Out of Sync - gmail and Apple not on the same page

There's all this talk about sync these days . . . you'd think people are trying to keep a dozen machines on the same page.  Google announced it's sync this week which prompted a heated discussion about the merits of MobileMe.

Here's my question . . . what ever happened to IMAP just working as advertised?  I've had gmail running on my iPhone since IMAP became available for gmail.  Up until a few weeks ago I never had a problem with gmail and the Mail app being in sync.  Read a message on the iPhone, it's marked as read in Mail.  Read an email in Mail . . . well, you get the idea.

I'm not sure if the new sync release is related to IMAP, but I can tell you this . . . gmail and Mail are NEVER in sync now.  I get home from a long day at work and need to mark my messages as open.  Even a refresh of mail on the iPhone doesn't seem to push the changes back to the IMAP server to action the emails accordingly.

I haven't tried the iPhone sync released this week, but I'm disapointed IMAP seems to have stopped working as it should.  Have you experienced this problem?  Let us know

Update to Mobile Me Still NOT Fixed

I posted a little while ago about Mobile Me still not being fixed and I provide you an update here:

Mobile Me is Still not fixed.

Mobile Me made it's debut on July 9th, 2008. Here we are, approaching the 2 month threshold and I am still getting email messages hours after they were sent. Granted, this is an improvement over the days delayed emails I was experiencing (see previous post), but it's far from a reliable service.

The phone also seems to be inconsistent with it's "push" features. Sometimes mail is delivered instantly, but other times the iPhone seems to forget about my MobileMe account leaving it up to me to manually fetch new messages.

With just about everything linked to your email address, it's concerning to think that messages won't be delivered. Until Apple hammers out this service (and I think they will . . . it might take giving away a free year to current customers) I've transferred over important email notifications to my gmail service.

Perhaps it's perception, but gmail seems to have a greater uptime and reliability than the new MobileMe service. To further research I went out looking for the gmail and MobileMe SLA's (Service Level Agreements). Google makes it clear that for a free service they're not going to lock into any SLA. For their pay service at $50 / user / year you get a 99.9% up time guarantee. Apple's $99 / year service comes with no SLA, so Apple really isn't obligated to a particular uptime. That being said I think it's great that Apple posts it's service issues for all to see, Google could take some notes here.

I'm certain that Apple will clean up the service, but for now you might want to use a different email address . . . it has me feeling more confident even if I'm not truly getting better uptime.

How To Enter a MobileMe or .Mac Activation Code

Here's a little tip for you MobileMe users out there trying to figure out where to enter an activation code (particularly if you have a .Mac activation code OR if you've discarded the packaging . . . We still don't understand why a whole box is necessary just for a little code...).

I had an old .Mac activation code for my MobileMe renewal. I went to my account at me.com only to see that I can check the box to have my subscription renewed automatically for $99 on my renewal date BUT I didn't see any place to enter an activation code. Seeing that I already spent my $99 I became worried that my next year would end up costing me $198.

After searching online I was able to find the URL to enter your activation code: www.me.com/activate

I hope this direction saves you some time and headache. From what I understand this URL is located inside of the new MobileMe packaging. If you have a .Mac retail box, chances are good you're tearing your hair out trying to locate this URL.

Just nine more free months, and MobileMe is a bargain

As we reported last night, Apple has given Mobile Me users another credit, this time for 60 days. This brings the total credited days to 90, or three months.

First, kudos again to Apple for doing the right thing. They know the experience has been less than perfect, and they've been surprisingly pro-active in addressing the situation. Let's hope this signals a new direction for the company in dealing with issues.

It also makes you wonder just how important the revenue stream from MobileMe is to Apple. Apple probably makes more on the iTunes store in a day/week than a year of MobileMe subscriptions. So you've already made it 90 days, why not make it a free service, and be done with it? True, many more people will sign up and further tax the system if it's free, but it becomes (like the original iTools) a unique selling point to the Mac/iPod/iPhone.

It's a drop in the bucket revenue-wise, that could push hardware sales even higher.

Breaking: MobileMe offers 60-days free

Check your email .mac/MobileMe users. Just minutes ago, (and ironically in the junk folder) we just received an email from Apple indicating MobileMe users will receive 60-days free.

From the email:
We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users' patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around

Kudos to Apple for doing the right thing, and recognizing the inconvenience to its customers.