One of my worst mistakes in 2010 was to subscribe to MobileMe. I wanted the ease of use between iPad, iPhone and Windows PC and as a keen photographer this was quite essential. Unfortunately within days I found that the MobileMe service was slow, unreliable and poorly operated. When I complained I was informed that MobileMe was to be scrapped eventually in place of iCloud.
It has taken nearly 12 months of waiting to get to that stage and now we are here I find that the integration over to iCloud is also fraught with difficulties, including the inability to merge 2 accounts. It is hardly my fault that Apple chose to give a @me email address. Worse still is the extended free space being offered as a MobileMe subscriber. I can't use it with my PC, or with my iPad or iPhone because they use the iTunes address. How rediculous is that.
Look, I love Apple. But really . . . what testing was done ahead of launch?
These guys are supposed to be, 'according to the late Steve Jobs' the best in the industry. Yet they forget fundemental issues such as merging. I have now decided that the best thing to do is forget iCloud and continue with Dropbox and find another photo hosting site.
My email wasn't pushing for a day or so, now seems to be apparently back on track. We'll see. Sorry Apple, I know you've got a lot on your hands, but iCloud really must "just work".
I have a .mac email address and I use the same address as both my iTunes and Apple ID. So my question is am I effected? If I migrate to iCloud will this mean I have to change email addresses. I am not quite sure what the problem is.
No, this is actually the simplest and best set up. But you must go to me.com/move to let Apple move your MobileMe to iCloud. Your .mac address will operate as per normal but note certain things you will lose such as keychain syncing. If you feel ready might as well make the jump to iCloud and work out any issues you encounter. You'll have to do it sooner or later, though of course there's plenty of time if you don't want to just yet.
A lot of these problems happen because Apple has a blind spot for data processing.
This means they regularly destroy people's data, have buggy syncing in all their MobileMe apps and regularly damage features used to support people's daily workflows. Apple is good at many things but they lack the culture, skills and software tools to do data processing. If you use data or have created processes, then it's like having a virus. Apple can fix this, but they have to become aware first.
Apple may have a blind spot in data processing at MobileMe but your overall analysis of of Apple's ability to serve their customer is not my experience. Apple has been the best company for keeping my data that I've used in the last two decades. I've never lost data through their services and I trust them more than any software and hardware company I dealt with.
I also have had my MobileMe email address as primary addresses under both iTunes and MobileMe, and these accounts use different AppleIDs. It is absolutely possible.
This can only be possible if the "Apple IDs" used by MobileMe and iTunes (and the rest of Apple services) were handled as separate AppleID systems, otherwise, there would be no way to know which you were logging into. (This would be like having one user pointed at two uid's on unix/linux) Maybe that's part of what is causing the problems people seem to be experiencing with iCloud, that they're merging the Apple ID systems on the back-end (or phasing out the separate systems), but not merging the accounts (since if they were separate, you cannot reliably assume that the same user name equals the same person).
> "Another person said that upon setting up their iOS device,..."
I know all the kids do it now (because it's more important to be PC than right), but "they" and "their" are not singular. Really. I suppose "He are" will be the next step to illiteracy. If one wishes that earnestly not to be trapped using a "he" or "she," one should write around it.
When the concept of an AppleID started, there was no requirement at all that it be an e-mail address. It simply had to be a string, which could also include spaces, that wasn't taken yet.
So my primary AppleID for Apple developer accounts, iTunes, Apple User forums, etc. is a non-e-mail string.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
Then, still in the dotMac days, there was no way for an e-mail alias, so I added a subsidiary e-mail-only-account to my main account. To this day, Apple has provided no ability to convert that into an alias on the main account.
Now the complications go further...
It would have all been much simpler, if there had been an account name, like the original AppleID, which is completely independent of any e-mail address, and where one can associated and disassociate e-mail addresses on an as-needed basis.
But this is once more a case where Apple trying to make things simple, oversimplified things, and as a result created more trouble.
Apple needs to learn that too much of a good thing isn't a good thing anymore. Computers are tools, not show pieces.
This can only be possible if the "Apple IDs" used by MobileMe and iTunes (and the rest of Apple services) were handled as separate AppleID systems, otherwise, there would be no way to know which you were logging into. (This would be like having one user pointed at two uid's on unix/linux) Maybe that's part of what is causing the problems people seem to be experiencing with iCloud, that they're merging the Apple ID systems on the back-end (or phasing out the separate systems), but not merging the accounts (since if they were separate, you cannot reliably assume that the same user name equals the same person).
I know that. We were talking having the same primary email address in both iTunes and MobileMe which do have different AppleIDs 1. XYZ and 2. [email protected]. And though this is possible then it is not today.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
That's weird, I can use either my @me.com or @mac.com interchangeably. They are the same account. I can login to iTunes with either.
Quote:
Then, still in the dotMac days, there was no way for an e-mail alias
Not that it really matters, but the aliases were definitely there in the .Mac days, since most of mine originate from that era. They probably weren't there in the iTools phase (amusing, iOS' autocorrect still fixes the capitalization for iTools).
Apple's on-line offerings have been rebranded over the years to create a sense of progression. They were ahead of the curve with iTools, killed it as a free service, and now have made a 360 degree turn into offering it at no charge again. Too little too late perhaps. Features are added, removed, shuffled around and renamed -- but it's essentially been the same service for a decade. What's new in iCloud is tighter iOS integration -- and that's about it.
As a product rather than service, iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud is doomed to be an elaborate Apple ID and not much else. The constant rebranding, inconsistent feature sets, and expensive prices in the .Mac and MobileMe days relegated it to a product that only Apple diehards cared about. I stayed on board as a paying member mostly to keep my @mac.com address that's been my primary E-Mail for about a decade. I hosted tons of my music on .Mac's homepage and would use close to 50gb of bandwidth each month. Those links that circulated amongst my followers have been dead since November. There's definitely a sense of, "Don't use our services if longevity means much to you" alongside knowing you spent a hefty sum supporting it over the years without too much afterthought.
The loyal customers who paid for it won't likely go anywhere though, and Apple seems to be counting on that during each goofy rebranding of the service. It's one of the few things Apple just seems unable to master, and maybe forming a relationship (not a buy out) with an established service provider would have been the best long term decision.
Was really surprised that Apple Insider chose this headline and slant to the article... and still hasn't updated to correct it! Everything about it implies that there's something malfunctioning with the iCloud system and the transition from MobileMe. A more accurate approach would be to say there is some confusion as to what you can and can't do and Apple could do a better job communicating that message. But to imply that it's all a mess is misleading at a minimum.
According to macrumors, Tim Cook personally called a person in Luxembourg with the multiple ID issue to let them know they are still working on resolving it.
Who said the big international corporations have lost that personal touch? Certainly that’s the impression one gets when you try the call big businesses and are faced with automatic answering machines with confusing lists of numbers you have tap out before, if you are lucky, you’re put in a queue to talk to a human being.
A Luxembourg resident, however, was surprised on Friday afternoon when the new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, called him directly to thank him for an email sent just 2 days earlier. Henrique Xavier employee of Banque Safra in Luxembourg, stated “I was so surprised, and it took me several hours after the call to realise what had just happened”.
In fact, Henrique had sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook frustrated with the fact that many people have multiple accounts with Apple, not because they want to, but because it’s currently a must if you want to use all their services. His email entitled “iCloud + Apple ID switching is not a clever idea” seemed to have hit a chord with Tim Cook.
Henrique pointed out that with the recent launch of iCloud and iOS 5 upgrade software on 12 October, everyone has at least 2 Apple ID’s, one before Apple’s “MobileMe” was launched, and one after. “Now, people have a library that has been split in half and we can't take advantage of the new features of iOS 5” he stated.
Tim Cook’s response was swift, and telephoning Henrique in Luxembourg direct from Apple HQ in Cupertino explained, “Thank you very much for your email, and I just want you to know we are aware of this issue and are working on it”. Although stunned by the call, Henrique realised that this was not a prank call, as this was something Steve Jobs was renowned for in the past
Since then however, Apple in Ireland have also contacted Henrique Xavier regarding Tim Cook’s email as it appears his message sent ripples around the company. Now he has a direct line for future ideas, advice and even criticisms he may wish to donate to the computer giants. “I’m just waiting for them to give me future products for free to test”, Henrique concluded with a wink.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bedouin
That's weird, I can use either my @me.com or @mac.com interchangeably. They are the same account. I can login to iTunes with either.
They are the same account, but if you set up e.g. an iOS device or a Mac's e-mail account, you have to decide which one you will use. On the Mac, you can then use the other like an alias.
On iOS devices, even with iOS 5, you can't chose the other as "source" e-mail address.
So if I set my accounts up with [email protected], I can't send an e-mail FROM [email protected] on an iOS device. The aliases that I set up show up as FROM choices, but the basic [email protected] is not part of the list of choices I'm given.
This is confusing for people who know only my mac.com address, and worse, for mailing lists with anti-spam measures, I can't send any replies from my iPhone or iPad, because I can't use the From: address that's registered with the mailing list as being authorized to post.
I notified Apple multiple times about the bug, but the replies I got show that unlike in the old days when real Apple developers were sifting through the bug reports, now there are a bunch of trained monkeys who have not the slightest clue of what I was talking about.
Enough said: the issue is still not fixed, which I think is pretty pathetic.
The iOS mail app itself is very limited, and Apple won't give developers access to enough APIs to make a better one. Junk mail filtering should at least be an option . . .
Whether things are 'working' as intended or not, the amount of confusion associated with iCloud and its predecessors is a testament to some bad decision making.
Comments
It has taken nearly 12 months of waiting to get to that stage and now we are here I find that the integration over to iCloud is also fraught with difficulties, including the inability to merge 2 accounts. It is hardly my fault that Apple chose to give a @me email address. Worse still is the extended free space being offered as a MobileMe subscriber. I can't use it with my PC, or with my iPad or iPhone because they use the iTunes address. How rediculous is that.
Look, I love Apple. But really . . . what testing was done ahead of launch?
These guys are supposed to be, 'according to the late Steve Jobs' the best in the industry. Yet they forget fundemental issues such as merging. I have now decided that the best thing to do is forget iCloud and continue with Dropbox and find another photo hosting site.
To say I am annoyed is a serious understatement.
I have a .mac email address and I use the same address as both my iTunes and Apple ID. So my question is am I effected? If I migrate to iCloud will this mean I have to change email addresses. I am not quite sure what the problem is.
No, this is actually the simplest and best set up. But you must go to me.com/move to let Apple move your MobileMe to iCloud. Your .mac address will operate as per normal but note certain things you will lose such as keychain syncing. If you feel ready might as well make the jump to iCloud and work out any issues you encounter. You'll have to do it sooner or later, though of course there's plenty of time if you don't want to just yet.
A lot of these problems happen because Apple has a blind spot for data processing.
This means they regularly destroy people's data, have buggy syncing in all their MobileMe apps and regularly damage features used to support people's daily workflows. Apple is good at many things but they lack the culture, skills and software tools to do data processing. If you use data or have created processes, then it's like having a virus. Apple can fix this, but they have to become aware first.
Apple may have a blind spot in data processing at MobileMe but your overall analysis of of Apple's ability to serve their customer is not my experience. Apple has been the best company for keeping my data that I've used in the last two decades. I've never lost data through their services and I trust them more than any software and hardware company I dealt with.
I also have had my MobileMe email address as primary addresses under both iTunes and MobileMe, and these accounts use different AppleIDs. It is absolutely possible.
This can only be possible if the "Apple IDs" used by MobileMe and iTunes (and the rest of Apple services) were handled as separate AppleID systems, otherwise, there would be no way to know which you were logging into. (This would be like having one user pointed at two uid's on unix/linux) Maybe that's part of what is causing the problems people seem to be experiencing with iCloud, that they're merging the Apple ID systems on the back-end (or phasing out the separate systems), but not merging the accounts (since if they were separate, you cannot reliably assume that the same user name equals the same person).
> "Another person said that upon setting up their iOS device,..."
I know all the kids do it now (because it's more important to be PC than right), but "they" and "their" are not singular. Really. I suppose "He are" will be the next step to illiteracy. If one wishes that earnestly not to be trapped using a "he" or "she," one should write around it.
So my primary AppleID for Apple developer accounts, iTunes, Apple User forums, etc. is a non-e-mail string.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
Then, still in the dotMac days, there was no way for an e-mail alias, so I added a subsidiary e-mail-only-account to my main account. To this day, Apple has provided no ability to convert that into an alias on the main account.
Now the complications go further...
It would have all been much simpler, if there had been an account name, like the original AppleID, which is completely independent of any e-mail address, and where one can associated and disassociate e-mail addresses on an as-needed basis.
But this is once more a case where Apple trying to make things simple, oversimplified things, and as a result created more trouble.
Apple needs to learn that too much of a good thing isn't a good thing anymore. Computers are tools, not show pieces.
This can only be possible if the "Apple IDs" used by MobileMe and iTunes (and the rest of Apple services) were handled as separate AppleID systems, otherwise, there would be no way to know which you were logging into. (This would be like having one user pointed at two uid's on unix/linux) Maybe that's part of what is causing the problems people seem to be experiencing with iCloud, that they're merging the Apple ID systems on the back-end (or phasing out the separate systems), but not merging the accounts (since if they were separate, you cannot reliably assume that the same user name equals the same person).
I know that. We were talking having the same primary email address in both iTunes and MobileMe which do have different AppleIDs 1. XYZ and 2. [email protected]. And though this is possible then it is not today.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
That's weird, I can use either my @me.com or @mac.com interchangeably. They are the same account. I can login to iTunes with either.
Then, still in the dotMac days, there was no way for an e-mail alias
Not that it really matters, but the aliases were definitely there in the .Mac days, since most of mine originate from that era. They probably weren't there in the iTools phase (amusing, iOS' autocorrect still fixes the capitalization for iTools).
Apple's on-line offerings have been rebranded over the years to create a sense of progression. They were ahead of the curve with iTools, killed it as a free service, and now have made a 360 degree turn into offering it at no charge again. Too little too late perhaps. Features are added, removed, shuffled around and renamed -- but it's essentially been the same service for a decade. What's new in iCloud is tighter iOS integration -- and that's about it.
As a product rather than service, iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud is doomed to be an elaborate Apple ID and not much else. The constant rebranding, inconsistent feature sets, and expensive prices in the .Mac and MobileMe days relegated it to a product that only Apple diehards cared about. I stayed on board as a paying member mostly to keep my @mac.com address that's been my primary E-Mail for about a decade. I hosted tons of my music on .Mac's homepage and would use close to 50gb of bandwidth each month. Those links that circulated amongst my followers have been dead since November. There's definitely a sense of, "Don't use our services if longevity means much to you" alongside knowing you spent a hefty sum supporting it over the years without too much afterthought.
The loyal customers who paid for it won't likely go anywhere though, and Apple seems to be counting on that during each goofy rebranding of the service. It's one of the few things Apple just seems unable to master, and maybe forming a relationship (not a buy out) with an established service provider would have been the best long term decision.
The day iCloud went live, MobileMe email went dead on my Mac.
Other MM services work.
MM email on my iPad and iPhone still work.
But MM email on my Mac stops at the point it says "loading email" on the screen.
Too afraid to upgrade to iCloud while I'm outside the country (and can't upgrade my iPad and iPhone as the sync machine for those is at home).
Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/18/...-of-apple-ids/
And the original article:
http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/en/luxem...4747/index.php
Who said the big international corporations have lost that personal touch? Certainly that’s the impression one gets when you try the call big businesses and are faced with automatic answering machines with confusing lists of numbers you have tap out before, if you are lucky, you’re put in a queue to talk to a human being.
A Luxembourg resident, however, was surprised on Friday afternoon when the new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, called him directly to thank him for an email sent just 2 days earlier. Henrique Xavier employee of Banque Safra in Luxembourg, stated “I was so surprised, and it took me several hours after the call to realise what had just happened”.
In fact, Henrique had sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook frustrated with the fact that many people have multiple accounts with Apple, not because they want to, but because it’s currently a must if you want to use all their services. His email entitled “iCloud + Apple ID switching is not a clever idea” seemed to have hit a chord with Tim Cook.
Henrique pointed out that with the recent launch of iCloud and iOS 5 upgrade software on 12 October, everyone has at least 2 Apple ID’s, one before Apple’s “MobileMe” was launched, and one after. “Now, people have a library that has been split in half and we can't take advantage of the new features of iOS 5” he stated.
Tim Cook’s response was swift, and telephoning Henrique in Luxembourg direct from Apple HQ in Cupertino explained, “Thank you very much for your email, and I just want you to know we are aware of this issue and are working on it”. Although stunned by the call, Henrique realised that this was not a prank call, as this was something Steve Jobs was renowned for in the past
Since then however, Apple in Ireland have also contacted Henrique Xavier regarding Tim Cook’s email as it appears his message sent ripples around the company. Now he has a direct line for future ideas, advice and even criticisms he may wish to donate to the computer giants. “I’m just waiting for them to give me future products for free to test”, Henrique concluded with a wink.
I was then forced to open up a @mac.com AppleID for dotMac, which then was converted by Apple into a slightly schizophrenic double identity where the same prefix can be used both with @mac.com and with @me.com, even though they are treated like two different AppleIDs, sort of.
That's weird, I can use either my @me.com or @mac.com interchangeably. They are the same account. I can login to iTunes with either.
They are the same account, but if you set up e.g. an iOS device or a Mac's e-mail account, you have to decide which one you will use. On the Mac, you can then use the other like an alias.
On iOS devices, even with iOS 5, you can't chose the other as "source" e-mail address.
So if I set my accounts up with [email protected], I can't send an e-mail FROM [email protected] on an iOS device. The aliases that I set up show up as FROM choices, but the basic [email protected] is not part of the list of choices I'm given.
This is confusing for people who know only my mac.com address, and worse, for mailing lists with anti-spam measures, I can't send any replies from my iPhone or iPad, because I can't use the From: address that's registered with the mailing list as being authorized to post.
I notified Apple multiple times about the bug, but the replies I got show that unlike in the old days when real Apple developers were sifting through the bug reports, now there are a bunch of trained monkeys who have not the slightest clue of what I was talking about.
Enough said: the issue is still not fixed, which I think is pretty pathetic.
Whether things are 'working' as intended or not, the amount of confusion associated with iCloud and its predecessors is a testament to some bad decision making.
Has this improved?