Comments on: MobileMe – 6 months later…

By: A.J. Wood

A.J. Wood — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:15:38 +0000

I have not experienced the Contacts disappearing as frequently, and it hasn’t happened recently. I’m still working with over-air-syncing.

I agree that Calendar syncing is an issue, and I looked into both BusySync and Spanning Sync. I liked the idea of syncing both Contacts & Calendar via Spanning Sync, but BusySync worked out a lot better for me.

I am able to keep all the household Macs, iPhones and even a lone XP machine up-to-date with the latest calendar info. I use Google to catch my subscribed calendars, BusySync to link up the computers, and MobileMe pushes out to phones. It’s been “set it & forget it” for several months now without any big hiccups.

By: Terry White

Terry White — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:49:39 +0000

Adam,
I have upgraded my Navigon 2100 a couple of times with no issues. All GPS’s are prone to wacky routing sometimes. So if that is your reason for going with one vs. the other, it really won’t matter. I have not tried the 2100T. I like the 3D reality View best on the Navigon and I don’t believe the low end Garmin’s offer a similar feature. Overall my current favorite GPS is the Garmin nuvi 765T. It’s on the higher end, but if I had to pick one down at the other end, it would probably be the Navigon over the Garmin. You just get more bang for the buck!

By: adam

adam — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:26:37 +0000

Terry, I love what you’re doing. Sorry this isn’t a new post but I don’t know how to start a new thread.

I am looking at 2 specific GPS units since I can get both for about the same price used for about $80. The Navagon 2100T or the Garmin Nuvi 260.

The Navagon seems to have way more features including traffic and real view but your forum and many others talk about the problem with the Navagon’s routing software and slow data input.

Have you tried updating the software?

Are either of these problems resolved?

Have you used the free traffic? If so how well does it seem to work in integrating the information into alternative routing?

For the same price which option would you go with? Navagon 2100T or Garmin Nuvi 260?

By: james matthew brunson

james matthew brunson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:23:42 +0000

Terry,
Thanks for the heads up on this one I just ordered my first mac today and I had thought about adding the MobileMe. After reading this I changed my mind and realized it’s not worth the price. Even if I didn’t get it through Apple, if it doesn’t work right there’s no use in paying anything for it. Thanks for saving me a few bucks.

By: Rafal

Rafal — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:32:44 +0000

After using .MAC and MobileMe, I’ve decided not to renew last week. For thehigh cost and features not working and features not used it was not worth the money. I update my contacts manually and use my own web server for email and file transfer. Unless Apple bites back with a WOW! factor by integrating new features online I may return, but price point must also be reviewed.

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:08:37 +0000

I also have had ongoing problems with my contacts disappearing and just the telephone number being present. Also, the custom ringtones I made with Garageband do not stay associated with the person so I have to either forgo them or keep inputting them into each individual’s contact pane. I just gave up on the auto syncing of the contacts but still find that the custom ringtones do not stay so giving up syncing is no help in that regard.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:58:13 +0000

I’ve got to add my experience, which is the opposite of yours. For example, my iPhone’s address book, etc, works just fine with over-the-air sync’ing. But if I ever hook my iPhone up directly to my Mac — say to sync down some tunes — it does something that clobbers all of my custom ringtones, even on contacts that have never, ever changed. I only have a couple custom ringtones, but it’s enough of a pain that I don’t hook my phone up to my laptop except for iPhone software updates.

Other than that, I’m totally enjoying nearly-instant, over-the-air syncing from my desk at work (MM web interface), from my laptop (iCal, etc), and everywhere else (iPhone). I don’t change contacts much, but I change events a lot and in months of using it, it has always done the right thing, and it’s only had to ask me once or twice which change should take precedence in a sync.

There is an inconsistency between the three interfaces as to what you can do, which can be a bit of a pain. For example, on the iPhone, I can only seem to set an event’s calendar at creation, so I have to get on the web or iCal to change it if I created it in the wrong calendar.

We have a family pack, and I’ve used one of the sub-accounts for graduate school projects and one for posting videos for approval from work. (There’s a very nice tie-in for posting videos to MM and having them appear on a simple-to-use, ad-free web page.) The new share-a-file-by-sending-a-link feature of MM is very useful, and I hope it hits a future version of Mail.

So I think MM is well worth it. Free tools are nice, but especially since it is for me and my wife (definitely a non-geek), alternatives would have to be a lot more powerful and a lot less stitch-your-own in order to be worth the relatively modest cost of MM.

By: DBX

DBX — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:23:38 +0000

I too gave up on the auto contact syncing. MobileMe was very unclear as to which version of contacts it would sync, and although I didn’t lose anything I ended up with some very irritating failures that were simply more trouble to deal with than they were worth. It needs to more configurable and perhaps less automatic, so that you have some control over the process and the security of knowing nothing’s going to go wrong.

With the box purchase workaround I plan to keep re-upping at $60 to $70 simply for the convenience, but only out of sheer laziness and also simply because my next iPod will be a Touch at such point as my current iPod and/or my PDA breaks. The convenience of one-stop shopping and a nice web interface and some OS integration is nice but increasingly free tools are more powerful.

By: Dave Birdsong

Dave Birdsong — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:56:21 +0000

I have had problems with contact disappearing lately.. anyone else have that?

By: ronr

ronr — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:45:28 +0000

I am a relatively new iPhone owner and jumped on. Obie right away, as I was switching from a blackberry and could not do without the wireless synchronization. I have been generally happy with the sync; no major problems with either calendar or contact syncing. As other have said, sure would like to see the price come down!

That’s supposed to say "MobileMe" above. Sorry!

By: Marcos

Marcos — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:34:58 +0000

With Google offering free OTA syncing of contacts and calendars for the iPhone, Apple will be forced to improve the MobileMe offerings or at least lower the price.
We’ll see.

By: David

David — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:54:31 +0000

You can walk into any Apple Store and they will gladly sell MobileMe to you for $30 off… its a metric they track, and an easy unattached sale they won’t let walk away (normally).

By: Terry White

Terry White — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:18:23 +0000

Joe,
Good point! I never actually pay the retail price because someone always has it on sale before my year is up.

By: Joe Holmes

Joe Holmes — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:53:44 +0000

One additional wrinkle — you can do a lot better than $99, whether signing up or renewing. I shopped around online, found a retail box for $69 with free shipping, and ordered that. Then I used that code to renew.

That price does take a little of the sting out…

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:38:54 +0000

I had no problem with the old .mac but mobileme has caused me grief too. During the first few months I had problem with messages briefly appearing on my iphone then disappearing. I still not 100% confident in my e-mail.

I think the web interface could still do with some work, I much preferred the old .mac web mail.

I think the service is still a work in progress rather than a finished item