Apple apologizes for MobileMe transition problems

Apple this morning sent an e-mail apologizing to customers of its MobileMe service who experienced a tough few days. And to soothe ruffled feelings, Apple said it would extend their MobileMe subscription by a month.

MobileMe is Apple's new service that keeps your contact information, e-mails, etc. up to date across all your devices, including the iPhone and computers. MobileMe replaces Apple's .Mac service. The full letter to MobileMe customers can be found on an Apple discussion group here.

Bill Evans, a spokesman for Apple, confirmed the news, which was reported this morning by Macworld and Engadget. He would not say how many people were affected.

"The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped, but everything is now up and running," he said. "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."

The apology comes days after Apple struggled with its iPhone 3G launch. On Friday, some people who downloaded the company's free software update to their older iPhones found the device rendered unusable. And those waiting for the iPhone 3G outside stores around the world saw lines stall as activation of the new devices through Apple's iTunes periodically came to a halt.

The MobileMe and iPhone problems are part of the company's "teething troubles," said Shiv Bakhshi, an analyst at the research firm IDC. "Apple is trying to enable a connected universe, and the greater the number of nodes, the more the opportunity for failure, which means more testing and working out the bugs becomes critical."

-- Michelle Quinn

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI apologized for a speech about Islam. Credit: Pier Paolo Cito / Associated Press

Comments

[Blu]

I take it this is the type of crack layout we can expect now that Zell has laid off everyone - a picture of Pope Benedict accompanying an article on Apple. Nice work, LA Times.

[Havana Joe]

Small victory. This has been a bumpy ride. I've been a Mac Head for decades - stood in line for 5 hours for the new iPhone G3. The MobileMe fiasco has been tough to swallow. Especially for those of us running the Tiger OSX system; it has been ridiculous. I finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. But Apple needs to work out the bugs pronto.

[George Woodworth]

Well, doesn't Apple say that your information "floats on a cloud." Possible Caption for the Pope: "What happened to my Contacts list?"

[Drew9]

I like the photo, it's like he's a spokesman for Apple, "Hey, it's not our fault, it was and act of God."

[atl]

...aaaaand it's still there at 9:13p. this IS a bargain and i DO feel like a genius.

[Bill]

Seriously, they could have at least photoshopped an Apple logo instead of Jesus or Jobs' head on top of the Pope's.

[Michelle]

Ok, a little explanation is called for.

I chose the Pope to illustrate this story about Apple apologizing, because it is a picture of the Pope apologizing.

But then I also liked the way his arms are raised as if asking for forgiveness. Or, as one commenter suggested, he could be asking about the whereabouts of his contacts.

-- Michelle Quinn

[valerie de leon]

what happened to icard in MAC? I can't find it in mobileme?

[Kampy]

OK, so after days of attempting to troubleshoot my inability to get anything from my Mac to show up in the MobileMe web apps (other than mail - sometimes) I am convinced that the problem has nothing to do with my configurations... the problem is on Apple's end. This is obvious to everyone, including Apple.

I'm an Apple loyalist to the bitter end, and have given them the benefit of the doubt the past few days. I KNOW that they're doing the best they can to get everything up and running smoothly. I DO APPRECIATE that they admitted to some missteps, and have extended our subscriptions by a month.

However, with each passing day, I'm becoming less and less confident that MobileMe will EVER work as advertised.

I'd been wanting to get a .mac account for years, but heard so many stories about how flaky the service was, I decided to hold off until they "fixed" it. MobileMe sure looked like that "fix" we had all been waiting for. It seemed like the perfect solution for keeping everything organized across multiple computers and my iPhone. I jumped at the chance to sign up for only $70.

But...... it's been DAYS now, and MoblileMe is not even close to being up and running smoothly. Will these days stretch into weeks? Will MobileMe EVER work like it's supposed to? Three days ago, I was 90% certain that Apple would eventually work out the kinks. Today, I'm only about 60% certain. If MobileMe is still not working a few days from now... well, I don't think I'll ever have enough confidence in the service to use it as my sync solution. I'd always be thinking it could go down again at any moment.

I'd love to have an all-Apple digital life, but I'm afraid Google's "cloud" may end up being a lot more reliable than Apple's... much as I hate to say it. :-(

Anybody else feel the same way?

[John Deykin]

A candidate for Letterman's Small Town News.

[Chris Rogers]

Michelle, do you not think the Pope is a little toooo off the wall, even for the Jesus Phone???

[Gil]

not one of Apple's most pope-ular weeks eh.

[Kevin]

Tasteless in my opinion. Does anyone wonder anymore why subscription rates are down and papers are folding (pun intended)? Ms. Quinn demonstrates by her lack of sense (most with her persuasion are that way) what a classless hack she is. So much for J school, eh Michelle?

[joseph]

There so much anti-Catholic sentiment at the Times that she has no idea how this is offensive, and is completely unrepentant about posting such things. Catholics are only to be mocked at the LA Times. The photos only message is: Catholics have things to apologize for, and Michelle Quinn and the Times do not.

Just like former Times reporter John Spano going to work for the ambulance chaser who became a "clergy abuse specialist" and led the suit against the Archdiocese.

Just like former Times editor Jim Newton beaming with joy when he ran the stories about Riordan being refused communion for marrying outside of the church.

[Sebastian]

I love this illustration! :D

[nappynad]

yo.. i can't even log-in to moble me email... it just shows me a blank screen.

[Markymark]

Apology email? I'm still waiting for one! As a .Mac user the transition to MobileMe has been a disaster with my Macbook and Emac hanging when trying to access .Mac settings.

But what has really hacked me off is Apple Support's attitude to the problems with MobileMe. Although I pay for the Support contract, the Apple Support rep I spoke to didn't know of any problems with MobileMe and then told me that Apple Support 'don't support MobileMe'. How pants is that!!

[Bernie]

Pic of the "pope apologizing"? What a lame - and false - explanation. Notice the white window shutters on either side of the pope. This is a pic of him on the balcony of his residence raising his arms in welcome to the people in St. Peter's Square. Duh.

Michelle, stick to what you know, Above all, don't compound a bad decision by publishing a false explanation that only shows that you haven't been to Rome. Take a vacanza.

Finally, ditto to Kevin's comments above. The Times holds the church in such contempt that it doesn't even know when it is being offensive.

[RichardJohnson]

too bad they won't give me a 30-day extension of my trial period.

speaking of which, those internet apps are slow. mobileme is nothing to google's apps. connectivity is fine, but i have speed and reliability and cheapness with google's products. so what if i don't get awesome buzz words like "push" or "cloud." instead with google, i get "free."

everything i already need is in google and with apps that sync your phone to your google and your mac to google, i don't really need this.

if you want a free alt, try that out.

[Michelle Quinn]

Bernie, thanks for your comment. Here is the full caption provided by the Associated Press explaining that the photograph depicts Pope Benedict XVI apologizing for comments about Islam:

Pope Benedict XVI raises his arms as he looks at the rainy sky, during the Angelus address to the faithful in his summer palace in Castel Gandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome, Sunday Sept. 17, 2006. The pontiff said Sunday he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction sparked by his speech about Islam and holy war and said the text did not reflect his personal opinion. "These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought," Benedict told pilgrims in Castel Gandolfo. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

[Phil]

I'm stunned. I follow a google link to a story about the Apple apology and find an unflattering picture of the Pope. Is this some tasteless one-person blog site? No. It's supposedly a national-caliber newspaper. I'm Catholic, but I'm liberal and very easy-going but I find the use of this picture offensive and stupid. It doesn't even have the redeeming value of making sense or being funny. It's just tasteless.

[Bernie]

It wasn't an apology. The pope said he was sorry that people misunderstood what he said. Look at the story from Catholic News Service dated Sept. 20, 2006. Perhaps you are sorry that people don't like your use of the pope's photo to talk about the iPhone? That doesn't mean you're apologizing, does it?

Anyhow, the fact that the pope isn't making an apology in this photo now makes its use misleading as well as tasteless.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI again expressed regret that his remarks on Islam had been misunderstood and emphasized his "profound respect" for Muslims.

At a Sept. 20 general audience where he reviewed his recent trip to Germany, the pope turned his attention to his academic address at the University of Regensburg and the wave of Muslim indignation that followed.

The pope said his citation of the words of a medieval emperor, which sound "incomprehensibly brusque" in today's world, was "unfortunately misunderstood." The attentive reader, he said, would have known that he was not agreeing with the polemical criticism of Islam expressed by the emperor.

It was the second time in four days the pope expressed regret at the reaction his historical critique had provoked. Addressing pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo Sept. 17, the pope said he was "deeply sorry" that Muslims were offended by his reference to a historical criticism of Islam, which he said did not "in any way express my personal thought."

The pope said he hoped his explanation and earlier Vatican statements would serve to "appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect."

[Dirk]

I'm catholic too, I see no offense in this picture.

[Mirage Thakar]

MobileME is really starting to piss me off!! nothing seems to work - contacts list, auto-fill of e-mail address etc. etc. and now the e-mail doesn't work either - just a blank page!

We've seen many e-mail providers make major transitions in their systems - a good example is Yahoo when they redid it a year ago. If a free program like Yahoo can work reliably, why can't Apple do it, who already overcharges (99$ ?? Damn!) for the meager services.

Apple routinely commits highway robbery (especially since they introduce OS X) and it's about time that longtime Mac users started shunning it....

[MAB]

The mobileme is a MAJOR DISASTER!! I haven't received any of my email since Thursday night, calls to tech support elicit 'I'm sorry but it's not fixed yet'. No one has gotten back to me, I have days of business email that is lost in cyberspaace and I'm only talking my email here.
Apple needs to reset their monster computers back to July 5th and forget this mess til they can introduce a solid product.
Are they out competing with Microsoft for the most unsuccessful product launch?