Concerns raised about lack of Mac-to-MobileMe push sync
While Apple markets MobileMe primarily as a push service, some are now discovering that updates to the Mac don't translate to immediate updates for the web or for Apple's handhelds, raising questions about whether the new service is as full-featured as promised.
As illustrated in an official knowledge base article and supported by reports from Mac Rumors users, instantaneous data sync only occurs whenever a change is made from either the MobileMe web interface or a portable device such as the iPhone or iPod touch.
Even with Mac OS X 10.5.4 and a MobileMe update, however, Mac users just won't see the same level of speed when they make changes from the computer itself. The automatic option for sending data from the Mac is now known to be inherently tied to the operating system's Sync Services, which don't relay information except at regular 15-minute intervals -- a potential hassle for users expecting content to automatically spread within moments to all their computers and devices.
And while it's simple to override the automatic schedule with a manual sync, the absence of full computer-based push has quickly been labeled a disappointment to some users and reveals that Apple has yet to completely integrate push information with Mac OS X.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is believed to solve the issue for business customers with built-in Exchange support but isn't yet known to have a new sync model that would deliver the updates in real time.
As illustrated in an official knowledge base article and supported by reports from Mac Rumors users, instantaneous data sync only occurs whenever a change is made from either the MobileMe web interface or a portable device such as the iPhone or iPod touch.
Even with Mac OS X 10.5.4 and a MobileMe update, however, Mac users just won't see the same level of speed when they make changes from the computer itself. The automatic option for sending data from the Mac is now known to be inherently tied to the operating system's Sync Services, which don't relay information except at regular 15-minute intervals -- a potential hassle for users expecting content to automatically spread within moments to all their computers and devices.
And while it's simple to override the automatic schedule with a manual sync, the absence of full computer-based push has quickly been labeled a disappointment to some users and reveals that Apple has yet to completely integrate push information with Mac OS X.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is believed to solve the issue for business customers with built-in Exchange support but isn't yet known to have a new sync model that would deliver the updates in real time.
Comments
This means that you basically cannot see subscribed calendars on the iPhone unless you turn off the push sync and sync manually with the cable. Which defeats the purpose of having MobileMe in the first place.
I expected they weren't changing the Sync model for Mac to MobileMe when the update was so small it could only have been cosmetic code, and don't think this part is really a big deal. It would be nice if automatic syncing, when turned on, triggered a sync whenever something was changed.
If I push something from MobileMe, it does trigger a sync on my Mac, so there must be a way to alert the machine that I have changed something locally! I think a quick update may fix this.
What an unfortunately ADD world we live in, when 15 minutes is "too slow"
I actually resent the constant IMs and other intrusions, which is why 3rd party apps that can block everything until I AM READY is going to be a Godsend-- it is not as if a successful modern world depended on this. I am convinced more than ever that people want STAT for STAT' sake. Sure it is great to be able to write/talk/IM to the whole bloody world in 16 nanoseconds but by that stage the meaning of life has just been incinerated!
I think this is worse. You cannot now see any of your subscribed calendars on MobileMe, and they are not pushed to the iPhone either.
This means that you basically cannot see subscribed calendars on the iPhone unless you turn off the push sync and sync manually with the cable. Which defeats the purpose of having MobileMe in the first place....
It's probably still to early to tell if it's on purpose (mobileme is still not even working for large numbers of users outside of the USA), but I have been testing all morning and it seems to me that it doesn't push *anything* from the mobileme web to my Mac.
For instance this morning, the ability to edit my contacts on mobileme (finally!) showed up, so I corrected the hundred or so that were destroyed by the move and waited patiently for them to show up. Within minutes my iPod touch had the new contacts, but my MacPro in the next room hasn't been updated at all even though it's been hours now.
The mobileme push to the Macs seems to rely on having "back to my Mac" and syncing enabled. Unfortunately for me (and thousands of others), Mac syncing was seriously busted before the change-over and has been for ages. "Back to my Mac" in particular has never worked properly for my MacPro even though I have all new equipment and am using a brand new Time Machine router etc. It seems likely that Back to My Mac and syncing must work properly before the push works, so that will leave out a huge number of Mac customers (like me.)
MobileMe has to be the worst product update in Apple's history. Seriously buggy, slow POS and it's already two days in. I am super irritated at the performance, the bugs and all the extreme hassle we have been put through over this when .Mac users are usually the core Apple customers.
The only touch of humour in the whole situation is the nostalgia engendered by the little ticker on the main mobileme page where it says that everything is hunky-dory and working fine when it isn't. If I had a nickel for every time over the last eight years when I signed on to .Mac, found almost nothing working and then looked down to see that optimistic little ticker saying everything was fine, I'd be a billionaire by now.
Seems like everything old is indeed new again.
Different branding, same shite.
For those of you with Leopard, have you tried this?
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/13/...obile-me-push/
This article is 100000000000000000% correct. Way to go AI. Got all of it correct. Anyway, I digress. To make a simple two-fold test try this.
Test 1
1. Make a change on your Mac or iPod/iPod with Phone aka (iPhone).
2. Do nothing and wait.
Sometime later the changes will arrive. If you made the change on your Mac, it will arrive at the iPod/(Media device with phone)
Test 2
1. Make a change on your Mac or iPod/(media device with phone)
2. Force a sync via the MobileMe sync.
Your changes come almost immediately. This is not real push but more or less a timed push. If the phone was pushing all the time, the battery would be dead in 30 seconds. This way saves battery a bit more.
So the first question would be if the opposite is working, i.e., changes made to data on the mobileme.com web apps or the iPhone are correctly notifying OSX and immediately syncing. If that mechanism is working fine, then all you need to fix this problem is a small daemon app that watches for changes to contacts/calendar/email in OSX and runs a "manual" sync. This should be able to be done quite easily by an independent party if Apple doesn't make the seemingly-simple update to their sync service.
..... MobileMe has to be the worst product update in Apple's history. Seriously buggy, slow POS and it's already two days in. I am super irritated at the performance, the bugs and all the extreme hassle we have been put through over this when .Mac users are usually the core Apple customers...
Jeeeeez, you need to chill out. "already two days in"??? You expect such a brand new, very complex, multi-component service to be bug-free and working perfectly AFTER 48 HOURS?? What Utopian universe do you live in? It will take at LEAST a few weeks and probably 1-2 months to get everything functioning smoothly. If this is a problem for you, then why would you sign-up for a brand new, wide-scale service that you know will experience hiccups and growing pains for a while?
*snip*
... Your changes come almost immediately. This is not real push but more or less a timed push. If the phone was pushing all the time, the battery would be dead in 30 seconds. This way saves battery a bit more.
"timed push" ? That's definitely an oxymoron. That is not how it is supposed to work..
:-P
M
Apple did demonstrate changes on the Mac being pushed within under a minute to the iPhone, didn't they, during the keynote introducing all this stuff? Are we to believe that Phil's computer just happened to be at just the right moment in that 15 min cycle for the fast push to be a coincidence? Or am I confused and Phil only pushed in one direction? I'll have to re-watch the Road Map keynote.
On another note, I am always amazed at how quick people are to "judge" and "criticize" others who have different values and needs. So what if you don't think it important to have "real" push, or to stand in line for a phone, or to have this or use that? Why criticize those who have different wants and needs? Your values are no more meaningful to the universe as a whole than someone else's. Use your Mac and iPhone as best suits you, and let others use theirs as they see fit.
More troubling to me is that To-Do items created on a Mac (either in iCal or Mail) are not syncing to MobileMe. To-Do items created on MobileMe do sync to my Macs. Maybe they are still sorting things out but I hope this is addressed soon.
I also hope they implement shared calendars (as in Google Calendars). I want to be able to let multiple parties edit a calendar so that we can all see the others' schedule. Google Calendars has this - so should MobileMe.
Since this morning, my Mail app on my desktop is registering 4 unread emails. My iPhone is registering none and neither is the web mail. Problem? When I open mail, I don't have any unread emails but the counter is wrong. Not a big deal. I can live with that. BUT, I went out and saw Hellboy II this afternoon and when I came home, my Mail app was registering 8 unread emails and my iPhone wasn't registering any. I had to manually push the refresh button the phone for it to get the four, not eight, new emails. To me, that sort of defeats the purpose of this whole thing. I thought that when "the cloud" got a new email, it pushed it to my desk, wireless device, and the web mail app simultaneously. Even more curious, I read an email and deleted it on my phone. It took half an hour for it to delete off the desktop Mail app. What gives? I mean, if I wanted something this unreliable I wouldn't pay for .Mac (well, MobileMe now). This is even more frustrating because not only have I been a member for eight years but my "automatic renewal" is set up a month from now. I have half a mind not to even bother.
I'm pretty sure that some intrepid hacker could figure a terminal hack to force sync services to sync more frequently than 15 minutes, no matter how deeply tied it is to the operating system's internals...
Apple did demonstrate changes on the Mac being pushed within under a minute to the iPhone, didn't they, during the keynote introducing all this stuff? Are we to believe that Phil's computer just happened to be at just the right moment in that 15 min cycle for the fast push to be a coincidence? Or am I confused and Phil only pushed in one direction? I'll have to re-watch the Road Map keynote.
I just watched the demo Phil does and he used the MobileMe Web app not the Mac side app.
Let alone the fact that push on Calendar is not very functional right now, what good is a Calendar on MobileMe that will not allow an event reminder/alarm?
Scenario: I am on Mobile me at work or at a Cafe - I make a change to my Calendar and want to set an email reminder so that I am prompted about the event change. There is no option for this on MM. WHAT? I have to create and 'push' a TODO reminder to my iPhone or Mac to create the alarm/reminder at a later time?
The mobile professional can not take the time to deal with such nonsense let alone have to wait a specified period of time for a device to SYNC before moving on with their day.
The Calendar Dev. team was asleep at the wheel. AGAIN! But then so was the integration team that missed this glaring omission. IMHO
To the casual user this is a non issue. If Apple wants to play in the corporate space at any level, this is a poor oversight.
~W
I hope Apple gets all this sync stuff resolved soon.
Also, where the heck is the "Share with" button in iDisk. I was really looking forward to this.
I'm pretty sure that some intrepid hacker could figure a terminal hack to force sync services to sync more frequently than 15 minutes, no matter how deeply tied it is to the operating system's internals...
Apple did demonstrate changes on the Mac being pushed within under a minute to the iPhone, didn't they, during the keynote introducing all this stuff? Are we to believe that Phil's computer just happened to be at just the right moment in that 15 min cycle for the fast push to be a coincidence? Or am I confused and Phil only pushed in one direction? I'll have to re-watch the Road Map keynote.
That near-instantaneous update was demonstrated with Exchange. During that keynote, I don't remember any promises/claims/suggestions made as to the timeliness of MobileMe updates. However, they do say on their MobileMe page that push is instantaneous, which to me suggests it should work about as quickly as the Exchange demo.
But I wouldn't be worried terribly much about bugs during the first week of operation. That will be forgotten if Apple gets it right for the most part from then on. That's the problem though, with .Mac, it seems they showed little interest in making most features work consistently for everyone. It seemed to work well enough for some people, poorly for others.
We just got through approximately 6 million 1G iPhones updating to Firmware 2.0 and the 1 million? NEW 3G iPhones coming online.
I hope Apple phases in the Mac-tto-Cloud push over a few months.
And think about it, MobileMe is for MOBILE updates, when you're on the go, and you are NOT at your desktop or notebook. THEN you want PUSH to be done promptly. This completes your update and your phone can be shut off, extending battery life.
When you are at your desktop or notebook, you have your iPhone WITH you. You can sync with the cable, wait for 15 minutes, or sync manually. All the while, your iPhone is also being charged.