Immobilised by Apple’s MobileMe, even without an iPhone
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As the hype surrounding the god-like iPhone slowly, oh so slowly, fades, a problem emerges from the shadows… Apple’s subscription email service .Mac was rebranded MobileMe to coincide with the iPhone 3G launch. Existing customers have been moved to the new platform, but for some (Apple claims 1%) it’s a disaster. They’ve been unable to use email for five days — not from their Macs, not from their iPhones, not via the web. And that’s not the only problem. As .Mac user Ed Dale said, “Not pleasant to log in and see four years of mail gone.” Crikey’s First Dog on the Moon, also a MobileMe-er, says ”it’s been crap”. According to AppleInsider, a mail server crash and fiber-optic line faults have added to the problems. One subscriber told them he knew at least 10 people with MobileMe and all of them were affected. “Now either it’s just a coincidence that everyone I know is in the 1%, or Apple is flat out lying,” he said. Sydney businessman Mark Bowyer, presumably like many .Mac customers, subscribed years ago assuming that paying $139.95 per annum would deliver greater reliability than free services like Hotmail and Gmail, as well as features like shared calendars. Today, he’s angry. The only message from Apple has been “we’re working on it”. “There is no phone [support] available for [MobileMe] in Australia,” he told Crikey. “Despite the army of Apple personnel selling iPhones and other gadgetry, nobody here can answer any enquiries about the problem.” Not that this would make any difference. Ultra-secretive Apple never provides information beyond its official statements. Although, in a very unusual step, it has apologised to .Mac users, sending this email:
The Terms of Service say MobileMe “is designed for personal use and not intended to be used for commercial business purposes.” Bowyer, who does run his business email elsewhere, reckons that shouldn’t make a difference. “I have become painfully aware of how I have entrusted so much of my life to Apple — banking, subscriptions — including my Crikey subscription — credit card statements, not to mention an international network of friends and contacts. Who’s to say I don’t value my personal life more than my business?” This personal/business distinction also seems odd given that Apple markets MobileMe as “Exchange for the rest of us”, a reference to Microsoft’s corporate messaging server. Perhaps it’s irony, given Exchange’s notorious reputation for being difficult to manage. Will this hurt Apple’s reputation and sales? Not one bit. It’d make Kim Jong-il proud to see the fields filled with happy iPhone-waving infoworkers smiling for Chairman Steve, oblivious to the obvious flaws around them. |
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11 Comments
Why would anyone leave four years of emails sitting around on their computer. Store them somewhere else or move on in life.
Brief blip with Mail on Day 1. Another last night (an hour so). Everything else OK. Not a bad performance, it seems to me.
Folks, imagine if this were a Microsoft exercise …
It’s a fair cop, Guv. MobileMe has been an uncharacteristic mess from Apple.
But @davo, why should the iPhone be considered a flop? 1 million sales in 2 days is not a flop in anyone’s book.
Well it’s a good thing that only a small percentage of people use Macs then…
FWIW, I’ve been using Gmail for four years and there has never been an interruption to the service.
Wow, Davo, it’s ranting misinformed PC-fanboys like you that make being a Mac user so much darn fun.
And Stilgherrian, we’re not oblivious to the flaws, it’s just that there are so few of them we simply don’t care…at least not as much as you and Davo.
dotmac user since it was iTools..a minor disruption on first day, no problems since then.
i use the service on a daily basis, not an hourly basis, or even minute by minute.
most issues are to do with rate of push update, which takes 15 or more minutes due to server issues.
an update to iphone/ipod touch, activating all the new iphones, and opening the apps store…all on the same day was very ambitious. 1million (new) iphones, several million ipods and 3 million APPs downloads would challenge any system…
there are clearly on-going minor issues, more to do with the habits of users…it is patchy though…of fifty users on iMug..3 or 4 have issues ( yeah 6%~8%) bu tthe service has been available more often than telstra over the same period( voda also had downtime as did optus cable)
suck it in get on with it…
btw abackup of everything from time to time would be a bit of an idea that may catch on now that time capsule is available…expensive..but set and forget it works!!
Apple is the worst company for distorting fact. They claim their machines are faster. They’re not. They claim they never crash or freeze. They do. They claim they are value for money. They are not. They claim they do better graphics and sound. They don’t. When you bring these up, all you get is weak excuses - (PC’s took our software; the speed tests don’t work as well on Microsoft; That wasn’ a freeze (and Microsoft caused it anyway)…
The iPhone should go down as one of the greatest flops of the century. It won’t. But it should.
Dear God! Anyone who leaves 4 years of email without backing it up deserves to lose it! Same goes for ANY important info. All computer systems fail from time to time. Apple systems are far less trouble than PC’s but they _do_ fail!
We had 4 people in this company get hooked up with new iphones. There were a couple of slight interruptions to the mail service but other than that all went quite smoothly. People really tie themselves up in knots over this shit. It’s quite pathetic.
As a new user Me also did not work for at least the first week. Calls to Apple meant me finding out I knew more than them from forums etc….. It was down yesterday for many hours = NO EMAIL. This has been a pretty crappy experience made worse by Apple not giving a toss…
I don’t use the iPhone but I have had no problems with the change from dotMac to MobileMe.
Gee, dommo, it’s funny how people make assumptions… Yes, I’m critical of the slack-jawed amazement which accompanies Apple’s new übercool products, and I think they’re handling this MobileMe problem poorly. But I’ve also used Macs since 1985 in preference to anything Microsoft offered along the way. I just like to look at these things through a rational, technical lens, not religious zealotry (hi dave).