Comments on: WWDC: Slim Pickings for Web Workers

By: Rajeev

Rajeev — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:01:25 +0000

Nice article.
Rajeev Vashisht
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com

By: Patrick Byers

Patrick Byers — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:13:14 +0000

I’m actually pretty excited about the WWDC news.

I’m an Exchange user, and the ability to connect to the Exchange server is huge.

I also use a host of sites like twitter, facebook and others, plus update my blog and approve comments frequently with my iPhone. A faster connection will make my life easier.

I’ll upgrade to 3G as soon as the lines die down and I can get one at the Apple store or AT&T.

Oh, I also think the toned-down WWDC was good thing, if you could call it toned-down.

Patrick Byers
The Responsible Marketing Blog
http://responsiblemarketing.com

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:57:25 +0000

MobileMe looks very slick, especially when compared to paying for a hosted Exchange service for email/contacts/cal wireless sync. The only problem with MobileMe for the web worker would be that it doesn’t appear to support custom domain names (unless I’m missing something). I don’t want my clients seeing name@me.com. I want them using my domain name and brand. If Apple can’t support custom domain names, that’s a dealbreaker for me, as well as many web workers, I suspect.

By: Jeof

Jeof — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:16:35 +0000

This post surprises me, actually. The first generation iPhone has been crazy-helpful for me in both my day job, freelancing, and all around life. It’s had some serious drawbacks – speed, lack of certain enterprise features, and the missing ability to build my own programs for it. I’m really excited for the new generation because it’s answering a lot of the gaps in the technology I need to do make my work much easier.

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and had both my corporate Blackberry and my iPhone. The ONLY thing the Blackberry was any good for was grabbing my work email. But the iPhone put the info I needed right then and there at my finger tips – from finding the nearest Best Buy in MiddleOfNowhere, Texas to looking up Adobe APIs when I didn’t have connectivity to my notebook. Having all that at viable speeds, connecting the thing to Exchange, real GPS and the ability to write my own applications to match MY workflow needs (I’m a programmer web worker, clearly), is exactly what I’ve been needing to very much capitalize my web-working life.

Not sure about Mobile Me, yet. But then I keep my day job stuff separate from my iPhone/personal/freelance systems, and rely mainly on the iPhone’s calendar and address book, syncing about once a week to my MacBook. Gmail IMAP keeps mail in sync for me already on all my computers. But once I go entirely independent, I’ll probably take a much closer look at it.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:16:00 +0000

For me, I can’t get past the keyboard. I can already log in to my blog with my BlackBerry and approve comments and do basic maintenance. The thought of doing any longer typing on the iPhone sounds like torture to me.

I don’t see anything introduced today as being truly innovative. More like Apple catching up to some of the same functionality already available on BlackBerry or Windows Mobile, but with Apple panache.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:15:57 +0000

Although they aren’t immediately available I think that in one months time (when all of it is actually available) it is going to be a really big deal for web workers. The fact that you will be easily connected to the web all the time and (potentially) able to manage your blog with a native application on your phone, wherever you are, that’s a pretty big deal.

By: Todd Sieling

Todd Sieling — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:36:35 +0000

@ericabiz I have to disagree. Mac stuff already syncs quite well, but what I get out of Mobile Me is the immediate updating. The 20gb of file space is also nice, though not as important among the numerous project sites that I work with. I don’t personally mind paying a fee for something that works with everything I already use. Moreover, I already use dot-mac, so there’s no price change for me.

@Mike That is true – isync is less than wonderful sometimes, but except for some non-Apple cellphone contact syncing issues I’ve had a pretty good experience. I know that’s far from what a lot of people see, admittedly.

By: Mike Gunderloy

Mike Gunderloy — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:26:25 +0000

Nitin – Thanks, the press release came out and we updated the browser coverage above.

Todd – One big reason I’m holding any possible enthusiasm about MobileMe back is that any service can look good in controlled demos. Sync services – including the existing .Mac service – have been plagued by outages, incompatibilities, and bugs. I hope they’ve got it right this time, but I want to wait till I can kick the tires.

By: ericabiz

ericabiz — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:26:22 +0000

@Todd: Most any good smartphone these days has built-in email, contacts, and calendar sync (both ways.) There’s no real exciting stuff here…except the introduction of yet another monthly fee for something that can be done for free right now.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:19:06 +0000

If you look at the MobileMe guided tour, you will see that they are demoing it on both Internet Explorer and Firefox on Vista. So, I would think that they would work with any modern browser.