Merlin Mann’s Take on Mobile Me

43 Folders has an article by Merlin Mann on MobileMe that I found quite good. Mann describes himself as “someone who’s had strong feelings, high hopes, and occasional disappointmens with .Mac” and his thoughts on the service that Apple is launching to replace it are pretty comprehensive. My favorite observation:

Hiya, Windows hold-outs - I don’t know enough about “Enterprise” buying decisions to speak intelligently about business adoption, but I will say that MobileMe seems like a smart way reach out to individual Windows users and say, “See? Look how easy this all is!” Similarly, a lot of people I talk to these days are down to a single Windows device, and that’s the one they have to use at work. MobileMe potentially keeps them connected to their Apple world, even when they’re on a PC.

That’s the single most important benefit of MobileMe over .Mac for me: the inclusion of Windows computers in the mix.

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Apple’s Photo Booth App Helps Recover Stolen Laptop

The Unofficial Apple Weblog broke this story on Friday, the New York Times followed up on Saturday, and I’ve been laughing about it all weekend long.

Apparently, Kait Duplaga, an employee of the Westchester, NY Apple Store, used Apple’s “Back to My Mac” service, in combination with the popular Photo Booth application, to snap a picture of the morons who stole her laptop but didn’t think to reformat the thing.

“Back to My Mac,” in case you’re not familiar, is part of the Apple’s .Mac servce which allows a user to control their computer remotely from any other .Mac enabled machine. Photo Booth, for the uninitiated, is an application which uses the Mac’s built-in camera to snap pictures of the people standing or sitting in front of it. If you see lots of teenaged mallrats hanging out at your local Apple retail outlet, Photo Booth is probably what they’re there for.

Ms. Duplaga used these two applications to snap photos of the culprits, which she then delivered to the police. The culprits, who, according to the deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, “were arrested last year on a felony marijuana possession charge” are not “career criminals.” And I think that’s probably a pretty darned good thing. Seriously, dudes, if you’re going to steal laptops for a living, you better be up-to-date on what they can do. Otherwise, just roll yourself a couple joints, listen to some Afroman, and fix yourself a plate of brownies.

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.Mac and iPhone 2.0

A little birdy has apparently dropped by the offices of The Unofficial Apple Weblog to spread the rumor that a .Mac relaunch is coming just in time for the release of iPhone 2.0. TUAW’s informant says that the revamp could include .Mac syncing on Windows, among other things. As I’m sure you’ll recall, I’ve been thinking a lot about synchronizing data lately, and particularly about syncing data between my iMac and my Dell laptop. If this rumor becomes reality, I might actually have to give .Mac a try.

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Synchronicity: Syncing Contacts, Calendars, and Other Data Between Computers

Since bringing my iMac home from the Apple Store just over a year ago, my day-to-day computing experience has been pleasant and almost entirely absent of frustration. Yes, I still use a Windows laptop for work, and yes I spend more time on that slow-as-molasses Dell P.O.S. than I do on my Precious, but just knowing that I have an iMac to go home to at the end of the day has made days spent with the Dell significantly more tolerable.

But there is one thing missing. There is one thing about my present technology situation that drives me crazy, and that is the lack of synchronization. In short: I want all of my contacts, calendars, and e-mail easily accessible and modifiable from any computer or device that I want to access them from. I really don’t think that this is too much to ask, and I really don’t think that I should be paying extra for this kind of service.

Currently, I use IMAP and Google Apps For Your Domain to keep e-mail in sync and I use a service called Plaxo to sync data between Mail, iCal, and Address Book on my Mac and Outlook 2007 on my Dell. Plaxo is a relatively good service, but it’s prone to data duplication issues and the plugin that’s required on both ends is a system-hog. It’s free, which is cool, but I hate having to add something onto my system to make it do what I want it to do. I feel like the system should just do what I want it to do, with a minimum amount of effort put in by me.

So, I’ve begun to explore other options. The most obvious option is the one that appeals the least to me. Like so many people, I could start working entirely out of a browser. If I used Gmail and Google Calendar exclusively for all of my mail, contacts, and calendar needs, I wouldn’t have the problem I’m having now. But I like using a desktop client, and I like the way Apple’s Mail.app works specifically. And, more importantly, I can’t stand the way Gmail looks. I tend to get headaches if I stare at it for too long.

The Mac Address Book application does have the ability to sync with an online contact application natively, but that contact application is Yahoo’s. Putting aside Yahoo’s uncertain future, I find this option less than ideal because of the sheer bloatedness of their application and the clutter of its interface.

I got excited about Microsoft’s Live Mesh when I heard about it the other day, but it’s unclear to me how it would work with calendars and contacts. And, of course, it’s PC-only at the moment.

Apple’s .Mac service would seem to be a viable option, as would Spanning Sync, but each of these products violates what I believe to be a cardinal rule: thou shalt not charge extra for data synchronization.

Which leads me back to where I started, to what I’m stuck with: Plaxo. In the end, it seems like it’s probably the only option that makes sense for me right now. If I could actually edit the contacts and events that I can sync to my iPod (when, iPhone, will you finally be mine?), then I probably wouldn’t even care about having data synced to my laptop. But I can’t do that, so I’m stuck with what I’m stuck with.

Anyone out there have any thoughts on this? Do any of you use any of these syncing products? What have your experiences been like?

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New Get a Mac Ads Sadly Do Not Feature Tyra Banks and Janice Dickinson

Apple did, in fact, release two new “Get a Mac” ads on April 1. But, sadly, they did not feature Janice Dickinson as the decrepit Windows 3.1-running PC as our spies had indicated they would. We are willing to admit that featuring Miss Guided star Judy Greer as a yoga instructor in one of them was a nice consolation prize.

Thanks to The Unofficial Apple Weblog for breaking the news to us.

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