Links 08/19/08 (Pre-Birthday Edition)
How MobileMe handles secure information (or doesn't) is outright unacceptable. Along with making the service more reliable, Apple's MobileMe team needs to be bringing this service up to modern standards in terms of security.
- tlrobinson.net: MobileMe and (lack of) encryption
- Thought Palace: Re: MobileMe Webmail Security — There Is None
- AppleInsider: Inside MobileMe: Web 3 and Web client-server apps (additional thoughts by John Gruber here)
TimesOnline: Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games
The video with this article is pretty astonishing. This animation is miles beyond anything I've seen before in terms of human realism.
Senator Obama's Remarks at VFW National Convention in Orlando, FL
Obama gave a great speech in front of the Verterans of Foreign Wars earlier today. (You might remember that this is the same group in front of whom McCain had accused Obama of prioritizing politics over party.) As is his usual modus operandi, Obama was very Socratic in his criticism of the Republican nominee, but he was far from passive.
From the speech:
Yesterday, Senator McCain came before you. He is a man who has served this nation honorably, and he correctly stated that one of the chief criteria for the American people in this election is going to be who can exercise the best judgment as Commander in Chief. But instead of just offering policy answers, he turned to a typical laundry list of political attacks. He said that I have changed my position on Iraq when I have not. He said that I am for a path of “retreat and failure.” And he declared, “Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president” – suggesting, as he has so many times, that I put personal ambition before my country.
That is John McCain’s prerogative. He can run that kind of campaign, and – frankly – that’s how political campaigns have been run in recent years. But I believe the American people are better than that. I believe that this defining moment demands something more of us.
If we think that we can secure our country by just talking tough without acting tough and smart, then we will misunderstand this moment and miss its opportunities. If we think that we can use the same partisan playbook where we just challenge our opponent’s patriotism to win an election, then the American people will lose. The times are too serious for this kind of politics. The calamity left behind by the last eight years is too great. So let me begin by offering my judgment about what we’ve done, where we are, and where we need to go.
Also:
I have never suggested that Senator McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest. Now, it’s time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.
Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain. When I look out at this audience, I see people of different political views. You are Democrats and Republicans and Independents. But you all served together, and fought together, and bled together under the same proud flag. You did not serve a Red America or a Blue America – you served the United States of America.
So let’s have a serious debate, and let’s debate our disagreements on the merits of policy – not personal attacks. And no matter how heated it gets or what kind of campaign he chooses to run, I will honor Senator McCain’s service, just like I honor the service of every veteran in this room, and every American who has worn the uniform of the United States.
To this point, Obama has run a very respectful campaign. He has been very careful to avoid attacking McCain's character outside of critiquing the type of campaign he's running, but you know the smear artists working for and with McCain aren't going to back down. I wonder how long Obam can last before he feels compelled to turn more negative.
MobileMe In Brief
The services offered through MobileMe are targeted at both Mac users and PC users, particularly those who have an iPhone of iPod touch – a probable reason why the [dot] Mac moniker was dropped from the branding. MobileMe is designed to help keep things like email, contacts, and calendars synced between your computer(s) and iPhone/iPod touch while also providing a venue for sharing photos and limited backup options.
Logging In
There's nothing really special here unless you are a former [dot] Mac user. The login screen for [dot] Mac was terrible, and this is a huge improvement. Moving on.
iDisk
iDisk has been improved in many ways, using a column view rather than the old list view. Drag-and-drop works as expected between folders as well as the sidebar. Anyone who is used to the Macintosh Finder will feel right at home here. Down in the bottom left corner, a progress bar shows how much space is used on iDisk, and you can conserve space by creating compressed archives of items of folders. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful getting this feature to work while testing.
Apple's web-based email interface is uncannily similar to their desktop email client. Like iDisk, if you are familiar with Apple's desktop application, the web application will seem right at home. Mail has extensive preferences, including junk-mail filtering, aliases, and the ability to check other accounts as well as automatically forward me.com mail to other accounts. Drag-and-drop support is pervasive throughout Mail.
Unfortunately, I ran into a significant bug using Mail. When I deleted a message, many times other messages would be deleted as well. Needless to say, this renders Mail pretty unusable until Apple irons this problem out.
Contacts
Contacts serves as MobilMe's answer to Mac OS X's Address Book application. After a slight delay, my contacts synced with MobileMe. Contacts can also import and export vCards, which are used by Address Book, Outlook, Thunderbird, and other contact managers. Adding and editing contacts manually is a simple task, and I did not run into the deletion bug here that was present in MobileMe's Mail interface.
Calendar
Calendar is very similar to iCal. (Notice a theme here yet?) Syncing went smoothly. Calendar supports day, week, and moth views. Adding and removing events is a breeze, but I didn't find a way of importing or exporting calendar data outside of using iCal, which makes me wonder how useful this service will be to Windows users.
Other Notes
- MobileMe supports double-clicks on items as well as the delete key. Unfortunately, many other keyboard commands do not work.
- Shift-clicking to select multiple items works as expected as does cmd-clicking.
- When MobileMe is processing something, there is a small progress indicator at the bottom right of the sidebar.
- Dragging a message to the trash in Mail circumvents the deletion bug I encountered.
- I couldn't get photo uploading to work, so that's why the Photo Galley is not included here.
Conclusions
In all honesty, MobileMe is not very compelling at the moment. It promises great features, and it is beautiful to look at, especially when compared to other online calendar or email services. However, the bugs are deal-breakers. Photo Gallery refused to upload any photographs. Calendar offers no standard importing of exporting options, and deleting messages in Mail can result in unexpected behaviors. Hopefully, these issues are resolved quickly.If you already subscribe to [dot] Mac, MobileMe makes sense to keep. It improves on the previous service in almost every way. If you use an iPhone or iPod touch in combination with a computer for managing messages, contacts, calendars, and messages, MobileMe might be worth subscribing to for the simple syncing features. Unfortunately, MobileMe can't compete with similar online offerings for general users until the kinks are worked out.
Update: It's important to note that Apple has apologized for the troublesome MobileMe transition and is providing all subscribers with an additional thirty days of service, free of charge.