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Apple Revamps .Mac: Mobile Me Announced
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I must admit that these new changes are tempting me to put my hand in me pocket.
Previously I didn't need it as I own so so many domain names and have a substantial amount of storage, so it just didn't seem worth it to me. Since getting my hands on an iPod Touch however my 'needs' have changed and this seems like the perfect solution.
I must agree with the comments made here though, the whole @me.com addy just sounds so weak......but as previously mentioned I wouldn't use it anyway, and you can always still use your @.mac.com so it's not gonna really be a deal breaker for old users.
I think they must have re-staffed the marketing department lately. Firstly a lame OS name like 'Snow Leopard' that reeks of its predecessor and lacks originality and then an unbelievably terrible domain name for what in essence is gonna be a great service. Add to that a logo that looks like it was drawn by a toddler......
....I think someone needs to get fired!
Previously I didn't need it as I own so so many domain names and have a substantial amount of storage, so it just didn't seem worth it to me. Since getting my hands on an iPod Touch however my 'needs' have changed and this seems like the perfect solution.
I must agree with the comments made here though, the whole @me.com addy just sounds so weak......but as previously mentioned I wouldn't use it anyway, and you can always still use your @.mac.com so it's not gonna really be a deal breaker for old users.
I think they must have re-staffed the marketing department lately. Firstly a lame OS name like 'Snow Leopard' that reeks of its predecessor and lacks originality and then an unbelievably terrible domain name for what in essence is gonna be a great service. Add to that a logo that looks like it was drawn by a toddler......
....I think someone needs to get fired!
Yup. And this wasn't even really about Mac stuff since it is fairly accessible from any platform over the web.
I think you're exactly right. I watched the keynote last night (waste of time, as mentioned above), and during this whole segment I kept wondering what the heck was new? Phil Schiller kept going on and on about how great this new push email technology was, as if Apple invented something groundbreaking (yeah, right!) and I'm thinking, I can do all of this with IMAP and a short poll interval. So with push email, it might get to you 30 seconds faster, and there's less network activity overall, but what consumer even notices that? It's a nice, minor improvement at best. Hardly anything to spend more than 2 seconds talking about in a keynote. Especially a keynote for developers when this is a consumer service.
As for calendar and contact push, again this is a very minor update to the way .Mac does it now. I have my two Macs set to sync with .Mac "Automatically" and I always get the latest updates within minutes. Changing that from a few minutes (sync) to 10-15 seconds (push) is worthy of keynote time? I don't think so!
Honestly, I can't understand why anyone would be excited about this after seeing the presentation, especially if they weren't already using or interested in .Mac. Are Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller really that spellbinding? Basically, this minor update includes:
- Name change
- Push instead of poll for some sync services - ~30 second average improvement
- Improved AJAX/Web-2.0/buzzword-compliant web interface with degraded browser compatibility
- More storage space
- No new features
- A whole lot of undeserved hype
I totally agree. Where is the news? The quick reply is already there as well.
So far, so good, so what?
-The quick reply in Mail is already there in .Mac
-The Galleries are all dressed in black. Why no costumization available?
-Where is push for Notes and To Do's?
-The Bookmarks thingy has been removed.
-The URL for you webpage and Galleries stink. No one will remember them.
-The Mobile Me logo and name stink. So not Apple like imho.
Mobile Me is all about improvements no doubt, and so far so good, but why haven't they introduced any new features? This is .Mac as it should always have been, so its beyond me why Apple did not spend some time trying to come up with something genius that would separate them from the rest of the pack.
-The quick reply in Mail is already there in .Mac
-The Galleries are all dressed in black. Why no costumization available?
-Where is push for Notes and To Do's?
-The Bookmarks thingy has been removed.
-The URL for you webpage and Galleries stink. No one will remember them.
-The Mobile Me logo and name stink. So not Apple like imho.
Mobile Me is all about improvements no doubt, and so far so good, but why haven't they introduced any new features? This is .Mac as it should always have been, so its beyond me why Apple did not spend some time trying to come up with something genius that would separate them from the rest of the pack.
Yeah that would be encouraging to new members...unfortunately my account is set for automatic renewal on June 29th, i.e. I will still pay the full 99 to get "upgraded" to cheaper euro mobile me a few days later.
I kinda feel Apple won't offer me a refund
Besides, if they ever remove the possibility to use my .mac address, I quit. The me.com address just doesn't work for me, sounds like a I-m-a-kid-I-want-new-friends address
Yes, if I understand correctly, you will need to buy the iPod Software Update for $9.95 via the iTunes store and then you should be able to do all the new MobileMe stuff.
Anybody have any idead about when it will be released
I belive July 11th (When the iPhone 3g comes out)
July 11th seems to be the most likely date....however there's no reason to stop them rolling it out a little earlier.
Since we know that the price of this service will be lower than the dotmac new customers will not be signing up (at least if they have any sense). That's an entire month without new business.
Since we know that the price of this service will be lower than the dotmac new customers will not be signing up (at least if they have any sense). That's an entire month without new business.
Multiple calenders / multiple mail accounts
I'm new so excuse the possibly lame question but I'm dying to know...
Do any of you think that with Mobileme I'll be able to keep my work mail account, calender, and contacts on the iPhone (all hopefully via push with the Exchange update in 2.0), but also have it synch via mobileme to my .mac mail, calender, contacts, etc? Basically I want to be able to have everything on the phone so that I can see both on the phone, but I don't want my work calender synching to my mac, nor do I want my work contacts synching to my Address book. Vice versa, etc, etc
Thoughts?
I'm new so excuse the possibly lame question but I'm dying to know...
Do any of you think that with Mobileme I'll be able to keep my work mail account, calender, and contacts on the iPhone (all hopefully via push with the Exchange update in 2.0), but also have it synch via mobileme to my .mac mail, calender, contacts, etc? Basically I want to be able to have everything on the phone so that I can see both on the phone, but I don't want my work calender synching to my mac, nor do I want my work contacts synching to my Address book. Vice versa, etc, etc
Thoughts?
Couldn't you set up an Exchange account on the iPhone? Anyway, I suppose if you forwarded all your e-mail to the MobileMe e-mail, it would work. As for the calendars, same thing. Maybe upload all of them onto MobileME, and then it should work.
First, you pay $9.95 to upgrade the iPod touch with the 2.0 firmware. MobileME is a separate service for $99/year that works with the Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch.
Okay, I've figured out what's been bothering me about this syncing service.
It's the "everything wants to define 'me'" issue.
Right now I'm fighting a losing battle with the new YahooSync thing in 10.5.3 (how do I get rid of the damn thing). My Mac and my Yahoo can't agree on which card is "me", so they both end up adding their own card to each other. Both of them have me in there twice.
My real Address Book card has all my details in it, and Yahoo has plopped in a second one with a scant few Yahoo details. On Yahoo, my full Address Book card can be found alongside my minimal Yahoo card. Yahoo won't allow you to say "This is me" like you can in Address Book and Entourage.
The only way forward seems to be to copy all my data from my real Address Book card into the one Yahoo took upon itself to create, then delete my Address Book card and choose a new "me" in Address Book. The problem with that is a) the work involved in migrating it all over, and b) I had to fight this same battle with my phone - I had to wipe my phone, which I figured would be a trivial issue since I sync it. But my phone would not allow me pump my Address Book card into it and pick up my details from it; it regarded my Address Book "me" card as a separate person.
I had to do exactly what I just described for Yahoo, but with my phone - repopulate my details into the new card my phone created in my Address Book, delete the old one and say that the new one is now "me". And if I do this again with Yahoo, what will happen to my phone? These syncs tools seem to distinguish between cards, even if the details are changed (it looks like they have a unique identifier of some type), so I fear I'm likely to end up with my phone and Yahoo disagreeing.
Which brings us to.... what happens with MobileMe when multiple Macs and multiple iPhones and multiple PCs all argue about which card is "me"? And can I be certain that I won't get this duplication mess? Oh, and by the way, several of my friends are duplicated too. Their names are the same in both Address Book and Yahoo, and yet they appear twice. I delete the duplicates and they just come back with the next sync.
Syncing is great in theory, but it's a freaking bitch of a nightmare in practice. EVERY program, EVERY device should allow you to say "this is my card" (or "this is their card") instead of assuming they know what's what. Until they do, I doubt syncing will work right anywhere.
/end rant
It's the "everything wants to define 'me'" issue.
Right now I'm fighting a losing battle with the new YahooSync thing in 10.5.3 (how do I get rid of the damn thing). My Mac and my Yahoo can't agree on which card is "me", so they both end up adding their own card to each other. Both of them have me in there twice.
My real Address Book card has all my details in it, and Yahoo has plopped in a second one with a scant few Yahoo details. On Yahoo, my full Address Book card can be found alongside my minimal Yahoo card. Yahoo won't allow you to say "This is me" like you can in Address Book and Entourage.
The only way forward seems to be to copy all my data from my real Address Book card into the one Yahoo took upon itself to create, then delete my Address Book card and choose a new "me" in Address Book. The problem with that is a) the work involved in migrating it all over, and b) I had to fight this same battle with my phone - I had to wipe my phone, which I figured would be a trivial issue since I sync it. But my phone would not allow me pump my Address Book card into it and pick up my details from it; it regarded my Address Book "me" card as a separate person.
I had to do exactly what I just described for Yahoo, but with my phone - repopulate my details into the new card my phone created in my Address Book, delete the old one and say that the new one is now "me". And if I do this again with Yahoo, what will happen to my phone? These syncs tools seem to distinguish between cards, even if the details are changed (it looks like they have a unique identifier of some type), so I fear I'm likely to end up with my phone and Yahoo disagreeing.
Which brings us to.... what happens with MobileMe when multiple Macs and multiple iPhones and multiple PCs all argue about which card is "me"? And can I be certain that I won't get this duplication mess? Oh, and by the way, several of my friends are duplicated too. Their names are the same in both Address Book and Yahoo, and yet they appear twice. I delete the duplicates and they just come back with the next sync.
Syncing is great in theory, but it's a freaking bitch of a nightmare in practice. EVERY program, EVERY device should allow you to say "this is my card" (or "this is their card") instead of assuming they know what's what. Until they do, I doubt syncing will work right anywhere.
/end rant
I agree with you. May be if enough of us ridicule this new folly Jobs might want to 86 this juvenile POS...
Steve Jobs will only care if the service isn't widely adopted and fails to make money. Since everyone with an iPhone will want this, that is an unlikely scenario. Make fun all you want, but I don't think Jobs hangs out on the MacRumors boards...
Does anyone know if getting your own domain and tying it to mac/me.com allows you to point email to @<domian>.com?
Make fun all you want, but I don't think Jobs hangs out on the MacRumors boards...
Of course he's a member here....how else would he stay on top of what's coming next!?!
I guess the multiple calendar support is not a mobileMe feature, but an iPhone 2.0 feature. Weird I haven't heard if it in the rumors, but it's there in the iPhone features page
Even looks like they greaty extended the iPhone's calendar app. Now there's an invitation and attendees tab.
Taken from the "See it in action" video
For me, the iPhone is an iPod I can make calls with, write SMS, edit my shopping list (pop up the Notes app whenever I remember to buy something) and a calendar. I use the calendar a lot, the address book too, although I wish the contact photos were included like in the keynote demo app. If someone knows an app that does it, please tell me
Demo app from the WWDC2006 keynote podcast at 17:35
Bottom of line: Do I want/need mobileMe?
- 20 GB of storage. That's what rapidshare is for
- eMail syncing: I assume it only works with your .mac (.me) address. Who exlusively uses their .mac e-mail?
- syncing in general: Do I really need my devices synced up all the time? When I'm at my Mac, I edit stuff on it directly, if not I do it on the iPhone. I have to connect the iPhone via USB anyway to get the new podcasts, photos and videos on it. So the only time I'd actually use MobileMe is when I don't have either my Mac or my iPhone with me. Well, actually on a Mac with Leopard, I can control Mac at home with Screen Sharing, but I agree that is kinda geeky.
- Mail syncing: Right now, Mail on iPhone is useless to me. It syncs over the accounts from the Mac alright, but the iPhone has no rules, no junk folder and no syncing at all for POP3 accounts. I wish it would sync up with Mail on the Mac a little more. Right now I only turn it on on the iPhone when I really have to and I have to wait half an hour for it to load all the old messages and deal with my e-mail provider's timeouts...
- Gallery syncing: The iPhone camera has plenty of megapixels but no flash and sometimes the pictures are distorted because the sensor scans the area top to bottom and it shows when you or your subject move a little while taking the picture.
I'd love iTunes syncing over MobileMe. Imagine having your entire iTunes library on Apple's server, accessible from anywhere. Got your iPhnoe with you, but you did not sync that song or video because there was not enough space on the iPhone? No problem, get it from your MobileMe. Want to show someone a cool picture but it's at home? No problem, your iPhoto Library is on MobileMe. Didn't back up your documents and now your laptop's hard drive died? No worries, there's a full backup on MobileMe. Come to think of it, the average Apple consumer hard drive space is about 200 GB. Why not offer a cloud storage service where your data gets synced to the cloud? Just select "MobileMe" as secondary Time Machine Drive and enjoy. On the other hand, who would buy laptops if they can access all their stuff from any computer...
Even looks like they greaty extended the iPhone's calendar app. Now there's an invitation and attendees tab.
Taken from the "See it in action" video
For me, the iPhone is an iPod I can make calls with, write SMS, edit my shopping list (pop up the Notes app whenever I remember to buy something) and a calendar. I use the calendar a lot, the address book too, although I wish the contact photos were included like in the keynote demo app. If someone knows an app that does it, please tell me
Demo app from the WWDC2006 keynote podcast at 17:35
Bottom of line: Do I want/need mobileMe?
- 20 GB of storage. That's what rapidshare is for
- eMail syncing: I assume it only works with your .mac (.me) address. Who exlusively uses their .mac e-mail?
- syncing in general: Do I really need my devices synced up all the time? When I'm at my Mac, I edit stuff on it directly, if not I do it on the iPhone. I have to connect the iPhone via USB anyway to get the new podcasts, photos and videos on it. So the only time I'd actually use MobileMe is when I don't have either my Mac or my iPhone with me. Well, actually on a Mac with Leopard, I can control Mac at home with Screen Sharing, but I agree that is kinda geeky.
- Mail syncing: Right now, Mail on iPhone is useless to me. It syncs over the accounts from the Mac alright, but the iPhone has no rules, no junk folder and no syncing at all for POP3 accounts. I wish it would sync up with Mail on the Mac a little more. Right now I only turn it on on the iPhone when I really have to and I have to wait half an hour for it to load all the old messages and deal with my e-mail provider's timeouts...
- Gallery syncing: The iPhone camera has plenty of megapixels but no flash and sometimes the pictures are distorted because the sensor scans the area top to bottom and it shows when you or your subject move a little while taking the picture.
I'd love iTunes syncing over MobileMe. Imagine having your entire iTunes library on Apple's server, accessible from anywhere. Got your iPhnoe with you, but you did not sync that song or video because there was not enough space on the iPhone? No problem, get it from your MobileMe. Want to show someone a cool picture but it's at home? No problem, your iPhoto Library is on MobileMe. Didn't back up your documents and now your laptop's hard drive died? No worries, there's a full backup on MobileMe. Come to think of it, the average Apple consumer hard drive space is about 200 GB. Why not offer a cloud storage service where your data gets synced to the cloud? Just select "MobileMe" as secondary Time Machine Drive and enjoy. On the other hand, who would buy laptops if they can access all their stuff from any computer...
I would consider $99 a small price to pay to avoid Google-style "targeted advertising."
I totally agree with wondering where push is for Notes and To Do's. I don't understand how Apple continues to leave a To Do list out of every single one of it's products, including mobile me and the iphone. It doesn't seem this would be a hard feature to add!
More Mobile Stuff??
Perhaps "MobileMe" is the start of a whole family of mobile products. I can imagine a Mac tablet named "MobileMac."
Jay
Perhaps "MobileMe" is the start of a whole family of mobile products. I can imagine a Mac tablet named "MobileMac."
Jay
They're targetting it at the new "ME" generation. Everything is about me.
Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me
Oh, and did I mention "Me"
Me all the time...
Indeed....and when you break it down it's just $0.27 a day to keep them from the door!
Can you say Bargain?!
MrCrowbar said:
I would imagine that this will come with the software update.