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Another Step for MobileMe: File Sharing is Active

Written on February 13, 2009 by Tom Reestman and 13 people have commented

One of the things demoed by Phil Schiller when MobileMe was introduced was the ability to easily share files on your iDisk with others. The idea was that you’d select a file on the iDisk, choose to share it, and then add password protection and/or an expiration date for the link.
Then you’d key in the email address(es) [...]

Apple Improves Windows Side of MobileMe

Written on February 11, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented

This might just be incredibly coincidental timing, but Apple is announcing that they’ve finally brought the Windows side of their MobileMe personal data syncing service up to snuff, only shortly after it’s come to light that Microsoft in working on their own similar service, currently dubbed “My Phone.” Either way, Windows users who are also [...]

Syncing iCal Birthdays to Your iPhone

Written on February 11, 2009 by Clayton Lai and 6 people have commented

One of the perplexing limitations about MobileMe is its inability to sync birthdays in iCal to the iPhone and iPod touch. As you may already know, iCal can take birthdays from Address Book and add them into a special “Birthdays” calendar, which is really a subscription calendar.

But while the latest updates to MobileMe now allow [...]

Google Sync Beta Now Available for iPhone

Written on February 09, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Jealous of MobileMe users but not willing to part with $100 and/or wary of its seemingly persistent problems? Have no fear, Google’s here.
Google Sync Beta, that is, which is now available for the iPhone (and Windows Mobile, but c’mon, honestly). With it, you can sync your Google Calendar and your Gmail Contacts over the air, [...]

Dear Technologizer: Apple Doesn’t Own Your Contacts

Written on February 02, 2009 by Tom Reestman and 20 people have commented

This past weekend, Ed Oswald of Technologizer published a piece about how Apple seems to have stolen his contacts as if they owned them. The gist of the article is that he canceled his MobileMe account — without taking any actions to save his data beforehand — and thinks it’s Apple’s fault that the contacts left [...]

MobileMe Free Trials Could Lose Your Precious Files

Written on January 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 9 people have commented

The MobileMe trial began to seem like it was going to go on forever, since Apple kept tacking on more time to make up for having released a half-baked service to begin with. Sadly, not so. My own trial term recently came to an end, but by the time it did, I’d become fairly dependent [...]

Google Calendar Sync: We Have Choices

Written on December 19, 2008 by Matthew Bookspan and 17 people have commented

A little while ago, Google released a free iCal-to-Google Calendar sync tool called Calabaration. I don’t believe that Calabaration works very well, given how it generates a new calendar group within iCal and has limitations on how the Google Calendar can then sync to MobileMe. So, I reached out to BusyMac, the makers of BusySync, and Spanning Sync, makers of [...]

Apple Makes Changes to MobileMe: We’re Finally Where We Should Have Been From the Start

Written on December 15, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 12 people have commented

Apple’s documentation for changes in the recent 10.5.6 system update includes a line of interest to MobileMe users on the Mac:
Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.
So we now have “push” for those items on [...]

MobileMe: What it Syncs, When it Syncs, and Why I’m Staying With It

Written on November 19, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 39 people have commented

Recently MacLife magazine reviewed Apple’s MobileMe service. My problem with the review is that it lists something as a negative that continues to spread misinformation: 
Doesn’t “push” your email instantly, rather every 15 minutes.
This is wrong. In this article I’ll touch on what gets synced with MobileMe, when it occurs, and why I’m happy with it. 
First, [...]

I Want MobileMe, Enterprise Edition

Written on November 14, 2008 by Matthew Bookspan and 15 people have commented

I have been using MobileMe, and its previous incarnation DotMac, for just over two years. Everyone has talked about the great features it has as well as some of the near-misses. However, I haven’t seen anyone point out a major flaw in MobileMe — how it does not compare to Enterprise class offerings.
With MobileMe, we [...]

Break Away From MobileMe: 7 Free Services to Help You Make the Move

Written on November 12, 2008 by Jon Buys and 35 people have commented

Apple’s replacement for .Mac has had a very rocky start, and has a long way to go before its ready to compete with free alternatives. Many users do not want to move away from MobileMe because of the deep integration with the Mac desktop, while others are reluctant because its hard to find another single service [...]

Using the Cloud to Setup a New Mac

Written on October 31, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 9 people have commented

In a previous article I explained how in the last year I’ve moved the majority of my data to the Cloud. By utilizing MobileMe’s syncing mechanisms, I’m able to do this without sacrificing the “comfort” and “safety” of having all my data local. This not only saves me from worrying what I’d do if all [...]

A.I. Disk Brings MobileMe iDisk to the iPhone

Written on October 24, 2008 by Darrell Etherington and 8 people have commented

The cloud is gaining ground. Despite early hiccups, I signed up for a MobileMe account shortly after purchasing my iPhone and I haven’t looked back since. Yes, the webmail is buggy, and yes, the Push is sometimes more of a playful shove, but it still keeps my information consistent across two Macs and a phone [...]

My Move to the Cloud

Written on October 24, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 34 people have commented

There’s been some discussion about the possible “dangers” or problems of Cloud computing. Some of it, though not all, stems from Richard Stallman’s recent comments about the Cloud initiative. The primary concern is that one may lose control of one’s data, or be at the mercy of (or “locked in” to) a single entity. 
To be sure, Mr. [...]

Eye-Fi Enhances Cards & Expands Service

Written on September 23, 2008 by Bob Rudis and No one has commented

Whether you’re one of the cutting-edge photo enthusiasts who have already jumped on the wireless memory card train or just on the fence waiting for that one additional feature to make you a believer, the folks over at Eye-Fi made some announcements that are sure to please.
First up is an across-the-board speed improvement that doubles [...]

Apple Joins 21st Century, Starts Blogging it out, Kind of

Written on July 27, 2008 by Jethro Jones and 2 people have commented

Those oh-so-familiar green (and red) status indicators from the old .Mac status page are a thing of the past, or at least so it seems. After 14 days of intense frustration caused by MobileMe, Apple decided it was time to put a little Public Relations effort into solving the communication problem. Some person, unnamed, has [...]

Apple Ignoring Support Requests for MobileMe?

Written on July 21, 2008 by Brandon Eley and 38 people have commented

MobileMe support is trying to push off support requests, hoping to buy enough time to get things under control. This past Wednesday I decided it was about time to change my new 3G iPhone to sync calendar, contacts and bookmarks with the “cloud” through MobileMe instead of through iTunes (which I rarely ever do). After [...]

What happened to Mac-to-MobileMe push?

Written on July 14, 2008 by Nick Mediati and 32 people have commented

There has been a bit of confusion over the existence of Mac-to-MobileMe push, as explained by this article on MacRumors. Apparently as it stands, there is no way to “push” changes made in Address Book and iCal up to MobileMe right away; instead you have to wait for your Mac to sync with MobileMe, [...]

A first look at MobileMe’s web apps

Written on July 11, 2008 by Nick Mediati and 23 people have commented

It’s been a bit of a rocky start for MobileMe’s launch. First, the launch window was pushed back two hours. Then once MobileMe was launched, it was taken offline repeatedly (Server overload? Some last-minute bug fixing? Who knows). And when it was up, the Mail web app still wasn’t working. Finally, this morning it [...]

MobileMe Transition: July 9th

Written on July 07, 2008 by Jethro Jones and 3 people have commented

If you have .Mac already, you are no doubt familiar with the .Mac status page which lists services that are available. (Hopefully, you won’t have to be familiar with the page when MobileMe takes over because there won’t be as much downtime.) Just below the status lights, you will see that Apple warns that the [...]