Apple

Apple's MobileMe cloud service is off to a rocky start, alienating even Walt Mossberg.

(Credit: Susan Dove/CNET News)

As if Apple wasn't having enough problems with its launch of MobileMe, its usually reliable friend Walt Mossberg has recommended that people stay far away from the service.

Mossberg's review on All Things Digital doesn't even take into account the service outages that have many former .Mac users up in arms over their inability to access e-mail. In his view, "it's a great idea, but, as of now, MobileMe has too many flaws to keep its promises."

MobileMe does more than just give you e-mail: it's designed to let you access your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks from any computer connected to the Internet. One flaw that bothered Mossberg was the fact that while changes made to one of those applications on an iPhone sync instantly, changes made on the Dell PCs and Macs he used in his testing synced in 15-minute intervals. Apple has acknowledged that issue and says it's working on a fix.

But the main issue seems to be that MobileMe is sluggish and buggy, according to Mossberg. Web pages load very slowly, synchronization with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail software seems problematic, and manual refreshes were required to make changes appear inside calendar appointment.

The MobileMe mail problems don't seem to have been fixed, although Apple is still claiming that only 1 percent of all MobileMe users are affected. While that's indeed a pressing problem, Mossberg's experience is enough to make you wonder if Apple's a bit over its head trying to run a cloud computing service.

As an aside, an informal poll of the CNET staff could not turn up the last Apple product that Mossberg flat-out panned. The closest we came was the original Motorola Rokr phone, which to be fair, nobody liked.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg would like you to know that he has no clue when the 3G iPhone is coming, and no, he can't get you one.

Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

(Credit: AllThingsD)

So the gadget guru told Silicon Alley Insider today, after comments he made at a conference last week surfaced over the weekend. During a talk about broadband penetration and online video, Mossberg casually mentioned of the iPhone, "it will be 3G in 60 days."

Those comments were widely interpreted to mean that the iPhone will be 3G in 60 days. Mossberg tends not to speculate as widely about upcoming Apple announcements as does, say, the entire technology world. So given his access to Apple's products and strategies, when he speaks about an upcoming product, people tend to listen.

But Mossberg wants the world to know that he doesn't actually know whether or not a 3G iPhone is coming in 60 days, a declaration which may or may not have been prompted by a stern phone call from Cupertino.

"If I knew when this date was, why would I announce it in the middle of a sentence at the Finnish embassy, rather than report it in The Wall Street Journal?" Mossberg said to SAI. Well, perhaps because you're under NDA, and you weren't supposed to say it, and it just slipped out? However, Daring Fireball's John Gruber notes that Mossberg's July 2007 prediction that the iPhone would soon have Flash hasn't exactly worked out, so he's not infallible.

A 3G iPhone will arrive this year. Unless it doesn't. In which case it will arrive next year. Maybe.

Uncle Walt says the iPhone will be able to download Web pages even faster in 60 days.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Uncle Walt thinks a 3G iPhone will arrive within the next 60 days.

Walt Mossberg, the legendary technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, made the prediction during an executive summit held by Beet.tv last week. For some reason, Mossberg's comments were not noticed until over the weekend, perhaps because the title of the post referencing his talk was "FTC Should Stop Verizon from Calling DSL 'Broadband,' Walt Mossberg."

Most of his talk is about how broadband networks in the U.S. are somewhat lacking compared to the rest of the world, and how that's a big problem for video-over-the-Internet businesses. But at about 6:30 into the clip, he starts talking about wireless broadband, and the iPhone. Mossberg notes that the iPhone already offers a pretty good video experience with its iPod capabilities, and then dismisses concern over the lack of a 3G iPhone with this gem: "It will be 3G in 60 days."

Mossberg is in the select group that gets early access to important Apple products, he was one of the first to review the initial iPhone last June. So, he's probably in a good position to know when his next iPhone review might be coming around.

Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference is a little over 60 days from now, but that's close enough put that rumor back on the front burner (as if it ever really left). Apple will have to be careful about how it introduces the 3G iPhone as not to hurt demand for the model currently on sale, if there's a gap between the announcement of a new model and its availability.

Apple pulled off a nifty reinvention of the iPod with the iPod Touch, but it better work on improving its battery life in future models, according to gadget guru Walt Mossberg.

The iPod Touch carries over many of the design attributes that Mossberg and others loved about the iPhone, but the personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal found a few flaws he felt compelled to point out. Overall, the newest iPod is "elegant and capable," but Mossberg was puzzled by poor battery life.

The new iPod Touch captivated gadget guru Walt Mossberg, but its battery life didn't.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

"For all its beauty and functionality, the Touch has some quirks and downsides. It's the first iPod model I've ever tested that fell significantly short, in my tests, of Apple's battery-life claims," Mossberg wrote. Usually, his tests show that Apple applies conservative ratings to the battery life for its iPods, but that wasn't the case this time around.

Mossberg also noted that Apple has confirmed that a small number of iPod Touches were shipped with defective screens, and the company is working to fix the issue. Mossberg's unit worked fine, as did the one reviewed by CNET's Donald Bell a few days before Mossberg's came online, but some early iPod Touch customers have noted problems with displaying dark images, and it appears Apple is accepting returns.