[LINK] Apple's Cloud

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Apple's MobileMe meltdown

Asher Moses July 22, 2008 - 11:53AM
http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/apples-mobileme-
meltdown/2008/07/22/1216492418014.html

The launch of Apple's MobileMe service has become a complete shambles with 
widespread problems forcing the company to give away one month of free 
service for the second time in as many weeks.

The subscription-based internet suite, which replaced Apple's ageing .Mac 
service, allows Mac, iPhone and even PC users to store up to 20GB of 
personal data including emails, addresses, calendars, dashboard widgets, 
bookmarks and photos online so they can access them immediately from any 
device.

But the $119 a year suite has been plagued by issues since it first went 
online on July 11, with the service knocked offline repeatedly in the days 
following the launch so Apple could iron out bugs and resolve server load 
problems.

After days of silence and continued choppy service, Apple acknowledged the 
problem and offered some users 30 days free.

Now, over a week later, many users are reporting that they have been 
unable to access their Apple email accounts for up to four days. Others 
have experienced email and calendar synchronisation issues when using 
Microsoft Outlook.

In addition, Apple falsely charged some MobileMe users over $100 for their 
free trial accounts, instead of a temporary $US1 "preauthorisation 
charge". Over the weekend Apple sent emails to affected users apologising 
for the incident and offering them another one month free trial.

"This has caused me significant inconvenience - including bank 
penalties/charges," wrote an Australian Mac user on the MacTalk online 
forum.

Apple, in keeping with its tradition of rarely commenting publicly on 
product quality issues, would not comment on the MobileMe problems except 
to say: "Updates have been provided to our customers with regards to the 
MobileMe transition."

Its discussion boards are littered with angry users airing their 
grievances.

The debacle is a significant departure from Apple's claims that its 
products, unlike Windows-based PCs, work flawlessly out of the box.

"Apple shouldn't have had the iPhone 3G launch, the iPhone 2.0 software 
upgrade, the App Store launch and the transition from .Mac to MobileMe all 
on the one weekend," said Matthew Powell, editor of Australian Macworld 
magazine.

"It was a big ask, and things were almost guaranteed to go wrong. It would 
have been very impressive if it had all gone smoothly but it was the 
height of hubris to think it would."

MobileMe is Apple's contribution to "cloud computing", whereby all 
important computer data is stored online to be accessed by a range of 
devices simultaneously. It means users would not lose their data should 
any of their computers or smartphones fail.

Apple this week announced it had become the third-largest personal 
computer maker in the United States, selling 41 per cent more PCs in the 
third fiscal quarter than it did a year ago. Profits, driven by Mac and 
iPod sales, rose 31 per cent to $US1.07 billion.
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Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria Australia