Mobile me is a waste...why did they do this?

[slevit1]

$100/yr to have your contacts, bookmarks and calendars synched LOL!! Sad, i was totally ready to pay that and money for more storage. no use to me now. they're going to have to get a lot more 3g's in stock to pay for this bomb.

I'm just as upset as everyone else that everything is not yet working perfectly. However, I don't think that most people know (or care) about the scale of what has been happening for the past couple of days. You all need to seriously chill out.

Apple is in the middle of transitioning (and upgrading, for free) a service with countless users. At the same time, they are releasing brand new firmware to millions of iPhone customers, and having a worldwide launch of a brand new product, creating an even further strain on their system. And, the situation is made worse by the fact that the servers that were already having problems were being constantly hammered by people who couldn't wait for things to be properly fixed. Could it have gone better? Absolutely, and I wish it did. However, I would hardly call this a bomb, and I think this will wind up having a very trivial effect on their bottom line. For the handfull of customers that they may lose because of this, they're probably better off without them anyway!

 

[Matthew Yohe]

I'm just as upset as everyone else that everything is not yet working perfectly. However, I don't think that most people know (or care) about the scale of what has been happening for the past couple of days. You all need to seriously chill out.

Apple is in the middle of transitioning (and upgrading, for free) a service with countless users. At the same time, they are releasing brand new firmware to millions of iPhone customers, and having a worldwide launch of a brand new product, creating an even further strain on their system. And, the situation is made worse by the fact that the servers that were already having problems were being constantly hammered by people who couldn't wait for things to be properly fixed. Could it have gone better? Absolutely, and I wish it did. However, I would hardly call this a bomb, and I think this will wind up having a very trivial effect on their bottom line. For the handfull of customers that they may lose because of this, they're probably better off without them anyway!

/thread

 

[levitynyc]

Doesnt Yahoo mail push?

 

[slevit1]

Doesnt Yahoo mail push?

yes, if you pay for it. It has from the start of the iPhone.

 

[v88v00v]

Free Alternatives

Just to inform people there are other solutions to having push email. I don't know if they work (because I can't test them) but if someone with an iPhone could sign up for the services then this could provide an alternative. I don't particularly like this though because in NO way can you compare the interface to what is offered with MobileMe. MobileMe gives you iDisk and all that stuff + a sleek looking interface.

If your still thinking MobileMe is a waste, here you go.

http://mail2web.com/ - Some site I found through a blog. Looks good, but I read that it has some limitations to using it with Outlook and other desktop email programs.
The blog - http://www.modaco.com/content/pocke...s/239853/free-push-email-too-good-to-be-true/

http://www.cortado.com/free - Another site that offers push email (but I was reading and it looks as though it does not work with ActiveSync, so if the iPhone only uses ActiveSync for the push email and no other protocol then I guess its useless)
The blog - http://athinkingman.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/free-push-email/

Note : I am in no way affiliated with these services / blogs, I just wanted to tell people that there are other services (these are some of the free ones, im sure there are better paid ones also).

Hope this helps.

 

[Xtal]

For my use MobileMe would be overpriced for what little it offers.

I sync my iPhone contacts with Google Contacts, and my GMail is checked every 15 minutes (good enough).

Now I just need a way to sync Google Calendar without using Outlook...

 

[tomccabe]

Some of you need to get over yourselves.

please. "get over yourself"? have nothing interesting to say?

things they supply that no other company thus far has been able to figure out.

except for the RIM BlackBerry which has been able to do this for years. i guess we're not counting that though.

 

[GuillaumeB]

I haven't worked through the method you're using, but what happens to sent messages? Ideally what I'd like is for emails sent from my iPhone (once I get one) to appear in the sent messages folder on the web interface and Mail.app on my three macs, and vice-versa. Does your method achieve this, or is my only option to just resign myself to a complete switch to my new @me.com email address?
.

Well basically I redirect Google Apps to me.com
On the iPhone and on the Mail.app software I have used my personal SMTP settings with my own domain.
Sent emails from the iPhone or Mail .app go to the sent folder. And because we got IMAP those folders are always synchronized with MobileMe. Therefre YES you will see those sent messages on the web interface and across all your computers/devices.

 

[GuillaumeB]

For my use MobileMe would be overpriced for what little it offers.

I sync my iPhone contacts with Google Contacts, and my GMail is checked every 15 minutes (good enough).

Now I just need a way to sync Google Calendar without using Outlook...

Do you really sync you local address book with Gmail Contact pseudo manager that is dumb enough to automatically add anyone and anything as a contact????
Wow! I feel sorry for you!

 

[DoreanGrae]

Wow. Just...wow.

You people are honestly mad because your @whatever.com e-mail addresses don't push after you signed up for MobileMe? Are you serious with this? How in the living **** could you possibly come to the conclusion that that's what MobileMe is? Apple has zero control over your personal e-mails. They DO have control over @me.com e-mails, because they're all on Apple servers and run by Apple. Thus, Apple provides push for them. If you want push on other e-mails, talk to your e-mail provider. Yell at them, not Apple. It's possible. As has been pointed out, Yahoo's been doing it since the launch of the iPhone. It's not Apple's fault that your personal e-mail provider doesn't have push support.

And if you decide that MobileMe isn't for you...fine. Don't buy it.

(however if you think that the current performance issues are going to keep up for the duration of MobileMe's life, you need to have your head checked)

 

[alphaod]

My push works, I'm happy; if you're complain about how push doesn't work for your other addresses, go get yourself your own Microsoft Exchange server.

 

[cwosigns]

I thought it automatically got the accounts loaded into Mail (OS X) and updated that to your iPhone. But it's not working for me. Which really sucks.

Apple never stated this was the case. Sorry you didn't understand what the service does and doesn't do, but that's not Apple's fault.

 

[cwosigns]

please. "get over yourself"? have nothing interesting to say?



except for the RIM BlackBerry which has been able to do this for years. i guess we're not counting that though.

BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) is what most consumers use, not BES which is for corporate enterprise users. BIS doesn't offer calendar syncing, disk storage accessible from a browser, web hosting, a mobile photo gallery. MobileMe is a CONSUMER service, and it blows BIS away.

 

[tallyho]

Wow. Just...wow.

You people are honestly mad because your @whatever.com e-mail addresses don't push after you signed up for MobileMe? Are you serious with this? How in the living **** could you possibly come to the conclusion that that's what MobileMe is? Apple has zero control over your personal e-mails.

Yeah thanks for that constructive and helpful post. I do not share the outrage and misunderstanding that the OP displayed, but if you had bothered to read the many other threads on this topic, you would have realised that what we are looking for is simply a means to send from an email address that ends in mydomain.com rather than me.com. All the emails would still be on Apple's servers. Google has this capability on Gmail, via a simple challenge/response system to show that you own the email address you wish to be able to send from in Gmail. We're looking for workarounds that would allow the same functionality for MobileMe.

(however if you think that the current performance issues are going to keep up for the duration of MobileMe's life, you need to have your head checked)

Again, thanks for that. As someone who moved from dot mac a couple of years ago because of ridiculously slow speeds and unreliable email, I did think Apple might have aimed higher with MobileMe...

 

[DoreanGrae]

Apple never stated this was the case. Sorry you didn't understand what the service does and doesn't do, but that's not Apple's fault.

Exactly. It's not as if it was vague, either. I simply cannot understand how people have come to believe that MobileMe would give their random e-mail addresses push.

 

[DoreanGrae]

Yeah thanks for that constructive and helpful post. I do not share the outrage and misunderstanding that the OP displayed, but if you had bothered to read the many other threads on this topic, you would have realised that what we are looking for is simply a means to send from an email address that ends in mydomain.com rather than me.com. All the emails would still be on Apple's servers. Google has this capability on Gmail, via a simple challenge/response system to show that you own the email address you wish to be able to send from in Gmail. We're looking for workarounds that would allow the same functionality for MobileMe.

I fail to see how the various other threads have any bearing on what this thread is about. The original poster is complaining because he doesn't get push support via MobileMe for his other e-mail addresses. Wanting a way to have a seperate send-from address is a seperate issue. Probably one that they should have, but not what he was talking about originally, which is what I was responding to.

Again, thanks for that. As someone who moved from dot mac a couple of years ago because of ridiculously slow speeds and unreliable email, I did think Apple might have aimed higher with MobileMe...

I've .Mac for the last 2 years and have never had a problem with ridiculously slow speeds. The e-mail goes down from time to time, but I can only think of one instance when it actually bothered me.

Honestly, I don't get this sentiment though. The launch of MobileMe has been a disaster, yes, but do you REALLY think that they're not going to improve it at all? The service isn't officially launched yet (note that the apple.com/mobileme sites all still say "coming soon"). Wait until they get it going to pronounce your judgement that it's terrible. That's like giving up on a baseball game when your team goes down 1-0 in the 2nd inning.

 

[richpjr]

BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) is what most consumers use, not BES which is for corporate enterprise users. BIS doesn't offer calendar syncing, disk storage accessible from a browser, web hosting, a mobile photo gallery. MobileMe is a CONSUMER service, and it blows BIS away.

Regardless of whether it is a consumer or a corporate service, BES shows that it can be done. It also makes zero sense to compare the free BIS service (data plan aside, of course) with the $100 a year MobileMe features. I'd expect more features for a service I pay for than one I get for free.

I personally don't care about forwarding emails, I just want synching contacts and calendar events between my work laptop and my Mac Pro at home to work. I set it up on my laptop, it says it syncs and nothing shows up on my Mac. Yes, I know it's early in the rollout stage and I should "be patient" and allow them to work out the kinks, but why the hell are they selling the thing if they aren't ready?

 

[cwosigns]

Regardless of whether it is a consumer or a corporate service, BES shows that it can be done. It also makes zero sense to compare the free BIS service (data plan aside, of course) with the $100 a year MobileMe features. I'd expect more features for a service I pay for than one I get for free.

If you want to use your own domain server or GMail or whatever, then get a hosted exchange server. MobileMe is what it is. It was never advertised as more. If you a hosted exchange server, get it. But for Mac users you'll have to use Entourage.

 

[tivoboy]

I think

I think that mobileme will indeed in the FUTURE offer such service as email forwarding and smtp authentication and reply to address changes,

But, I think the benefits of mobileme (and historcially dotmac) are being lost here. There is 20GB of free storage, and auto updating online disk storage, syncing of contacts, addresses, bookmarks, etc across all platforms.

I for one, use the iweb feature quite often to do a very simple push of my iphoto galleries which I want to share with people up to the cloud, allowing people to see and GET the high res photos they want to have and print. this is all sync'd across my macs and pcs now, and also the iphone.

For most, the exchange type of email syncing is too expensive to have as an individual, for the 8$ a month that mobile me charges, it is quite inexpensive comparatively.

If one only had the mobileme address, for the common consumer user (which is a huge target indeed for apple) this service will be quite valuable.

 

[Billy Boo Bob]

Changing From: address in a reply.

This isn't a global / always on solution, but actually, if you have multiple email accounts set up on the phone you can select on alternate "From" address while you're composing a message.

If you hit reply to a message, you're presented with To: And Subject: pre-filled in. Between those two "lines" you have "CC/BCC, From: default-account" in there. If you tap that line, it expands to 3 lines. One each for CC:, BCC:, and From:...

Tap on From: and it brings up a scrolling wheel selection (like a popup button does on a web page) of your available accounts to set which account you want it to be From:

Granted, it would be nice to be able to set, permanently, which From: address is used, but at least it "can be done" on a message-by-message basis.

 

[tallyho]

I fail to see how the various other threads have any bearing on what this thread is about. The original poster is complaining because he doesn't get push support via MobileMe for his other e-mail addresses. Wanting a way to have a seperate send-from address is a seperate issue. Probably one that they should have, but not what he was talking about originally, which is what I was responding to.

Oh come on! You are being very disingenuous here. The separate send-from address IS the issue, because once you have a catch-all forward from your domain to MobileMe AND the ability to reply from your domain, you effectively have push email for all your own email accounts. Most of us have our own domains, and would prefer not to advertise Apple each time we send an email (actually, I can now consider using the default @me.com, as it is far less branded than @mac.com which just made people look like they worked at Apple)

I've .Mac for the last 2 years and have never had a problem with ridiculously slow speeds. .

You obviously never tried to access iDisk or webgalleries from Europe then. Unusable. The throttling of .Mac for European users has been very well documented, including a huge thread on Apple's own discussion pages. The general consensus here was that Apple needed to realise that not all of its paying customers live in California and that they should invest in some infrastructure for European users.

As it happens though, Apple actually does seem to have improved matters - when I reactivated .Mac a couple of weeks ago, the situation was better and, initial glitches and outages notwithstanding, MobileMe seems better too.

PS.... Good username...you don't have a portrait in an attic somewhere do you?

 

[jennyp]

can't log in to me.com

OK.. signed up for a trial account, got everything working in system prefs on my macs, then tried to login at me.com - it says the username and password I entered are wrong - but I know they're right. What to do? Maybe I entered the wrong password? I click "forgot password", and then I'm able to change it to another. Good. But it says, "Now return to Apple Store Japan." Huh? Never been there! Try to login again - no go. This is not a promising start!

 

[sgrcts]

if a blackberry does this

why are people acting like apple shouldn't have to?

All I want is to be able to forward my email to my .me account and have the .me autoreply as my real email. This is a SIMPLE fix.

In fact, the iphone handles email about 1/10th as well as blackberry overall. I'm regretting buying this thing already, and .me is a big reason why.

 

[sgrcts]

on top of that

I'm a 20+ year apple user, and i love apple as much as anyone but why do people feel the need to defend any company for providing an inferior service?

Shouldn't the consumer be on the consumers side, so we can all get the best product?

 

[eye.surgeon]

The OP has a very valid point. mobileme doesn't offer a customized reply-to address, forcing you to use the me.com domain instead of your established email address. He is not complaining that his current addresses don't push.

Offering a customized reply-to or from address has been standard fare for paid email accounts for a long, long time. It's a big oversight not to include this from the get-go because it stops many people including me from using it because I need to maintain the appearance of my current email address.

Yahoo plus allows multiple customized reply to addresses (ie. work, personal, e-commerce addresses) and also pushes to the iphone just as well as mobileme, and syncs your contacts to yahoo contacts. The only thing it doesn't do is sync calendars.