Apple is different

How different it is to work with a decent company like Apple rather than the Mediamax/The Linkup fiasco.

I use Apple for my backing up my important documents, which are in a partitioned section of my hard drive which syncs to my iDisk on the Apple servers. It is a very easy way to back up and the files can be accessed from any computer by logging in through the web page. There is also a public folder on the iDisk, which I have password protected. My colleagues have an image of this on their computers and we can share large documents just by dropping them into this folder.

Brilliant.

Now, Apple has just changed the system over to mobileme. There was forewarning of this and all users are automatically transferred. Past features have been maintained. All my files are still there.

They have added new features, however, and this hasn't gone totally smoothly.

But just look at this message I have received from Apple. How different it would have been if Mediamax had sent out emails such as this instead of emails telling free users the service was being rebranded and their accounts and files would be deleted in a week if they didn't pay up.

---Apple's email

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

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. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,

The MobileMe Team
---email ends

It may have been the fault of Nirvanix rather than Mediamax that millions of files were deleted, but Mediamax could have been up front about it instead of deliberately lying when it claimed the files were not even stored on Nirvanix.