MobileMe in the Dock

October 13, 2009 in Featured, Mobile Apps by David John

I was recently asked if the release of Dropbox for iPhone (dropbox link) has changed my view on Mobile Me. I still think MobileMe is a great service and one worthy of the price tag but there are a number of changes I would make that I think would make it perfect for iPhone users.

I love MobileMe, it offers so many sync opportunities between iPhone and Mac and it all happens seamlessly behind the scenes with little user intervention. The ability to use two Macs and sync iDisk on both computers makes MobileMe a big part of how I work.

mobileme

I have found though that even with ‘push’ mail I tend to use the sync services more than I use the email, the big question though is Dropbox a threat ? well not really and I don’t believe it is trying to be. Comparing storage cost £ per gig MobileMe wins hands down with the addition of a number of additional sync services. Anyway, if I had the power to improve MobileMe here are there things I would update.

1. Ability to you use your own domain with MobileMe.

Google offer this for free and with massive storage. I did think the ability to use your own personal domain with iWeb was the start of a move in this direction but it wasn’t to be. The ability to use your own domain not only looks more professional but it also means in a few years time if you do move email providers your address remains with your domain.

2. The ability to sync mail rules with the cloud.

I have about a dozen mail rules that sort, colour, and even delete mail automatically. It would be great if these were applied at the server level rather than just at mail.app level. This would mean when I check my MobileMe email via the web interface or on iPhone it would all be filtered as it is on my desktop. Server sided rules are a big part of how Microsoft Exchange works and if MobileMe is ‘Exchange for the rest of us’ then we need server sided mail rules.

3. Improved sync capabilities for larger files.

Perhaps this is just me but I am finding more and more conflicts with files greater than 10MB. With the massive storage available on iDisk users are going to have larger files in their document folders. I have a few files that are 30MB and ever so often I find I have a few conflicts with these larger files. I am alone with this issue ? Also the speed of initial synchronisation could do with a bit of an increase.

4. Notes in the Cloud

I love the iPhone notes application. I find I use it in most meetings, it is quick, and easy to use but I’d love to be able to sync notes with the cloud and access them back at my computer without having to email them to myself. I know there are other applications for note taking but the one provided with the iPhone is great, this feature would make it even better. I realise I can sync notes via iTunes but the cloud seems like a more logical and direct sync route ?

Again these are improvements I would make not gripes about the current service. I find MobileMe a great feature and I haven’t even mentioned the brilliant photo and video galleries it offers. To be honest if you own a Mac you really should consider a MobileMe account for the ease of photo and video sharing as well as the various sync and backup services it offers. More Information on MobileMe here.

The best news is that it doesn’t have to be MobileMe v Dropbox as Dropbox offers you 2GB completely free and like many others I use both services in tandem.

Give Dropbox a try (free 2GB account).

What do you think ?

11 Comments

October 13, 2009 at 8:25 pm | Jack Dain

You can use your own domain name with Mobile Me already.
October 13, 2009 at 8:27 pm | David John

@Jack Dain to clarify I mean be able to use your own domain for email eg @totalapps.net rather than just iWeb etc.
October 13, 2009 at 8:31 pm | Klaus @ TechPatio

Great article, David. I’m not a drop box user, but I’ve heard about it. I’m not going to cancel my MobileMe membership just to use dropbox for storage and Gmail for push etc, just yet, at least.

I do think that the price for MobileMe is a little bit steep when looking at all the restrictions in place (for instance, if your email “looks spammy” it will simply not be delivered and you will never know that it was stopped, so you can just sit for weeks waiting for the recipient to get back to you…).

Actually I’m so happy with my MobileMe IMAP that I set up my personal and work email accounts to forward everything to it so I have it synced on both Macs as well as my iPhone.

Being able to use your own domain name would of course be great – I never thought about that actually, but now that you mentioned it, I would love to see that feature.

Notes in the cloud doesn’t matter to me. I use Evernote for that – and storage of certain binary files too – Apple would probably never be able to make a note-taking product quite as good as Evernote currently is.
October 13, 2009 at 8:33 pm | Gerald

I’ve been a .Mac/MobileMe user since .Mac first started, but only recently have I been seriously considering dropping MobileMe because of the advent of Gmail & the other Google Apps, Evernote, and DropBox. DropBox totally rules and have transformed how my wife and I (both academics with home and office computers) do our work. MobileMe just doesn’t offer the same kind of slick multifunction backup and sync features that DropBox does for free (I have 2GB + 2GB of more storage through referrals). Evernote too shines in this regard (I sprung for the “pro” level because I use it so much. Throw in the Google suite of free apps and mega email storage, MobileMe doesn’t have a lot to justify the cost. I have never really used Backup, and syncing files was always slow with idisk. It does do nice online albums with iPhoto, but I can do that through other ways. Truth be told, I’m only keeping my MobileMe account for my vanity email that I’ve had a long time. No other reason.
October 13, 2009 at 9:50 pm | Chaddad

Mobileme is the dumb blond of cloud computing. It’s beautiful to look at but isn’t very functional or reliable. It has never worked well and consistently for me. Dropbox, however, never fails. It is everything that Mobileme is not: Simple, fast, reliable.
October 14, 2009 at 3:08 am | instig8r

I use both MobileMe and DropBox. Just yesterday, MobileMe worked when DropBox didn’t. Today, it was the other way around; between the same two computers, several states apart. Each evidently has the other’s “six.”
Can’t afford to be totally shut down. It’s nice to have options.
October 15, 2009 at 5:01 pm | Bjorn Svensson

Surely Notes are synced?
There is a Notes item in MobileMe prefs and any Notes created on iPhone definitely shows up in Mail on my Office Mac, without having to email them.
October 15, 2009 at 5:59 pm | David John

@Bjorn, When it comes to the iPhone Notes sync via iTunes rather than via the cloud. You have to connect your iPhone to your computer for notes syncing to take place. You can sync notes to the cloud from your Mac directly but not your iPhone.
October 15, 2009 at 11:08 pm | Bjorn Svensson

Ah, I didn’t realise the notes were synced through iTunes. However, they are also managed/stored by Mail and there is an option in Mail to store them in the Inbox. If you use an IMAP mail account will they then be reflected immediately?
(sorry I haven’t tested it as my wife is iPhoning while feeding our youngest)

It wouldn’t technically be through MobileMe sync (unless you use their email account perhaps), but at least go through the “cloud” (i.e. IMAP)!
November 6, 2009 at 10:02 pm | Nuñez

David, you asked for some feedback from other users re: large files on iDisk.

I routinely move ~100MB files to and from MobileMe, with few problems, but the files are important to me (for example, an encrypted .sparseimage with personal documents, some of which get updated every few weeks). Once or twice in the past few years I lost the entire disk image because it was mounted when the power died.

Because the files are important to me, I got into the habit of using a kludgy workaround: I keep copies in a local folder on my Macs, and I only mount from the local folder, never from the iDisk folder (which is synchronized). If I screw up my files, at least the screwed-up files aren’t being synced. On the other hand, I have to remember to take the extra step of copying the updated files to the iDisk.

And I also have to expect that a MobileMe sync takes too long to wait for. I haven’t timed one for a 100MB file, but it has taken more than half an hour sometimes.
February 19, 2010 at 6:45 pm | Aaron Abernethy

With regards to the notes issue, I’ve since abandoned Apple’s Notes app, sadly, to use a combination of SimpleNotes on the iPhone (there is a free, ad-supported version) and Notational Velocity on my Macs (free).

Perfect, functional Notes syncing.