First Look: MobileMe promising, but limps out of the gate

[portfolio_slideshow id=28253]In my three plus years of covering Apple, its MobileMe product is probably the most exciting concept, in my opinion.

I've often longed for a viable "push" solution that wouldn't break the bank, and would operate much like Exchange does. In concept, MobileMe does everything I need it to do, pushing information from my PC and Mac to my phone and vice versa.

So testing it out for BetaNews wasn't a problem at all for me. I can say, however, with confidence that this is the worst release I have seen from Apple in quite some time. The system took nearly two days to get right, and at times still isn't working 100 percent.

Combined with what can be described as a mess of a launch for the iPhone 3G, it hasn't been a good day in Cupertino.

MobileMe finally became stable enough around 2:30 pm ET for us to actually take screenshots of anything other than error messages -- and what I've seen so far is promising, albeit frustrating to wait for Apple to work out the bugs.

Through Apple's trouble today, here's hoping they learn that keeping things under wraps so much maybe isn't such a good idea. Beta testing does work, you know.

Visit the photo gallery for a closer look at Apple's "Exchange for the rest of us"