- Posts tagged MobileMe
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Dear Apple: Please add decent mobile control over MobileMe photo galleries
As a MobileMe subscriber I enjoy using the Gallery for photos. I think the interface and options for viewing photos in the galleries is beautiful. However, every time I maintain the site I can't help but be frustrated at the lack of control Apple provides. The only real control comes via the Mac using iPhoto or Aperture. And even then, photos placed on the galleries have less utility than on the desktop.
The Mac
With Aperture or iPhoto you can create albums for upload and sync to MobileMe. You can add or delete photos and the albums stay in sync. You can add new albums, drag and drop photos between them, and any keywords or star ratings added to photos in a MobileMe album work just like any other album.
Unfortunately, once you get off the Mac some of this data is not used, and your ability to make changes are reduced drastically.
The Web
The Gallery interface for MobileMe on the web isn't too bad. Here you can add/delete albums. You also have some control over albums, but are missing the ability to set privacy or the download quality of the photos (see album settings below, MobileMe on top, iPhoto on bottom). These are important settings, yet they can't be controlled via the web interface.
As for photos, you can add/delete, rotate, and drag and drop them among existing albums. Not bad, but there are no other editing controls, no ratings, and no keywords. Further, even if ratings and keywords are used on the Mac, they're not available on the web interface. You know the keyword searches you can do in Flickr? Yeah, there's none of that in MobileMe.
The iPhone
On the iPhone it gets much worse. You cannot use the web interface, instead you're routed to a page that tells you to load Apple's Gallery app. The app is beautiful (below) and great for viewing pictures, but that's all it allows. There's no facility to edit information or change settings for albums or photos. There's no upload facility, and not even the ability to delete a photo from an album. Aside from viewing all you can do is email a link to a photo or album.
It should be noted that a picture viewed in the native Photos app can be uploaded to MobileMe, where you can select an existing album (but not add a new one) and a title/description. Again, no editing, deleting, ratings or keywords are allowed.
The iPad
Sadly, the iPad is the worst mobile device of all for controlling one's MobileMe galleries. Like the iPhone, you can't use the web interface and must download the Gallery app. But the Gallery app has not been upgraded for the iPad, so it's either very small or very ugly, take your pick.
The Upshot
In short, you have good control of galleries via your Mac, but some of that data isn't stored online, and when you leave the Mac you're limited. The Web interface is OK, but lacks privacy controls, and the iPhone/iPad have essentially no controls at all.
Apple ought to change this. The Gallery app could take some cues from Flickr's own app, which allows title, description, photoset (including adding a new one), tags, image size, geotag, and privacy level for each upload. Further, it allows editing an existing photo's title, description, photoset, tags and privacy. It also allows you to delete photos.
It's frustrating that real maintenance on my MobileMe galleries requires I get back to a Mac. Frankly, it takes the "mobile" out of MobileMe. It's no wonder I use Flickr more often.
MobileMe Maintenance Tonight
While I'd love for Apple to throw in a surprise feature or two (e.g., smooth iDisk integration with the iPad's iWork apps, or OTA Note syncing) I suspect this is simply the equivalent of yesterday's iTunes upgrade. There'll be iOS 4 and iPhone 4 compatibility changes, maybe some big fixes, and that's it.
Thoughts on MobileMe Mail beta after one week.
I've been using the MobileMe Mail beta for a week. These are my impressions so far, in no particular order...
MobileMe Mail: Beta known issues
This article tracks significant known issues in the MobileMe Mail Beta. The article will be updated as issues are resolved. This article is intended for participants in the beta only. For more information, see the MobileMe Mail Beta FAQ.
Support page at Apple with an ongoing list of MobileMe beta Mail issues.
MobileMe Mail Beta: Google Chrome need not apply
Safari 4 (Mac and PC), Firefox 3.6 (Mac and PC), and Internet Explorer 8 (PC) are fully supported.
Well, well, well, look whose browser is not invited to Apple's MobileMe Mail beta program.
Of course, there's no Opera, either.
A lot could be made of this, but it's probably nothing. It makes sense for Apple to focus the beta program on the latest IE and Firefox, as well as their own, browsers. But it'll be interesting to see if Chrome gets a shout when Mail is out of beta.
Apple's page about the new MobileMe Mail, now in beta.
Read about it at the above link.
I am, by far, most interested in the speed improvements. MobileMe Mail is slower than Yahoo! and Windows Live. Much slower. Embarrassingly so. Other features look nice, but if they don't get the performance right they'll never pull in any non-Mac users.
Hey Apple: When iDisk for iPad is Available, Please Use File Sharing.
The iPad's file sharing capability is nice, but it requires iTunes, so it's really only good for the machine the iPad is synced to. To share files with other machines I can use iWork.com or email, but a direct read/write approach would be more useful.
I think that should begin with iDisk. The iPhone's iDisk app has been around a while. You see all the files, but it's a read-only gig. That's fine for the iPhone, where editing documents is not very practical (sorry, Documents To Go, it's true). The iPad changes that. I want iDisk for iPad to list every installed app that can share files (like iTunes does). When I tap one, show me the app's files on the iPad, and let me copy them to the iDisk. Likewise, I want to copy files from the iDisk to the app's iPad directory. C'mon Apple, make this happen. You haven't released iDisk for iPad yet; I hope this is what you're working on.If You Have Multiple Macs, iPhones, Then Apple's MobileMe Is a Bargain.
Apple has finally assembled a set of features for its hosted MobileMe service that makes it worth its subscription fee for the right user. As a critic of the service in the past, I find myself with naught but praise these days.
