Comments on: MobileMe Updated in Time for the Holidays

By: T. Bom

T. Bom — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:23:04 +0000

MobilMe is disgusting, and for those of you who it functions for - why would you accept paying 100$ a year for it? It just goes to show that Apple would be happy being the next Microsoft. I am a fan of Apple's hardware products - but their policies are starting to turn sour. If they really want to become the "all in one" life-computing solution they claim to be, they need to get on top of a well designed, free, online suite that can work with ANY (outlook, Gmail, yahoo, etc.) setup. It is a nagging deficeiency in the iPhone. I am DISAPPOINTED.

By: Jeff Pom

Jeff Pom — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:43:39 +0000

In reply to those talking about how MobileMe is more than email...

You are right - it is. But Blackberry does have a free version of their server software for home users. This would provide the same capabilities you pay Apple for.

I use Yahoo - I would love it to synch completely (Calendar, everything) and it's driving me nuts. I've never had problems with Yahoo pushing to my iPhone (except for occasional problems really) - it almost always pushes before I get it on my webmail.

But I can't sync contacts or calendar. I am considering MobileMe for this purpose - but I really don't want to pay for it. I don't need it that badly. I'm not a power user.

By: Dyvim

Dyvim — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:25:28 +0000

@dloveprod There are a number of free and paid solutions for accessing iDisk files on the iPhone. e.g. MobileFiles is free- acts as a simple doc viewer.

By: iAirmanshirk

iAirmanshirk — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:47:36 +0000

mobileme rocks

By: dloveprod

dloveprod — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:27:00 +0000

yahoo is working fine with me and I don't need push contacts I'll just sync em when I get home, still not worth a hundred bucks a year to me, can't even access information on iDisk on the iphone yet

By: Dyvim

Dyvim — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:22:18 +0000

I'm with Rene- MobileMe is much more than mail. I'm not even currently using the mail component (although I will probably give it another try since Yahoo! push isn't all that great). But keeping Contacts, Calendar, and Bookmarks in sync between 3 Windows PCs, 1 Mac and 3 iPhones is pretty much worth it right there. Throw in iDisk and it's even better. I haven't even begun to explore the additional Mac-side stuff either. I just wish Bookmark sync would support Firefox, then I'd be a happy camper.

Still, it's expensive. I wish it were less. Oh well.

Also, I believe NuevaSync uses Exchange. But I already use Exchange to sync my work Contacts, Calendar, and Email (while MobileMe syncs my personal Contacts and Calendar), so NuevaSync isn't even an option for me since iPhone supports only 1 Exchange account at a time. So MobileMe allows me to separate work and personal PIM sync and have push (more or less) for both. Sweet!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:20:10 +0000

I've never had any of these issues mentioned with MobileMe. Nothing's ever disappeared, or been deleted, and my BeejiveIM notifications have always been pushed immediately. It's $8 a month... big deal. If people didn't mess with their iPhone's software as soon as they took them out of the boxes, maybe sh*t would work properly.

By: Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:14:13 +0000

MobileMe is not an email service, it's a sync service. It provides a very wide range of stuff far beyond email. I used MobileMe (when it was still .Mac) long before there was an iPhone.

I still primarily use it to sync and inter-connect between 3 different Macs. Leaving my work laptop, getting home, finding everything exactly as it was (email, bookmarks, RSS, passwords, prefs, etc.) so I can just keep working is amazing. And if I forget to put a file on my shared iDisk, being able to automatically connect securely or share screens to get the file is swoon-worthy.

Yeah, the PIM is nice, but MobileMe is much, much more.

BTW- GMail IMAP fails for me to the point that I'm abandoning it. Constant invalid certificates, too many concurrent connections, etc. warnings keep taking the accounts offline. Likewise, their dodgy labels-> folders, and All Mail folder, means I have to sync multiple copies of the same message.

If Gmail could just fix their IMAP, I would no doubt fall in love again, but I'm not holding much hope

By: E Pow

E Pow — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:13:35 +0000

I would love to use Mobile Me but I find it extremely difficult to pay for a email service that doesn't work better than free email services. I felt in the beginning that Apple should provide a free email service to iphone users. Blackberry does it and if Apple's goal is to take over the top spots in the smartphone world than free email should have been there. Im not being cheap because I'm a Apple fan. I own a MacBook Pro, Apple TV, Apple router, and an iphone 3g, and as we all know Apple products cost BIG money. Money isnt the issue as to why I chose not to subscribe to Mobile Me. It's just pointless to pay for a email service that suffers when I can use GMail for free that delivers constantly for me.

By: marcol

marcol — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:01:40 +0000

Quick test: calendar sync is now pretty quick (both ways). Yay!

They had me since before the iPhone was a glint.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:49:35 +0000

I spent 199 on a phone and like 75 a month on my plan. Push email should be included for free at that cost. And I don't mean yahoos crappy push that takes 20 minutes to push a message to my phone I mean instant push. I have my phone set to fetch now because 15 minute fetch is faster that yahoo push

By: Cory

Cory — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:46:04 +0000

Nuevasync [http://www.nuevasync.com/] is free and lets me sync my iPhone contacts and calendar with Google. No contract, no cost. If Nuevasync didn't work so well I'd be using Funambol [http://www.funambol.com/], which is also free. From my perspective, push email alone is not enough of a compelling reason to use (read: pay for) MobileMe.