i wanted to write about how mobile me still doesn’t work and then i found an article on arstechnica.com about that very topic. i feel like i was supposed to write about mobile me or something. anyway, what follows is my critique, but first, some background info.
you remember .mac, right? well that’s pretty much mobile me. you get email, web space, and cool extensions for your ilife programs. but with mobile me you also get, and this was the major selling point according to every apple store employee i spoke with, push for your email, contacts, and calendars. what’s great about push is that it wirelessly and automatically keeps all of your devices synced.
i think $99/year is a fair price for what apple wants to offer, especially for small business customers who can’t afford microsoft exchange, a server room, and an it department. it’s even great for individual consumers who just want to stay all the more connected. but i’d stay away from it until all the bugs are worked out. i have it, but i got it for cheap. the price was slashed 30% because i bought a subscription with my iphone and i had a $50 gift card, so i’m just paying $19 for mobile me this year. but, regardless of how cheap it is, i’m still paying money for a service that doesn’t work…
and “it doesn’t work” in different ways for everyone. most people seem to be having trouble with pushing email or their calendars get all botched up, but my email and calendars work like a charm. and they work instantly, too. all of my troubles are with contacts. i can’t push them to or from my computer. the convenience of keeping my iphone and macbook synced automatically is really, for lack of a better word, convenient, but unless i start using idisk (which i still haven’t touched), i’m gonna have a hard time justifying $99/year for the service.
