mobileme posts

After a day of intermittent issues for email on MobileMe, Apple has noted the issue on the MobileMe support page; the company says the problem is now resolved but "some MobileMe users could not send.... We apologize for any inconvenience.

No kidding. We've had communications about this from our readers, and I've had spotty service for a full 24 hours. There are also comments on the Apple Support boards about today's hiccups.

I made the mistake of using the MobileMe support Live Chat option yesterday, where I described my issues to 'Jason'. I told him I knew several people with the problem. His solution was for me to change my mail password. I typed back that I didn't see how that was the issue because I'd already told him I have the problem on 4 Apple devices (iPhone, desktop, MacBook Pro and iPad) and that the problem was happening on several networks, not just the home and office.

His response was that if I wasn't going to cooperate he was done, and he cut off the chat. Nice. Apple support is usually excellent, but MobileMe has had a lot of problems over the years, and I have consistently found MobileMe support to be often uninformed and defensive. As of this afternoon EDT Apple says it is fixed, and I hope that's true. Apple charges quite a lot for MobileMe services. The company could do better at reliability, and monitoring Apple support comments from users, instead of doubting a problem exists. I'm looking forward to the day when MobileMe 'just works.'

Apple has updated the MobileMe iDisk app (free) with several new features, including full iPad compatibility. Now universal, MobileMe iDisk looks great on an iPad and offers full iOS 4 multitasking support.

It saves its state like other multitask-optimized apps, so it'll present the last file you were browsing at launch. Also, you can open compatible documents for iBooks, Pages, GoodReader, or other apps that support the "Open in..." feature. The iPad's split screen display also makes it very easy to view documents while browsing folders.

If you have audio files stored on your iDisk, the app will let you listen to them in the background while you do other things.

MobileMe iDisk is free, but it requires a valid MobileMe account. The app was first released last year for the iPhone, and this is its first significant upgrade since last December.

If you were disappointed that you can't upload full 720p video from your iPhone 4 to YouTube without transferring it to a computer first, then check out the latest update to the free app Pixelpipe.

While there has been some speculation over whether app developers would be able to access the full-resolution videos for sharing, commenters were quick to assure us there was no reason to worry. Pixelpipe claims that it will share your edited mobile masterpiece in all its splendor not only with YouTube but also to Flickr, Facebook, MobileMe, Viddler, Posterous and a bunch of other video-capable sites (as well email and FTP) for videos up to 200MB.

The update to 2.01 is also quick to add iOS 4.0 multitasking for background uploading and should continue to serve as a semi-ubiquitous multi-tool for getting our videos (and pictures) uploaded almost anywhere you want them to go. We mentioned Pixelpipe previously around the time of the 3GS launch last year; it seems to have come a long way since then.

It is worth noting that some users seem to be experiencing some instability with the app that will hopefully get ironed out quickly. If you are having trouble with it, keep your eyes peeled for other developers to follow up with alternatives now that we know 720p uploading is possible.

Update: Reader Aaron notes that SmugShot is also 720p-upload enabled.

Hat tip to Chris Pirillo

Apple has pushed out a new version of MobileMe Gallery, a free app for people who post pictures to the MobileMe service and want to access them on their iPhone or mail them to friends.

Apple says the app now has higher resolution images on an iPhone 4 when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Apple also says, with no specifics, that there are 'various bug fixes'.

What's missing from all this is that iPad owners have to use the same Gallery app and scale it up, making their images look precisely like crap. You'd think that with the beautiful iPad screen Apple would support it with a universal app. Well, maybe someday.

MobileMe emerged from its downtime this morning with a new app, improved navigation and significant changes to Mail. The app is MobileMe for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Now customers can locate, lock or even wipe their lost device from another iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Of course, that means you'll need access to two devices, but that's a minor technicality, right?

The new version of Mail is out of beta and available to everyone. There are a lot of changes here, including some that have been added since the beta program started. New widescreen and compact views allow for more of your messages to be seen without scrolling. The older classic view is still available, but seems cluttered when compared to the other two. I'm using the compact view, which displays messages like the iPad does in landscape orientation.

Rules are now in place for everyone (they need a few minutes to get working), and apply to messages received on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad as well.

One-click archiving will send your messages to the archive folder for future reference. It is possible to select multiple messages at once, making archiving easier. Also new is faster performance (there's no need to click and load every message), SSL security and a formatting toolbar. You can even reformat long URLs into something more manageable.

Changes that are new since the beta release include support for external addresses. Now you can read all of your mail in one place. Plus, if you reply to a message received from an external address, you can send it from that message, not your MobileMe account.

Junk mail filtering has also been improved since the beta. Now, flagged messages go directly to the junk mail folder. You can always go in and rescue false positives, however.

Aside from Mail and the new Find My iPhone app, MobileMe navigation has been changed. All of the services now feature a unified toolbar. The cloud icon remains constant, and clicking on it brings up an app switcher for moving between services.

Have fun exploring the new MobileMe. Congratulations to Apple and the MobileMe team on a solid update.

Apple has released a Find my iPhone app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch today, bringing the MobileMe service to the three devices (it only tracks the iPhone and iPad, of course).

If your iPhone or iPad goes missing, you can install the app on any other iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and log in with your MobileMe credentials (a MobileMe account is required) to find it. Once located, the app places its location on a map. From there you can display a message on the iPhone or iPad's screen, have it play a sound (even if silenced), remote lock it or even wipe it clean.

Of course, the whole thing hinges on your having a 2nd device to find the first one. Find my iPhone is free and universal and available now.

Don't be expecting to see any MobileMe web functionality tonight for 2 hours between 10 and midnight PDT. Apple says it is shutting the service down for "scheduled maintenance".

A note on the MobileMe support page states:

MobileMe members will be unable to access MobileMe applications at me.com. Access to MobileMe will still be available on desktop applications, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Normal service is expected to be restored at the end of the maintenance window.

It's likely this work will support iPhone 4 which hits the streets next week. Hopefully Apple learned a lesson from the 2008 debacle when Apple brought out the iPhone 3G at the same time it launched the .Mac re-branding that became MobileMe.

Well, that's that.

I have whittled MobileMe down to two useful functions: Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe. And yes, I use one of those functions quite often, say, when my husband is off on some 80 mile jaunt on his bicycle. I have, thankfully, yet to require the services of the other one. But the rest of it: email, syncing, and online storage? Gone the way of the dodo.

Initially, I moved mostly over to Gmail to take advantage of its more robust email aliasing. I have several email addresses on personal domains, and Gmail gave me the best mix of domain use, plus sophisticated filtering and spam identification. MobileMe just doesn't play nicely with personal domains, and once Google enabled IMAP for gmail and then push email, I basically abandoned my .me address, relegating it to receiving Apple Store retail receipts and my Apple ID for iTunes.

Steven Frank from Panic has outlined several important differences between the way that Address Book (on Snow Leopard) and Google Contacts manage data. This is on his personal website. He's quick to point out that it is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but it reflects several things that I also noticed.

A few months ago, I had the notion to replace my MobileMe subscription with syncing to Google services, using BusyCal (whose icon is shown here) for calendars and either BusySync or Address Book's own built-in support for syncing contacts to Google. The experiment was short-lived.

I'm not saying that it isn't possible to do, but there are some limitations and incompatibilities. As one example, when you create an event on the iPhone calendar, you can create two alarms. I use this all of the time. The first alarm is a "Hey, don't forget this is coming up" reminder, and the second alarm tells me "Hey! You need to deal with this now." When syncing to a Google Calendar, you can only create one alarm. Is that a major difference? No, but it's not insignificant.

Read on...

The surprise announcement of a beta version of Apple's browser-based MobleMe Mail has users curious about the service's future. While we await our invitations, we compared the only beta screenshot we've found to Mail's current appearance. Here's what we found, starting from the top.

Toolbar

The new toolbar is blue and features fewer icons. The Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Photos, iDisk, Find and Settings icons currently on the far left have been replaced with a single MobileMe Cloud icon. Perhaps it produces a drop-down revealing the other services. It seems unlikely that Apple would release a public beta that's so incomplete so as not to include links to services beyond email, but it is a Mail beta, so Apple is likely focusing on the functioning of that service before providing links to the rest.

Check out the gallery below for side-by-side screenshots.

An eagle-eyed reader spotted something new on his MobileMe account after the completed maintenance this evening -- an invitation to join a "mail beta" for MobileMe.

What is this? We originally thought it could possibly be linked into the rumors that MobileMe may soon be free, but reader Beau quickly pointed us to a news post from Apple detailing a new MobileMe Mail beta application.

Features include:

• The ability to have both widescreen and compact views.
• Rules to help keep mail organized on any device you use MobileMe. Note that any rules set up on the beta may override rules already in place on OS X Mail, so disable duplicate rules on your Mac before giving this a test drive.
• Single-click archiving of e-mail.
• Formatting toolbar including the ability to shorten long URLs.
• Improved performance for MobileMe Mail through me.com.
• SSL security no matter where you access your MobileMe Mail.

The beta will work best with Safari 4, Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8. Additional information can be found on this support page. To get an invitation, sign into your MobileMe account through me.com and you'll see the invite in the bottom left corner. Please note that the beta is only available to English-language users of MobileMe at this time.

Thanks to Moses for the tip!

MacDailyNews reports an unconfirmed rumor that Apple may soon make MobileMe's services free to all users. MobileMe currently costs US$99 per year for a subscription; it provides cloud storage, email, photo galleries, and syncing of contacts/calendars/bookmarks across Macs, PCs, iPhones, and iPads (not to mention Find My iPhone). While the service has many useful features (some implemented better than others: I'm aiming my stinkeye at you, iDisk), many have balked at the price tag.

Similar storage and email services from competitors like Google and Microsoft come either free of charge or at reduced cost compared to MobileMe; even MobileMe's distant ancestor, iTools, was a free offering back in the day. Of course, MobileMe delivers more iPhone & Mac-friendly syncing than Google does, but at $99 per year, it's a fair bet that few people are taking advantage of everything MobileMe has to offer.

MacDailyNews' source says MobileMe will become free of charge "sooner than later... depends on certain facilities going operational." This almost certainly refers to Apple's new server farm in North Carolina. Aerial footage of Apple's server farm, released in February, showed that the complex's buildings were either mostly or entirely constructed, so the facility may be ready to go online at any time.

I hope this rumor is true, especially the "sooner than later" part -- my MobileMe subscription is due for renewal at the end of this month.

Sachin Agarwal, cofounder and CEO of Posterous, and former Apple employee who worked on Final Cut Pro, thinks that the Finder is dead. I wouldn't break out the sackcloth and ashes (or the champagne, depending on your feelings towards the Finder) just yet.

He has two main points:

1. We will no longer interact with applications or files on a desktop PC

2. The central point of syncing your data will no longer be your PC, it will be MobileMe (the cloud)

Let's address his second point first: bwahahahahahaha. OK, I feel much better. As anyone who has used iDisk knows, iDisk is terrible in its current form. It's slow, it's easily corrupted, and it does not handle sync errors well.

I've been waiting for Apple to get MobileMe and especially iDisk in shape for years, and every year I ship off my $100 for MobileMe hoping that this will be the year. We are no closer to it than we were three years ago. Or five years ago. Sachin says that "the Finder hasn't been updated with anything sexy in years." That may be true, but the same thing can be said of Apple's use of "the cloud" through MobileMe.

Read on for more thoughts...