Apple may have given .Mac a new name, but it’s returned the service to it’s old ways. Way back when I started with .Mac it was unreliable, so much so I didn’t renew. I signed up again just under a year ago and it’s been pretty reliable since then. But the conversion to MobileMe has been a disaster for current .Mac users. There a several long threads in the support forums.
This morning my iMac received it’s update for MobileMe. During the upgrade my local iDisk as deleted (luckily a copy was made). Since the upgrade I’ve been unable to login to MobileMe through the preferences pane. It returns an “Unknown validation error”. Others in the forum report the same problem. While I do have the iDisk files that were in the backup, iDisk itself is unavailable. If I didn’t sync iDisk locally the files would be unavailable.
For most of the day I was also unable to login to the me.com website. Most of the time I’d simply get redirected to a info page that didn’t even provide a login link. Finally tonight I was able to logon through the website (so at least I know the ID/password are valid). But even though I could logon performance was spotty and eventually I got kicked out.
My iMac hasn’t been presented the update for MobileMe although it did get the iTunes update. I’m not sure if this is because Apple is holding back or some other problem. Others have reported the same thing and some have said Apple pulled the update but that could be the same speculation I was making.
For a paid service doing a planned upgrade I would think Apple could do better than cause a day long outage for existing customers. Just when I was thinking I could trust the service Apple sends a dose of reality. I realize this was probably a complicated upgrade but that’s no reason to lower expectations.
[Update July 11th: I'm able to logon through the pref pane this morning. All my sync settings are gone and I'll have to reset them. I also can't access my iDisk. I can see my iDisk through the web but can't download any files.]
[Update #2 July 11th: I'm now able to access and copy files from iDisk using my Mac.]
[Update July 12th:My iMac had MobileMe 1.1 waiting for me this morning. I still haven't installed it. Syncing still hasn't worked for me on the iMac but maybe this will fix it. My Macbook hasn't gotten the iMac update and when .Mac syncing kicked off today there were lots of errors.]
[Update #2 July 12th:Still more problems on my iMac which still hasn't gotten MobileMe 1.1 and fails to sync. My MacBook with MobileMe 1.1 seems better. In any case, I've decided to abandon MobileMe so this will be my last update.]
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Apple released Apple TV 2.1 today which includes support for MobileMe and a new Remote Control app for the iPhone/Touch that will be available in the App store. It also contains several security updates.
I updated without a problem or anyt noticeable change. MobileMe has been down and I don’t have an iPhone/Touch.
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Windows Home Server Disk Management, my favorite and most useful add-in for Windows Home Server, has been updated. My previous version was 1.0.7.3. Functionally there’s not much that’s different, but but the enhancements improve an already fine add-in. Like other add-ins I’ve used, the old version must be uninstalled before the new version can be installed. In general the settings are saved but in this case the server wireframe (diagram of disk usage) had to be re-created. This was documented on the download page which also provides templates that came be imported for HP MediaSmart and Scaleo servers.
Among the new features I like is the ability to set the alert thresholds for disk usage. My biggest annoyance was that disks were shown in yellow when above 75% usage and in red when above 90%. Since disk usage is managed by WHS itself and there’s nothing I can do about individual disk usage I disliked having the yellow or red bars which usually indicate a problem when I had an otherwise healthy disk. There’s also new thresholds for total disk pool usage which is is more useful than individual usage.
If you’ve installed the WHS PP1 beta you should use the WHS Disk Management beta which you’ll have to request. In my case, the WHS data is too important to trust to the beta software even though it should resolve the data corruption bug.
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Actually, it’s not as dramatic as the headline suggests. I’m still primarily a Mac user and my only Windows usage is in a virtual machine. I do very little in Windows (outside of my day job). There’s a couple Windows apps I like - AnyDVD and Windows Live Writer - and I also use it when I need IE. While I did install Vista on my iMac awhile back I never bothered to move over to Vista and actually start using it. This past weekend I fired up Vista, applied SP1 along with a bunch of other updates, installed the apps, and began using it.
I almost feel sorry for Microsoft (hard to actually feel sorry for a company that makes that much money) and think there’s been a lot of anti-Vista piling on. For example, Infoworld declared "partial victory" in their petition to save Windows for things Microsoft has done for several years (allow OS downgrades) and for things they already said they’d do (use XP on "low power" PCs - the ones that can’t run Vista). Let’s face it, Windows XP was derided when it was originally released and took a service pack before it really began to make inroads.
So I figured I’d spend more time in Vista to see if all the hate was justified.
I had one interesting problem that turned up when I missed a setting in Parallels. I ran Windows XP virtual machine in "bridged" network mode so that the virtual machine received it’s own IP addressed. When I moved to Windows Vista the virtual machine had the default setting of "Shared Networking". I found that when the Vista VM was running I would eventually lose the network connection to my Windows Home Server from OS X. But Vista would still be able to connect to the server so there wasn’t any network or server problem. The problem went away when I switched to bridged network mode.
I figure Vista needs more memory so I’ve allocated 1GB to the VM where I ran XP with 768MB. I can’t really speak to speed comparisons since I also moved the VM to a faster hard drive. The software I use doesn’t stress the vm, Vista memory usage is about 50%. For what I do, no speed complaints so far.
So now that I have Vista let’s see if I learn to hate or love. (I suspect it’ll be neither.)
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Microsoft has released four security bulletins for July 2008, two of which are for desktops.
MS08-038 addresses a vulnerability in Windows Explorer and is for Windows Vista and carries an “important” rating. The update includes the original Vista, Vista SP1 and Vista x64.
MS08-037 addresses a vulnerability in DNS and is for Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2 & SP3, and Windows XP x64 original release & SP2. it’s rated as “important”. [Updated: This patch is part of a coordinated, multi-vendor DNS patch.]
These patches, and the others, also affect server OS’s. There’s no Internet Explorer update this month.
Also, Microsoft will begin rolling out an update to Windows Update later this month. Last time they did this they catch grief for updating PCs that were set to “do not update”. This time around they’ll be doing things differently and won’t update PCs set to not update.
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Apple’s .Mac brand is in it’s final days and will be re-branded MobileMe to coincide with the iPhone 3G launch. While this is mostly a branding change for existing .mac users, there is one feature that is already lost. Bookmarks are no longer available via the web, although they will still sync between Macs. At one time I used this but stopped long ago. The lack of an outcry tells me no one else used it either.
MobileMe also requires OS X 10.4.11 or better (Apple recommends Leopard of course). The included storage doubles from 10 to 20GB. Of course, the big change is support for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple has also announced:
7/9/2008, 6pm-12am PT
As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th.
Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.
MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window.
So it looks like the changes for existing users will happen tomorrow with MobileMe being available to new users on the 11th.
MobileMe is available from Apple for $99 a year which is the same price that .Mac was sold for. There’s a $30 discount if bought with a new Mac. MobileMe is available from Amazon for $90
, which is only $9 off the list price. Last time I checked .Mac had been $30 off list from Amazon. Amazon also has the family pack for $135, which is $14 off the list price.
I’m interested to see how MobileMe evolves over time, .mac never really took off. I’ve been a .Mac user but the main selling point for me was the ability to sync multiple Macs, not the apps. I used iDisk a bit but never really used the other features. Is Apple moving to “the cloud” with MobileMe or is it still just for people who have multiple Apple hardware devices?
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