More trouble for Apple’s MobileMe service
As if the initial launch troubles, downtime, and other errors weren’t enough, it looks like Apple is experiencing even more hiccups with their new MobileMe service. Many customers are unable to access the email portion of their MobileMe account. Apple has posted a bulletin indicating that the issue is a known problem, and is effecting less than 1% of the user base. This may be true, but a quick scan of the Apple discussion boards reveals growing contingent of infuriated customers that seem to be getting no where with Apple’s support team. Furthermore, British customers that signed up for a free trial of the service are victims of a flawed billing system. It seems that Apple’s billing system inadvertently placed a 121 Pound pre-authorization charge on many new customer accounts. Whoops. Apple, to their credit, is providing effected customers with an additional 30 days of free service which, when tacked on to the 60 day trial and initial 30 day free credit, provides customers with a full 120 days of free MobileMe access. That’s great, but if the downtown and issues continue, no amount of free service will make up for an unreliable offering.
Once again, BlackBerry scores again. Why? Because they work. duh. Love my 8320 till Thunder is availble.
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Ive noticed over the last few days that my phone will say I have an email and when I open up the mail.app it has to download the mail which can take around 15 seconds. Then after I read it and go back to the home screen it still says I have mail. So I have to go back into the mail.app and wait about 15-20 seconds for it to sync back up so it will see the message as read. I hope they fix it soon.
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Wait a moment there!!! The iPhoney has a touche screeny!!!
FAIL…
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I guess this could be expected. It is a new system and even though there are indeed some hiccups, I am still enjoying it. Can’t wait to get my iPhone!!
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tsk tsk tsk apple should not make promises they can’t keep 121# ouch lets see last time i checked ! GBP was = $3 so brits ar paying $363 for a faulty service trial ths BS
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In addition, for those of us with Outlook, there is a bug that “hides” our appointments in Outlook, in an apparently random manner, after synching. They still exist, but are invisible in the day/week/month view. Based on the discussions on the boards, most people have this happen only with old appointments, but I had it happen with one later in the same day and immediately stopped using the service. No word from Apple as to when we can expect a solution. Really lame. Especially if they want business users to adopt what looks more and more like a toy, rather than a real smart phone.
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Perhaps folks should give RIM some props for how reliable their service is.
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There’s definitely issues with their new service. I have a Mac and PC (work) and all my information on the Mac shows up on my work computer, but not the other way around. I also happen to have my Outlook linked to BES and my work Blackberry. I did hope to have my entire scheduled snyc’ed but it isn’t happening yet. Since I have a lot of schedules (that are used to track system outages & availability, and project timelines) the web Calendar interface takes forever to load. I do expect Apple to address these issues if I were to move forward to purchasing the year of service. I’m glad I’m still on trial. Apple should be aware they stand to lose a lot of business if they don’t fix these problems before the trail period ends.
I don’t have an iPhone, but would someone be able to sync their info using iSync? Eventually I would imagine that a sync utility out there would be available for those who don’t want to deal with MobileMe or would like to sync their info for free.
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Can someone give me a 101 lesson on the benefits of buying the iPhone outright?
Since T-Mobile doesn’t have a 3G data plan yet, even in NYC, do you just go for a cheaper AT&T plan?
Thanks in advance.
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Blackberry Unite! is free and works. I think you can set it up without setting up the email portion, use BIS for email, and everthing else would use Unite!. True you would have to leave your computer on, but you would have to do that with MobilMe as well for the computers to be updated, right?
I know that there isn’t a Mac version of Unite! yet, but there is PocketMac available from Blackberry for free. I think that RIM would deeply penetrate the Mac world if they were just a little more compatible with Mac’s. ie, Unite!, Desktop Manager, etc….
Just my two cent for now….oh and Galvatron, shut up!
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More proof that Apple Fanbois will put up with anything just because it’s Apple. RIM has been getting push email right for over 8 years. Been using BB’s since the 950. They did it right from the start.
Why does Apple think they can say “push” in 2008 with some crappy hack that’s not even push. Keep hanging on Steve’s balls and STFU about how his stuff just works.
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His stuff does just work….just cant say if its gonna be working today, tmw or next wk lol
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My mobile me was kind of buggy the best day but everything seems to be working fine now, no issues here, well i got the service for 1 year so it might be the free trial people that are having issues. Please don’t compare Mobile me to anything cause you just sound Dumb, the service only been running for about 1 week or so and ya already bitching, Blackberry been in business for years and even them go down sometimes
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@Galvatron: What kind of math is that?? Nobody is paying $363 for MobileMe, not even on your planet! Of course if all you want to do is spread some FUD, then by all means continue. MobileMe is US $99. The GBP is currently about US $2, so Brits pay about GBP £50 for MobileMe. And it’s STILL $99 when you convert it. But hey, I understand you’re an Ars Technica Windows Fanboi, so don’t let my facts slow you down. You’re on a roll, playa!
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No one has push as good as blackberry. Strangely enough that’s why I got rid of mine, because I didn’t know how to stop looking at it. (Uncle taught me that he just checks his email when he wants to check it, which is exactly what I should’ve done… I may go back to a BB soon, but I digress…)
First they don’t tell the whole truth about push synchronization, then the uptime issues, and now this failure? It’s amazing how forgiving the customer base is for Apple’s foibles. They get a “oh they tried their best” as opposed to a “UNACCEPTABLE WE WILL CLUB YOU” (like Microsoft people do, and admittedly, BB users because a lot depend on the BB service!)
lol @ Earld: nicely put. It does work, just not right now
PS affecting is the verb you wanted; effecting is used for revolutions and results. Sorry to nit pick
took me a few years to get those right.
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Giving RIM props for it’s email service? Isn’t this the same company that’s been crashing it’s own servers with “updates”. I’d also give Apple a little breathing room since they haven’t been doing email for as long as RIM. And RIM still can’t do HTML mail. As a matter of fact, aren’t they having issues with their new OS?
I remember that RIM’s service wasn’t perfect at launch either.
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I’m Canadian and the billing accident happened to me of $119. I now have 4 months free
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I’ve been using MobileMe since it launched, and to be honest havent noticed any problems with it, apparantly theres a delay syncing from ur laptop, but all my changes get made on my iphone so its no big deal.
Only thing i have found is that sometimes email doesnt come through unless the mail app is running, and on a seperate note, the push alerts for 3rd party apps don’t seem to happen, but its early days, they’ll get there.
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I’m with you Andy, no problem here.
I like all the apple stories because its great to read the comments by the anti-apple fanboys, especially Gal. Good to see you come back Galvatron.
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MobileMe is completely unusable for me on Vista — It makes my Outlook run like crazy constantly spinning the hard drive. That won’t do. I’m taking that service off my system asap.
Wish they’d done more testing before rushing it out the door.
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Apple Ballhangers will make excuses for Stevie no matter what.
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Funny that everyone’s praising RIM after all those outages of a couple months ago. Why isn’t anyone praising Windows Mobile, the only OS that has actual direct access to Exchange with no middleman? Never any email sync problems.
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You guys are acting as if RIM is free from all errors. You would figure their system to be flawless at this point since they have been doing it so long. BlackBerry has experienced countless outages within the past two years. S*!t happens. Give Apple a chance to iron out all the kinks of their new service. I think we would all agree that the service looks promising. This is innovation at its best again coming out of Cupertino and it seems this is the small price we have to pay in the beginning…
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for all the cubical monkeys and road warriors, keep enjoying your bb push email and keep wasting your life with that ball and chain, just keep watching that email light blinking.
I broke free from it 2 years ago and just have simple phone for work and iphone to have usable internet in my pocket. funny that my push calendar, contact and bookmarks all working since last week. I have my own domain names and just use imap for email.
I can care less about email or push email anymore, and obviously I don’t use twitter, I answer email once or twice a day and spend my free time make money and with my family instead of checking my bb to see if I have to go save the world.
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looks like apple is beta testing another product on the people they are selling too…I hope this bites them in the rear end to be honest…
I am not sure how they did it but they even screwed up the ipod classic firmware…for 6 months it was messed up…they are spiraling down hill in my opinion and are too pompous to realize it…
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