Filed under: Digital Cameras, Peripherals, Wireless, Storage

Frustrated by somewhat sluggish transfers from your otherwise spectacular Eye-Fi card? Fret not, as the company has just announced a forthcoming update at Photokina that will reportedly enable new and existing Eye-Fi owners to make “the upload of digital photos from camera to computer twice as fast.” Also of note, as of October 5th, users can even add features that aren’t already included on their card and renew annual services by tapping into the updated Eye-Fi Manager Web application. In related news, the outfit will be pushing its wares to Japan and Canada by the year’s end, and in even more related news, Eye-Fi now supports direct photo uploads to Apple’s MobileMe and the AdoramaPix service.

Read - Eye-Fi getting 2x faster
Read - Eye-Fi going international

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Not that anyone could really dance around the facts of the matter at this point, but in an email to Apple employees sent today, apparently Steve said, “It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.” Apple exec Eddie Cue appears to taking the much maligned service under his wing (as well as the App Store, adding to his original gig as VP of iTunes), hopefully making good on the other bit in El Jobso’s email where he resets Apple’s call to action on .Mac’s replacement: “The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.” We’ll see about that!

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Apple’s Push-like MobileMe launch has been such a debacle that they’re now in damage control mode. As a result, some poor soul has been tasked by Steve Jobs to post status updates “every other day or so.” The first update is already revealing:

• Last Friday, 1% of MobileMe subscribers were affected by a “serious problem” with one of Apple’s mail servers
• Limited web access has been restored to those accounts but full access won’t be sorted until next week
• Of these 1%, Apple admits to losing “approximately 10%” of the messages received between July 16 and July 18

For the rest of you MobileMe subscribers, Apple has added server capacity, tuned the software to scale better, and fixed over 70 bugs to date. So the question is, how’s MobileMe working for you?

View Poll

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Filed under: Cellphones

We know it’s been a whirlwind week of either: a) patiently sitting outside your local Apple store, b) losing touch with family, friends, and significant others while buried knee-deep in your new phone / firmware, or c) desperately trying to ignore the iPhone. But it’s time to come up for air and take stock. We’re all aware that things didn’t go quite as planned with Apple’s trifecta (iPhone 3G, firmware 2.0, MobileMe) launch last week, and we’re just starting to see the fallout from last Friday’s debacle.

The most prevalent complaint we’ve been hearing from users concerns ongoing issues with the phone’s new firmware, which has delivered on a lot of its promises, yet is also exhibiting frustrating bugs that make us think this one needed a little more time in the oven. In particular, we’ve experienced — and have been assailed with reports about — painful lag times when typing, as well as choppy, clunky behavior while scrolling through or searching contacts, calls which can’t be answered, and even outright crashes while receiving a call. Some owners have encountered repeated forced quits while trying to use the App Store, while a group of our editors vented about an SMS issue which not only grinds the phone’s performance to a halt, but makes the keyboard inaccessible altogether.

When you toss in problems other users are having with email, MobileMe syncing, and assorted minor kinks (trouble rotating Safari anyone?), it seems obvious that there’s cruft beneath this firmware creating hiccups in usability. Coupled with 3G reception concerns, the company’s continuing struggle to get MobileMe working as advertised, and rumors that 2.0.1 is already in the works, you get the impression that everyone is looking for a little relief here… Apple and its customers alike.

So, how’s your first week been?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Shocker_Apple_actually_apologizes_to_MobileMe_customers’; After six long days, Apple has issued an official statement on the debacle that was / is the MobileMe transition, and has offered a 30-day extension to contracts as an olive branch to disgruntled users. According to a form letter being sent to subscribers, the company openly admits that the switch to MobileMe was “a lot rockier than hoped,” and claims that the service is now running smoothly. Additionally (and somewhat surprisingly) Apple rescinded its use of the word “push” to cover all of its services, conceding that while there is indeed push to-and-from iPhones and the “cloud,” computers are still being polled every 15 minutes… which is the same as .Mac (and honestly Apple, you didn’t know that wasn’t technically push?). We suppose this would be all well and good provided that MobileMe was actually functioning as advertised, but indications from readers — and our own testing — suggest otherwise. Customers are still having difficulties with email and syncing between iPhones and the cloud (duplicate messages, deleted messages that don’t leave the inbox, etc.), the advertised “auto-complete” on mail addressing doesn’t function at all, and calendars are plagued with small moving / deletion problems, as well as being unable to sync subscriptions… and that’s just off the top of our head (see the company’s support forums for more). The 30-day extension is a nice gesture Apple, but we’re thinking customers would prefer a service that works as advertised.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

It doesn’t talke a genius to figure out that there’s something wrong with Apple’s MobileMe transition — which was originally scheduled to take place Wednesday evening. Now, into the early hours of Friday, and almost a day after the iPhone 3G’s launch in NZ, we’ve seen maybe a total of 30 minutes of scattered uptime for the service, and Apple is finally confessing that the transition is “taking longer than expected.” The good news is that .Mac users should still be able to check their mail, sync their contacts and use their iDisks, but at the moment there’s no telling when MobileMe’s sexy new web apps will be available, or what to expect next as far as those other services.

[Thanks, Alec A]

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var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/MobileMe_now_live_ready_for_you’; Hello MobileMe, goodbye .Mac (and good riddance). Apple’s synchronization and web application solution for your Macs, PCs, iPod touch or iPhone is now live. Push eMail, push contacts, and push calendar and a new suite of web applications are now yours for the taking. You know, after you hand over $99 for the first year or $149 for a one-year family subscription.

P.S. Things are loading slowly at the moment as the service comes up.

[Thanks, Tim]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/software/Apple_accidentally_ships_MobileMe_to_Mac_customers’; Apparently someone at Apple HQ got a little trigger happy on shipments of MobileMe. According to reports, the company mistakenly mailed boxes of the all-syncing, ever-loving software to at least a couple of current .Mac users ahead of schedule. When Apple was alerted to the gaffe, the user was told that a courier would be by to pick it up the next day. One question: why would you tell Apple?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

By now you’ve probably heard about .Mac’s replacement, MobileMe. It’s like Yahoo! Mail, Google Docs, and every other Ajaxy web app you’ve ever used… just way more Apple-ish. If you’re feeling confused by all the synchronized over-the-air options it presents, your good friend John (aka Classy Apple Dude) is here to explain things in a simple, easy-to-understand tour. Just watching this makes us feel safe, secure… and frankly, a little sleepy.

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