Apple

Let me begin this by saying that I'm a stingy guy. In high school, I bought a hair clipper and adopted a buzz cut largely to save cash by not having to go to the barber. I will also stop dead in my tracks to pick up a penny.

So for me, spending $99 a year on Apple's MobileMe, a service that basically does Web e-mail, contact syncing, photo hosting, and file storage, was a hard sell--especially after its bad start. This week, however, Apple finally got me to take the plunge. Why? It's starting to add genuinely useful tools for Apple hardware owners, with the promise of more to come.

On Monday, the company demoed a new tool for MobileMe subscribers called "Find My iPhone" that lets you both find a lost (or stolen) iPhone, as well as remotely wipe its contents. You can also get it to ring and vibrate for two minutes straight, which can be a huge help if it's stuck between couch cushions or buried deep within a bag. Anyone who's been late to work, or had a near-heart attack from trying to find a lost phone can appreciate how this service alone may be worth a Benjamin.

Then there's the upcoming iDisk iPhone and iPod Touch application that lets you access files you've stored in your MobileMe online storage. This in itself is not groundbreaking, but if you're an iPhone or iPod Touch user who is already using MobileMe's online storage, it's a nice bonus. Apple is advertising this as a way to show off presentations and get at important business documents, but I'd argue that it's a great way to extend the limited storage on the iPhone by keeping some of your music and videos on MobileMe instead. If you've got a Wi-Fi connection, you can stream both.

But let's get back to the basics. Is the rest of the service worth the cash? Not in my mind--and a big, fat no if you're using it for the Web apps alone. Let's break it down:

(Credit: Apple)

For Web e-mail: No
On the iPhone and iPod Touch, you get messages as soon as they're sent. On the browser, however, it's missing a lot of features that competitors like Yahoo and Google have had for years. Both of those services are free, and between Gmail's labs, and Yahoo's just-introduced apps platform, MobileMe's Web mail feels rudimentary. It also drives me nuts that the service logs you out after 15 minutes of activity. This isn't my bank account, it's my e-mail. (Note: readers wrote in to let me know that you can avoid having this happen if you check off the "keep me logged in for two weeks" option when first signing on).

(Credit: CNET)

Apple Insider has unearthed proof that YouTube uploading will be built into the upcoming version of QuickTime that ships with OS X 10.6.

According to beta testers, several video-sharing options will be baked into the latest release of Apple's QuickTime media playback and editing software, including the capability to directly upload to YouTube. With the new QuickTime, you will be able to convert and upload any supported video file type to the online video service and all you will need is to be a registered YouTube user. You also will be able to seamlessly upload supported video to the MobileMe Gallery.

In addition to these new sharing options, iTunes also will offer ways to convert and export your video files to work on your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. All of these options will be available to you from the same convenient location and will automatically be imported to iTunes before being synced to your supported devices.

With this latest discovery, Apple will effectively offer built-in support for YouTube across all of its main products. Both the iPhone and Apple TV already offer YouTube support, along with some of Apple's other software including recent releases of iMovie. With the addition of direct uploads through QuickTime, Apple is providing support for desktop and laptop Macs.

Apple's MobileMe Web service has finally received Walt Mossberg's seal of approval.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple's MobileMe Web service has finally improved to the point where The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg feels it worthy of a recommendation.

Mossberg, whose opinion can make or break a product or service, has revisited his earlier take on the MobileMe service, which got off to a disastrous start when it was launched last summer. MobileMe lets Mac or Windows users sync their contacts, calendar info, and e-mail across Macs, PCs, and iPhones for $99 a year.

When the revamped service hit the Internet last July, it was plagued with so many outages and glitches that Mossberg--usually high on Apple products--felt compelled to steer his readers away from the service. Apple eventually apologized for rushing the MobileMe launch during a complicated month in which it launched the iPhone 3G, the App Store, and the iPhone 2.0 software.

But "Apple has fixed all of the speed and reliability issues I encountered last year," Mossberg wrote, in giving the service a thumbs up. He did warn readers of ongoing issues involving Outlook data syncing between Windows PCs and Macs, which Apple has apparently promised to fix. It seems MobileMe is more adept at syncing data within one platform--be it Mac or Windows--and has trouble within a mixed environment of Mac and Windows PCs, according to Mossberg.

MobileMe is an important service for Apple, as it gives those wary about switching completely to the Mac a way to stay tethered to Windows, while also improving the usability of the iPhone. More than a few personal computing companies think that in the future such Web services will be crucial for average users with two or more mixed-platform computers, be they Macs, PCs, smartphones, or other mobile devices.

Apple distributed an e-mail recently to MobileMe subscribers that detailed some improved features, but the biggest news from that e-mail was the fact that push is back.

Push was part of the initially tragic launch of MobileMe in 2008--a launch so poorly implemented that the word "push" was removed from descriptions of MobileMe until synchronization between computers and mobile devices (i.e. iPhone and iPod Touch) would perform at an acceptable level.

Now that push is in business again, syncing with Macs or PCs is faster. Any updates that you make to contacts or calendars on your Mac in iCal or Addressbook, or on your PC using Microsoft Outlook are automatically and rather quickly pushed to the cloud. Conversely, any updates made to MobileMe data at me.com, or on an iPhone or iPod Touch is pushed back your Mac or PC. Finally, all your contacts and calendars will update across your devices much faster than previously.

In order for all of this to work properly, you must be using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 or the MobileMe PC Control Panel 1.3. The iPhone or iPod Touch must have firmware 2.2 or later.

Read Apple's letter to MobileMe subscribers below and note the additional information about file-sharing using iDisk, which was previously announced a few weeks ago.

Deep one-day discounts on products such as the new MacBook could be coming this Black Friday.

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Here's a rundown of some of the Apple news making the rounds this Wednesday:

Apple may launch most aggressive Black Friday pricing yet--AppleInsider: On a day when the stock market tanked once again on news of shifting priorities in the government's bailout plan, coupled with pessimistic forecasts from huge retailers like Best Buy, this notion doesn't seem all that far-fetched. Last year, Apple offered $101 discounts on MacBooks and other discounts on iPods on Black Friday, and Ben Reitzes of UBS thinks similar discounts could be applied more broadly across Apple's product line on that particular day.

Apple's iPhone faces off with the game champs--The Wall Street Journal: Is the "funnest iPod ever" something that should have Nintendo and Sony worried? Steve Jobs certainly thinks so, pointing out in this story (paid registration required) that a quarter of all the applications downloaded from the App Store have been games. The iPhone and iPod Touch may not yet be the choice of serious portable gamers, but Sega shared an interesting tidbit on how it views the iPhone: the 500,000 copies of Super Monkey Ball sold through the App Store would be considered a hit if it had sold that many copies of a game for the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Apple focusing on MobileMe improvements in latest 10.5.6 builds--MacRumors: Everyone's favorite whipping-boy in the Apple universe--MobileMe--has received a great deal of work in the next update for Mac OS X Leopard, according to MacRumors. The update will supposedly have improvements to how MobileMe syncs data between MacBooks and the online service, which lets you access contacts, calendars, and other data from any computer.

The genius behind Steve--Fortune: This actually came out earlier in the week, but Adam Lashinsky's profile of Apple COO Tim Cook is worth a read if you haven't checked it out already. There's not a lot of new ground broken--Cook is the obvious short-term solution if Steve Jobs had to step down as Apple's leader, since he's a clear No. 2 and has already run the company once before--but the insights into Cook's personality and working style make it worth your time if you were ever curious about Apple's second-in-command.

Apple has disclosed information on a recent MobileMe update, offering a glimpse at the changes and fixes it made in late September to its beleaguered service.

According to information posted Wednesday, the latest known update largely affected MobileMe e-mail and calendar features--two areas that have encountered a rash of problems since the service debuted in July in less-than-perfect shape.

Apple apparently wanted to specifically point out its efforts to improve the service. "Since server-side updates are a bit more innocuous than a standard software update to Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, it's easy not to notice that updates are occurring. Usually the only hint of these updates is that things just 'work better,'" Apple said on the update page.

The changes aim to improve the performance of its MobileMe e-mail when people log in, use Internet Explorer 7, and enable their junk-mail filter. The company also issued fixes to address problems when people "reply to all," use keyboard shortcuts, and add contacts.

Calendar enhancements include improving performance when switching views in Mozilla Firefox 3 and when dealing with a large number of "to do" items.

Other changes were also made to MobileMe Account, such as increasing the accuracy of the MobileMe data transfer details and enhancing the storage allocation menu for family pack sub-accounts.

About a month ago, Apple similarly released details on a mid-September update to MobileMe.

The iTunes Store might soon have a yearly subscription option for $129 a year.

(Credit: Apple)

Three Mac rumors sites have received anonymous tips that Apple is getting ready to introduce a subscription iTunes service in September.

We were already pretty sure that September would bring new iPods, but Apple might have something more ambitious up its sleeve. MacRumors, MacDailyNews, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog are all saying a tipster spilled the beans about a $129-a-year iTunes service that would piggyback on Apple's MobileMe service.

The reports are all eerily similar, suggesting that accurate or not, all the sites heard from the same source. Under the new service, Apple would offer unlimited access to half of its iTunes Store--as of an October launch--for $129 a year, or $179 for an iTunes/MobileMe combo deal, in the U.S. only. If you're already a MobileMe subscriber, you'll only have to fork over $99.99 for the subscription service, perhaps as a mea culpa for this summer's disastrous MobileMe launch.

Rumors of an iTunes subscription service are not new; I found reports dating back to 2005 that Apple was getting ready to introduce such a thing. CEO Steve Jobs has historically pooh-poohed the idea of rental music--and such services haven't exactly taken the world by storm--but Jobs has also said he wasn't crazy about video-playing iPods and Apple-designed mobile phones, either.

This service introduction would also reportedly include an expanded MobileMe service that would let you access "the cloud" (Apple calls it iDisk) from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

While we're on this track, let me be the first to revive--based on absolutely nothing--the Beatles on iTunes rumors for September. It has to happen one of these days.

In an apparent attempt to make up for the problems that plagued MobileMe's launch in July, Apple has announced that it will extend user accounts another 60 days for free--that's on top of the 30-day free extension Apple gave users in July.

In an e-mail sent Monday to MobileMe subscribers announcing the extension, Apple acknowledged that the Web services suite needs more work:

We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users' patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60-day extension. This is in addition to the one-month extension most subscribers have already received.

We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around. Read this article for more details.

The MobileMe Team

The linked article on Apple's support site explains the extension and eligibility.

MobileMe is the next evolution of Apple's .Mac service. It's essentially a cloud storage solution that allows subscribers to synchronize e-mail, calendars, contacts, photos, Safari bookmarks, Dashboard widgets, and more, among Macs, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. It allows for 20GB of storage on Apple's servers, and it even cooperates with Outlook on Windows computers. Because it is Web-based, subscribers can access the online applications from any Web browser.

But from its launch on July 10, MobileMe had problems. Most notably, subscribers had trouble accessing the site, and some even lost e-mail. Subscribers also reported problems accessing calendars and contact information, which was caused by a misjudgment in demand, according to an Apple blog post.

Earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted that it was a "mistake" to roll out the company's MobileMe service at the same time it launched the iPhone 3G and other big products, tech news site Ars Technica reported.