Apple’s .me: Epic Fail?
// July 23rd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Service Providers, Web
Apple’s .mac replacement, .me, has be frought with problems since the switchover that coincided with the launch of the iPhone 3G. The old .mac service was taken offline whilst the migration to .me took place, and was originally scheduled to be no more than a few hours. A day and a half later, and people still couldn’t access the service. Those that could login, myself included, found that the web applications would work sporadically, and then wouldn’t be able to access the service for a length of time.
Apple sorted the problems out, and gave everyone a 30-day extension to their trial periods. However, yesterday I had more problems accessing .me. My iPhone wouldn’t sync, Mail.app couldn’t connect, and when I logged in to the webmail interface I was presented with a blank screen. Apple even went to post a trouble ticket about the problem, but disabled their discussion boards which were undoubtedly getting filled with complaints about the poor quality of service. They claim that only 1% of users were affected, but I find this hard to believe given their previous problems.
Apart from these shenanigans, Apple also screwed up the UK billing and extended everyone’s trial periods by another 30 days.
I want to like .me. I set up a .mac account a few days before it launched so I could get the name I wanted and beat the queues. I wanted to use the Push functionality of the iPhone 2.0 software, as well as online contact and calendar syncing (which itself is buggy). At the current level of service, however, I think I could see myself heading back towards GMail. If only they offered a push service!
