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Apple launches MobileMe Gallery App for iPhone

Apple has unveiled only its fifth App for the iPhone - MobileMe Gallery. It enables those iPhone users that have a MobileMe account to easily view their photo gallery on their iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also share photos with friends, and if they have an account you can also view their galleries. It also stores viewed pictures for offline viewing. 

Compared to other Apps it does seem a bit lightweight, but in theory it offers a good addition to the MobileMe service - assuming you have a subscription. One immediate problem seemed to be with viewing videos - I tried to view one of mine stored in MobileMe with the App but it was unable to play, and early iTunes reviews seem to indicate I am not alone. Let's hope this is quickly resolved...

MobileMe users hit by phishing scam;

Some customers affected by Apple's 'iPocalypse' launch of MobileMe could say that they feel like they have been scammed already, however reports are surfacing of a rather obvious phishing scam affecting MobileMe users. 

The scammers seem to be relying on people not noticing the old .Mac graphics and references to .Mac, as well as the rather strange web address it directs you too.

Surely people could not fall for this one? 

Surely MobileMe users are cleverer than that? 

Oh.

Steve Jobs acknowledges mistakes made during MobileMe's contribution to the iPocalypse

The website ars technica reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has acknowledged mistakes were made in the launch of Apple's MobileMe service. Dubbed 'exchange for the rest of us' MobileMe is marketed as an essential complimentary service for iPhone and iPod Touch owners who want to ensure email and other services are fully synched across multiple devices. 

Jobs starts the email by saying that "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour.  There are several things we could have done better." 

He goes on to list these as:

"– MobileMe was simply not up to Apple's standards – it clearly needed more time and testing.

– Rather than launch MobileMe as a monolithic service, we could have launched over-the-air syncing with iPhone to begin with, followed by the web applications one by one – Mail first, followed 30 days later (if things went well with Mail) by Calendar, then 30 days later by Contacts.

– 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."

The email goes on to announce a shake up of the management of MobileMe, and ends with a vow: "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."

WSJ highlights multiple problems with Apple's MobileMe; "can't recommend"

Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal says that he cannot recommend Apple's MobileMe service in its current state. Citing that the service has "too many flaws" he said that in his testing using two Macs, two Dell computers and two iPhones, he ran into "problem after problem."

Apple launched MobileMe as a service that, for $100 a year, would bring corporate-type synchronization of email, calendars and contacts to anyone. It went live to complement the launch of the iPhone 3G and ran into multiple problems at the time.

Mossberg however is not referring to these issues, saying that the problems he encountered are "systemic":

"The Web site was sluggish, and occasionally calendar entries wouldn't load at all. Sometimes, you have to manually refresh the Web pages to see changes made on your devices. And when I tried to open my Web-based file-storage page directly from the MobileMe control panel on Windows, I got an error message on both Dells.

My MobileMe calendar, which originated on a Mac, didn't flow into the main Outlook calendar, but appeared as a separate calendar in Outlook, which was visible only by changing settings. My address-book groups on the Mac, which are simply distribution lists, didn't show up as distribution lists in Outlook, but as separate address books, and they also weren't immediately visible. Apple blames Outlook quirks for these issues, but in my view, it should have overcome them."

Other issues with contacts and bookmark synching are also highlighted. In his conclusion he provides Apple with some crumbs of comfort: "If Apple does get MobileMe working smoothly, it could be a terrific service. But it's way too ragged now."

It seems there is some way to go though.

Comment: iPocalypse after - repairing the damage done

In what is commonly becoming known as the 'iPocalypse', it is fair to say the Friday's iPhone 3G launch did not go without a hitch. Many of those that had stood in line for the new device suffered more delays as activations failed or took an interminably long time. Existing iPhone owners trying to upgrade to version 2.0 were left with 'bricks'. Software updates appeared and disappeared. And to cap it all, Apple's new online service, MobileMe, encountered significant problems in the transition from the old .Mac service. So much so that today Apple describes it as "a lot rockier than we had hoped" and announced that all MobileMe subscribers will have their subscriptions extended by 30 days.

This is a welcome departure from its recent approach. One thing that was striking about Friday's events was the less than impressive flow of information coming from Apple amongst all the chaos. MobileMe customers were left with a maintenance screen for up to a couple of days, despite Apple initially claiming the service would be down for a few hours. When it became obvious this was going to last a lot longer, Apple barely kept customers in the loop. Likewise people attempting to buy iPhones were given conflicting reasons for why activations were not working - Apple store staff blamed O2/AT&T, and the carriers blamed iTunes. Once again Apple remained silent.

The events were rounded off by conflicting reports around the 'yellow tint' of the new iPhone 3G. Apple claimed it was deliberate, whereas at the same time some customers were already 'fixing' the problem by resetting their phones and using the latest firmware supplied by Apple!

There is no doubt that the new iPhone is a truly impressive product, and the fact the over one million have already been sold confirms that it will be a resounding success. However Apple needs to be careful that it does not use up all that goodwill from customers excited and enthralled by its products. An aloof approach worked when it was more of a niche computer maker, but now that it is becoming a major player in the smart phone market I'm not sure that this is the most appropriate communication strategy. Learning to engage its customers more and to not take them for granted will be as much of a challenge going forward as will the development of the next iPhone.