Sshh ... Apple Upgrades MobileMe

After being plagued by snafus since its July release, you would think that Apple would be singing the news from the treetops: Its MobileMe software has been improved and several issues that have plagued it from the get-go have been resolved.

Apple instead chose to post the news on a MobileMe support page but neglected to inform users or otherwise announce the upgrades on its MobileMe Web site. In the post, Apple tried to soothe frustrated MobileMe subscribers while at the same time seemed to downplay improvements.

"Apple is always working to improve MobileMe. Since MobileMe is primarily a server-side, or "cloud"-based, service, the MobileMe team can make improvements and push updates to MobileMe without any action being required of MobileMe customers. Since server-side updates are a bit more innocuous than a standard software update to Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, it's easy not to notice that updates are occurring. Usually the only hint of these updates is that things just 'work better.' "

For overall MobileMe service, Apple said it has improved localization for MobileMe Web applications and improved "membername suggestions when attempting to sign up for a membername that is already taken."

Specific fixes include better accuracy of MobileMe data-transfer details; addressing an inaccuracy in used storage in a Group iDisk; and improved storage allocation menu for family pack sub-accounts. In addition, a Clicking Logout from Account now fully logs users out of MobileMe.

MobileMe mail upgrades include the resolution of an issue when attempting to Reply All to some messages; improved performance in Internet Explorer 7; and the resolution of several issues with Keyboard Shortcuts that are not "behaving" as expected, in addition to other mail fixes.

Fixes for MobileMe Calendar include better performance in Mozilla Firefox 3 when switching views; improved calendar performance with reoccurring events; and a resolution of an issue in which event editors were only partially displayed in some browsers that had required a refresh.

Improvements for MobileMe Contacts include the re-enablement of the ability to export vCards from MobileMe contacts.

The MobileMe Gallery has undergone some surgery as well, such as an improved "experience" when viewing Galleries on an iPhone/iPod touch; the resolution of an issue in which some buttons were not fully displaying in Firefox 3; and editing a photo's information in www.me.com/gallery, which will now correctly update the photo on gallery.me.com/membername.

After a series of outages and other snafus, Steve Jobs reportedly admitted in an e-mail to employees: "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. MobileMe was simply not up to Apple's standards and it clearly needed more time and testing. There are several things we could have done better."