Inside Apple's new MobileMe web and iOS apps

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 54
    justfinejustfine Posts: 61member
    I want Mail on my Mac and my iPhone to be what it is now on Me.Com. I want alignment, fonts, sizes, colors, etc. easily accessible. I don't understand why these improvements are not included in Apple Mail itself.



    Any thoughts?
  • Reply 22 of 54
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Apple must be the biggest supporter of html5 without actually using it to a great extent. Which kind of confirms not allowing flash and silverlight is more about stopping competition rather than anything else.



    I really like mobile me, just a shame it's not worth the money, functionaly now inferior to free alternatives it's a lot of money to ask for a skin. Make it free and I'll joing again, otherwise it seems I'm going to have to start syncing my stuff elsewhere.



    Just having back to my Mac and auto contact syncing is worth it for me.
  • Reply 23 of 54
    techprtechpr Posts: 15member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Apple must be the biggest supporter of html5 without actually using it to a great extent. Which kind of confirms not allowing flash and silverlight is more about stopping competition rather than anything else.



    I really like mobile me, just a shame it's not worth the money, functionaly now inferior to free alternatives it's a lot of money to ask for a skin. Make it free and I'll joing again, otherwise it seems I'm going to have to start syncing my stuff elsewhere.



    See ya... You will not be missed
  • Reply 24 of 54
    myapplelovemyapplelove Posts: 1,515member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mrmamboatl View Post


    Is it just me or is it annoying to have to install an app on someone's iPhone just to locate your phone?



    This is an app that, unless they're also subscribed to Mobile Me, will never be used again by the person whose phone you're borrowing.



    Keeping it a browser-based experience would've made it simpler and easy to use from any mobile device supporting HTML-5/WebKit.



    same here.
  • Reply 25 of 54
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Apple must be the biggest supporter of html5 without actually using it to a great extent. Which kind of confirms not allowing flash and silverlight is more about stopping competition rather than anything else.



    I really like mobile me, just a shame it's not worth the money, functionaly now inferior to free alternatives it's a lot of money to ask for a skin. Make it free and I'll joing again, otherwise it seems I'm going to have to start syncing my stuff elsewhere.



    I think there have been enough written about the issues with Flash in this site, to confirm it is not just about competition. I would love to see some new factual opinions that support your argument, but I doubt, you have any.
  • Reply 26 of 54
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    IMO it should sync back and forth between devices and cloud like Dropbox. The first 5 GB should be free. Put in iAd if necessary.
  • Reply 27 of 54
    timgriff84timgriff84 Posts: 912member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Just having back to my Mac and auto contact syncing is worth it for me.



    Thats my point though, M$ already offer back to your pc for free and have done for a while. Syncing on all the live stuff also just announced as being free. I don't think any of the mobile me stuff is bad, it's just the really high price tag I can't get passed. If it was £10 maybe but £60!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by souliisoul View Post


    I think there have been enough written about the issues with Flash in this site, to confirm it is not just about competition. I would love to see some new factual opinions that support your argument, but I doubt, you have any.



    I wouldn't say I'm a big flash fan, but as for silverlight, win phone 7 runs on it so it's doable. My point it on one hand we have apple saying there's no need for any of these plugins, but at the same time there not producing anything major in html5 and still doing it all in their propriatory formats. You can't have it both ways.
  • Reply 28 of 54
    justfinejustfine Posts: 61member
    Comments anyone?
  • Reply 29 of 54
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    ... I wouldn't say I'm a big flash fan, ...



    You don't have to.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    ... but as for silverlight, win phone 7 runs on it so it's doable. ...



    What what logic do you compare what is possible in two different technologies from two different developers?
  • Reply 30 of 54
    betobbetob Posts: 7member
    I could read my mail with 1 click before - now I need 2

    Is it suppose to be an improvement?



    The "new" MobleMe compared to what .Mac was is rubish.
  • Reply 31 of 54
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Hard to believe there are no iPad apps for Mobile Me Gallery, or iDisk. WTF?
  • Reply 32 of 54
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pmz View Post


    Hard to believe there are no iPad apps for Mobile Me Gallery, or iDisk. WTF?



    Apple does some wonky things. Maybe the others will be revamped so they at least look decent for the iPhone 4's display.



    One that always gets me is Apple's web apps site. A site that was not designed to be idealized for your iPhone where one is likely to be looking for these apps.
  • Reply 33 of 54
    benicebenice Posts: 382member
    Nice article, especially for those like me without Mobile Me to see what it look likes now after the changes.
  • Reply 34 of 54
    justbobfjustbobf Posts: 261member
    I dunno know...I sort of like the original Mobile Me layout. One click to get to the other areas, instead of two. Now, a new user could be excused to thinking that Mobile Me is only email, as that is all they see when they log in.
  • Reply 35 of 54
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    It amazes me how there is a lack of cohesion in the UI from the Mac to iPhone to iPad. They all look very different. I was expecting to see the iPhone to take on the design cues of the iPad but that didn't happen. Mail on the Mac is totally different than MobileMe. What happened?



    It's because of different teams working on different areas... Apple's strengths and shortcomings are the result of this. Steve spoke about this (well, the strengths) at the All Things D conference. He says there are different teams, working in their areas, but the management meets weekly to be on the same page, etc.



    But the shortcomings are this. One particular team may be blazing ahead, while the other teams may be falling behind, or just pursuing a different path. While the teams do not compete with each other directly, like in some other companies, this brings about incongruence.



    One could argue right now iOS is so favoured over Mac OS, whether by chance or by design. As such, iOS is blazing ahead, and the MobileMe team decided to follow their lead. What of Mac OS? Well, it could be said that 10.7 will borrow heavily from the iOS UI. Current new Mac users coming from iPhone and iPad are very lost when coming to the Mac OS. The concept of dragging an "App" from your mounted DMG to the Applications folder seems very alien to them, they keep asking, "So where are my applications? How do I install and uninstall them?". Some people drag Applications out of the Applications folder then delete them, or it's littered on the desktop. Mac OS 10.7 might as well have an iOS-like Home screen for adding and deleting your apps. Laugh now, just watch. I do basic training classes for new Mac users at a local Apple Reseller with several shops, so this is my experience, FWIW. Funnily, some people are lost on the multi-touch trackpad, they're like tap, tap tap, click click click, wha...? Bringing multitouch to Mac is interesting, but for new users, it ain't like how intuitive it is on iPhone and iPad.



    Honestly though, the average IQ of people using Macs has dropped. Call me an elitist, and of course this is just my instinct, but it does make sense that as more and more Macs are sold to new users the demographic of Mac users is changing dramatically. To a more average-minded crowd. I'm sure you all notice this in your own experiences. Those helping friends out with computers have less support questions when their friends switch to Macs. But said friends may still be quite clueless on certain things, and for example things like Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac works in a different, sometimes baffling way.



    Thus, in conclusion, if any, I would say that because of the way Apple is run right now, with Steve trying to be more of a facilitator among the teams, while pushing his own ideas (based more around particular new innovations he's keen on), there will be a lot of incongruence in Apple. A final example is, product design can be so "advanced", ala Mac mini unibody, but you have to ask "Why unibody?", "Why that price", and on the service, support, and supply chain side they might be catching up to meet the quality expectations brought about by such finely tuned, luxury-perceived designs.
  • Reply 36 of 54
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    This highlights the difference in strategy between Apple and Google in terms of web apps vs mobile apps. While Apple says it fully supports both open, unrestricted HTML5 and its curated, proprietary App Store titles as distinct platforms, it works to provide custom apps wherever possible, because local apps simply provide a more polished experience. ...



    In the opposite corner, Google has created Android as a way to deliver mobile apps, but clearly focuses on delivering functionality via web apps. Google employees note that the company views Android apps as a stepping stone toward HTML5, ...



    Simply put: Google is pushing Android to use more of its web-based services.. This is Android's key-killing feature, because after all that is Google's main revenue. This doesn't sound too good for Android software developers..
  • Reply 37 of 54
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    One could argue right now iOS is so favoured over Mac OS, whether by chance or by design. As such, iOS is blazing ahead, and the MobileMe team decided to follow their lead. What of Mac OS? Well, it could be said that 10.7 will borrow heavily from the iOS UI.



    That is my same impression, seeing how Apple is doing more and more keynote events focusing on iPhone OS (now iOS), can't really blame them though since iPhone and iPod touch have become Apple's biggest money generators. Consumers are moving toward smaller and more compact smart devices..



    It's possible we're going to see Mac OS UI changed to look more like iOS UI. It's obvious enough to see, that Steve Jobs believes touch-oriented display is going to be the game changer in defining the future of computers. The man himself has even put his name into one of the owners of 358-thick page of iPhone multi-touch patent..
  • Reply 38 of 54
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jitendra View Post


    The new mobileme interface looks ugly. The previous look was beautiful and sleek. I want that back. Please someone tell apple switch back to previous interface. App switcher is waste of time.



    Please provide feedback to apple for switching this back.







    Doesn't the cloud icon remind you of the Windows Start button?
  • Reply 39 of 54
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kilimanjaro View Post


    That is my same impression, seeing how Apple is doing more and more keynote events focusing on iPhone OS (now iOS), can't really blame them though since iPhone and iPod touch have become Apple's biggest money generators. Consumers are moving toward smaller and more compact smart devices..



    It's possible we're going to see Mac OS UI changed to look more like iOS UI. It's obvious enough to see, that Steve Jobs believes touch-oriented display is going to be the game changer in defining the future of computers. The man himself has even put his name into one of the owners of 358-thick page of iPhone multi-touch patent..



    It was Steve that said, "I want to type on a glass surface" and that was apparently the birth of the iPad/ iPhone/ iPod touch (All Things D Conference interview).



    When Apple came "back" into existence from the brink of irrelevance, OS X was their stronghold, their key differentiator. iMac, then iBook, all looked and worked great because Windows was well, you know, Windows. iPod was a popular device, but in hindsight, the iPod interface was always quite simple. Functional and cool, but simple.



    Now in the past few years we have a whole new breed of people who are basically PC users and iPhone, iPad users. So when they get a Mac, they expect everything to be as easy as iPhone and iPad, and then get confused and annoyed when they realise, it's actually a very powerful, full-fledged operating system that's great, but just works a little differently.



    OS X is not in trouble, but has a bit of an identity crisis now. It is nothing like Windows, for the new user. At the same time, it's nothing like iOS.



    Apple will of course continue to sell loads of iPhones, iPod touches, iPads and Macs.



    But OS X, especially looking towards 10.7, will change quite a bit, I imagine. I bet you Steve and a lot of the iOS teams at Apple are kind of giving dirty looks towards the OS X team... taunting them... saying, "Come on, be like us, be cool, be hip, be brainlessly easy to use... What's that? You've got powerful technologies under the hood and you're extremely advanced? Who cares, most people new to Mac just want Internet, email and Word on a Mac! iTunes? Nobody bothers to sync and deal with iTunes, they just go on using their iPad and iPhone for months and months without syncing!"
  • Reply 40 of 54
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post


    IMO it should sync back and forth between devices and cloud like Dropbox. The first 5 GB should be free. Put in iAd if necessary.



    Couldn't have said it better myself.
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