I agree the experience on my Mac’s is much better than on my Windows machines. I use MobileMe across 2 Mac’s, 1 Vista Machine, and 1 XP machine. The integration on the Vista machine is okay, but no where near as seamless as the Mac’s. I would love to know more about Live Mesh, perhaps we will get some time to review before our next show in two weeks.

Michael

I was using the trial version of MobileMe and just playing around, I might have to follow up with my post with another because I’m not very happy with MobileMe as a Windows user, and since I wrote that post I have canceled my MobileMe account, never to return again. Being able to sync my calendar to Google Calendar directly using another service was really the key factor for me not to want to continue with MobileMe. NuevaSync does a great job with my calendar and contacts. I think it even handles my contacts better than through iTunes because NuevaSync pulls in the profile images of my Google contacts.

The privacy issues were a great point, I currently don’t have issues with using Gmail and Google Calendar as my main sources though so I don’t mind playing around with these services. The key really is the ability to connect to different sources, but after I signed up with the MobileMe account I was really disappointed to see that there wasn’t a direct connection to my Google Calendar while I could already directly connect to Gmail. In order to connect to Google Calendar through MobileMe I would have to open Outlook and sync from that (which I don’t normally use) and install Google Calendar Sync to get Google Calendar into Outlook. That’s was a lot of work just to get my calendar on my iPhone!

The other disappointment with MobileMe was my inability to directly send my photos to the gallery unless I had iPhoto. I would’ve really enjoyed this feature for my phone but as a Windows user my only option for sending photos to the gallery would be directly upload them from the computer.

I think the user experience for MobileMe for a Windows user can be greatly improved, especially since I would pay the same price as a Mac user if I had continued past my trial.

The iPhone is the first Apple product I ever bought, and I’m quite happy with it, but MobileMe was a big let down for me on Windows. I don’t think it’s as seamless as it was being billed, and I have no interest in switching to Mac, believe it or not, I’m very happy Windows user. I do want to see more cross-platform apps like MobileMe, but they need to be truly cross-platform and not work just ok if you’re one kind of user, and wonderful if you’re another type of user.

Now ask me how much I love Windows Live Mesh though (currently in tech preview). I’ve been playing around with it in the past week and I’m impressed at how easy it is to use and set up. It’s not on Mac or mobile yet, but it’s coming soon. If I could have Live Mesh someday also work with my iPhone I would be so giddy.

Great show this week and I’m glad I could contribute in some small part. Thanks for the very interesting discussion.

Couple of thoughts arising:

- yes, I think iTunes App Store does have different catalogs for US/UK… the Google App was not initially available in the UK while the US did have it, so I think there’s at least a time lag / sync issue or separate catalogs

- I think the MobileMe / Windows stuff is interesting, as I read the blog post there are issues in terms of the way MobileMe integrates with Windows apps… not such a big issue for Mac users where we probably already use Mail, iCal etc. Oh, and Michael R. made the point about work calendars / private stuff not being able to go via Google Cal, surely the same applies to storing that data in iCal (I guess it depends on the context here). So I think the techniques are useful to know about. I need to completely nuke my address book now it’s the primary source of contacts data on the iPhone, it really needs a clean up!

- Michael M., I was incredibly impressed with your mastery of Scottish culture - I think the “Made in Scotland from girrrrrderrrrs advert” was *quite* a few years old. Unless they re-ran it more recently.

OK, I’m just off to order my Dogear Nation hoodie for Hoodie Thursday. Shame that only the light colours seem to show up the text, even though the logo gets inverted correctly if you switch to a dark colour material.

Enjoy your week off!

Right now, we are still in the days of Prodigy, Compuserve, and AOL. It is to the best interests of the big platforms to keep it closed. The current user investment is high, and as such, once they have you in, they want to be able to keep you there. Its similar to the reason that World of Warcraft comes out with expansion packs, once you start paying them $15/month, they want you coming back.

In terms of interoperability, I’m not in favor of much of the discussion around interoperability happening in the industry. I think there’s a few elements of interoperability that make sense, but most of the standards already exist and its a matter of adoption by publishers, which is not a big enough motivator right now for most of them. Can’t wait to debate it with Ian at VW LA

Great last two shows! Lots to think about. Keep it up.

Michael R.

Here’s more about this on my blog: http://www.joeranft.com/2008/07/1-app-id-like-to-see-in-apple-iphone.html

The audio is sounding really good.

And now, I’m off to download Evernote, which has now entered open beta.

Excellent One of the best episodes thus far both content and sound-wise. Keep up the good work (and I’ll try and catch up - just in time for the next show I guess).

By the way, the audio quality is so much better now… and I’m glad you shortened the intro piece, it works better shorter.

I’m kind of jealous of Matt attending the E2.0 conference in person. Following the Tweets isn’t quite the same experience.

Thanks again for your comments. Guess we may have doubled our listeners this week, knowing you dialed us in.

Michael M

As to the other guys’ thoughts on Kool-Aid and evangelism, I get you. My focus is on getting organisations and people understanding how to communicate properly - across departmental boundaries, between people and up and down the org chart.

I want my clients, as much as possible, to break down blocks to sharing and communicating with each other. If they use a wiki or a blog, or Connections, Sharepoint or Clearspace, or even 3×5 index cards, I don’t much care. So long as they get better internal communications and sharing and then extend it to communicating with their clients and stakeholders outside when they’re ready for that step.

Sure, *I’ve* drunk the Kool-Aid, but it’s up to me to convince my clients that there are real benefits in moves like this for them. That can be hard, and the best metrics are pretty soft - no dollar terms, rather things like ease of finding the info or person you need to answer a question and whether that’s faster now than it was before we made changes. C-levels can struggle with that, but when they get a steady stream of people hanging on their office door saying stuff is better than before, the value gets proved.

I’d love to talk more about it with you some time.

I wonder what duckboxer thinks about our discussion of web slices.

Like I said, I’ve heard it in other episodes…. do I win a prize ???

I’ve been trying to get my co-hosts to warm up to the idea of structuring the show a bit more. I think Michael Rowe likes the idea. The other Michael, we have to work on a bit more. I think he’ll be fine with it if the work is already done. Perhaps I should just go ahead and write it.

Thanks so much for the outline. I definitely want to use it.