The Weekly Review

It’s easy sometimes to overestimate the intuitiveness of OS X and it’s bundled applications. Case in point, I moved my iTunes library when I purchased my Time Capsule. Due to my smaller Macbook hard drive, I wanted to move my library to free up space.

And I did so without reading any instructions or Googling. I figured I was familiar enough with the tools and the concept wasn’t that complicated. So I updated the iTunes Music folder location setting under Preferences - Advanced - General tab in iTunes. Then I closed iTunes and moved all the music to the specifed folder on my Times Capsule. Done.

Oops

Turns out a lot of people make this same mistake. Now this method can sometimes just happen to work out. But, as I can attest to, it most often does not. The problems I had were this: many times I would open iTunes and every song in the library would have the little exclamation mark next to it, meaning that iTunes could not find the file.

I could still use iTunes in this state—when trying to play a song, the application will ask for the location. After you locate the file in it’s new home, iTunes will update the rest of the library. But that takes time, and it didn’t take long before doing that a couple times a week got old.

So I finally went about fixing the issue, and thought I would share my findings. It seems a common enough problem that others might be interested.

Resrouces

Here are a few articles that I used. The first is Apple’s official instructions on how to correctly move your library. The second and third give the same instructions and also explain how iTunes manages your content.

• Apple’s official instructions
• Macworld’s summary
• iLounge’s summary

Of course, none of this was helpful to me after the fact—I’d already buggered up my library. But I happened upon the site of Paul Beard where he has a tutorial on how to fix a library.

Summary

Please feel free to get all the details from the links above, but I thought I would summarize as well.

The issue I had created was this—by not using the Consolidate Library option in the Advanced menu in iTunes, I had moved the files, but had not updated the path that is included in the iTunes library file.

In your iTunes setup there are two files: iTunes Library, which is the binary file that iTunes uses when running, and iTunes Music Library.xml, which is a backup in case anything happens to the first file.

In the screenshots below you can see how these files store the path for the library. They also store the path for every content file in your library—songs, podcasts, movies etc.

Old setting:

New setting:

So following Mr. Beard’s tutorial, I kept these files in their default location under my user directory, but I did a find and replace within the backup xml file for every instance of the path, adding the new location. The I opened the binary file using an app named Hex Fiend and deleted all the contents. In essence, you break the binary file.

The next time iTunes opens, it rebuilds that binary file based on the contents of the backup xml file.

This worked well and my library now works correctly. But the best option—take my advice on this—would be to move it correctly the first time.

Don’t be like me—read the instructions.

It seems clear that we’ve seen the direction that Steve Jobs and co. are heading. It’s emerged over the past couple of years—continue to polish the desktop OS, create and improve the world’s best handheld\mobile experience with the Touch OS, and provide the service that ties it all together (we’ll leave out Apple TV for now).

And for the past two weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to test this integration. With the release of Touch OS 2.0 and MobileMe, Apple’s early attempt at ubiquitous computing is here.

Prelude

For those who had never used .Mac, these offerings bring a new learning curve to using Apple products. I’ve been a Mac user for about three years now. But when I made the switch from Windows\Linux, I’d heard so many bad stories about .Mac that I was happy to stay away. Paying $99 a year for a service that rarely worked and caused a lot of problems sounded like a headache I didn’t need.

So I continued to make use of the many free offerings from Google to enhance my desktop computing experience. And before the launch of MobileMe, I was happy with what I got from Google and a few other sources. Below is s a list of the web services I used to make working on multiple computers more seamless:

• GMail – Sometimes accessed by Mail.app, sometimes not.
• Google Calendar – Synced with iCal via BusySync, it’s always available.
• Google Docs – Still using it, loving it more everyday.
• Google Bookmarks – Occasional sync of bookmarks on different computers.
• Google Reader – Only used at work where NetNewsWire is not available.
• iGoogle – This is simply a web page, my home page, but it gives nice clean access to all the services listed above.
• DropBox – File sharing and accessing documents between work and home.
• Flickr – Sharing pics of the kids with the family, as well as blog related images.

I’ll be the first to admit that slick marketing works on me, so I was intrigued when MobileMe was announced. And after purchasing an iPod Touch only weeks before, it seemed that this service was the perfect fit between my Mac and my handheld. So I signed up.

Here are my initial impressions.

MobileMe Web Interface

Here’s where the biggest outward update to .Mac occurred, so it’s where I’ll start.

General Observations

Overall, other than the initial launch, the service has been pretty slick and responsive. From everything I’ve heard about .Mac, this seems to be much improved. The speed of the web interface is comparable to Google (GMail or GCal), and switching between services is smooth.

However, the service does not seem robust. Leaving it open in the browser for more than a couple of hours often results in a loss of connection. For users who are accustomed to leaving a GMail tab open all day, this might be a turnoff. But this may just me a carry over of the troubles at launch—in another month the issue may be resolved. This seems to have improved over the past week, during which I was documenting performance.

One other general observation worth mentioning is the Help pages—these are nicely designed. The navigation is logically aligned and the animation Keynote-esque. There is some insightful content in the Help documentation; letting you know both what features are missing as well as what you can do with the service. But for the most part, the information provided is aimed at beginners.

iDisk

The offering here is much the same as other comparable inline services like Dropbox. There are folders, folders contain files or other folders—you get the idea. Of course, it’s looks better. The interface is, for lack of a better word, lickable. But it is an Apple product, so you come to the party expecting to be surrounded by beauty.

A key factor with iDisk would be speed. How long would it take to upload several music albums or all of the websites you are currently working on? Well … … … … *sigh*. It doesn’t look like things have gotten much better in this regard. .Mac was slow and after two weeks it looks MobileMe is headed down the same path.

Calendar

Again, the interface for MobileMe shines in the calendar. If you like iCal, or Google Calendar even, you should enjoy the calendar GUI. Working with events is just like iCal, right down to the mini calendars and To Dos menu.

There is one glaring omission with the calendar though—sharing. This is 2008 and online services are built around the idea of sharing information with others. The MobileMe gallery is sharable, as is iDisk. It’s curious that there is no similar option here.

One more improvement I’d love to see here is to add an agenda view like Google Calendar—but that’s more a critique of iCal than MobileMe.

There’s not a lot more to say about the calendar—it’s on par with other offerings out there, with one bonus. It syncs with iCal with no 3rd party software necessary.

Contacts

This is another area where Apple has done a good job if your remember that the idea is to provide an address book, not a CRM. The web interface is again spot on. In fact, it’s better than its desktop counterpart—the alphabetical grouping is aesthetically pleasing in a way Address Book never has been.

Working with your data is also straight forward and fairly intuitive. I did have to look in the help to find how to email a contact from the Contacts interface, and emailing multiple contacts at once seems to just not work sometimes, but all other features were solid.

Gallery

I liked the gallery so much that I deleted all family photos from my Flickr account and moved them to MobileMe. The performance when uploading photos has been fast for me. Certainly comparable to Flickr.

When I envision the grandparents viewing the kids in the slideshow, they’re having fun. And I’m betting that is exactly what Apple was shooting for here. The sharable galleries are among the best that I’ve seen from various other sources.

There’s only negative I’ve come across with the Gallery—the information button in the album slideshow view gives so much info, anyone who knows anything about photography will instantly see that I know nothing about photography … if the crappy picture didn’t already give that away.

Mail

Here’s where Apple really messed up. Like all the other components, the interface for MobileMe mail is nice and sparkly. Unfortunately, it’s so crippled by a lack of features that it’s almost unusable. I’m no power emailer, so I’m probably missing even more features, but here’s what bugged me every time I tried to use mail on the web:

• No rules. It must be tiring to hear me incessantly compare Apple’s offering to Google’s, but it’s what I’m used to. GMail has rules (aka filters).
• No ability to group emails by conversation like GMail. Mail.app has this—why not the web version?
• Poor search capabilities.
• No option to send from another address. More on this below.

Search is where Google started, so it makes sense that search in GMail is a strength. But MobileMe search is so limited … well, the help files say it better than I can:

Only the selected folder is searched.

Make sure you don’t use logical operators (such as “and,” “or,” or “not”) in your search text.

The last line shocked me—this is not how OS X works. I can’t fathom why the search would be so limited in a web version. I hope this will be addressed soon.

So those are the missing or limited features. There were others that are supposed to be available that just were not—address autocompletion for one (works great in Mail.app and the iPod Touch) simply doesn’t work. The help says otherwise:

As you type someone’s name or email address, Mail displays matching names from Contacts and messages you’ve previously sent. To select a name from the displayed list, use the arrow keys, and then press the Return key to enter the address in the selected field.

Another feature that was stressed in the demos but struggled out of the gate was Quick Reply. For the first week it only worked half the time for me. This has has improved in recent days.

Overall, MobileMe mail and the push concept is made to work with Mail.app and Mail for the Touch OS. But when those options are not available, the web interface is all that’s left for the user.

Apple had an opportunity to catch up with Google in the world of online email. It looks like that ship has sailed—and Apple left themselves standing on the Dock (sorry).

Syncing - The Heart of Living in the Cloud

This is where .Mac fell down and never got up. The Intertubes is filled with stories scary enough to keep the kids up at night—data lost, beach balls spun and a loss of confidence in Apple’s ability to compete with the online giants.

It must seem crazy to outsiders that many hard core Apple fans—many of whom were burned badly by .Mac—would be licking their lips to get their hands on MobileMe. But there we were, crashing the servers before the product was even officially launched.

I’d love know how many times Command+R was typed in the days leading up to July 11th.

But now the dust has settled. Service has been restored and heartbeats are once again pumping at a normal rate. And syncing has been … reliable.

Contacts—good. Calendar items—check. Bookmarks—great, and to Safari on Windows XP to boot.

[Disclaimer] Now I’m not the most knowledgeable source here, because I only have one Mac. I can’t test the syncing of app preferences, dashboard widgets or dock settings. But I sync enough items that I have an opinion.

So again I say, syncing has been reliable.

On a Mac. And on an iPhone or a Touch. But the web interface is still trying to catch up. Oh, it hasn’t been all that bad. Wait long enough and things will catch up. But is that good enough?

I guess we each have to decide for ourselves. If you work on a Mac all day and carry your iPhone\Touch around with you everywhere, you’re doing great.

For those of us without that luxury, we’re stuck with the limitations of the web interface.

Using Multiple Mail Accounts

I’ve had my GMail address for almost five years now. All of my other addresses are also accessible from GMail. And I can send from whichever address I want.

And since changing addresses is a flat-out pain, if I’m to move to MobileMe, I need to be able to appear to others as if nothing has in fact changed. I want the right people to see the right address. ALL of the time.

After all my testing and fidgeting, this works well from Mail.app and Mail on the Touch OS—just set your smtp server to whatever alternative service you use.

But the weak link is once again the web interface for MobileMe mail. There is no option for using alternative addresses.

There is the option in the Mail preferences to create up to five aliases, but they all have to end in me.com. This doesn’t help if you want to continue using your GMail address or an address for your particular domain (i.e. [email protected]).

This is almost seals the deal for me. If I had the option to work in my mac in Mail.app all day, I think I’d be okay. But I have to go to work five days and week and use XP. I need web access to my email all day long. Right now I have to use GMail to send any messages and I’m having to essentially keep two inboxes up to date. Will I do this long term? No way.

My only hope here is that Apple adds this ability. And soon.

To Switch or Not

So, having said all that, does MobileMe offer enough to switch from other services?

Truthfully—it depends.

If you’re on a Mac all the time, the sync appears to be solid enough that you’ll get your money’s worth and more. If you are also a heavy iPhone\Touch user, you’re also going to enjoy this service. And if you were previously a .Mac user, you’re most likely to keep using Apple’s online service.

But if you have to use the web interface regularly, you have a decision to make. This user is still on the fence—I’m sorely tempted to just switch back to using Google only. IMAP GMail access works fine on the Touch and in Mail.app. BusySync does a great job keeping my calendars in sync. And most of all, I have control over my email addresses. This is proving to be a tough decision.

To sum it up, MobileMe is a good service. If Apple can improve on a few key areas and performance, it’s probably the best total package there is for keeping your digital life integrated across multiple devices.

It will be interesting to see in the coming months how they respond to critiques of this sort.

Scrabble—well designed and great fun. Get it.

The next week is going to involve a good deal of testing in regards to MobileMe. Especially with syncing. As a new user to this service, I had hoped that all the horror stories I’d heard in the past about .Mac would be that—a thing of the past. After the initial launch—and the delaying thereof—last week and some of the stories since then, I’m a little cautious with my expectations.

I’ll be researching and testing over the next while to get a better idea of the performance. And I came across a great resource today—Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings posted a large list of knowledge base articles focused on MobileMe and syncing. An interesting read—the articles range from detailed and insightful to amazingly short of anything resembling help.

If things are as bad as they were with .Mac, I’ll most likely stick with my current setup and my Google tools. Check back in a week to see how things are going.

Just in time for the arrival of iPhone 2.0 on Friday, it feels right to talk a bit about my first week and half with my iPod Touch. I know I’m late to the party, what with the iPhone being around for almost a year, but we Canadians haven’t had as much exposure to this device as our cousins to the south. So with my fellow countrymen in mind, here’s what I’ve found. This is not a full on review—just a collection of experiences that really stuck out. Great moments in design if you will.

Form Factor

First off, this is a beautiful device. Like all the other Apple hardware I own, the materials and construction are top notch. Best of all, the size is acceptable. The screen is a decent size, but the overall dimensions of the unit are small enough that it’s not a burden to take everywhere you go. I’m the kind of person who can’t stand bulky items in my pockets—I’ll tend to keep my keys and wallets in my backpack instead. But the iPhone\Touch casing is compact enough that I found I always had it with me.

Display

Another well designed and good looking aspect of the Touch is the display. It’s crisp. Like over-cooked bacon crisp. The sharpness of the UI is better than my 23″ ACD—and any other LCD I’ve ever used for that matter—due of course to the increased PPI (pixel density). It’s a pleasure to look at the screen at any time, in any of the apps—except for maybe the notes, due to the poor choice of font. But I digress.

There were times in the past week where I would catch myself just staring at the screen, lost to what I had been doing previously. I would press the home button just so I could see all the buttons for the various apps. Just because it looks good.

In the past decade that I’ve paid attention to Apple, their hardware has always struck me as good looking—and the iPhone\Touch takes it up another level.

Browsing

Since the launch of the iPhone, a lot of talk has centered around Mobile Safari. And for good reason. I’ve never been a big user of cell phones or PDA’s, so my experience here is limited. I’ve used and supported a few; the older Palm models, Compaq iPaqs and BlackBerrys mostly. But surfing the web was not a primary function—at least not intentionally. A lot of that was due to the fact that it was a pain to surf with those devices, even the BlackBerrys.

Mobile Safari appears to have changed that. Now, not all sites are really great to view on the device. It’s certainly not the same as surfing on my computer. But there were enough times where it was easier to look something up on the Touch rather than go the office to grab the laptop. And when out and about and there’s wifi available—gold.

As far as viewing sites goes, I think the Mobile Safari designers did a great job making the app improve the experience as much as possible when browsing pages that are not optimized for the device. Take this site for example—the double tap (I keep wanting to say double click) method for zooming in and out is great for sites like The Weekly Review that are broken into two or three columns.

Add to this the fact that many designers are in fact optimizing for the iPhone and you’ve got an overall pleasant web experience. Not perfect—you will be annoyed at times—but pleasant enough for such a small screen.

Sound Quality

Of course, sound is important too. This is after all, an iPod. And again, my experience here is limited. This is only my second iPod, the former being a first generation Nano. I find the quality of sound is an improvement over the Nano—the bass is definitely fuller and the overall range more complete. I’m no audiophile, so I’m not exactly sure why there would be an improvement. Perhaps it the size, bigger battery or maybe the newer ear buds. Whatever the reason, it was a pleasant surprise.

Wifi

There’s not a lot to mention here other than the ease of use. Connect to a particular SSID once, and never have to bother again. Once I had a few main networks set up, I was never bothered with having to choose a network at any time. The device was simply connected whenever I turned it on.

Apps

The original apps included are a good start. As mentioned above, Mobile Safari is well designed. The Calendar and Mail apps are also well designed. Stocks, Weather, Clock and Calculator are really more widgets than apps. The exciting aspect for me here will be with the software update coming Friday. The push aspect to all devices with MobileMe will tie these apps together with the already polished desktop experience that is OS X.

Another thing worth mentioning is the excellent implementation of accessing your media. Using Music, video and photos is fun—I showed off more pictures of the kids this week at work than I have for the past five years. And that brings us to the next section.

Interface

After 9 days, there is no doubt to me that what Apple really nailed here is the interface. With OS X where it is today, this should be no surprise. But the way in which the developers incorporated the touch technology into the Touch OS is stunning. This hit me so many times—flicking through photos, browsing through artists or contacts, reading emails—when you start to pay attention to the small details, it’s boggling. My personal favorite is setting the date and time for a new calendar entry—I don’t know how else to describe it than fun. iCal isn’t this good.

Like OS X, the interface is so good because of one factor—ease of use. And that’s where the iPhone line beats out the competition. Sure, typing on a small device is hard—a person can argue whether Apple’s design in this regard is better than others. But for the rest of the functionality, no one other PDA or smart phone comes close.

I’m definitely impressed with the Touch. Probably more than I had expected, which might explain why I hadn’t made this purchase earlier. If you are not yet the owner of an iPhone or iPod Touch, eagerly anticipating Friday morning, you won’t be disappointed. In fact, you might want to get in line now.

For those of us who have never signed up for .Mac, that is the question: does MobileMe have enough to offer to make us move from google, yahoo or some other service and fork over $99 a year?

When the update to .Mac was first announced, my reaction was no—I’m happy with what Google gives me. I have tools to keep things relatively in sync across multiple computers. Heck, I’ve paid for tools just to keep things in sync. And I’m already sharing photos and musical preferences and what I’m doing at any given time with anyone who cares to pay attention.

But … after finally getting around to watching the guided tour on Apple.ca, I think a change of heart just might occur. Or maybe I’m just drinking heavily from the Apple Kool-Aid.

Here are a couple of the reasons I’m now considering this option:

• The web apps look good, always an important factor to me. I love the way GMail handles my mail, but the interface has always felt a bit lacking.
• Consistency across all devices. No more trying to get Google contacts and Address Book contacts and Highrise to play nice together.
• Pushed data. My recent purchase of an iPod Touch makes this a more attractive option.
• The iDisk functionality looks promising. It has all the sharing capabilities I use now with Google Docs.
• Most of all, there’s the tight integration with my preferred OS. The suite of Google products I use seem more intended to replace my OS and office suite. With MobileMe, you might say Apple is extending my OS to the web, and across all my devices. That just feels better to me.

I’m not against spending $99—which really isn’t a lot for a years service—if the value is there. I had hesitated to pay money for .Mac in the past—mostly because I felt that it wasn’t much better than the options that were available for free. MobileMe seems to have at the very least caught up with the competition, if not passed it.

There are so many illogical arguments in this article by Anita Hamilton on Time that it’s hard to know where to start. Many others are already chiming in with their thoughts, so I’ll stop with this:

If Apple ever does decide to let all iPhone apps be free, it would be a radical departure from its typical way of doing business.

Well, yeah.They should definitely change the way they are doing business—things are going so poorly for them right now [insert sarcasm here].

I’ve had the opportunity to rent a few movies off of the iTunes store now. For the most part, the experience is smooth and user friendly. For those who have not yet ventured into the world of online movie rentals, iTunes is a good alternative to the brick and mortar alternatives. Here is a quick list of my likes and dislikes (no apologies for the bulleted list—I loves me a good bulleted list):

The Good

• Convenience: An obvious attribute, but important enough to be mentioned here. The ability to decide at the very last minute to rent a movie, and, within five minutes, to be on your way is fantastic. There’s nothing worse than a late evening decision to waste two hours of your life, already adorned in your PJ’s, and having to leave the house. This technology makes that decision a whole lot easier.
• iTunes Store: Offering so much more than just music now, Apple’s one stop shop is a pleasant experience. Finding what your are looking for is easy and buying or renting an item is simple. There’s no hunting involved.
• Speed: In order for online movie rentals to be successful, downloads have to be fast. iTunes doesn’t disappoint here. The speed is fast, and even better, you can start your movie before the download is complete and never experience any lag. I’ve done this with each movie I’ve rented and have had zero issues. The entire process to the end user is seamless.
• Playback: I especially appreciate how iTunes tracks your progress through the movie if you do not watch it in it’s entirety in one sitting. Just like a podcast, you can move to other forms of media after starting a movie. But when returning to the file, a simple double click returns you to the point you left. Genius.

The Bad

• Selection: For now, Apple’s library is a bit small when it comes to movies. As was the case with music, I think this will improve in time. But for the immediate future, there is always a good chance that the movie you are craving to see is not available—especially if you are looking for something older.
• Restrictions: My biggest complaint is the time limit. We are a family of five—three young children means we rarely sit down to watch a movie from start to finish. It can sometimes take us three or four nights to finish a two hour flick. 48 hours is simply not enough time for this consumer. For a lot of people, this may not be a concern. But the fact that I can rent a movie from Blockbuster and keep it for two weeks without penalty will at times outweigh the inconvenience of having to drive to the store.

Those are my initial impressions. Due to that last point, there will be times where we choose the old fashioned method of rental because we can take as long as we want to watch it. The time factor is just to critical. But as with most of their products, I’m confident that Apple will improve iTunes movie rentals as it matures. They’re already off to a good start.

By now, every Canadian who’s a fan of Apple knows that the iPhone is coming to the True North. For a lot of people, this is an exciting time and a chance for us up here to get our hands on the device which is changing the mobile market. No longer will we have to read the blog posts of our Southern counterparts and say to ourselves, “I’m tired of all this iPhone news!” or “I wish I could try that new iPhone app.” First hand experience is weeks away.

But perhaps cautious optimism is the best way to describe the feeling a good number of Canadians have about the iPhone. Why? Rogers, that’s why. This is a company who has a poor reputation with it’s customers and potential client base. Talk to anyone who is planning to purchase an iPhone and somewhere in the conversation they’ll say something to the effect of, “I want one, but I’m a little worried about having to go with Rogers.” Expensive plans plus poor customer service plus poor connectivity in some regions has a lot of potential buyers more hesitant than enthusiastic (of course, that hasn’t seemed to matter much in the States, even with all the AT&T haters).

With a bit of extra cash since the sale of our home, I’ve been considering this purchase myself. But locking into three year cell phone contracts is not my bag of tea. Especially with a company like this.

So what are the options? That’s what I need to know before making a decision. Here’s a list of possible avenues:

Action	Cost	Logic
Do nothing.	$0	Another electronic device will not make me happier. True.
Buy an iPod Touch.	$319–$519	All the benefits of the iPhone except, well, the phone part. If you are not a heavy phone user, this might be a good option for you. The important thing to remember here is that you need a wifi network to take advantage of the coolness—no access through cell networks (which are slower anyways).
Buy the iPhone and suck it up. Go with Rogers.	Details unconfirmed—possibly as low as $1279 ($199+$30 per month for three years)	All the iPhone joy that you can handle.
Buy the iPhone, cancel your Rogers plan and pay a fee, then unlock the device and go with another carrier.	???—probably slightly lower than option #3.	Is it worth the trouble?

I’m undecided at this point, but I’m curious to see the reaction of my fellow countrymen. From all accounts I’ve seen, this is a device that has changed the way people who own one use a mobile phone. Even more, it seems to have changed the way people use their computer. In a lot of situations, the iPhone has been given preference—you can leave the laptop docked when all you need is to check your email. In a home with only one computer, this is an intriguing idea.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting. But I’m going to be patient—no standing in line for me. I’ll wait to see what kind of emotions are displayed by those who go before me.

Update: An alert reader pointed out that Rogers (and their subsidiary, Fido) runs the only GSM/UMTS network in Canada, so option #4 is not really feasible anyways. I already knew that, so my apologies for not thinking that option through. It just goes to show the influence of the media of our neighbors to the South.

David Pogue gives a short, fairly non-technical review of Time Capsule today at the Times.

He really focuses on the simplicity of an always-on, wireless backup device that the user never needs to think about. And it’s true. I’ve been on a Time Capsule for just about two months now. Other than a faulty first unit, using Time Machine with the Time Capsule has been a dream.

But as others have mentioned, it makes a lot of sense to go one step further, especially if you run your own business. I do this with weekly clones to another external drive using SuperDuper.