Apple’s MobileMe got a facelift on June 18. It’s true. The new interface is real swell. And, to their credit, Apple has made some improvements since I last reviewed MobileMe back in February. While most of the changes were cosmetic, Apple did manage to impress me with the new look and app support for Find My iPhone.
So, since Apple went to all that trouble to breathe new life into their dying cloud application, I’m willing to give MobileMe a second chance.
The Good (as in mostly cosmetic)
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At first glance, the landing page is stunningly simple. Trademark Apple at its finest. Nicely done guys.
Navigation
Once inside, Me.com is pretty slick. You can click on the cloud icon in the top left corner or hit SHIFT+ESC to open the application switcher. Then, just use the arrow keys to choose the desired service. Very easy.
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Mail. The new mail, officially released to all MobileMe members the same day of the big redo unveiling, is chock full of changes:
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- Widescreen/Compact views
- Rules for organizing email folders
- Single-click archiving
- Basic email formatting
- Faster load times
- SSL protection
- Multiple email support
- Junk mail improvements
Unfortunately, if you are using one of the other e-mail services (Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail) than none of these features are new to you. But, if you’re a die hard Mac/Me.com user than you’ll enjoy these latest enhancements.
Contacts and Gallery. Minor cosmetic changes. No functional updates.
Calendar. UPDATE (7/6): MeCal has been overhauled to allow sharing amongst Me friends, sharing read-only published cals, event invitations with RSVP, and iDevice integration. Be warned, the new version is currently in beta and has a few bugs and quirks. No push, no alarm editing on me.com, no subscribed cals on me.com, etc. The new calendar looks promising, but it’s hard to make out its true functionality due to the bugs.
Find My iPhone. The web app got a major overhaul and an iPhone/iPad app to boot. The old web app opened in a single page and attempted to load all devices and their respective maps at once. Although it worked, it was ugly, slow, and clunky. What’s worse, the desktop web app was the same web app users saw on their iPhone and iPad. It was even uglier, slower, and took eons to load.
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MobileMe’s new version of FMi is 100 times better. Logging in to FMi‘s web app shows your linked devices on the left-hand side and a HUGE map on the right-hand side. The iDevice app is just as pleasing to the eye. Fire it up and you’ll see a a list of your devices. Click on one of them and you’ll see their location. Both versions give you the ability to send a message, play a tone, lock, or remotely wipe your device.
To the naysayers who ask, “Why would I want to know where my phone is if it’s in my hand?” Well, for one, you can install the app on someone else’s phone to find yours. And second, you can link multiple devices to your account and know where they are. Perfect if your family is of the iDevice persuasion.
The Bad
Back to My Mac. This service is not well known as it is not part of the MobileMe web interface. However, in theory, you can remotely access your Mac just by using your MobileMe. Uh, not exactly. I have a MacBook Pro at work, and a Mac Mini and Time Machine at home. I followed the user guide deets and couldn’t get Back to My Mac working. I contacted MobileMe support who suggested I remove all my computers from MobileMe and add them back. When that didn’t work, the technician suggested I reload Snow Leopard on both machines. I’m sorry, what? Apple, I’m not about to reload OSX on both machines just to get a program working that LogMeIn can already do better on both PC and Mac platforms and for $99/year less.
Personal Domain. MobileMe provides users with a host for their website/s. Awesome! MobileMe does not support PHP and thus doesn’t support WordPress. Not awesome!
Control Panel for PCs. In the two years since I first installed MobileMe Control Panel on my PC I have yet to see an update that results in seamless, consistent syncing between MobileMe, my PC, and my iDevices.
Find My iPhone. Ever since the big MobileMe update FMi has been sucking in its ability to locate my devices (even when they’re 5 feet away and on the same WiFi network). The location for the third device you see pictured above was reported six hours later with the same time stamp and location – uh, where’s my iPhone? It made no difference if I tried to access FMi on my iPhone over 3G or WiFi, on my iPad over WiFi, or from my desktop via Me.com. Since the 6/18 update, my FMi problems have begun to mount. The only “fix” is to turn off FMi on the problem device’s settings menu and turn it back on. Yeah, I can imagine calling an iPhone thief and asking them to toggle FMi off/on so I can pinpoint their location. Ugh, Apple you broke my only favorite MobileMe app! Fix it!
The fUgly
My friend used to say, “People will forgive ugly. They won’t forgive broke.” And I am one of those people who will overlook an ugly interface if the application works. When MobileMe redux was release, I was hopeful that the two services (contacts and mail) I actually sync with Me.com would work. When I upgraded from my ancient iPhone 3GS to the new shiny reception-free iPhone 4 the other day, notes synced with ease, but contacts were not so kind. It took me 2 hours, two go-rounds of deactivating/activating devices, and two uninstalls of the PC MobileMe Control Panel to get my contacts synced between my Mac, PC, iPhone and MobileMe.
Btw, if you’ve had it with MobileMe and want to sync your mail, contacts, calendars, and notes with ease then sign up for Gmail and try Google Sync (m.google.com/sync). It takes 10 seconds to set up on your iPhone, and 2 minutes for all your contacts, calendars, mail, and notes to sync. Oh, and it works.
If this wasn’t enough, the issues I had with MobileMe back in February continue to give me problems today.
- Calendar events don’t sync well with Outlook, inviting people to take part in your festivities ain’t happenin’, and Internet calendar subscription syncing is a big negativo.
- Contacts sync is spotty and data loss is frequent.
- Gallery is shiny and nice, but unless you have a Mac, getting your memories to the cloud is a pain in the a$$. That’s not entirely true. Even with iPhoto and a Mac I’ve had syncing issues: photos not moving to the cloud, albums disappearing, and random albums being created.
- iDisk is still useless unless you like duplicating files or making it your main directory and own a Mac. Btw, if you’re looking for a good way to sync go with Dropbox (free), Box.net (kinda free), or SugarSync (not free).
- Find My iPhone, to reiterate, is broken and it didn’t used to be.
- iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch apps (all free) are only as good as their MobileMe counterparts (not free).
- Mail, Calendar and Contacts should be straightforward. While I’ve never had issues with the Mail app (and I don’t use @me.com) I’m constantly encountering syncing problems with Cal and Contacts.
- Gallery now lets iPhone 4 users download higher res images. But, the app is still view only which means I cannot rename, edit, move, or hide photos in any of my galleries. I don’t see Apple adding that kind of functionality to the app in the future either since the native Photo app doesn’t allow any of the aforementioned either.
- iDisk is worthless since iDisk for the desktop and cloud are equally as worthless. Delete the app if you have it installed and use Dropbox, Box.net, or SugarSync.
- Find My iPhone just got an app. At first it was flawless and now I’m starting to see issues with up-to-date device locations. The app is easily my favorite when it’s working, but Apple managed to break it.
The Verdict
MobileMe hasn’t changed much. Yes, it looks better, but it’s still got the same issues as it did when I first started using it (and a few more since then). Frankly, MobileMe should’ve gone free with the release of the new iPhone 4 so I wouldn’t have to justify the $99/year expenditure by telling myself Gallery and FMi were worth the price of broke. Well, with the exception of FMi in iOS 4.2.1, free didn’t happen. Instead, Apple hired some painters to put a fresh coat of pretty on a primer of broken.
Jobs, I said it before and I’ll say it again, I want to use your (entire) product. It’s slick and chock full of features. But it’s broken, and someone needs to go down to the MobileMe division and fix it!
Read my original MobileMe review. If you have any comments post ‘em below or send me an e-mail at TiTy@y2kemo.com
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