World of Apple

After this mornings report from Ars Technica that Steve Jobs had sent an internal email explaining the issues with MobileMe the site has now published the email in full.

Team,

The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. There are several things we could have done better:

– MobileMe was simply not up to Apple’s standards – it clearly needed more time and testing.

– Rather than launch MobileMe as a monolithic service, we could have launched over-the-air syncing with iPhone to begin with, followed by the web applications one by one – Mail first, followed 30 days later (if things went well with Mail) by Calendar, then 30 days later by Contacts.

– It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.

We are taking many steps to learn from this experience so that we can grow MobileMe into a service that our customers will love. One step that I can share with you today is that the MobileMe team will now report to Eddy Cue, who will lead all of our internet services – iTunes, the App Store and, starting today, MobileMe. Eddy’s new title will be Vice President, Internet Services and he will now report directly to me.

The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.

Steve

According to Ars Technica, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has recently sent out an email to employees admitting the issues with MobileMe saying that the services launch was “not up to Apple standards”.

In the email Jobs reportedly acknowledges many of MobileMe’s flaws and explains how the entire launch could have been handled better, adding that more time and testing was also needed.

Jobs wrote that MobileMe’s services should have been rolled out slowly instead of launching it “as a monolithic service”.

“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Jobs wrote in an email to employees. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence”.

Additionally Eddy Cue is now heading up the MobileMe team, cue who previously was in charge of the iTunes Store is now in charge of Internet services, including MobileMe, the App Store and the iTunes Store.

“The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services,” Jobs says. “And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year”.

Apple has today posted version 2.0.1 of the iPhone OS software.

The description of the update only states that it includes “Bug Fixes” but after using an iPhone with the new software World of Apple can confirm that noticeably improved is iTunes backing up and keyboard typing in SMS.app.

O2 announced during their Q2 financial results last week that the company has gained over 137,000 new subscribers who are on a monthly contract. The new subscribers were reportedly gained solely from the iPhone.

The figure represents a 80.8% increase in subscribers for the same quarter the year before.

Additionally O2 stated that they have a “multi-year” contract with Apple to sell the iPhone exclusively in the UK after rumours pointed towards Orange picking up the exclusivity before the years end. Adding that the iPhone had not been on sale for a full year in the UK.

Last week Apple issued an advisement bulletin to its channel partners noting a production decrease of iPods and certain Mac models. The resulting decrease in production will cause a supply shortage in the coming weeks.

Apple informed resellers that they should place orders for approximately 4 weeks worth of their top selling iPod models adding that supplies could become very limited within the next week.

In addition to warning of iPod shortages Apple also warned resellers to place orders for at least 3 weeks worth of stock for existing Mac notebooks, specifically mentioning the MacBook and MacBook Pro but not the MacBook Air.

Such advisories are usually a good indication of revisions to the mentioned products.

Apple has today released Security Update 2008-005 for users of Mac OS X Server 10.4, Mac OS X 10.4.11, Mac OS X Server 10.5, and Mac OS X 10.5.4.

The update includes many security improvements but of particular attention is that Apple has fixed a serious DNS/BIND server vulnerability where an attacker could cause a Mac OS X DNS server to direct clients to forged websites.

• Mac OS X Leopard - 65 MB
• Mac OS X Tiger (Intel) - 143 MB
• Mac OS X Tiger (PPC) - 88MB
• Mac OS X Server (Intel) - 180 MB
• Mac OS X Server (PPC) - 135 MB

As rumoured yesterday Apple has delivered the first build of Mac OS X 10.5.5 to registered developers.

Build 9F5 of Mac OS X 10.5.5 is said to contain 83 bug fixes and addresses many issues that could cause potential kernel panic situations. Developers have also been instructed to focus on testing AirPort, FileSync, the Finder, graphics drivers, iCal, iChat, Networking, Text Services, Time Machine, and ExpressCard & USB modems.

The build comes with a warning to those who are running systems with integrated graphics cards not to install this build of Mac OS X 10.5.5. “Do not install on the following machines: MacBook Air, MacBook, Mac Mini, iMac (with Intel integrated graphics)”.

Apple has today quietly released iTunes 7.7.1.

The update is available through the Mac OS X Software Update utility and from Apple’s website and is said to include:

iTunes 7.7.1 includes fixes to improve stability and performance.

Apple has updated the MobileMe status blog with further information for the 1% of users who have been affected by Mail issues.

According to David G. the author of the blog, the issues have now been resolved but anyone still experiencing issues should make use of a dedicated support line.

We have completed restoring Mail service, including historical messages, to all of the 1% of affected members. Thank you all for your extreme patience during this trying time. If you have been affected by this issue and are still having problems we have established a dedicated chat line to reach a MobileMe Mail specialist for help. Please use this dedicated chat line for Mail issues only. By completing this restoration of Mail services, we hope we have put the vast majority of MobileMe Mail problems behind us and can now focus on improving other aspects of this new ambitious service.

In the same post Apple also acknowledges a bug that struck many users on Monday that caused contacts and calendar information to disappear from their devices but stayed on the MobileMe cloud and computers.

Late Monday afternoon Apple fixed the issues and everyone’s contacts and calendar data is said to have been restored.

Aperture 2.1.1 - 48MB

his update supports general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.