Bites from the Apple: Ghost in the MobileMe

Another week and Apple's launch frustration continues with the focus turning to MobileMe, Apple's replacement for the .Mac service. Despite not even focusing on MobileMe's seemingly uninterrupted string of service outages, Walt Mossberg still doesn't think it's ready for prime-time yet, due to sluggish syncing between iPhone and desktop PCs and unreliable synchronization. David Pogue chimes in at the New York Times, and gets fed up with the lack of communication about outages and fixes from Apple support, equating it to "an airplane that's stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working bathroom. And the pilot doesn't come on the P.A. system to tell the customers what the problem is...."

Oh yeah, it's still hard to get an iPhone 3G (though stock analysts say this is a good thing.) On the bright side, though, it's looking like stores are starting to receive more stock of the iPhone as of the end of this week. You can check out this handy web site created by Chris Barnes, which shows availability by store as compiled from an Apple data feed. (The caveat being Apple's feed isn't completely reliable--seems to be Apple's theme of the month--so you should call ahead to your Apple Store of choice.)

• Rumor Watch: Embedded within the conference call to announce Q3 earnings (good, with Mac shipments up 41 percent in year-over-year sales) were several comments alluding to a "state-of-the-art product" coming out later this year. Jason O'Grady over at ZDNet's Apple Core (which also provides the concept photo at right) is pretty confident it's going to be the long-rumored iTablet.

  We may also be seeing a (PRODUCT) RED version of the iPhone 3G by the holiday season (via CrunchGear).

• The first update to the iPhone 2.0 software (version 2.1) might be seeing the light of day for non-developers soon, and it might include the ability to copy-and-paste text as well as expanded GPS features that could allow turn-by-turn navigation (via MacNN).

• If you've got two iPhones in your house (or an iPhone and an iTouch), it looks like you can share applications downloaded from the iTunes App Store thanks to Apple's FairPlay DRM, which allows you to authorize up to 5 computer devices to access items purchased from the iTunes Store (via TUAW).

• How fast is the iPhone 3G on 3G networks? It depends on where you are.

• Nancy Scola over at one of my fave enviro blogs, World Changing, applauds Apple for getting greener with its twin iPhone product/software releases:

  Beyond the replaceable battery, the handset, headphones and USB cable are all now PVC-free. The circuit board is produced without bromine. The LCD is made sans mercury. And let's back up a bit -- buying a new iPhone might not even be necessary. The software 2.0 upgrade means that owners of first-gen phones don't even need to buy a 3G to get most of the newest functionality.

  But she thinks Apple could do better in trumpeting its gadget greenness (which includes a policy of recycling old cell phones and iPods, regardless of manufacturer) to better educate the public.

• Saul Hansell at the NYTimes' Bits blog wonders if Apple could emulate Microsoft's plan for distributing community games to Xbox 360 devices and provide an App Store for its Apple TV.

  This could serve as a basic game platform for Apple–not so basic if the company beefs up the graphic chip in the device. Moreover, apps for Apple TV could offer the sort of info snacking that iPhone apps do: weather, yellow pages, photo sharing, viral videos and so on. I assume video, photos and entertainment apps would be most popular, but there is someone who will do anything. And that’s the beauty of an open environment.

  As an Apple TV owner (and occasional user), I wholeheartedly endorse any idea to make it more usable. Speaking of which, Merlin Mann at 43 Folders notes that the aTV Flash collection of Apple TV hackery is back and includes new functionality such as USB Drive support.

• Adam Engst at TidBITS informs us that the latest iteration of the iTunes software (7.7) is removing accented characters from the names of songs and artists. I started noticing this earlier this week when I had some time to work on my personal iTunes clean-up project (caused by a failing hard drive), but hadn't put it together that the update was causing the problem. This is a big bummer for folks like myself who have a lot of non-English music in their collections (I now have loads of French albums that are unreadable), as it currently requires manual correction.

• I'm still in a quandary over what to-do application to get from the App Store for my iPhone. Macworld has a pretty detailed review of OmniFocus, which sounds like a very powerful task organizer that also requires adherence to the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity world view (as well as a C-Note, as the iPhone app is $20 and the desktop application costs an additional $80). The review does note that the Things app from Cultured Code is a good GTD/tasking alternative that's not as robust and about half the price (for both iPhone and desktop apps).

--Agen G.N. Schmitz