of Gates taking the time and emailing or calling his customers and giving personal feedback. Its nice to see a company offer/give what the public wants and showing they hear you.

I think you'll find he's too busy donating his time and enormous amounts of money via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the 3rd World. Funnily enough don't see Steve or anyone else in Apple doing so....

 

[jayman99]

Apple is not the best when "transitioning" anything. It's not surprising that they are starting fresh with iCloud and then, when organized, they can introduce axed features. MobileMe has been a mess, even .Mac wasn't great. Hopefully they have learned from their mistakes and can lead the industry with iCloud. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

 

[zapnyc]

gmail is free
file sync is done better and cheaper by the competition

what is the draw?

I haven't seen sync done better when it comes to integration. I'm generally an early-adopter with it comes to technology, but I'd rather use a private paid service and keep my reams of personal contacts, computer habits, info, messages, etc out of Google's hands. DropBox functionality is quirky to me, unless Apple integrated it better...but then why not do it themselves... "The Cloud" is overrated.

What would be preferable is for Apple to charge much less and thereby become a bit more competitive.

And it's a shame the name "mobile me" is being given up - it's a far more descriptive and catchy term than "icloud". Guess it's tainted. But they could have spun it into "the NEW MobileMe, featuring iCloud!" etc.

 

[roland.g]

Personal website might be 2000s and I can see dropping iWeb a little. But photo Galleries was the big one. The interface was elegant and smooth. And for sharing it was way better then Flickr etc. And fairly private.

 

[buffalohill]

You believe this??? Seriously???

Imagine if you were frustrated about loosing some functionality that Apple killed, what would you do if you were really desperate and just that little bit wacky enough too?



You might come up with the idea of sending Macrumors a report of a phone call from Apple (which can't be verified as opposed to an email) and thus rally up readers to send more emails to Apple to request these features in the hope that Apple will see your point and bring them back. This guy just wants you to send Apple an email requesting MobileMe features and it looks like he's succeeded. Macrumors, you fell for this??? Seriously???

 

[benthewraith]

I think you'll find he's too busy donating his time and enormous amounts of money via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the 3rd World. Funnily enough don't see Steve or anyone else in Apple doing so....

That just changed. Apple will now match any $10,000 of any contribution donated by an employee.

 

[jowie]

why do people even pay for MobileMe?

so that when iCloud rolls out publicly, MobileMe users will have the email address they want, as opposed to theonlynameleft32146@me.com

 

[Ultimacn]

Yes but

That just changed. Apple will now match any $10,000 of any contribution donated by an employee.

I see that but it'll take a lot to match what the Foundation has given. Don't get me wrong I don't blame Steve or Apple for this but thought it a bit daft to say Bill doesn't reply to email when it's obvious he's off doing other stuff. I'm no Microsoft lover but give Bill his dues.....