Apple silently updates MobileMe web apps
Apple has updated its MobileMe web service software, but hasn't noted the update in its MobileMe news blog or otherwise notified subscribers of the new changes outside of an article on the company's support site.
The "late-September 2008 MobileMe update" support article is listed as being last modified October 29, but it's not clear when it was originally published.
The article says "Apple is always working to improve MobileMe. Since MobileMe is primarily a server-side, or 'cloud'-based, service, the MobileMe team can make improvements and push updates to MobileMe without any action being required of MobileMe customers. Since server-side updates are a bit more innocuous than a standard software update to Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, it's easy not to notice that updates are occurring. Usually the only hint of these updates is that things just 'work better.'"
That suggests Apple would have brought the update to the attention of its users. Improvements cited in the report include improved localization for all of its web apps and better "membername suggestions when attempting to sign up for a membername that is already taken."
In the accounts section, the MobileMe update addresses accuracy of data transfer details, fixes an inaccuracy in reporting used storage on Group iDisks, improves the storage allocation menu on family pack sub accounts, and corrects account logout so that it properly logs the user out of the entire MobileMe session.
Under Mail, the update fixes a problem with performing a 'reply all,' fixes some keyboard shortcuts that weren't working properly within the browser, improves performance when using Internet Explorer 7, improves the performance of junk mail filtering and on initial login, fixes a problem with adding contacts within Mail, and it now displays a loading graphic as an email loads rather than just presenting a blank page.
Calendar has been updated for better performance with recurring events and with large numbers of To Do items, improved handling of international time zones, better performance on Firefox 3, fixes an event editor problem on certain browsers, and speeds up the initial loading of the Calendar.
Contacts now allows vCard export, improves IE7 performance, and fixes reliability when first loading Contacts.
Gallery has improved the ability to view Galleries on the iPhone and iPod touch, resolves a problem with buttons not displaying correctly on Firefox 3, and fixes the updating of photo information between the MobileMe website and published photos on the gallery.me.com site.
Additional updates to MobileMe are expected, including the advertised but still not yet delivered feature of uploading files from Mail to the service for download rather than as email attachments.
The "late-September 2008 MobileMe update" support article is listed as being last modified October 29, but it's not clear when it was originally published.
The article says "Apple is always working to improve MobileMe. Since MobileMe is primarily a server-side, or 'cloud'-based, service, the MobileMe team can make improvements and push updates to MobileMe without any action being required of MobileMe customers. Since server-side updates are a bit more innocuous than a standard software update to Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, it's easy not to notice that updates are occurring. Usually the only hint of these updates is that things just 'work better.'"
That suggests Apple would have brought the update to the attention of its users. Improvements cited in the report include improved localization for all of its web apps and better "membername suggestions when attempting to sign up for a membername that is already taken."
In the accounts section, the MobileMe update addresses accuracy of data transfer details, fixes an inaccuracy in reporting used storage on Group iDisks, improves the storage allocation menu on family pack sub accounts, and corrects account logout so that it properly logs the user out of the entire MobileMe session.
Under Mail, the update fixes a problem with performing a 'reply all,' fixes some keyboard shortcuts that weren't working properly within the browser, improves performance when using Internet Explorer 7, improves the performance of junk mail filtering and on initial login, fixes a problem with adding contacts within Mail, and it now displays a loading graphic as an email loads rather than just presenting a blank page.
Calendar has been updated for better performance with recurring events and with large numbers of To Do items, improved handling of international time zones, better performance on Firefox 3, fixes an event editor problem on certain browsers, and speeds up the initial loading of the Calendar.
Contacts now allows vCard export, improves IE7 performance, and fixes reliability when first loading Contacts.
Gallery has improved the ability to view Galleries on the iPhone and iPod touch, resolves a problem with buttons not displaying correctly on Firefox 3, and fixes the updating of photo information between the MobileMe website and published photos on the gallery.me.com site.
Additional updates to MobileMe are expected, including the advertised but still not yet delivered feature of uploading files from Mail to the service for download rather than as email attachments.
Comments
sorry, I had to say it.
Everything is a bit faster though, always a good thing.
I am also not entirely comfortable with "web apps." The web has different UI conventions to the desktop. For example you click once to follow a web link, but on the desktop you click twice to open things. I saw a user at my work trying to use a web app, and she was double clicking all the links, putting twice the load on the server. I thought "serves the designers right for muddying the difference."
Really want the YouSendIt-like feature that they demoed at the Keynote ages ago...
Everything is a bit faster though, always a good thing.
YouSendIt's prob got more features (?) but I use FileChute.app to zip and load big folders of files onto MobileMe and auto-generate Mail + link - works fine. One reason I'm will to pay for MobileMe.
Just tested MobileMe webmail from a university network and it seems quite a bit snappier (sorry!)... (though that might be that I'm using the WebKit nightly build) for Mail and the file Synching and Backup (all my work files) is now (seemingly) quicker. Calendar publishing... smooth as usual.
parenthetically
Enz
The "keep me logged in for 2 weeks" thing doesn't work for me. I think it may be because their auth system is at a different URL to the main site, and Firefox won't accept cookies except from URLs you navigate to.
I am also not entirely comfortable with "web apps." The web has different UI conventions to the desktop. For example you click once to follow a web link, but on the desktop you click twice to open things. I saw a user at my work trying to use a web app, and she was double clicking all the links, putting twice the load on the server. I thought "serves the designers right for muddying the difference."
Browsers can support a double-click event, but it's not 100% reliable across browsers, so hasn't been used that much by developers. In me.com webmail, if you have 2-pane view enabled (rather than 3-pane view), you must double-click a message to view it.
I wonder which is best, send bug report in apple.com feedback or call Apple Care? I kind of alternate between the two.
Although MobileMe is missing many important and basic features, I would prefer them to have a ban on features and spend another six months just fixing bugs and then telling us what they have fixed.
You would think it would be trivial for apple to fix this? I'm really curious why they still haven't
1) It's super buggy. You'll be reading your e-mail and all of a sudden the entire page will reload.
2) You can't e-mail distribution lists from the web interface!
3) It's SLOW.
4) Syncing does NOT work as it should. She has 2 computers and an iPhone, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to talk to each other.
So, when her MobileMe subscription expires at the end of next year, she won't be renewing.
Could someone possibly tell me why: This didn't happen me before last night, when I'm sending an email the activity says "Sending..." and shows the message I'm currently typing about every 40 seconds progressing up as 'outgoing' in the mail activity window.
This is confusing, how could a messages I haven't sent yet be in the outgoing activity before I send it, whereby the progress bar goes up and it looks like it's sent the message. I keep on expecting an email from someone; "why did you send me the same message 6 times?". Someone people wave your wand and fix this thing, it's annoying, confusing and distracting.
It's SLOW.
Everyone is disappointed with Mobile Me, but I did notice a speed increase myself (although I did get an net speed increase via my provider - 10Mb).
What speed it your net?
I saw a user at my work trying to use a web app, and she was double clicking all the links, putting twice the load on the server. I thought "serves the designers right for muddying the difference."
that is not an issue with the design but with the user. one click to follow a web link has been a standard for years. if the user doesn't know that or can't make the connection that she's using a WEB app and at least try that convention first, that's her lack of knowledge/thought.
1) It's super buggy. You'll be reading your e-mail and all of a sudden the entire page will reload.
2) You can't e-mail distribution lists from the web interface!
3) It's SLOW.
4) Syncing does NOT work as it should. She has 2 computers and an iPhone, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to talk to each other.
So, when her MobileMe subscription expires at the end of next year, she won't be renewing.
interesting. because I have been with the service since it was Itools and I have had no issues other than a couple of slowdowns over the summer. I never get a reload when I check my email on the web, its rather to never slow, my syncs are fine, fast as heck even. can't say that I've tried to email a list from the web.
and I wonder if some of the bugs are, like it or not, because Vista ain't perfect either. bugs there could be resulting in bugs in other places. the majority of the time that I've heard folks complain about bugs its been Windows users or the occasional "I'm still on Panther/Tiger" user. but rarely have I heard a complaint from anyone using Leopard. at least not complaints about the web apps. which makes sense cause that's the OS the whole thing was designed under.
interesting. Because i have been with the service since it was itools and i have had no issues other than a couple of slowdowns over the summer. I never get a reload when i check my email on the web, its rather to never slow, my syncs are fine, fast as heck even. Can't say that i've tried to email a list from the web.
And i wonder if some of the bugs are, like it or not, because vista ain't perfect either. Bugs there could be resulting in bugs in other places. The majority of the time that i've heard folks complain about bugs its been windows users or the occasional "i'm still on panther/tiger" user. But rarely have i heard a complaint from anyone using leopard. At least not complaints about the web apps. Which makes sense cause that's the os the whole thing was designed under.
capitalization. Is not important. Neither. Are. Periods.
I'm pretty disappointed by MobileMe. I set it up for a client of mine a few weeks ago, and she hated it so much that she had me switch her back to her old e-mail system (a hodgepodge of POP, IMAP, and Microsoft Entourage). After trying everything I could to keep her on MobileMe, I quickly came to the realization that it's just not ready for primetime.
1) It's super buggy. You'll be reading your e-mail and all of a sudden the entire page will reload.
2) You can't e-mail distribution lists from the web interface!
3) It's SLOW.
4) Syncing does NOT work as it should. She has 2 computers and an iPhone, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to talk to each other.
So, when her MobileMe subscription expires at the end of next year, she won't be renewing.
Not trying to argue, but just sharing my experiences . . .
1) I have never had this happen.
2) I did it the other day. I just typed in the name of the group, and it filled in
all of the email addresses from that group, in a flash. No problems.
3) It's faster than it was. The only slow part in my experience is the
initial load, right after log in. After that, I'm happy with its responsiveness.
4) I've never had a sync problem, and I currently sync an iPhone and two computers
(MBA and 24in White iMac). The sync'ing is fast and I've never had a problem
keeping them in agreement with each other.
The more I use MMe, the more I can't live without it. Of course, that's the
Apple dependency process -- make a product that people don't even know
they need, and after they've used it for a while, they can't imagine life
without it.
Really miss that, since I got my main stuff on my MacBook, but when I work on my MacPro I want to see those RSS feeds too.
I haven't used iDisk because I didn't need it so far, but all in all it seems to work for me.
Though I am wondering if I should spend 80 or so Euro's per year on some silly syncing stuff I use MobileMe for...
Still got a few days to make up my mind with this try-out.
I like that I can have most things synced, but again, if it's worth spending so much money on... I just need to be less lazy :-)
I am also not entirely comfortable with "web apps." The web has different UI conventions to the desktop. For example you click once to follow a web link, but on the desktop you click twice to open things. I saw a user at my work trying to use a web app, and she was double clicking all the links, putting twice the load on the server. I thought "serves the designers right for muddying the difference."
In principal I agree with what you're saying, however, double-click is rarely used in Mail.app so why should anyone assume that it would be used in the web app.
Apart from opening files and folders, playing a song in iTunes and putting VLC into fullscreen, I hardly ever double click anything else these days. If I think back to OS 9, I spent my life double clicking my way around the OS.
Frankly I really like Mobile Me. Part of that might be to avoiding the web app interfaces which frankly I can't umderstand why people would even use them when you have really good client apps. I look at web interfaces to this sort of service as a fall back if you can't get to your normal hardware. I can't imagine why one would whip out his iPhone and get his Mobile Me E-Mail via a web app for example, same thing on a Mac.
Now this does mean there isn't problems as I've had just about all of them in Mobile Me. Comparatively though they have not been anywhere near as bad as the initial release of the 3G software or Safaribeven today. Much of the whining I see in this thread seems to revolves around inflexible people not adapting to the web app user interface which by definition is different than the desk top Apple has been presenting via it's software. That is not to dismiss real issues with Mobile Me just that I don't see a lot of complaints about real issues here. Issues that are currently a problem.
Dave