Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, iPhone, MobileMe
MobileMe not so pushy
Many commenters and bloggers hither and yon have noticed that MobileMe lacks "true push" capabilities, even though Apple uses the "push" buzzword extensively to describe MobileMe services.
A commenter in a MacRumors thread about the subject took screenshots from Apple's site, showing they had removed the phrase "Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously." In its place, Apple clarifies that changes from the iPhone and web apps are updated instantly on connected computers, but not vice versa.
Apple also notes in a Knowledge Base article that changes "made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe 'cloud' once every 15 minutes (or every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11)."
That, to me, doesn't sound like "push," it sounds like "sync." The term "push" still applies, however, to me.com email, as that shows up immediately (in my experience, at least.) Calendars and contacts, though, not so much, apparently.
[Via BetaNews.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jasen said 3:06PM on 7-15-2008
Reminds me of people claiming RSS is a push technology. NO IT'S NOT!!!
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Dave said 3:10PM on 7-15-2008
More annoying is that mail.app doesn't support push email. It still has to fetch!
When I'm working on my computer and hear my iphone I then have to open mail.app, fetch it manually and wait for it to download. Not a problem, but it just seems strange that my iphone out performs my imac on this...
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Tom said 3:14PM on 7-15-2008
Yeah it's funny. I'm now more using my iPhone for e-mail than my Mac. My iPhone receives e-mail faster than my Mac :-) Yes MobileMe is not as pushy as it was announced, but it's still pretty cool. I still hope Apple wll introduce true push sometimes in the future.
kirk said 4:52PM on 7-15-2008
You're talking about Mail.app not supporting whatever proprietary pushing MobileMe is using, right? Because Mail.app does support push from IMAP accounts that support the IDLE command. My email from the internet host offers this and I've been using it for a year on my SE phone and when Leopard came out I was happy to see Mail.app supported push.
With MobileMe I was really disappointed it wasn't using IMAP idle but something else so you can't use your own domain address.
I'd imagine Google will be offering push for its stuff in short order (whenever the first Android phone comes out). But the question is whether iPhone will support it.
Dave said 4:56PM on 7-15-2008
Ah, thanks for clearing that up!
Fozzy Bear said 8:32PM on 7-15-2008
Dave,
you said you have to open mail.app, if mail.app is already open is it pushed?
i mean... outlook/entourage do not receive email while they're closed. i don't get that much mail from my me.com address... except Apple spam so i rarely have it open.
Dave said 8:39PM on 7-15-2008
Sorry, I meant as in open the window... The dock shows it's running and it doesn't receive push. I think this is the biggest misinterpretation in the advertising of MobileMe, more than the push/sync stuff, because it remains exactly the same. It's still just fetch.
Fozzy Bear said 8:48PM on 7-15-2008
ahh, gotcha... it's not perfect yet... but i think it'll get there... they're still new to it... i guess...
meanwhile, i still can't get my avatar to show up on any of my posts... so apple's not alone. =)
Ben Babics said 7:36AM on 7-16-2008
Just to clarify, all MobileMe is doing is sending an SMS text message behind the scenes to the iPhone at which the iPhone doesn't report to the user. My assumption is the phone does a fetch on command or "Push". Not really sure if this is how other phones do it but I know this what's going on for MobileMe on the iPhone.
I noticed this when I sold my original iPhone back in May when I got all excited thinking Apple would relesase the 3G at WWDC. Anyways, I bought a prepaide phone for $20 and noticed these odd SMS messages coming in everytime I finished a phone call or received a voicemail. Then it clicked, my visual voicemail knew when to update based on the SMS that followed the missed call and the second SMS that followed the voicemail.
I guess it's one of the reasons I hate AT&T for charging us for lousy text messages when we're receiving them behind the scenes anyways.
I'm also assuming that since this is how they're "pushing" content to the phone, there's no real way to SMS a computer. I'd think the best thing to do would update iSync or Address Book and Mail to run iSync everytime there's a change in the appropriate application. :O
Eric said 3:12PM on 7-15-2008
I can't believe that nobody is reporting that a lot of users still can not access the Mail webapp. It loads with a toolbar and blank page. I can't get a response from Apple as to whether or not they are even aware of the issue.
Support forums on apple.com show that I am certainly not the only one with this problem.
Also, it happens on two computers and I have tried Safari and Firefox on each one.
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jax sedrin said 3:26PM on 7-15-2008
That's a huge "ditto" from me.
Evan said 4:12PM on 7-15-2008
Yes! Why the heck is no one talking about this? There are a ton of us out there who still can't access webmail.
Hobbes said 4:29PM on 7-15-2008
I agree 100%. I don't understand how people can be quiet with so many issues happening. Apple support does not other than email automatic responses that don't answer anything.
I'm still having the following issues with MobileMe (I was a .Mac user before):
- Web Mail chokes on certain emails - it shows up an error message saying the email could not be sent, however looking in the Sent folder shows that the email has already been sent (I emailed a friend 5 times the same email due to this issue)
- when composing a new email, if I click the Contacts button to select one of my contacts, nothing is displayed, just a greyed out page - I have to type the email addresses manually - this totally sucks - what's the point in syncing your contacts if I can't use them???
- My billing information says "there is a problem with this credit card", even though it's the same credit card I use with the Apple Store, iTunes and many other places - Again no answer from Apple - My subscription is about to expire and I wonder if they will fix this issue in time for it to be renewed - their loss if they don't - I'm not using another credit card, when the one I use the most is perfectly fine
Overall I'm very unsatisfied with the way Apple is handling all this. They should have done proper QA before releasing this and at the very least acknowledge the issues and let people know when they're going to be fixed.
With free alternatives out there for emailing, calendar, etc., it's a tough sale to pay $100 per year for services that do not work as advertised.
Apple, listen to your customers!!!!! We're the ones paying the bill, remember?
Eric said 7:05PM on 7-15-2008
FINALLY! My webmail is working!
Jules said 3:16PM on 7-15-2008
If you are just looking for sync features, MobileMe is really not worth the money. Yesterday I learned about an app called fruux, which syncs the adressbook like MobileMe. I am not going to renew my MobileMe subscription. Unfortunately fruux has no iPhone support yet :-( But having the same contacts on my macbook and my office mac without paying the mobile-me-tax is a good start and they told me that their next release will introduce iCal sync!
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Dave said 3:17PM on 7-15-2008
Well that's curious.
I've got a 3G iPhone and am seeing horrendous battery life. One suggested solution that I'm working through - disabling ALL push, and relying upon manual or fetch instead.
So why would this come up as a "solution" to poor battery life, if the push is only happening every 15 minutes?
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DrWho said 3:40PM on 7-15-2008
It's syncing from the desktop every 15 minutes not doing a push every 15 minutes. A push should occur whenever there is new data. And anyway I thought push was easier on your battery than fetch because the device gets a message that new data is available rather than it having to initiate a message periodically.
Bobnease said 3:41PM on 7-15-2008
There is a chance that you got a dud battery, which unfortunately happens from time to time, and has nothing to do with the rest of the software / hardware. I would take it to the Apple Store, and see what they can do for you.
Hawkman said 4:00PM on 7-15-2008
Probably more likely is that you've got the 3G radio on and you're actually using it occasionally... 3G kills batteries. My old N80's battery life tripled if I turned it off, and that was with barely using data.
drmac said 4:13PM on 7-15-2008
I to have disabled the Push on the iPhone. I was more interested in "syncing" my iPhone with my other Mac's without connecting to iTunes to do it.
I also have noticed my battery depleting quicker as well. I don't think that it is a bad battery more than the 3G connection that kills the battery quicker. I never had a 3G phone so I can only compare it to my previous iPhone which did have better battery life. But I have read that the iPhone battery is better than other 3G phones but not as good as the previous model.