MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

7 Jun 2011 08:27:35

Euan Williams

So, what happens after MobileMe finally closes next year?

During Steve Jobs’ introduction to iCloud (Apple WDDC Event video about 80 minutes in and beyond), the scope of iCloud compared to MobileMe is highlighted.

An early discussion about this is here. iCloud doesn’t appear to offer website hosting and it looks right now as though MobileMe members will have to transfer their sites elsewhere by 30th June 2012.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

7 Jun 2011 09:05:09

Trevor Hewson

Oh dear, here we go again! It seems like only yesterday that I moved my site in the face of the impending demise of homepage.mac.com hosted websites, now it looks like the web.me.com hosting is going to evaporate too. Thank goodness I registered a domain name! It seems odd if Apple aren't going to offer hosting even for iWeb-generated sites but then, maybe in these days of social networking, Apple sees the whole idea of private websites as past its sell by date?

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

7 Jun 2011 09:48:29

Mark Ford

Yes, I guess the writing was on the wall for iWeb when it failed to update with the rest of iLife last time round.
What will happen to iDisc - gone too I suppose - I have all sorts of files stored and shared there.
I am not clear if the iCloud set-up will work with documents made in other applications.
And Gallery? Gone too? I have links from iWeb to Gallery.
I guess these things are past their 'make squillens date'.
Hi-hum

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

7 Jun 2011 19:54:05

Lionel Ogden

I think this highlights one of the main problems facing computer users in the coming "Cloud Based Computing" future. How can you be sure that Apple with its iCloud or Google with its Chrome will enable easy transfer when it changes its format. Recent experiences of .Me users are not encouraging. But for Uk Users there is the big problem of broadband speed and bandwidth to hamper free use of Cloud based applications. Would you really want your music and Video collection to be housed in North Carolina and be dependent on local broadband suppliers to access it?

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

7 Jun 2011 20:31:27

Derek Wright

Reading some of the US originated comments on the Lion delivery process (no DVD - internet only) the internet speeds in the sticks in the US are no better and in some cases worse than what is experienced in the UK.

Using a computer in a dial up or very slow broadband environment would not be very enjoyable,

My main concern is the loss of the iDisk which I use as a place to put my web sites, looks as if I shall have to find a new home to place then and then republish the new locations.

Not impressed with what I have heard so far - and no mention of support for SSDs being added into Lion.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

13 Jun 2011 17:02:30

Euan Williams

If we can believe that Steve Jobs answers email questions, it seems that iWeb and site hosting really are going the way of all digital something-or-others. See thisMacRumours page

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

25 Jun 2011 08:44:58

Euan Williams

Apple has just published MobileMe to iCloud transition FAQs here.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

25 Jun 2011 11:40:22

Trevor Hewson

Thanks Euan. It looks like all the fears expressed here about the demise of web hosting, iDisk and Galleries are well founded unfortunately. So, is it really worth re-hosting iWeb-generated pages elsewhere only to find that iWeb itself is dropped in another year or so, or do I grasp the nettle now an re-build my photo and video galleries with FreeWay - which means buying an upgrade to Freeway - which, based on past experience, will probably mean that all my Freeway-generated pages will need revising too - and perhaps I should wait until Freeway is Lion-proof - assuming of course that iWeb will work with Lion. . .

I'm sure I had other plans for this Autumn!

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

26 Jun 2011 15:08:09

Mark Ford

I wonder exactly what they mean by 'Documents in the Cloud'?
This is entertaining :-

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

29 Jun 2011 10:32:29

Gordon Clyne

Call me a Luddite, but in the country, net connections are few and far between, and I don't see apple or anyone else going with ubiquitous high speed wireless or wired connectivity any time soon.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

8 Oct 2011 13:13:46

Mark Ford

Who knows, someone might be listening and change the plan.
MacFormat reports in its Hot or Not rumour column on page 9 of the current issue that:
'Apple may restore iDisk. iCloud lacks iDisk and some application sync support. However, CEO Tim Cook says these could return if there is enough feedback on the subject.'
I guess that for those who, like me, wish to see these things reinstated leaving feedback here on Apple's site is worthwhile.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

14 Oct 2011 10:15:10

Euan Williams

Possible substitutes for some features of Mobile Me from David Pogue (of the New York Times and The Missing Manual series)

> http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/a-look-at-icloud/?ref=personaltechemail&nl=technology&emc=cta1 <

Quote:
• iWeb. The beauty of this easy-to-use Web-site design program was that, with one click, you could publish your work on the actual Web — the MobileMe site “hosted” your pages. (As a replacement, you might consider the free www.weebly.com service, which makes it super-simple to design a Web site.)
• The iDisk. This “virtual hard drive in the sky” was a great way to transfer big files between computers. (As a replacement, consider DropBox or SugarSync; they let you create desktop folders that behave exactly like the iDisk. You can make them appear — and synchronize them — on any computer, or the iPhone or iPad. Free for up to 2two gigabytes (DropBox) or five gigs (SugarSync).

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

14 Oct 2011 12:20:41

Mark Ford

There is a very thorough paper on the transition from MobileMe to iCloud here.
and a shorter piece from arstechnica

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

16 Oct 2011 06:44:20

Tony Sullivan

I have spent several long evenings this week updating all my iThings to OS10.7.2/iOS5/iCloud, and I can report that so far, everything seems to be working fine. (sigh of relief) However, I am going to miss a few bits of MobileMe.

Specifically, the ability to keep all my Macs and devices in sync with my Preferences and Keychains. However, 1Password, with a little help from Dropbox , does a good job of replacing the lost Keychain functionality. But, as yet, syncing Preferences is not going to make the cut.

Also, the loss of iDisk, and its 20GB of online storage will be sorely missed. However, again, other parties are coming to my rescue. Box.net is offering 50GB free online storage to Apple customers with an iPhone/iPad. See here for details.

Of most concern, though, was the loss of iWeb hosting. I have, for several years, been growing an ever more out of control personal website that has been working just peachy residing on the MobileMe servers. Now I have to face the prospect of rewriting the whole site - a huge task that I cannot quite bring myself to do. Not impressed. (Check it out here , if you are interested...)

However, all is not quite as black as it seems. All I really need to do, apparently, is move the existing site to another host, with a small loss of (frankly unimportant) functionality. If anybody is in the same boat, you can find an excellent article from Apples Knowledge base HERE that explains how to move the site.

So now I just have to find a Mac friendly host that doesn't cost a fortune! Any suggestions?

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

16 Oct 2011 11:56:07

Trevor Hewson

Tony, in a talk at one of our meetings last year, Mick recommended Easily.co.uk for web hosting. At the time it looked as if the homepage.mac.com addresses were going to stop working so I took out a domain name with Easily, but have left my website on my iDisk.

Sometime over the Winter, I plan to follow Mick's recommendation, i.e. rent some space from Easily and move my site there. I too would be interested to hear of any other recommendations though.

Re: MobileMe fades out; iWeb, and site hosting.

17 Oct 2011 10:40:43

Mick Burrell

Hopefully in that talk I pointed out that your ISP probably provides free web space that will do the job for you but said that I use Easily as an extra, paid for service for business reasons. So try your ISP first.