Apple rolls out more MobileMe fixes

[AppleInsider]

Apple this week quietly updated its MobileMe internet service with a new round of bug fixes and enhancements targeting Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, iDisk, and more.

The improvements were detailed in a support document published to the company's website Monday and include the following:

Contacts
Searching for contacts in a large address book (more than 1000 contacts) is faster and no longer results in a "slow script" browser alert message
Exported vCards with multi-line addresses or notes can now be imported into the Mac OS X Address Book
Adds keyboard shortcut to create a new contact
Additional formatting options for European phone numbers are now supported
Calendar
Adds sorting of To Do items by calendar or title
Long event titles now appear properly in Month view
Gallery
Updated "Tell a friend" email message
Resolves an issue related to setting a new album's key photo
iDisk
Files and folder names that contain Japanese language characters now display properly on the web
Account
Hosting of iWeb pages can be configured for personal domains ending in ".eu", ".ax", ".tl", ".gw", ".kp", ".rs" or ".su"
Family Member accounts now display the accurate renewal/expiration date
Resolves an issue that prevented some members from using an activation key (MobileMe box) to renew a subscription
Login
"Keep me logged in for two weeks" checkbox now works reliably

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[wealthychef]

So now when will To-Do's show up on the iPhone? We have to-do's in iCal on the desktop, To-Do's in iCal on the Web, iCal sync between desktop, web and phone, and no To-Do list on the iPhone. I'm so perplexed by this because the To-Do application is ridiculously simple and there is no excuse for this.

[elliots11]

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

[pdiddy]

YES!!! My OCD made me click it even though it didn't work. Now I don't feel like they're mocking me every time I login.

[Stormchild]

Obviously it wasn't "quietly" updated, since there's a support document detailing the changes, which were also mentioned on the MobileMe news page. Why do tech writers feel a need to imply that Apple is sneaking around behind our backs fixing things, as if they were afraid to admit that they had ever made a mistake? Clearly this is not the case.

[federmoose]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

This feature was scrapped last minute when they released mobileme and hasn't been added back yet. I am looking for this feature to be implemented as well... but it seems it isn't at the top of the priority list.

[RyanW]

@elliots11 - have you looked into drop.io? Seems like it might work for your needs; though there is a 100MB file size limit to utilize the free service.

I mostly use the webmail component of the MobileMe suite of apps, and it drives me crazy how slow it is. Compare the amount of time it takes to reply to an email using Gmail vs. MobileMe; it's simply ridiculous.

Sure, MobileMe *looks* appreciably nicer, but who cares about that when what I mostly end up seeing is the "Loading..." animation. I also still get way too many random timeout messages.

I honestly expected the speed of the webmail client to improve once Eddy Cue took over the reigns... hasn't happened yet from what I can tell. Has to be embarrassing for the company.

[NOFEER]

Originally Posted by wealthychef

So now when will To-Do's show up on the iPhone? We have to-do's in iCal on the desktop, To-Do's in iCal on the Web, iCal sync between desktop, web and phone, and no To-Do list on the iPhone. I'm so perplexed by this because the To-Do application is ridiculously simple and there is no excuse for this.

great point, this should have been there day one, with also a project management ability
todo list on iphone and mobleme.

[chadisawesome]

Originally Posted by RyanW

@elliots11 - have you looked into drop.io? Seems like it might work for your needs; though there is a 100MB file size limit to utilize the free service.

I mostly use the webmail component of the MobileMe suite of apps, and it drives me crazy how slow it is. Compare the amount of time it takes to reply to an email using Gmail vs. MobileMe; it's simply ridiculous.

Sure, MobileMe *looks* appreciably nicer, but who cares about that when what I mostly end up seeing is the "Loading..." animation. I also still get way too many random timeout messages.

I honestly expected the speed of the webmail client to improve once Eddy Cue took over the reigns... hasn't happened yet from what I can tell. Has to be embarrassing for the company.

couldn't have said it better myself. the webmail client is an embarassment. luckily I only need to use it at work, I use my phone and mac at home to send mail at any other time. the speed, random timeouts, errors, ect... is awful.

[hillstones]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

Too bad the guy is not on a Mac, he would be able to access your Public Folder right from the Finder. Since it sounds like he is on Windows, he can access your publc folder with any web browser:

MobileMe iDisk Help: Connecting to a MobileMe member’s Public folder

If you have a Mac or Windows computer, you can connect to a MobileMe member’s Public iDisk folder using a web browser. If you have a Mac, you can also connect to someone’s Public folder using Mac OS X.

After you connect, you can see, copy, and, depending on the access privileges chosen, add and remove files.

To connect to a MobileMe member’s Public folder, do one of the following:

From a Mac or Windows computer, open your web browser and type “public.me.com/[MobileMeMemberName]” in the browser’s address field. If you’re asked for a name and password, type “public” in the Name field, and then type the password in the Password field.

If you’re using Mac OS X version 10.4.11 or later, in the Finder choose Go > iDisk, and then choose Other User’s Public Folder from the submenu. Type the member name of the person whose Public folder you want to open in the Member Name field and then click Connect. If you’re asked for a name and password, make sure “public” appears in the Name field, and then type the password in the Password field.

[razorpit]

Originally Posted by wealthychef

So now when will To-Do's show up on the iPhone? We have to-do's in iCal on the desktop, To-Do's in iCal on the Web, iCal sync between desktop, web and phone, and no To-Do list on the iPhone. I'm so perplexed by this because the To-Do application is ridiculously simple and there is no excuse for this.

I'm with you on this. As much as I love my iPhone, my old Palm Treo 650 was years ahead (literally) of Apple in this function.

[ZagMac]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple this week quietly updated its MobileMe internet service with a new round of bug fixes and enhancements targeting Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, iDisk, and more.

The improvements were detailed in a support document published to the company's website Monday and include the following:

Contacts
Searching for contacts in a large address book (more than 1000 contacts) is faster and no longer results in a "slow script" browser alert message
Exported vCards with multi-line addresses or notes can now be imported into the Mac OS X Address Book
Adds keyboard shortcut to create a new contact
Additional formatting options for European phone numbers are now supported
Calendar
Adds sorting of To Do items by calendar or title
Long event titles now appear properly in Month view

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

Any idas on when I can sync Contacts and Calendar to my Mac from my Touch, if the Touch is receiving them from my work-based Microsoft Exhange? It is killing me to have my work laptop, Blackberry, mobile & Touch all constantly updating each other and accurate, then left with home machine on an island of innaccuracy. That and having .me contacts/calendar not actually reflect all the Contacts that are on my Touch when I'm using a browser, to boot. There has to be a way!

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by ZagMac

Any idas on when I can sync Contacts and Calendar to my Mac from my Touch, if the Touch is receiving them from my work-based Microsoft Exhange? It is killing me to have my work laptop, Blackberry, mobile & Touch all constantly updating each other and accurate, then left with home machine on an island of innaccuracy. That and having .me contacts/calendar not actually reflect all the Contacts that are on my Touch when I'm using a browser, to boot. There has to be a way!

I think the issue you're facing is b/c your Mac does not support ActiveSync like the iPhone/iPod touch does. Apple has not licensed this from Microsoft for anything other than the iPhone/iPod touch.

If I recall correctly, Snow Leopard might be featuring native ActiveSync when it is released (I could be wrong, thought I'd read that somewhere however). This would be a welcome addition for those of us in the Exchange world indeed...

[nutts]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

Get a free Dropbox account (www.getdropbox.com) and, as long as the file is less than 2gb, you can do exactly this - email a link to the file for somebody to download.

I might add that the speeds are respectable too, unlike iDisk, which I've found to be just plain unreliable most of the time.

I've been using Dropbox to sync files between my Macs and PC for a few weeks now, and it's really great!

[Morky]

Originally Posted by RyanW

@elliots11 - have you looked into drop.io? Seems like it might work for your needs; though there is a 100MB file size limit to utilize the free service.

I mostly use the webmail component of the MobileMe suite of apps, and it drives me crazy how slow it is. Compare the amount of time it takes to reply to an email using Gmail vs. MobileMe; it's simply ridiculous.

Sure, MobileMe *looks* appreciably nicer, but who cares about that when what I mostly end up seeing is the "Loading..." animation. I also still get way too many random timeout messages.

I honestly expected the speed of the webmail client to improve once Eddy Cue took over the reigns... hasn't happened yet from what I can tell. Has to be embarrassing for the company.

I have seen it vastly improve in the last couple of months in terms of speed. It used to take 60 seconds (!) for my mail to load. It's down to about six, which is comparable to gmail. Once it loads, it's zippy to compose and reply to emails. Perhaps my connection is faster than yours?

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Calendar
Adds sorting of To Do items by calendar or title
Long event titles now appear properly in Month view

Still no f****** alerts!

This is BEYOND ridiculous. Sometimes I wonder are the team over there actually thinking "at all". They aren't.

[mestrin]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

I like FileChute very much. One drags a large file to the icon, it uploads, and creates a link easily sent in an email, which the receiver can then download.

Marc

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I currently have a large file I'd like to send to a high ranking potential client, who doesn't have a lot of time to waste futzing with passwords and waiting for countdowns before he can download a large file.

I have mobile me, but the send file as a link from iDisk doesn't work, and I really don't want to send him through the process of downloading the idisk helper, installing it, etc. I really wish they'd get that one fixed, and if anyone has any recs for something that would be almost as simple and pretty inexpensive (since I probably only need it this one time) I'm all ears.

Zip your file, drop it in the Public folder, then email him the link e.g.
http://idisk.me.com/<account name>//Public/<file name>

Voila... one click download!

[wirespeed]

Along with the Todo functionality, the fact that the Birthday calendar in iCal doesn't synch with your iPhone/iPod Touch is equally apalling and should be corrected immediately if not sooner.

[elliots11]

Originally Posted by bloggerblog

Zip your file, drop it in the Public folder, then email him the link e.g.
http://idisk.me.com/<account name>//Public/<file name>

Voila... one click download!

Bloggerblog, I am at once impressed and pissed. Thank you for sharing that with me, it's quite an amazing tip! Impressed! (Now I just hope it's not too late)

How hard could it possibly be to make a little script that does this automatically and include it in Mobile ME? Pissed!

At least they're trying. If Apple could kick as much ass at building innovative websites as they do making awesome products, that would really be something. They ought to contract out to Google for this.

Edit:

Thank you to Ryan W, Hillstones, Nutts, and mestrin for your useful suggestions. I'll probably be doing some of these when my mobile me expires.

[bloggerblog]

Agreed!!
I don't know what's keeping them either, MobileMe is anything but impressive.

[rsvaught]

Seems to me that MobileMe was the great leap backwards. I was an early user of .Mac getting an account shortly after they started the service. When it went pay, I bought it plus an email only account for my wife. It filled a niche for me in my personal use of computers.

What I liked best was it gave me offsite backup of important files and kept things like my bookmarks and keychains in sync. It also gave me a personal email address, but there were plenty of ways to do that. For me the rest was a bonus.

All worked well until last summer. I must say that personally MobileMe has been a disaster. My keychains are still often out of sync almost six months later. For a few weeks, I was in email preference wars between machines so that now I simply do not try to sync my email accounts or rules. It goes on and on, but I am for the first time really considering alternatives. I think MobileMe is now a third rate service at a premium price.

Extending my account was not payment enough for the time I have spent messing with and trying to fix things that worked under .Mac and have been repeatedly broken since. I am always worried about what next will break. Like others have noted, I miss many of the nice things like ToDos in the calendar migrating to my iPod Touch that went away.

I want to use computers to do things; not fiddle with them. MobileMe is, I believe, an unreliable service at a premium price. Apple deserves a black eye on this one and I suspect they don't care.