Users allege MobileMe lacks true 'push'

While it appears that information between Apple's new service and the iPhone are syncing as advertised, users are finding that push services between the computer and MobileMe don't work the same way.

Indeed, Apple has advertised the service using words such as "immediate," which would lead most to believe its service is exactly that fast. But even after applying an update said to enable computers for MobileMe, immediacy doesn't appear to be happening.

Both on Apple's own support forums and across the Web, users began to voice their disappointment with the discovery. A forum specifically on the subject of push services with MobileMe on Apple's support site included some 155 topics, most of which were complaints of some form.

"I'm running MobileMe 1.1 on both my MacBook Pro (10.5.4) and my Mac Pro (10.5.4) and this Push contact stuff is working nothing like how my Exchange account works with my work server," poster 'trackfive' wrote.

Over on MacRumors, there was much of the same. Many accused Apple of misleading consumers at the WWDC keynote where MobileMe was introduced, as well as in marketing material leading up to the launch.

A reader even took screenshots of the promotional text from before and after the issue came to a head, showing Apple had changed the text from "Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously" to clarifying that the changes happen instantly from the iPhone and MobileMe to the computer, however at a regular interval from computer to MobileMe.

In an article on Apple's support site, the company admitted that those changes would only be delivered every 15 minutes (every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11). Similarly, Windows computers would sync at the same interval.

Apple has not commented further on the sync issues. It is believed that the next release of Snow Leopard may fix the problem as it has built-in Exchange support, although it is not known if changes unveiled there would extend to MobileMe.

Essentially, since MobileMe sync is tied to the preexisting sync services functionality of Mac OS X that has been there for quite some time, it is also hamstrung by the architecture of those services.

It should be noted, tests of the service indicate that near-instantaneous sync does occur from iPhone to MobileMe and vice-versa, as well as from MobileMe to the Mac.