Paul Jacobson

I’ve had a MobileMe account for the last year and a half (pretty much since MobileMe launched as the .Mac replacment) and the time has come to renew it. I was initially going to renew my subscription (€65 or around R730 for the year) and I wonder now if I should.

The main appeal MobileMe has had for me is the ability to sync my contacts and calendars with a cloud-based service that comes pretty close to my MacBook experience. I initially used the photo and video sharing service and stopped that in favour of my long-standing Flickr account, Vimeo and Facebook (although I prefer keeping Flickr and Vimeo as my primary photo and video sharing services rather than Facebook). I was briefly tempted to can my Flickr Pro account but quickly realised it is a far better photo sharing service than MobileMe is.

I started using iDisk to backup my data (the 20GB allocation on MobileMe is quite a bit) and although it proved to be a bit of a pain to backup to the service (connections kept dropping), it was reasonably effective as a way to gain access to key files online. I started exploring Jungle Disk and decided to use that as a primary cloud-based backup service and because it runs on Amazon S3 (I’ve linked it to my S3 account) it costs me about $2 a month for the basic service plus my data usage at about $0.15/GB stored and $0.10/GB uploaded). I currently have about 18GB backed up and intend backing up a fair amount more than that going forward. A total backup would cover about 190GB at the moment.

I have also started using Dropbox for smaller file transfers and backups and the free account I am using comes with 2GB of storage. Dropbox is pretty competitive when it comes to larger amounts stored compared to Jungle Disk. The 50GB service costs about $10/month and a similar amount uploaded and stored would work out to about $12.50 just to get the data up to S3. You still add the basic $2 fee to that for Jungle Disk. Of course once the data has been transferred the monthly cost drops to about $7/50GB which isn’t too bad. A total backup of pretty much all my media and documents would probably cost me just under $20 a month to store using Jungle Disk (not counting the initial transfer cost).

Now when it comes to my calendars and email, I use a combination of Gmail and Google Apps accounts and keep my Mac synchronized using Snow Leopard’s Exchange support. The only downside here is that I can only keep one contacts list sync’d at a time online and on my N97. I don’t see how to keep multiple Google contacts lists sync’d using my MacBook’s address book. I run my email using IMAP so my email accounts are sync’d between my phone, the Web and my MacBook.

Ok, so putting all that into some sort of perspective, here are the options I am using:

Of course the chart is simplified. Dropbox and Jungle Disk can also serve as photo and video storage services (and do). Dropbox could also theoretically serve as a photo and video sharing service too but there are better tools. I also haven’t mentioned other media sharing services like Picasa, Zoopy, Blip.tv and others. I just prefer using Flickr and Vimeo at the moment for what they do.

Now, if I don’t renew my MobileMe subscription I lose iDisk (and along with the option of retrieving stuff stored there via a planned iPod Touch or possibly a future iPhone); the calendar and contacts synchronization that so closely parallels my desktop experience and the generally excellent level of Mac integration. I also save myself the €65 cost. I just wonder if I am being penny wise, pound foolish by dropping MobileMe.

What do you think?

Update: When it came down to crunch time I decided to renew my subscription. I am a little ambivalent about my choice but a couple considerations tipped me over the edge:

• The prospect of losing my username and having to come up with yet another one – I am trying to be as consistent as possible with account usernames for various reasons;
• MobileMe may well feature a little more prominently in my future when I upgrade either to an iPod Touch or to an iPhone (jury still out on this one although I am tending towards an Android phone one day) so it makes sense to keep the account; and
• While not a key issue, MobileMe-Mac integration is brilliant and not to be taken too lightly if there are other reasons to hang on to the account.

Apple has come under a fair amount of scrutiny in recent weeks due to its vetting process for the App Store. The biggest controversy has been Apple’s apparent rejection of the Google Voice app. A number of Web personalities have taken a strong anti-Apple stance due to these practices and what they regard as Apple’s modus operandi, generally. Developers are increasingly frustrated with the pre-approval process both because it can be fairly arbitrary and because Apple exercises a fair degree of control over what makes it into the Store and what doesn’t.

While there is merit to the argument that by exercising this degree of control over what makes it into the Store and what doesn’t, Apple is fulfilling an important quality control function and the end beneficiaries are the consumers. There is a little more to this though. There is little doubt that Apple blocks some apps when they challenge the iPhone’s or iPod Touch’s built in functionality or even its partners’ interests (the Google Voice app debacle is a good example of this with allegations that AT&T influenced Apple’s rejection of the app because of the threat it posed to AT&T’s own business). Much of this level of control has been attributed to Steve Jobs who is reportedly very particular about just about every detail (although he is also reportedly not a big fan of the App Store).

It goes a little beyond the app approval process. I heard a comment that even if apps are approved and sold in the Store, they can be rejected and the developer is on the hook for refunds that may fall due. In fact, as I understand it, the developer is liable for 100% of the refunds even though he doesn’t receive 100% of the revenue from the apps. Apple retains its share of the sale throughout.

Another issue which has been raised is Steve Jobs’ hypocrisy. He famously wrote an open letter to the music industry a while back urging them to abandon DRM and to allow Apple to sell DRM-free music to its customers who so desperately wanted it. It certainly portrayed Jobs as the advocate for the masses although the iTunes ecosystem remains tightly controlled and closed. Palm has managed to break through that firewall and its Pre has been able to connect to iTunes as if it were an iPod (well, intermittently).

As Simon Dingle pointed out to me earlier today, “open doesn’t mean benevolent“. That may be true but transparency is more conducive to some form of accountability and, with that, potential benevolence, than opacity. Apple is a pretty closed book and it is famous for spreading disinformation ahead of product releases both to retain the element of surprise and to sniff out leaks in the company. This has been almost endearing in the past and part of the fun of finding out what Apple has up its sleeve but it also highlights a darker side to Apple. Granted it makes fantastic products (I will have a Mac computer as long as I can afford it given the current state of Apple’s tech and its trends) but what is the cost?

I commented to Simon earlier that Google has been more open and permissive when it comes to 3rd party services and plugins (a number of its recent initiatives are being open sourced). Simon’s view is that both companies have similar intentions. He almost certainly knows more than I do about what both companies are up to but from my vantage point I would sooner trust Google than Apple despite having concerns about the level of access Google has to virtually all my data. In my mind openness is more conducive to better behaviour because of the level of scrutiny and the constant emergence of alternatives. Apple has not exactly maintained a pristine record and while it is probably a little too early to paint Apple with the same brush, I have already read comments that Apple is becoming the new Microsoft (while there are many good people working at Microsoft, the software giant has been involved in some very underhanded stuff in recent years, using its dominance to exercise undue influence where it should be exercised).

So is Apple the new Evil Empire? We’ll have to see but as Leo Laporte pointed out, in Mussolini’s Italy the trains still ran on time.

Photo credit: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates by Joi Ito, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0license

Oh boy, I dig the new iPhone 3G S! This is what the iPhone should have been last year and possibly even when it first launched. I think Apple has actually produced an iPhone I could see myself owning, happily.

I have been excited when Apple launched its previous two iPhone models and was disappointed when I took a look at each device’s specs. It is probably because I expected more from Apple than what it actually produced. I still believe Apple’s OS and UI on the iPhone are the best I’ve seen (the Palm Pre or Android phones may change that perception when I have a chance to play with those devices). What I haven’t been impressed with is the hardware side. Apple has produced the awesome Mac range and Mac OS X which just keeps getting better with each new iteration. I expected something equally amazing from the iPhone and it just hasn’t met my internal (and quite possibly, impossible) expectations.

The iPhone 3G S looks fantastic. The camera is only a 3 megapixel camera but Simon Dingle has pointed out that even with 2 megapixels, people are taking awesome photos with the iPhone. A number of people have also, correctly, pointed out that megapixels are not the important thing, it is more about the optics and the sensor on the device. I can imagine that this camera will be perfectly adequate for casual photos at the very least. The addition of video capture and editing as well as the way the iPhone 3G S focuses make the iPhone even more exciting. It is worth watching the guided tour, there is a lot more about the iPhone 3G S to love.

There isn’t much about the new iPhone 3G S that is revolutionary and not available in other high-end devices but Apple does it so well. I love the interface for the digital compass and voice memos, to name two features. It looks beautiful and the retro look appeals to me. Even the slightly gimmicky voice control UI looks cool. No question about it, the iPhone 3G S is a sexy, useful, smart phone/iPod/Internet device!

One reason in particular not to get the iPhone 3G S comes to mind. My time with other touchscreen devices (including my wife’s iPod Touch) has reinforced how much I prefer having a physical keyboard on my devices. As nice as the onscreen keyboard is, I want the option of a physical QWERTY keyboard. I might be showing my age a little there and the fact that I am just not hip/cool/insert-descriptor-here but I want to type with actual buttons. And no, the Blackberry Storm doesn’t really appeal to me. Besides, I have something else coming my way which I am just as excited about, possibly more so.

I see that the iPhone 3G S is coming to SA next month. If you have been thinking about an iPhone for yourself, take a good look at this baby. It could be sunshine and happiness in your pocket.

I love my MacBook and would like to say that I couldn’t see myself ever using anything other than a Mac but there is still a little doubt about such a statement.  As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, my MacBook’s hard drive crashed a week or so ago so badly that the data is irrecoverable (all 155 GB of it) and my only real hope to avoid disaster is to access my backup of my core documents from my external drive through Time Machine.  It also helps that I can recover much of my iTunes library from my iPod and my mail is all accessed via IMAP using Google Apps.

So when the final prognosis came back on my ailing MacBook I was told it would basically take about 2 to 3 weeks for a new hard drive to arrive and be installed.  2 to 3 weeks!?!?  Holy moley, that seems to me to be a long time to wait for a hard drive.  As I understand it these components need to be ordered from The Core Group which is the local Apple distributor and the gatekeeper of all things Apple.  The problem with this is that local Apple retailers/suppliers are dependent on this company for their stocks and it can take ages to receive anything.

Because of the delay I went and ordered a new MacBook which Core apparently had in stock.  I was told it would arrive either by Friday or Monday and once my preferred retailer, C3, confirmed my payment via EFT, I could pick up my spanking new MacBook and start recovering my data and get back to work using my productivity toolbox.  It now turns out I will have to wait another day or two before I can collect the MacBook and start my recovery and it struck me that a Mac is probably not the ideal solution for a business because of these sorts of delays.  What if I couldn’t afford to get a new MacBook while the “old” one is being repaired (actually, I can’t really afford one and had to make a plan to get back to work)?  I would be stuck and losing money daily.  While Macs are awesome machines and in my ideal world I would outfit my whole office with Macs, when they eventually go down (and they do … eventually), you had better have a solid backup plan (both meanings intended) or you may as well close up shop and go home for the rest of the month.  It isn’t just hardware supplies that take forever.  Last year I ordered the Leopard upgrade DVD and if I remember correctly it took about 2 months to get the DVD (I maintain these sorts of things should be handled by download).

It shouldn’t take more than a couple days to order, receive and test a new hard drive.  It shouldn’t take a week to get a new machine.  It certainly shouldn’t take 2 months to upgrade software.  These sorts of delays can make it difficult to switch to a Mac because the loss of revenue that would occur while waiting for a new part would far exceed the cost of the repair/replacement and could justify simply getting off the Mac bandwagon altogether.

I was chatting to my wife about this and how I probably wouldn’t recommend a total Mac solution for a business in SA and she pointed out that if more people in SA used Macs there would probably be bigger stock levels and reduced delivery times.  Even if this was true, it is a Catch 22 situation because I don’t see more businesses moving to Mac without faster response times.

(I emailed C3 to ask them why my order has been delayed further and I had a meaningful and positive response within 15 minutes to say the delay was on the supplier’s side.  If only the supplier responded as quickly and as helpfully as the fantastic people at C3)

I guess this is just another example of the dangers of having a monopoly which has a small and captive audience – there is no incentive to speed up delivery times and delivery better quality services.

It turns out Vodafone has reached an agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in 10 of Vodafone’s customer countries including South Africa:

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

I hope this means we don’t become a dumping ground for older version iPhones while the 3G versions are (hopefully) released next month.  If Apple puts out an HSDPA (or, perhaps even just a 3G) iPhone with an 80GB drive and up, I am there like a bear!  I’ll happily ditch Nokia and move on.  Android devices are only going to really start coming out later this year so we’ll have to wait and see what those devices can do.

I wrote about whether I would want to use a single device or multiple specialised devices a while ago (not sure where I published the post though).  Lately I think I have come round to the single device camp.  I tend to take my iPod with me pretty much everywhere I go in addition to my phone so if there is an iPhone that has fast data access through the mobile network and has enough space to take most, if not all, my media then what more would I need?