Could iPhone / MobileMe suck any more?

No it couldn't, "wanky" made me laugh!

In all seriousness though, it is a total disaster. And all who had little are no issues don't seem to realize that.

Until you can quantify that statement its just plain ridiculous. I'm one of those that have had no problems at all and, but far, the majority of people I know with MM have not had problems since the initial couple of weeks, and most of that was with the web apps and didn't affect the mail or phone interface.

This kind of hyperbole does no good as it becomes a feeding frenzy not based on any facts.

The facts that we know?

1) Apple screwed up the launch - this could be seen be the full lack of webapps and their apology

2) There have been ongoing problems with MM for some subset of users.

I'm not aware of any indication of what percentage of users are having problems other than Apple's 1% number, which I agree should not be taken a face value.

Given that, for the most part, only people with problems post, and given the additional tendency of others on board like this to pounce on those that don't have problems telling them to go away or calling the fanboi's etc. discussion threads and bb's give a very highly biased sample and obscure the true severity of any problem. The only thing that can be concluded from this type of information is if there are no bad posts, then your fairly certain there aren't any.

Yeah, by definition those of use who have had no problems with Mobile Me would not see it as a total disaster.

No problems here, even at the start, really.

Not for them.

Someone comes on here and says; "I lost all my emails and my contacts, this and that, what the heck am I going to do?" And all the get in response is "well I'm having no issues", as if that the fuck matters to the person who has them.

If I update my Mac OS and it goes smoothly, and someone else gets a rough ride it's kind of insensitive to come along and say; "well it's perfect for me". I should more likely be more subtle about how I go say what has happened on my end, and maybe add that I heard others were having issues if I did, and at least try and help. That's the the usual here though, someone would nearly even try and blame the guy who has the issues. "Are you sure you didn't mess something up." Etc.

What's new, Apple never fucks up right?

My Mobile Me email is having a hairy canary the last few days, I am constantly moving the same emails into folders on my Mac, and yes I did repair permissions and everything. That is not the issue. The issue in on Apple's end, and it's a Mobile Me issue! Apple fucked up, and it continues to fuck up. Yesterday, for a good hour I couldn't even send emails, as the servers my accounts are hosted on were being very testy. The cloud now takes about 3 days to sync from the way my Mac was. Whatever's in my inbox today, is likely going to be represented exactly in 2 to 3 days time on me.com in my inbox. And my iPhone is not getting emails pushed at all, I have to check manually, even though I do have everything setup correctly. I didn't do a thing, it was working fine last week, and now it's gone again.

Why does it have to be one extreme or the other? I didn't say Apple never makes mistakes.

At the same token calling it a total disaster is hyperbole in light of many people who are having no problems. Apple has admitted things haven't gone well with MM and they are working on fixing it.

I have had problems with Apple products. Instead of complaining to people who can do nothing to solve my problem. I call Apple and demand they fix my problem or refund my money. Generally that has proven to be a more productive option.

Thanks for proving my point.

Thanks for proving mine.

What was your?

fact #1: some people- no one knows how many - have had serious problems with MobileMe. they are also the most likely to post complaints on web forums and pleas for help on the Apple discussion boards, because they are understandably pissed off and want help/answers.

fact #2: the rest (like me) - no one knows how many - have had no problems or very minor short term ones that went away. they are the least likely to post on forums and do not ask for help on the Apple discussion boards since they don't need it.

fact #3: we do not have any hard data on how many users have experienced what kind of problems. Apple may have some idea, but they don't say (except for the email loss event) - the classic Apple secrecy we all don't like.

fact #4: AI readers are likely to be computer hobbyists or IT people. so we are not representative of consumers in general.

conclusion #1: you can't figure out what is really going on from anecdotal posts on forums like AI. so don't make blanket statements like "it's a total disaster."

conclusion #2: best thing would be to poll AI readers, since a fairly high % probably have .Mac/MobileMe service. Ask if they have experienced (a) no problems (b) minor temporary problems (c) serious or extended problems (d) can't get it to work! then we would finally have some real data to discuss.

does AI have a poll-taking feature?

Apple fucked things up, and continues to for lots of people (thousands, at least). Conclusion, total disaster.

That people with no issues never respond in a helpful manner, at least the majority of them

If Apple is having server problems. What can people who are not experiencing the problem do that is helpful? Or for that matter other people who are experiencing the problem. What can they do that is helpful besides complain?

I think it is fair to acknowledge that the problem is not everyone and only effects a certain number.

Define helpful. It being misled by biased posting helpful? Does creating a potentially false impression that this is a 'total disaster beyond your control' help people who have made a mistake on there own, and which they could correct if they looked at what they were doing more closely and with the attitude they might be the ones doing something wrong? I often try to help people figure out what is going wrong but can't make progress because they've been convinced 'its a total disaster of Apples (or MSFT's or take your pick) making' and won't take the time to figure out they've done X which is causing their problem. I can't count the number of times I've finally just gone over to someone's computer, sat down, and 'fixed the problem' by simply assuming it wasn't due to the 'total disaster' that everyone assumed was Apples (or MSFT's or take your pick) and then trying the simple things. Sometimes it is due to these outside problems but the number of times it isn't far outweighs the times it is in my experience and I help a lot of people with these types of problems. Painting people who report no-problems as fanbois or similar is disservice to the community.

BTW how do you get "thousands at least"? Where does this number come from. I'm aware of a couple of 10's of site with maybe 10's of actual posters have problems each (with many multiple posts) a small number of which I know are duplicate posts by the same poster on different sites. From direct evidence this would put the number in the 100's.

If 1) people not having problem posted with the same frequency as those having problems and 2) this type of logic was applied then Apple would never have had any quality problems which they certainly do. Hyperbole in either direction, while possibly emotionally satisfying, is not very productive.

Based on my experience with similar problems the 'total disaster' types of posts are more harmful than beneficial and posting that specific items are working, and working well are helpful for the reasons stated above, if only to give some little bit of balance.

Oh jeeze, movin' on

While the iphone software isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination its by no means an uncommon thing.

I can name 2 phones which suffer (and continue to do so) from terrible software and they are N95 from Nokia and K850i from SonyEricsson ... both phones have many UI problems or crash but there is no mention of that in the news .. tech or otherwise... its purely because Apple is under such an intense spotlight that these are perceived to be purely something that apple has done .... i'm not defending the software... i wish testing and bug fixing could have been done as the iphone software is a long way away from the slick and fluidity it was during the 1.x days but it'll be back.

Everybody should calm down and have some dip...

I'm glad to report that MobileMe is working great for me now (after a few problems at the launch with ical not synching). Any additions to the me.com apps are almost instantly pushed to my iphone.

The reason people are so critical is because Apple sets a high bar for itself. Apple hypes itself and proclaims itself better than its competitors. When they fall short its met with equal skepticism.

At the same time you have to keep some perspective. Apple is not infallible. No one else has launched a product with quite ambitions of Mobile Me. There isn't exactly a model for potential problems in developing such a service. I'm sure Apple is finding new pit falls as they go along.


What is dip?

I believe he means this crap:

I was quoting the late, great George Carlin...

Mobileme has also been a mess for me. Still is...


Murray
http://www.mcsearcher.com/page.php?code=a7a38823

Mobile Mw continues to cause my phone continued problems and I agree that the Apple Brand is taking a hit. I think it is okay to not be perfect, but quick and excellent repair is going to be the determinate if Apple will continue to demand a premium price. The apps for the iPhone are good but they need work! I am being patient but I sure hope Apple improves. I was going to upgrade from my 2G to the 3G but until things improve, I will not buy the new phone.

Wow.

Hey, here's an idea. Let's all pull our iPhone 3G's out of our pants pocket and see whose is bigger!

Geez....

They're all the same size, it's what you do with it that counts.

1. MM will not allow Outlook users to share calendars.
2. The only way MM does groups will remove the complete contact list on Outlook.
3. If groups are created, MM creates the group on the iPhone but doesn't populate each group with the contacts.
4. MM seems to sync calendars and contacts if an when it wants to. i have resorted to just leaving it set on manual. That way it synchs when I access the function.

This product should never have been released. It is advertised as working with Outlook and it does somewhat. I would be embarrassed to have released such a poorly tested product.

Why in the world would you be using MobileMe instead of Microsoft Exchange Enterprise if you want to sync Outlook?

I don't go to Microsoft and expect them to sync my iCal calendars.

I think the issue is more with MM and Outlook. It works fine with Apple's own Address Book.

really?

think I better stay out of this thread!!

Because I am retired and want to share calendars with my family. Don't be so quick to criticize a user with a problem Remember I have a MobileMe FAMILT PACK.

It was supposed to be for FAMILYS and it doesn't work!

That's the point. The product was advertised to work with Outlook as well as Macs and it doesn't. Not every one who purchases an iPhone owns a Mac.

You concluded with "this product should have never been released". I'm just saying indeed parts of it are having problems, but not necessarily all of it.

Apple should have waited before officially supporting Windows products.

Sorry if I offended you. It just seemed to be an odd combination to sync. And I certainly did not not see where you indicated that you are using a MM Family Pack? Perhaps the kind folks at Mark Space (the Missing Link folks) are working on something that will address your problem?