Filed under: MobileMe
Apple extends MobileMe subscriptions by 30 days
Apple has extended every MobileMe subscription by a month, due to the exceptionally ornery transition this past week.
"The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld. "We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge."
An email sent to subscribers noted that "we have worked through those problems, and the web apps are now up and running," but several pages of comments from our readers suggest otherwise. TUAW staff with MobileMe accounts agreed yesterday that the service is mostly working, but still quirky.
Also in the email, the MobileMe team has promised to stop using the word "push" to describe some aspects of MobileMe's functionality "until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too." This might suggest they're closing the loop on MobileMe's push technology for all connected devices.
Hopefully this goes a long way to assuage the burning, burning rage that MobileMe users have been feeling recently.
(You can read the full letter, after the jump.)
Thanks, Rick, Frank, Mark, Chuck and James for the tip!
MobileMe services are now available.
We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.
Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.
Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.
We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.
We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.
Thank you,
The MobileMe Team
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
mitch said 10:59AM on 7-16-2008
amen! I'm quite happy myself.
sterling said 11:19AM on 7-16-2008
Robert Palmer:
I made the blanket statement intentionally. In the recent past TUAW has been doing it ALL THE TIME. I assume it is your way of sensationalizing the non-sensational. Why not just write your posts and let them stand on the merit of the news.
I realize you are probably compensated based on page views or something so that gives you incentive to write the BIG stories, but overblowing the number of pissy MobileMe users isn't going to help.
Big John said 11:53AM on 7-16-2008
I thought the blanket statement, already defended by the poster, was used extremely well. TUAW users represent an extremely vocal minority (which I am a part of). Just because some folks are raging about it, doesn't mean "MobileMe users" as a whole group are experiencing the burning rage you describe. The word 'some' wouldn't hurt next time.
djfred said 11:59AM on 7-16-2008
Anybody that tried to use mobileme or dot.mac this weekend and wasn't a little pissed off and frustrated either didn't really depend on it for for anything or just doesn't have much self-esteem.
Nothing worked. Then it did for a little bit and then stopped. Then it sort of worked but got accusatory. Nobody knew what was going on, how long it would last or what to do what to do about especially since Apple decided that the right way to handle the crisis was to disable search in the forums and the only way to look for a solution was to browse the entries one heading at a time.
As I said, I'm happy with the 30 days and I wasn't expecting a trouble-free migration but I don't see anything sensationalist in the story.
Sorry.
pureadrenalin2005 said 10:47AM on 7-16-2008
All I know is my subscription expires in 14 days and when I try to update my credit card info it fails (server error). Now, if only I hadn't told everyone that I switched to a mac account. I think it is time to open a gmail account and completely forget about .mac, I mean "mobile me".
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-wsn said 10:48AM on 7-16-2008
Now they just need to send a...
"sorry for blowing you out of the water for 5 hours when you updated to the v2 firmware on Friday morning"
...letter.
It is nice that they are comp'ing people 30 days of MobileMe though.
To be honest though having a dead iPhone for 5 hours was far more disruptive IMO.
Cheers
-wsn
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Tim said 1:16PM on 7-16-2008
This is why I love Apple. Any other business could just pretend the rocky start didn't happen, and just send the users a bill for a service they didn't even get to use properly. But Apple instead effectively refunds you that week and gives you three more weeks free.
Forget Microsoft, when was the last time a cable company did this?
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Modano said 3:06PM on 7-19-2008
I'm a subscriber but I think "burning, burning rage" is overstating it a little. I wish it worked right off the bat but I'm not going to blow a gasket over it. If I depended on it for work, I'd be angrier but come on.
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Matthew Marakovits said 10:59AM on 7-16-2008
No email for me :-(
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Basye said 11:00AM on 7-16-2008
What email? Nothing's been sent to me.
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Kyle Ramsey said 11:01AM on 7-16-2008
MobileMe Web apps are down right now.
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Big John said 11:54AM on 7-16-2008
Working here for me.
alex cutter said 11:08AM on 7-16-2008
Adding a free month to a subscription service is a weak gesture made in the spirit of cheapness.
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Rich UK said 11:16AM on 7-16-2008
And you would like them to...?
Big John said 11:40AM on 7-16-2008
Apple will be sure to messanger over a gold-cast hand, with the middle finger extended next time.
Seriously, what would you like them to do? They just gave you $8.13 (retail) by extending your subscription 30 days. I'm sorry that you, an early adopter, got bit for a weekend.
alex cutter said 12:11PM on 7-16-2008
Ummm, maybe give some extra iDisk space? Something that actually has value?
Extending a subscription service by a month has nearly zero practical value.
Is an extra month going to entice someone to renew, who was otherwise going to cancel?
And after someone has become dependent on the service, and migrating to a new service becomes impractical, what value does adding an extra month provide? They're not going anywhere anyway.
And, FWIW, I've been a "subscriber" since iTools. So STFU, and go back to your role as an Official Apple Apologist®.
Dan said 3:18PM on 7-16-2008
Ah. So, they should expand capacity for you after they just doubled storage for all accounts and run the risk of hosing the service again? Take your free month and like it!
Peter Welpton said 11:15AM on 7-16-2008
Everything works great, except the calendars... I cannot get them to show properly in the web app. I can get them to push TO my phone, but can't get changes to push FROM my phone...
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Big John said 11:46AM on 7-16-2008
Do you have the settings on your phone set correctly? Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calenders > MobileMe > make sure all the switches are set to 'On'. Mine weren't, and once I threw the switch all was well.
Zach said 11:07AM on 7-16-2008
Bizarre. No e-mail for me either. Maybe MobileMe's mail is down now too.
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