MobileMe is a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Announced at WWDC 2008, it replaced the .Mac service on July 9, 2008. All existing .Mac members were migrated to MobileMe automatically.[1] MobileMe was presented by Phil Schiller at the WWDC 2008 as "Microsoft Exchange for the rest of us." For two weeks after the launch, an estimated 20,000 users were unable to access their e-mail through MobileMe, during which time Apple denied that there were any problems until widespread press attention forced Apple to acknowledge serious problems with the service. [2]
Features
- Storage
- 20 GB of online storage featuring 200 GB of monthly transfer with the standard plan, with optional upgrades for extra email accounts (Family Pack) or extra data.
- Mail
- MobileMe includes an @me.com email address (previous .Mac users also keep their @mac.com address and can use either as both addresses are linked). When a message is received it is sent directly to all the user's devices using Push Mail. Supported devices include the iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple Mail on Mac OS X, and Microsoft Outlook on Microsoft Windows. Users can also setup email aliases that will be redirected to their MobileMe Mail account.
- Address Book and Calendar
- MobileMe maintains a synchronized address book and calendar feature using Push functions. If a user makes a change to a contact or event on one device it will be automatically synced to the MobileMe servers and, by extension, all the user's other devices. Supported devices include the iPhone, Address Book and iCal on Mac OS X, or Microsoft Outlook on Microsoft Windows.
- Photo Gallery
- MobileMe has a public photo gallery feature. Photos can be uploaded in the web browser at me.com, synced by iPhoto or Aperture on Mac OS X or by sending it from the iPhone and iPod Touch.
- iDisk
- MobileMe features iDisk, which is an online storage repository accessible via a web browser at me.com, Finder on Mac OS X, or as a remote disk in Microsoft Windows. It also allows sharing of files by placing them in the iDisk Public Folder, while owners can set passwords to protect them.[3]
- iWeb Publish
- Users of Mac OS X Leopard or later can use the iLife 08 application iWeb to publish websites hosted on their MobileMe account, either to a domain name that the user controls or a page on the me.com website. Users without iWeb can also publish websites by placing files to the Web/Site folder. However, as a website host, it doesn't support any server side language so far.
- Web applications
- MobileMe uses Ajax and Dynamic HTML to simulate the look and feel of desktop applications within the user's web browser. Applications on me.com include Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery and iDisk access. Users can also configure various features such as email aliases, or domain names for the iWeb Publish feature.
- Supported browsers for me.com are: Safari 3 or later (Mac OS X and Windows), Firefox 2 or later (Mac OS X and Windows). Internet Explorer 7 (Windows) is not fully supported.
- Earlier versions of Safari 4 Developer Preview are not fully compatible and prevented the user from clicking on most Ajax items, but the most recent update solves this issue. MobileMe is also inaccessible from Linux using Mozilla Firefox.[4]. The Konqueror browser on linux seems to support MobileMe, this is however not confirmed by Apple[5].
Plans
MobileMe has two different plans:
- Individual
- The Individual plan includes 20 GB of storage and 200 GB of Data Transfer.
- Family Pack
- The Family Pack includes 40 GB of storage split up between one 20 GB individual and four 5 GB email plans.
- Additional storage
- Members can also purchase additional storage space in either 20 GB or 40 GB allocations.
Differences between .Mac and MobileMe
.Mac was designed to provide internet services for Mac OS X customers. However, with the release of the iPhone 3G MobileMe was released and provides Internet services for Mac OS X, iPhone OS and Microsoft Windows. Users are no longer restricted to a Mac running software like Mail and iCal and can access personal data from any computer connected to the internet using the me.com web interface or a number of supported applications, including Microsoft Outlook.
Several .Mac features were removed after the transition to MobileMe. Support for Mac OS X v10.3 has been discontinued, as well as other features such as iCards, web-access to bookmarks and .Mac slides.[6]
Release
The launch of MobileMe took place on July 9, 2008, while www.mac.com was taken offline from 8pm to 12am Pacific Time on July 9th, 2008, and the MobileMe service went live between 8pm and 2am Pacific Time.[7] MobileMe was taken off the web a short time later, leaving customers redirected to www.apple.com/mobileme where there was no option to log in. After several hours of infrequent service MobileMe officially went live midday on July 11.[8]
There were also reports of users being unable to access any of the Mail functions of MobileMe. This is suspected to be related to the .Mac to MobileMe switch-over.[9]
The free trial of MobileMe inadvertently charged some Australian and European customers’ credit cards, causing Apple to issue refunds and extend the free trial to four months.[10][11]
Because of the problems with switching over .Mac accounts and other issues Apple has created a status news page and revamped their support page.
Reception
- Some users have experienced problems synchronizing data between their MobileMe accounts and Microsoft Outlook. When used with a Microsoft Exchange Server, Exchange-based Calendars and Contact lists will not currently synchronize.citation needed According to Apple Support, this is by design and is not a bug that will be fixed.citation needed
- Parts of MobileMe are installed in the Microsoft Windows Control Panel as part of iTunes 7.7 and above regardless of whether the user has a subscription or not.
- In an internal email sent to Apple employees on August 04, 2008, Steve Jobs admitted that MobileMe was launched too hurriedly and “not up to Apple’s standards”. “It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App. Store”.[12]
- On August 18, 2008 announced to offer MobileMe subscribers another 60 days extension, which is in addition to the one-month extension previously offered. [13]
- As of September 29, 2008, 79% of Mobile Me users on Amazon have given MobileMe a one star rating. Only 9% of MobileMe users have given the product five stars or more.
References
- ^ Apple.com (2008-06-10). "Apple Introduces MobileMe Internet Service". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ "After a Decade of Secrecy, Apple Reluctantly Tries Out Transparency". Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
- ^ Using your iDisk to share files Apple.com. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
- ^ Feria, Noel. "MobileMe on Linux". Retrieved on 2008-07-30.
- ^ Chavda, Pranav. "Howto: Apple's MobileMe on Linux". Retrieved on 2008-09-18.
- ^ McNulty, Scott (2008-06-09). "What isn't making the cut from .Mac to MobileMe". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Weblogs, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
- ^ Apple .Mac Support, Apple Inc.. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
- ^ MobileMe appears to be up and running, TUAW. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
- ^ MobileMe users seethe over four-day e-mail outage MacWorld.co.uk, Retrieved July 22, 2008.
- ^ Palmer, Robert (2008-06-22). "Apple adds another month free for some MobileMe trials". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Weblogs, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-06-22.
- ^ Moses, Asher. "Apple's MobileMe meltdown". Retrieved on 2008-07-27.
- ^ Steve Jobs on MobileMe: the full e-mail, ars technica. Retrieved August 05, 2008
- ^ Apple offers MobileMe users a second extension, Computer World. Retrieved August 19, 2008.
External links
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