MobileMe still sputtering

Tag : machine polishing service

Today I've been logged in and out of Me.com countless times. Theservice kicks me out against my will, just when I feel that a newfeature I hadn't tested must surely be within reach. I haven't beenable to stay logged on to Me.com for more than 20 minutes at atime. Attempting to verify my account on an iPhone also failed.
So far, there are more than five-dozen comments, most fromsimilarly thwarted .Mac users, on a CNET News story about MobileMe's failed launch. You'll find the same frustrationsrepeated in this and other publications chronicling the marredrelease of both Me.com and the 3G iPhone .
I agree with some users who mused that those at Apple must have hadtheir heads in a cloud by scheduling the .Mac migration for aweekday. Between 20 to 25 percent of .Mac subscribers use theservice for business purposes, according to Apple. At least I'm notrelying on a former .Mac account for a job. A few hours of downtimecould kill a potential gig for, say, a freelance photographer.
Nevertheless, I'm withholding the judgment of a rated review ofMobileMe today until I can give the features more than a cursoryglance. If it stops working like an alpha release from acash-strapped start-up, the service might yet live up to itspromise as Microsoft "Exchange for the rest of us." Who knows?
For now, this botched launch highlights both some pitfalls andpromises of relying increasingly upon Web 2.0 services for work andplay.
Before my computers were stolen, I could have at least uploaded mypersonal writings to Google Docs , or synchronized my photos with SugarSync , or entrusted everything to online storage, such as Box.net. Butmy gut felt wrong about sending those things to unseen servers, nomatter how secure. I never got around to buying a backup drive.Instead, my stuff went out the window, literally, with a thief.
If your own computer crashes or disappears, you might have onlyyourself to blame. But providers of online applications and remotestorage services bear a greater responsibility than makers ofdesktop software, when they hold the keys to our data. For .Macusers whose pictures and Web galleries were held hostage on remoteservers, the epic failure of MobileMe may simply dull Apple'spolish. The rocky start drives home the very need for a servicethat does what MobileMe is supposed to do: keep our data safe andaccessible in more than one place.