MobileMe

How Hard is MobileMe Really "Pushing"?

Merlin Mann — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:43:26 -0400

Apple’s MobileMe Lacks True Push Syncing - InformationWeek

According to many users, and as reported by numerous news outlets, Apple MobileMe’s implied promise of instantaneous sync between between multiple devices (including, it had been implied, your desktop Mac) is not accurate. Since it appears that syncing from the desktop to anywhere else in “the cloud” can actually take as long as 15 minutes, many are questioning Apple’s referring to this functionality as “Push” (as opposed to simply sped-up, automated “syncing”). Marin Perez of InformationWeek writes:

The gripe comes because data entered on their Macintosh or PC address books and calendars isn’t immediately pushed to MobileMe’s servers.

“Selecting Automatic in Mac OS X allows your computer to immediately sync and update when there are any changes on the MobileMe servers,” read a support note on Apple’s Web site. “Those changes come from your iPhone, iPod Touch, the MobileMe Web site, or another computer. Changes made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe ‘cloud’ every 15 minutes.”

You may have shared my slack-jawed gape and consequent fistbump when Phil Schiller’s WWDC demo of MobileMe [free iTunes link] implied magically fast, truly instantaneous syncing. Because that’s really hard to do well — and implying MobileMe would enable such a thing suggested mighty technological leaps over the previous .Mac service, whose sync skills and reliability were famously uneven at best.

While most of us won’t see our lives fall apart if true Push is not happening on MobileMe, it’s still disappointing that Apple implied they were solving a complicated and thorny problem vs. simply speeding up the frequency of syncing via an existing method.

FWIW, this weekend I informally tested MobileMe’s syncing skillz on two Macs, “the old iPhone,” and via apps on the MobileMe site. Mostly this consisted of creating calendar items with unique date and time stamps and seeing how long it took for them to show up on the different devices. Let’s just say the two Macs were, far and away, the pokiest syncers for both incoming and outgoing events.

Mostly I guess I’m just bummed that this wasn’t the sufficiently advanced technology that it seemed. I’m sure there’s room for improvements and enhancements to MobileMe — and God know what it took to get that thing out the door in the midst of last week’s shitstorm — but I’m disappointed in Apple. I don’t mind the RDF — a lot of times, it’s a fun place to hang out for an hour or two — but playing fast and loose with terms that mean something in the market they’re trying to penetrate is not cricket.

Elsewhere on this issue:

holgr.com » Blog Archive » Apple’s MobileMe - Push or in sync?

Looks like Apple has removed all mentions about push mail from their MobileMe site. It has been removed from the MobileMe Mail features list too. Now your mail is “in sync”. But they forgot the mentioning at their enterprise site, where they are talking about Exchange push mail.

MobileMe not so pushy - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

That, to me, doesn’t sound like “push,” it sounds like “sync.” The term “push” still applies, however, to me.com email, as that shows up immediately (in my experience, at least.) Calendars and contacts, though, not so much, apparently.

MobileMe’s Push Services Detailed, No Mac to MobileMe ‘Push’ - Mac Rumors

The point of contention comes when changes are performed on your Mac. These changes do not trigger an automatic sync and instead waits until the next scheduled sync which is every 15 minutes:

Changes to Mac -> Me.com (15 minute sync)

Apple has confirmed that this is expected behavior in a Knowledgebase article which has generated some complaints in our MobileMe forums. Alternatively, users can hit the “Sync” menu option at any time on their Mac to trigger a sync at any time.

The Question to You

Was Apple playing lawyerball with the term “Push?” Is this just a marketing disappointment, or are you missing functionality that you were counting on? Is a 15-minute syncing adequate for your needs? And what had you taken away from the MobileMe demo at WWDC? Was Mr. Schiller’s explanation accurate of the service you received? Jump to starting around 1:07:00 of the WWDC Keynote to decide for yourself.

Update 2008-07-16 09:00:04 PDT

Excerpted from a Me.com customer email sent an hour ago:

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word “push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

Classy, well put, and mostly well-explained. Plus, as Dan Moren mentions in comments, they’re tossing in a free month of service, owing to a .Mac -> MobileMe transition that was “rockier than we had hoped.”

Thing is, it still doesn’t help me understand how some of the most competent engineers (or is it marketers?) in California knowingly chose to call this functionality something that it clearly was not. That still bugs me.

”How Hard is MobileMe Really "Pushing"?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 16, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

MobileMe: .Mac's iPhone-Friendly Replacement

Merlin Mann — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:16:34 -0400

Apple - MobileMe

There’s lots to digest from today’s WWDC Stevenote — not least of which was the dramatic announcement of a 3G iPhone for only $199. But you’ll be hearing lots about that in a million places. I want to talk about my first impressions about something even closer to my heart that’s at least different this time around, if not entirely new.

Today, Steve announced the upcoming release of Apple’s MobileMe service, which will replace the existing .Mac service at the same price of $99/year for an Individual account, while adding some new features, including:

Individual account quota doubled to 20GB of storage, including email and files (.Mac currently offers 10GB at the same price)
MS Exchange-like “push” syncing between applications on multiple Macs as well as your iPhone, via the MobileMe “cloud”
Revamped, web-based Me.com versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, and iDisk applications

As someone who’s had strong feelings, high hopes, and occasional disappointmens with .Mac, I’m going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking into what these changes will mean for the always-on knowledge worker — particularly now that the service is clearly moving toward tighter integration with iPhones, the iPod Touch, and web-based usage. But first, just a few things to note here (quickly and on first impression):

Lovely tweaks - This is where Apple just obliterates the competition; all the tiny little changes we saw to GUI and workflow on the MobileMe web apps and related iPhone apps reflect a lot of thought and look well-suited for real-world usage. I can’t wait to see the improvements to iPhone’s Calendar and Contacts, in particular. Kudos, team. An iPhone that makes MobileMe easy and transparent to use is a big win all around. (N.B.: as you might expect, Apple’s site has many lovely demonstration videos in their MobileMe section)
Love the “Push” - No longer having to physically plug in your iPhone to sync stuff like Mail, Calendar, and Contacts is terrific for the multiple-device user. Knowing that (at least as long as you’re online) everything matches up just means big peace of mind to me. Maybe most importantly, one hopes that the new Push approach addresses some of the previous sync problems that have plagued .Mac users (Nuclear reset, anyone?).
Love the (baby) steps toward true cloud computing - Having such gorgeous and functional apps on the iPhone is a big step in the right direction. How the services that those apps access evolve will be interesting to watch; adding something like broader support for Preferences syncing and better/easier iPhone password management would also be big wins.
Hiya, Windows hold-outs - I don’t know enough about “Enterprise” buying decisions to speak intelligently about business adoption, but I will say that MobileMe seems like a smart way reach out to individual Windows users and say, “See? Look how easy this all is!” Similarly, a lot of people I talk to these days are down to a single Windows device, and that’s the one they have to use at work. MobileMe potentially keeps them connected to their Apple world, even when they’re on a PC. That said….
Where the heck is a modern, functional iDisk? - It looks like the iDisk web interface has been updated (very pretty, actually), and yeah, there’s double the storage, but what can I do with all that stuff when I’m not in front of my home computer? Where’s the mobile part? I was really hoping to see something more impressive with iDisk this time around — like a website with honest to gosh, Google Docs-like editing and management. And what about the iPhone? Can I do anything with my iDisk documents on there? That feels like a swing and a miss for a service with mobile in the name.

Questions

Will stability and reliability of MobileMe greatly improve over .Mac? Take everything else away, and at the heart, any .Mac/MobileMe product will not survive if Apple doesn’t fix the uptime and sync problems. I know sync is hard. But, lots of things are hard and when other companies are doing it more reliably and for free, it should be easy to see there’s a bar consumers expect you to reach.
How will iPhone additions like Push and GPS affect real battery life? If Steve’s battery estimates are anything like real-world, it’ll be great. But I have a feeling those are CandyLand Gumdrop numbers. I realize this is an iPhone-specific note, but I’ll say that a half-day of “Every 15 Minutes” email checking was an eye-opener for me. I can’t imagine what kind of power that thing pulls when it’s running full-time GPS for an hour or so.
Ready for some competition? With the introduction of independent applications using the iPhone SDK, we can look forward to a bonanza of new functionality that — based on the game demoes we saw today — could be pretty eye-popping. Although I don’t know details of what functionality is exposed to developers, I have to imagine that the combination of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and speedy 3G access will bring some much-needed competition into Apple’s back yard. I wonder how Apple will react to that.

Bottom Line

Boy, if there’s any product that us fanboys want to love, this is it. But it’s been a tough few years, even for the superfans. We’ve watched half a dozen or more other companies’ services build similar or better features, provide higher reliability, and charge lower or zero cost in a way that seems to outpace Apple’s offering without breaking a sweat.

So, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this and reporting back to you on how it’s working for me. I want it to work great, and I think it can, based on Apple’s high standards and ability to control all the pieces. I also stand by what I said in this post from January about the untapped possibilities of .Mac:

…Apple might eat the lunches of about three different industries over the next couple years.

If they can pull it off, if they can fix .Mac, and if they have the vision to re-imagine themselves as the company who makes your entire digital world safe, fun, ubiquitous, and flawlessly integrated.

Please share your thoughts, hopes, wishes, and remarks about MobileMe or anything else related to the Keynote announcements here in comments.

[These were quick notes I jotted this afternoon. Pardon any typos; I will fix them as I see them, as well as giving myself a day or two to add links on other coverage as it arises. I have a feeling a lot of people will be talking about MobileMe]

”MobileMe: .Mac's iPhone-Friendly Replacement” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 09, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

.Mac: Future of a sleeping giant?

Merlin Mann — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:52:04 -0500

TUAW Interviews Merlin Mann

My tall, new friend Scott McNulty interviewed me yesterday for TUAW’s Macworld coverage — unintentionally providing me a fine bully pulpit from which to perpetuate my baseless theories and half-baked forecasts about how Apple might eat the lunches of about three different industries over the next couple years.

If they can pull it off, if they can fix .Mac, and if they have the vision to re-imagine themselves as the company who makes your entire digital world safe, fun, ubiquitous, and flawlessly integrated.

Anyhow, on with the motley, but stay tuned after the jump for value-added hand-waving.

So, exactly what the hell nonsense am I talking about here?

[Admission: This is a super-fast first draft of an admittedly far-fetched idea that’s still taking shape, but I really wanted to get it out of my head while it’s still fresh-ish]

As the record shows, I’m practically useless as a technology forecaster, but I can’t help feeling that Apple is slow-broasting some really interesting changes over the next year or two, centering around the currently enfeebled .Mac service (cough, cough, cough).

In a nutshell, based on products and services — both released and announced — as well as opportunities presented in the marketplace, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any or all of the following changes from Apple (roughly in order).

Basic .Mac services will not only become free, but they may be required in order to take full advantage of future functionalities.
For the majority of .Mac power users who want more of whatever the offerings are at a given time, modest to crazy-expensive upgrades will be available.
.Mac will expand in several directions over time, to include:
- Order of magnitude more storage on pay accounts
- Automated backups (via something like Mozy)
- “in-the-cloud” hosting of all your Mac stuff, including “~/Library/” contents; music, photos, and videos; plus every document you ever make.
The Preference syncing in .Mac now will be taken to the next level, to a point where a tweaked window view here is also reflected there (ala Migration Assistant?)
In sum, .Mac will become your secure Home directory. Or, more properly, it becomes the master copy from which all your hardware, hard drives, and flash media will in some fashion be synced.

But, why?

Well, in essence, your Mac Pro, your MacBook Air, your iPhone, your iPods nano and shuffle, and your Apple TV would all become agents for using the stuff you’ve stored on .Mac. Heavy (invisible, background) use of rsync-like diffs-syncing (ala Time Capsule?) will ensure that all your devices have the stuff they need, and in the appropriate size and format; e.g., 720p version of Weekend at Bernie’s 2 goes to the TV; more modest size goes to the iPhone, etc. The value and attraction to consumers strikes me as obvious; on the same day, your electronic world becomes ubiquitous, backed-up, and very easy to maintain or access from anyplace.

If this is anywhere near do-able, Apple would be taking the concepts behind Spotlight, Time Machine, iTunes, and Smart Folders to their logical conclusion, creating an environment where Apple sits at the center of all your electronic needs, contextually syncing and serving what you need, when you need it, in a totally seamless fashion.

In conjunction, I’ll bet we’re going to see an explosion in alliances with companies like Google (for online apps), plus a heavy push for companies like Amazon and Disney to build iPhone apps that will leverage access to both the cloud and your increasingly PayPal-like .Mac account. (“Buy the song I just heard on this Disneyland ride, deliver four sets of Mickey Mouse ears to our hotel room, plus show me the best vegan snack within 5 minutes’ walk of where I’m standing”).

Think about it: a new lightweight laptop with a small hard drive; an iPhone that’s getting dangerously close to becoming a remote for your home and life; an Apple TV that doesn’t even require a computer; an iPod Touch that (rather mysteriously) now needs your credit card info and a login to get new apps onto the device. Then, fold in a couple big spoonfuls of the company’s clearly increasing interest in becoming the people who sell or rent you the entertainment media that goes on all the machines you bought from them. I dunno.

I suppose it’s my (still congealing) contention that right now, Apple deliberately keeps .Mac a dim-witted, sleeping giant. It’s so unsexy, broken, and behind-the-times right now as to seem like a product out of a less forward-thinking company.

But what happens when that giant wakes up, stretches, and then starts standing in the middle of every single product Apple (and its partners) have to sell? It’s so mind-boggling to consider the implications, especially given that it stands as one of the few persuasive explanations for why such a smart company would stay so quiet for so long about allowing a premium pay service go to seed this badly.

I think something is up. Big time.

But, what do you think?

Am I high? Will Apple make .Mac the center of their consumer offering? Or will it just continue to frustrate its paying customers until Google replicates all its services for free? What did you see in the tea leaves after the keynote?

”.Mac: Future of a sleeping giant?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 18, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"