I think the deal with not allowing iPhone into MM is a problem that will only get worse including other websites pretty soon. The iPhone does not do drag and drop which is a huge advantage with HTML5 so you will be seeing a lot of that soon. Sproutcore is already using features that break on iPhone. Best we can hope for is iPhone app for MM.
I think the deal with not allowing iPhone into MM is a problem that will only get worse including other websites pretty soon. The iPhone does not do drag and drop which is a huge advantage with HTML5 so you will be seeing a lot of that soon. Sproutcore is already using features that break on iPhone. Best we can hope for is iPhone app for MM.
True. I downloaded an application that was mentioned in this thread: Bolt that lets MM think that it is communicating with a quasi-MM capable browser. It lets me access all of MM. For 99 cents your worries might be solved.
Yup and just sit back and let the spam flood gates open with the "free" accounts. What a winning idea.
Apple, if you are listening. Please, please, please do not listen to this idea.
Remember when Apple launched MobileMe at the same time they launched the iPhone 3G while up-selling MobileMe to every buyer and allowing the 60-day trial to anyone without doing a slow and controlled release of the revised .Mac service. 3 days of gridlock that Apple still hasn?t recovered from despite the service working great and getting better for well over a year now. I think Apple learned a hard lesson now that they seem to stagger releases more than before, but it?s probably still too early to tell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
I think the deal with not allowing iPhone into MM is a problem that will only get worse including other websites pretty soon. The iPhone does not do drag and drop which is a huge advantage with HTML5 so you will be seeing a lot of that soon. Sproutcore is already using features that break on iPhone. Best we can hope for is iPhone app for MM.
I had hoped the iDisk app for the iPhone was going to be more robust. Oh well, maybe one day.
Yup and just sit back and let the spam flood gates open with the "free" accounts. What a winning idea.
Apple, if you are listening. Please, please, please do not listen to this idea.
They are not listening, and you mustn't have read my idea. It's ad-free. I told you how they can do this. Apple, if are listening, at least read all the posts first.
They are not listening, and you mustn't have read my idea. It's ad-free. I told you how they can do this. Apple, if are listening, at least read all the posts first.
Maybe they can add it eventually as a value add for a Mac or OS upgrade purchase with the data center they are building in NC, but I still think the number of integrated services and additional work that has to be done to the service do not make it a viable candidate to be free. Right now the service is too slow as it is. I really don?t want to have a Googleplex of users signing up for and abusing MobileMe simply because it?s free. And I don?t want a Facebook like setup of web apps building and screwing with the site. I expect Apple to jump more into social networking, but I hope that it don?t integrate it with MobileMe.
Maybe they can add it eventually as a value add for a Mac or OS upgrade purchase with the data center they are building in NC, but I still think the number of integrated services and additional work that has to be done to the service do not make it a viable candidate to be free. Right now the service is too slow as it is. I really don’t want to have a Googleplex of users signing up for and abusing MobileMe simply because it’s free.
You say abusing, I say using. If Apple can't handle the heat we'd suffer. They have learned a lot so far, if they took it on I'd say they'd pull it off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
And I don’t want a Facebook like setup of web apps building and screwing with the site.
The service apps would be optional, and Apple approved. It could even be an exclusive club for a while. Only allowing the top 50 developers to join. After all, this would be a paid model, so the apps would need to be a high standard. Oh and it wouldn't be like Facebook cause the apps would be business oriented apps. Not crosswords and shit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
I expect Apple to jump more into social networking, but I hope that it don’t integrate it with MobileMe.
Ok, I agree with this point. Apple would probably just buy Twitter.
I still think the Mobile me app-service idea is an awesome one. It would be sweet logging into Mobile me with all those apps across the Mobile me menubar, all synced up.
I'm sorry to hear they still don't allow you to access MobileMe from the iPhone. I sync my addresses and calendar to my iPhone using MobileMe since I have two computers and prefer to sync my music and podcasts from the home machine but the calendar / addresses from the work machine. Periodically my addresses vanish from my iPhone. Typically they return within an hour, but one time while I was on vacation they vanished for 3 days. Being unable to access MobileMe left me completely stranded with no phone numbers or email addresses for anyone for the bulk of the vacation.
I'm learning to put critical addresses / phone numbers in iCal since the calendar sync is more stable (thus far it has never arbitrarily disappeared). I also bought an iPod Nano so that I'd always have a backup with me though I need glasses to read anything on it or in the calendar application. Why doesn't apple let us control the font size in these applications?
The upside for Apple making the service free is it's then a Mac seller. It makes the Mac platform more appealing. So the $100M less per year they make from Mobile me they more than make up for selling Macs, and they still get to take a cut from the service apps people add on to their Mobile me menubar, and they get that developer cost money too.
Eventually Google is going to be taking this business away from them anyway, this is a way to stop that from ever happening, and it brings more Mac users into the mobile me loop, with the added opportunity of doing some very interesting social networking stuff in the future.
Mobile me is grand, but it's too expensive. They could make it cheaper, but I think it would be seen as a far more balsy and open move if they made it completely free and created an API for developers to write their own Mobile me apps. I could only imagine the free publicity the likes of Engadget would give them on a move like this. Though the PR stuff would be just the icing on the cake.
Adware doesn't make it more appealing, period. You will counter with just ad Adblock to your browser and I'll counter you still haven't addressed server costs.
It's an idea that has proven to create nothing but crap all over the web.
People want their Mobile .Me evironment to not look like cheap tech sites.
Maybe not, but generally, with any online service, free means adware.
Even if Apple dropped the yearly fee, my guess is that eventually they'd be forced to make the service "pay for itself".
The current $99 subscription fee isn't outrageous. Sure, we all want things cheaper, but it does deliver quite a bit of value. My only gripe is the brutally slow upload speed. It feels like dial-up, or slow DSL.
Perhaps, if Apple added a MobileMe Lite for users who are only interested in syncing certain things like contacts, bookmarks, OmniFocus, etc. and have little interest in having an iDisk or a web page or the other features.
Maybe not, but generally, with any online service, free means adware.
Normally yes, but not in this case - I explained why. App add-on services. Apple also gets developer fee money as a small bonus for them. They used this "amazing new service!" to sell Macs. I think it would work, and would be a great PR move and would make Apple appear more open. Opening up Mobile me to devs etc. But like I say, I don't expect it ever to happen, that would be asking too much.
Google is going to try to take this stuff away from them anyway, doing this would prevent a lot of that, and like I say it would sell more Macs and be a good PR move. If I renew this time I don't see me doing it next time. They need to consider making the service free, and doing this sort of stuff I say here would allow them to do that without loosing much money - they might even make more money because of it. If it was free more users would jump on board, and many of them would grab a service or two to add-on. This plays into Apple's hands too, keeping people in the fold. I don't expect Apple to do an intelligent chess move like this, but you never know, they could surprise us someday.
Comments
I think the deal with not allowing iPhone into MM is a problem that will only get worse including other websites pretty soon. The iPhone does not do drag and drop which is a huge advantage with HTML5 so you will be seeing a lot of that soon. Sproutcore is already using features that break on iPhone. Best we can hope for is iPhone app for MM.
True. I downloaded an application that was mentioned in this thread: Bolt that lets MM think that it is communicating with a quasi-MM capable browser. It lets me access all of MM. For 99 cents your worries might be solved.
Yup and just sit back and let the spam flood gates open with the "free" accounts. What a winning idea.
Apple, if you are listening. Please, please, please do not listen to this idea.
Remember when Apple launched MobileMe at the same time they launched the iPhone 3G while up-selling MobileMe to every buyer and allowing the 60-day trial to anyone without doing a slow and controlled release of the revised .Mac service. 3 days of gridlock that Apple still hasn?t recovered from despite the service working great and getting better for well over a year now. I think Apple learned a hard lesson now that they seem to stagger releases more than before, but it?s probably still too early to tell.
I think the deal with not allowing iPhone into MM is a problem that will only get worse including other websites pretty soon. The iPhone does not do drag and drop which is a huge advantage with HTML5 so you will be seeing a lot of that soon. Sproutcore is already using features that break on iPhone. Best we can hope for is iPhone app for MM.
I had hoped the iDisk app for the iPhone was going to be more robust. Oh well, maybe one day.
Yup and just sit back and let the spam flood gates open with the "free" accounts. What a winning idea.
Apple, if you are listening. Please, please, please do not listen to this idea.
They are not listening, and you mustn't have read my idea. It's ad-free. I told you how they can do this. Apple, if are listening, at least read all the posts first.
They are not listening, and you mustn't have read my idea. It's ad-free. I told you how they can do this. Apple, if are listening, at least read all the posts first.
Maybe they can add it eventually as a value add for a Mac or OS upgrade purchase with the data center they are building in NC, but I still think the number of integrated services and additional work that has to be done to the service do not make it a viable candidate to be free. Right now the service is too slow as it is. I really don?t want to have a Googleplex of users signing up for and abusing MobileMe simply because it?s free. And I don?t want a Facebook like setup of web apps building and screwing with the site. I expect Apple to jump more into social networking, but I hope that it don?t integrate it with MobileMe.
Maybe they can add it eventually as a value add for a Mac or OS upgrade purchase with the data center they are building in NC, but I still think the number of integrated services and additional work that has to be done to the service do not make it a viable candidate to be free. Right now the service is too slow as it is. I really don’t want to have a Googleplex of users signing up for and abusing MobileMe simply because it’s free.
You say abusing, I say using. If Apple can't handle the heat we'd suffer. They have learned a lot so far, if they took it on I'd say they'd pull it off.
And I don’t want a Facebook like setup of web apps building and screwing with the site.
The service apps would be optional, and Apple approved. It could even be an exclusive club for a while. Only allowing the top 50 developers to join. After all, this would be a paid model, so the apps would need to be a high standard. Oh and it wouldn't be like Facebook cause the apps would be business oriented apps. Not crosswords and shit.
I expect Apple to jump more into social networking, but I hope that it don’t integrate it with MobileMe.
Ok, I agree with this point. Apple would probably just buy Twitter.
I still think the Mobile me app-service idea is an awesome one. It would be sweet logging into Mobile me with all those apps across the Mobile me menubar, all synced up.
I'm learning to put critical addresses / phone numbers in iCal since the calendar sync is more stable (thus far it has never arbitrarily disappeared). I also bought an iPod Nano so that I'd always have a backup with me though I need glasses to read anything on it or in the calendar application. Why doesn't apple let us control the font size in these applications?
The upside for Apple making the service free is it's then a Mac seller. It makes the Mac platform more appealing. So the $100M less per year they make from Mobile me they more than make up for selling Macs, and they still get to take a cut from the service apps people add on to their Mobile me menubar, and they get that developer cost money too.
Eventually Google is going to be taking this business away from them anyway, this is a way to stop that from ever happening, and it brings more Mac users into the mobile me loop, with the added opportunity of doing some very interesting social networking stuff in the future.
Mobile me is grand, but it's too expensive. They could make it cheaper, but I think it would be seen as a far more balsy and open move if they made it completely free and created an API for developers to write their own Mobile me apps. I could only imagine the free publicity the likes of Engadget would give them on a move like this. Though the PR stuff would be just the icing on the cake.
Adware doesn't make it more appealing, period. You will counter with just ad Adblock to your browser and I'll counter you still haven't addressed server costs.
It's an idea that has proven to create nothing but crap all over the web.
People want their Mobile .Me evironment to not look like cheap tech sites.
Adware doesn't make it more appealing, period.
I never mentioned adware, period.
I never mentioned adware, period.
Maybe not, but generally, with any online service, free means adware.
Even if Apple dropped the yearly fee, my guess is that eventually they'd be forced to make the service "pay for itself".
The current $99 subscription fee isn't outrageous. Sure, we all want things cheaper, but it does deliver quite a bit of value. My only gripe is the brutally slow upload speed. It feels like dial-up, or slow DSL.
Perhaps, if Apple added a MobileMe Lite for users who are only interested in syncing certain things like contacts, bookmarks, OmniFocus, etc. and have little interest in having an iDisk or a web page or the other features.
Maybe not, but generally, with any online service, free means adware.
Normally yes, but not in this case - I explained why. App add-on services. Apple also gets developer fee money as a small bonus for them. They used this "amazing new service!" to sell Macs. I think it would work, and would be a great PR move and would make Apple appear more open. Opening up Mobile me to devs etc. But like I say, I don't expect it ever to happen, that would be asking too much.
Google is going to try to take this stuff away from them anyway, doing this would prevent a lot of that, and like I say it would sell more Macs and be a good PR move. If I renew this time I don't see me doing it next time. They need to consider making the service free, and doing this sort of stuff I say here would allow them to do that without loosing much money - they might even make more money because of it. If it was free more users would jump on board, and many of them would grab a service or two to add-on. This plays into Apple's hands too, keeping people in the fold. I don't expect Apple to do an intelligent chess move like this, but you never know, they could surprise us someday.