Thanks for the further explanation Tommo_UK. Since I have had a positive experience with MobileMe so far, I was oblivious to the problems that other people having. Hopefully the situation improves for you soon.

[quote author=“wheeles”][quote author=“willrob”] Mossberg on MobileMe . Too flawed to Recommend

I can’t help but think that they should have rolled this out piecemeal rather than go for the big bang approach. Maybe even run .Mac and MobileMe side by side with MobileMe being in a 6 month free trial period for existing .Mac customers.

After my rant on AFB last week about Mobile Me, I received a call from Apple “on behalf of Steve Jobs who has passed this to me to follow up” to discuss the matter.

They’re painfully aware of the situation and the damage its done and are working overtime to try and fix it.

I explained my position as both a shareholder and a user, and he promised to keep me informed as things developed and gave me his personal line to call if I had any further issues or complaints to make.

MM seems to be working almost flawlessly now, but there are still issues, and the damage Apple took in botching the launch will take a lot longer to repair.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“wheeles”][quote author=“willrob”] Mossberg on MobileMe . Too flawed to Recommend

I can’t help but think that they should have rolled this out piecemeal rather than go for the big bang approach. Maybe even run .Mac and MobileMe side by side with MobileMe being in a 6 month free trial period for existing .Mac customers.

After my rant on AFB last week about Mobile Me, I received a call from Apple “on behalf of Steve Jobs who has passed this to me to follow up” to discuss the matter.

They’re painfully aware of the situation and the damage its done and are working overtime to try and fix it.

I explained my position as both a shareholder and a user, and he promised to keep me informed as things developed and gave me his personal line to call if I had any further issues or complaints to make.

MM seems to be working almost flawlessly now, but there are still issues, and the damage Apple took in botching the launch will take a lot longer to repair.

Did you tell them you’d like to talk about it over dinner??? Preferably a really big dinner?

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]I am furious at this cock-up. Apple, you suck. There. I said it.

Don’t remove the Apple tattoos just yet. 

[quote author=”$Billyall”]Did you tell them you’d like to talk about it over dinner??? Preferably a really big dinner?

No, but I sent him a 12-pack of Krispy Kremes

I think I wrote just before the launch that MobileMe was by far the highest risk part of the megalaunch that was just about to take place. I was surprised it was all happening at the same time.

I agree that it’s going to take a while to live down, but speaking from ancient experience of software projects, you get by far the best productivity out of software engineers when they work 24/7 on a project (apart from sleeping). Serious programmers often pull all-nighters. You need to get everything else out of your head, and it can take literally half a day to get back “in the zone” after a break of a few hours.

So I’m not convinced it won’t have turned out for the best. We’re up and running. Without the crash start, a careful launch might not have happened for another 6 months. iPhones are going to be shipping in such high numbers that waiting probably wasn’t an option.

Well I’ll be doggone.  Apple is reading AFB- and even responding!  The power of a T rant revealed.

It really is too bad that they botched the rollout of .me like they did and like I originally said, they should have introduced it as a beta alongside .mac.

It took a lot of cojones to bring it all online in one magic flip of the switch but obviously they overestimated themselves and underestimated the difficulties.  It seems pretty much under control now but a lot of damage has been done and when you get Uncle Mossberg’s scowl it is pretty serious.

Apple always seems to have problems when they introduce syncservices.

Remember iSync, didnt work in the beginning.

Dotmac has definitely not worked flawlessly during my several years as a customer. Uncounted are the times I had to reset the data at dotmac.

Back to my mac has its shares of problems - especially when on foreign routers the results are meager - and difficult to understand and solve.

...and iChat screensharing works - only sometimes - and often only one way eg I can se other screen but other mac can not see my screen.

It seems to be rather complicated technology and Apple has definitely not been able to keep the same high standard as in most all other aspects..

Just my little rant after uncountable frustrations   :x :x

Climbforever,

I share all of your experiences and frustrations in each of the matters you mention actually. Apple and syncing in all forms has always been a hit and miss affair. I had hoped that “this time was different” but actually it was worse than ever

[quote author=“climbforever”]Apple always seems to have problems when they introduce syncservices.

Syncing data between several nodes (devices) is much harder than you would think.

If data is being changed on all the nodes then there is great scope for screwing it up and things getting out of sync particularly if the hardware/network is having teething problems. Updates arrive late, only to find that what they are trying to overwrite has been already been updated manually by the user who got fed up with it being slow to update.

You wind up with loads of updates that all claim to be the most recent version of that data, and if the clocks are incorrect on any of the nodes, then you’re even more stuffed as time is about the only thing you can use to determine the correct version of the data. The more out-of-sync stuff gets the harder it is to resolve. You end up having to either step through every inconsistency and resolve each one, or make one node the master and overwrite all the other nodes.

Now imagine that multiplied a million-fold.

No doubt the hardware/network will settle down and the updates will get quicker as problems are resolved. For now it’s a time to grin and bear it.

Wheeles - the problems you describe are indeed difficult to overcome. The fact is they shouldn’t release a product with all the problems you describe still by and large un-addressed.

Fortunately, the service seems 95% reliable now and updates happen fast and accurately, but until yesterday, mac email kept on falling over.

The damage to MobileMe’s reputation as a solution has been pretty big. If I was Apple I would launch MobileMe 2.0 very quickly (with a few added features to justify its 2.0 monicker), as soon as all the problems have been solved, in order to put the first version out of sight, and out of mind, and regenerate interest.

Its all a bit “Microsoft” though, isn’t it

This is what I fear will happen more and more as Apple grows.  It’s never operated on this scale and there will be growing pains.  I hope they can reestablish their mojo and quickly.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Climbforever,

I share all of your experiences and frustrations in each of the matters you mention actually. Apple and syncing in all forms has always been a hit and miss affair. I had hoped that “this time was different” but actually it was worse than ever

...however, we should not forget to add two things. One, when it works - which it does most of the times - its definitely one of the most fabulous services around. And second, ask a pee cee guy. He will have absolutely no clue what we are talking about. Not part of their universe…

[quote author=“climbforever”]...however, we should not forget to add two things. One, when it works - which it does most of the times - its definitely one of the most fabulous services around. And second, ask a pee cee guy. He will have absolutely no clue what we are talking about. Not part of their universe…

Like I said, MM seems to be working fine now, most of the time, but the damage has been done.. that’s why they effectively need a 2.0 launch very quickly, for publicity purposes. to get new reviews - and good ones at that - to put concerns to rest.

Ol’ Goatberg needs a new MobileMe to pacify him… AAPL doesn’t do well when he throws his toys out of the pram in print

I have not yet been able to access my contacts on MM since the service started. They sync fine between 3 macs and an iPhone.