Apple updates QuickTime; MobileMe improvements coming next year

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Apple issued a routine security update to its QuickTime media player for Windows and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 Tuesday. Meanwhile, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has reportedly promised significant improvements to MobileMe in 2011 in an email to a customer.



QuickTime



On Tuesday, Apple updated its QuickTime media software to version 7.6.9, patching 15 vulnerabilities. The security update is intended for Windows and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 users, as Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.5 already includes fixes to the vulnerabilities.



QuickTime 7.6.9 for Windows is a 32.86MB download. Mac OS X 10.5 users can obtain the update through Software Update or the QuickTime website.



The update addresses several issues with JP2, GIF, PICT and FlashPix images, as well as AVI, MPEG, QTVR, Sorenson and other movie files. Most of the issues resolved could have resulted in unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution if exploited.



MobileMe



MobileMe will "get a lot better in 2011," according to an email ostensibly from Jobs obtained by MacRumors. The email was sent in response to a customer complaint that MobileMe is "almost unusable."



MobileMe subscribers have questioned the service's $99 a year price tag as of late, especially after Apple made the Find My iPhone service free to use for devices running iOS 4.2.



Some experts speculate that MobileMe could see an overhaul of its iDisk or Gallery services when Apple begins to utilize its new 500,000-square-foot data center in Maiden, N.C., which is schedule to begin operation "by the end of this year."



Emails purportedly from Jobs should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, as these recirculated emails have become increasingly common, with many of the emails unverified or blatantly falsified. This summer, a top Apple spokesperson "emphatically denied" that Jobs authored statements attributed to him in a supposed email exchange over the iPhone 4 antenna issue.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 45
    MobileMe needs updated and made a free service that becomes the center of the Apple user experience. I think Apple has known this for a while and will move in this direction very soon.
  • Reply 2 of 45
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    I still say that Apple making what public roadmap as may be contingent on random emails to individuals from the CEO is completely insane.



    I don't mind most of Apple's eccentricities, but this one really makes Apple seem like the plaything of one man.
  • Reply 3 of 45
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I’ve had some Notes syncing issues with MobileMe, but that’s the only issue I can say that I have. For $60/year it’s well worth the value I get for it.



    I do hope this data center is for a lot more services, including a revamped iDisk that mimics Dropbox’s functionality.
  • Reply 4 of 45
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    I still say that Apple making what public roadmap as may be contingent on random emails to individuals from the CEO is completely insane.



    I don't mind most of Apple's eccentricities, but this one really makes Apple seem like the plaything of one man.



    I wish they would stop, too. I thought they had finally stopped after the debacle earlier this year. Guess not.
  • Reply 5 of 45
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RyanPartin View Post


    MobileMe needs updated and made a free service that becomes the center of the Apple user experience. I think Apple has known this for a while and will move in this direction very soon.



    I don?t see the whole of MobileMe being free, and I don?t want this to be a free service like Google offers.
  • Reply 6 of 45
    mgl323mgl323 Posts: 247member
    Mine is 43.40 MB for Windows 7.
  • Reply 7 of 45
    eehdeehd Posts: 137member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RyanPartin View Post


    MobileMe needs updated and made a free service that becomes the center of the Apple user experience. I think Apple has known this for a while and will move in this direction very soon.



    I hope so because I'm beginning to wonder if paying apple this money is worth it. \
  • Reply 8 of 45
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don?t see the whole of MobileMe being free, and I don?t want this to be a free service like Google offers.



    Being a free service "like Google offers" would definitely be taking a step backward. The current version of MobileMe is already much better than stringing together various free services in an attempt to match what you get with MobileMe for a very fair price... that is if your an Apple user I guess.



    However, imagine if MobileMe were enabled to be even more than it is currently. Imagine if it could replace your iTunes account, allow an even higher level of integration between your desktop, laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc. Don't laugh... Some people do have and fully utilize all these overlapping devices (myself included). What if MobileMe accounts could be associated together in some manner to allow small companies to forgoe having to buy and manage their own server? A lot of small companies need contact, calendar, file, and email sharing... But don't necessarily need a whole lot more. A company could pay for each employee to have a MobileMe account and if they could all be associated together, with some of the current limitations of MobileMe removed, you'd have a very turn-key and viable solution for small companies...



    Just my thoughts
  • Reply 9 of 45
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don?t see the whole of MobileMe being free, and I don?t want this to be a free service like Google offers.



    I don't see what MobileMe does to justify the price.
  • Reply 10 of 45
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    To me it seems as if there should be a multi level strategy with MobileMe.



    Free - Find my iPhone, Contacts, Calendar and Safari Bookmarks sync.



    $49 annually - All the above plus email, iDisk 10GB streaming, Photo Gallery, 3rd party app sync



    $99 annually - All the above with 30GB iDisk and iTunes streaming from cloud and web hosting



    $199 - Small Business. 10 email accounts, sharing features in Calendar and iWork.com Biz document sharing. Shared 60GB iDisk and more.



    Software as a service (SAAS) isn't supposed to be free just because Google scrapes and sells your data. It needs to be a viable (read profitable) market. I'm ok with tossing out freebies like Find My iPhone but in the end I need to ensure that my ecosystem of mobile devices are connected to the web and my Macs and PC so that everything works in concert. I also need much better 3rd party support so when I install an iOS app i'm not recreating the wheel to get my data in sync across my Mac, iPhone and Web.
  • Reply 11 of 45
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orlando View Post


    I don't see what MobileMe does to justify the price.



    Like all products and services, if the features doesnÂ?t suit oneÂ?s needs then itÂ?s not the right the right product for them. For me, their value are worth more the $5/month I pay for them and IÂ?d rather pay that and have Apple be accountable for the service than to have some half-assed, ad-supported solution Ã* la Google that does less than it does now or simply stagnates with no real incentive from Apple to improve its services.
  • Reply 12 of 45
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don’t see the whole of MobileMe being free, and I don’t want this to be a free service like Google offers.



    Just curious, you don't want it free or don't want it how google has it set up or both... and why?

    For me personally, just some basic stuff like find my phone is all I might use... I think, but that's just me, not a big fan of cloud storage services, bit of a luddite I suppose, but it does seem to be the future, sigh.
  • Reply 13 of 45
    I've always thought of and utilized my MobileMe account as my own personal Exchange Server... If accounts could be associated with one another, or bought and distributed by companies to their employees, then a small company really would have a simple but powerful solution to the majority of the things a server is utilized for.



    I know servers can and do a lot more than what I'm suggesting MobilMe could provide. But for smaller companies and startups, setting up and maintaining a server is a daunting challenge... I know, I've had to do it!



    If MobileMe could allow me to provide my employees with a company email account, contacts, calendar, file sharing, iChat, cross-device synchronization, etc., etc. and it was all as simple, affordable, and almost zero configuration, as MobileMe is now, then I think Apple would have one hell of an offering that would fill a very real need.



    They have the server farm to support it now. Sure would be cool if Apple spun a version of MobilMe in this general direction!



    What do you guys think? \
  • Reply 14 of 45
    n.kn.k Posts: 7member
    I do hope they bring the price down a bit and have different pricing for different amounts of storage. i dont really want all my media streamed from the cloud. i would rather have it local. but i dont see why it should cost that much for 20Gb of storage and some pretty basic syncing. the photo gallery is a bit redundant as i use facebook. at the very least the email should be free. the only reason i have not gotten rid of my gmail account and gone soley with my me mail address is because i'm afraid if i cant pay the subscription for some reason i will lose my email address which is a huge hassle as you not only have to contact everyone and tell them you have a new one but the email address is the login name for facebook and pretty much everything else.
  • Reply 15 of 45
    I personally think mobile me is worth it just for the sync services alone. A family pack only costs $129, less if you look for deals on Amazon or eBay. Even at full price that only works out to about $10 a month.



    In fact the only thing MobileMe does that I don't like, is that the Windows version resorts all my bookmarks in alphabetical order. I've already used find my iPhone twice this week. And I like having access to my iDisk through my iPhone.



    That being said, I certainly wouldn't object if Apple wanted to lower the price!
  • Reply 16 of 45
    MobileMe needs some re-doing. While its a great feature several improvements would make this more useful. We'll have to see what roll N.C. takes on to know more.
  • Reply 17 of 45
    I've had Calendar and Address Book syncing issues with MobileMe for a very, very long time! I'd even asked Apple Insider to look into the problems that many users in Apple's support forums have been complaining about for months, but I got no response. Multiple chats with Apple Tech Support never fully resolved the randomly replicating and/or disappearing Calendar events, alerts, and Address Book contacts. After getting everything working on several different occasions, things would always start going haywire again for no apparent reason.



    It eventually got to the point where I just gave up trying to get my iPhone to sync because MobileMe would always screw up my Calendar events and Contacts. I haven't been able to use the feature I like most about MobileMe because it just doesn't work. I really hope there's some truth to this rumor and Apple makes MoblieMe reliable.
  • Reply 18 of 45
    Apple should just include a key with each Mac for a lifetime subscription of MobileMe. That way you prevent people from creating 100s of bogus accounts and overloading the servers. Implement a data transfer limit for web pages that's high enough for personal use with an option to upgrade for a minor fee.
  • Reply 19 of 45
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    To me it seems as if there should be a multi level strategy with MobileMe.



    Free - Find my iPhone, Contacts, Calendar and Safari Bookmarks sync.



    $49 annually - All the above plus email, iDisk 10GB streaming, Photo Gallery, 3rd party app sync



    $99 annually - All the above with 30GB iDisk and iTunes streaming from cloud and web hosting



    $199 - Small Business. 10 email accounts, sharing features in Calendar and iWork.com Biz document sharing. Shared 60GB iDisk and more.



    Software as a service (SAAS) isn't supposed to be free just because Google scrapes and sells your data. It needs to be a viable (read profitable) market. I'm ok with tossing out freebies like Find My iPhone but in the end I need to ensure that my ecosystem of mobile devices are connected to the web and my Macs and PC so that everything works in concert. I also need much better 3rd party support so when I install an iOS app i'm not recreating the wheel to get my data in sync across my Mac, iPhone and Web.



    I like the idea of a tiered approach like this but I am not sure it will happen. It will depend on what value it will have for Apple strategically. The small business package may be too niche. It may not be a good idea to limit iWork.com only to business users.
  • Reply 20 of 45
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nitewing98 View Post


    I personally think mobile me is worth it just for the sync services alone.



    When the iPhone first came out I'd agree but these days gmail syncs contacts, calendar and email. Apple now offers find my phone is now free. I cannot see what MobileMe currently offers to justify its price.
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