Given the recent rather rocky launch of MobileMe, it is no surprise that this week’s list of new and updated technotes from Apple contains a large number of support documents relating to MobileMe.

It is one thing to read the range of complaints in the MobileMe Apple Discussion Group . It’s another thing to get a sense of big problems from the horse’s mouth itself.

Apple’s new Support offerings for MobileMe are listed at the end of this post.

All MobileMe services get a look in, but there is a concentration on Sync issues and how to deal with them.

Some of the items are more useful than others. For example, I didn’t know what the maximum size of a MobileMe email message was until I read that “you can send and receive email messages up to 20 MB in size with your MobileMe Mail account.”

On the other hand, the technote on “How MobileMe filters spam messages” is less useful.

It tells you that

To minimize the impact of spam on MobileMe members, MobileMe employs several methods of detecting spam before it ever reaches your inbox. Spam prevention requires filtering mechanisms that include dynamic lists, trend analysis and content filtering.

However, it continues, “Filtering spam at the server is only part of the equation. You may find it helpful to use your mail application filtering to complement the server filtering.”

The only way to deal with false-positives is to contact MobileMe support:

If you feel that a friendly message was inadvertently deleted, you may want to ask your friend for a follow up email before you contact support, if you notice that multiple messages are being delayed, bounced, or not delivered, you should contact MobileMe Support directly.

Another cracker comes in the technote on viewing Mail.app’s Notes in MobileMe Mail:

Symptoms
If you create a Note with Mail in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, then view the note with MobileMe Mail, the text of the note will appear but the background color of the note will not be yellow.

Additionally, the notes cannot be edited in MobileMe Mail, and may appear to be from an “unspecified-domain” with no “To” address.

Products Affected
Mac OS X 10.5, MobileMe, MobileMe Mail

Resolution
This is expected behavior. For the best experience with Notes, use Mac OS X Mail only.

This document will be updated as more information becomes available.

Here is the full list of new notes relating to MobileMe:

New and Updated Knowledge Base Documents

Canceling your MobileMe account
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2174

How MobileMe filters spam messages
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1073

iDisk Syncing: Changes made directly to the iDisk may not immediately sync down to local iDisk
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1159

iDisk Syncing: iDisk may not sync if connected via a mobile high-speed connection
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1758

iDisk: iDisk Syncing takes up more hard drive space than expected in Mac OS X 10.5
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1771

iMovie and MobileMe Gallery: Some movie names may not work in MobileMe Gallery
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1038

iWeb: "This entry no longer exists" error when trying to add or remove comments on blogs published to MobileMe
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1763

iWeb: Default page fails to load & browser continuously refreshes
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1727

iWeb: In published site, Add Comment links don’t display or work correctly
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1762

iWeb: Preserving website comments when upgrading from iWeb 1.x to 2.0
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2094

Mac OS X 10.5: About viewing Mail Notes in MobileMe Mail
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1756

Mac OS X 10.5: Address Book Sharing – clicking the sync icon does not start sync with MobileMe
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1757

Mac OS X 10.5: MobileMe Sync menu icon spins constantly
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1182

Mac OS X 10.5: Resetting the SyncServices folder
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1627

Mac OS X 10.5: Syncing preference settings with MobileMe Sync
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2085

Mac OS X: Can’t connect to iDisk, get "Error Code -50"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1429

Mac OS X: Do not remove or modify SyncServices folder
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1865

Mac OS X: Mail – MobileMe account mailbox is dimmed
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1726

MacBook (Late 2007): iDisk, MobileMe or remote home directory sync unsuccessful
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1759

Maximum MobileMe message size
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2069

MobileMe and Apple ID passwords cannot accept some characters
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1728

MobileMe iDisk: Cannot Check Disk Space in System Preferences
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1737

MobileMe mail messages are missing
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1730

MobileMe scans email for viruses
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2076

MobileMe Sync, Mac OS X 10.5: Calendar syncing issues
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1200

MobileMe Sync: About syncing third-party Dashboard Widgets in Mac OS X 10.5
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1751

MobileMe Sync: Alert after merging contacts
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1178

MobileMe Sync: Conflict Resolver states that seemingly-identical contacts have conflicts after Mac OS X 10.5 upgrade
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1174

MobileMe Sync: iCal Group Calendar name may change when syncing in Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1188

MobileMe Sync: Initial syncing of Dashboard Widgets may result in duplicate widgets
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1750

MobileMe Sync: Non-functioning web clips may be deleted after syncing Dashboard widgets
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1171

MobileMe Sync: Removing third-party items from the MobileMe Sync pane in Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1153

MobileMe Sync: RSS status doesn’t not sync between Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1170

MobileMe Sync: Syncing contact addresses between Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X 10.5 causes sync conflict or alert
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1754

MobileMe Sync: Syncing preferences may "hide" some application windows
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1199

MobileMe Sync: User moved via Migration Assistant does not register computer for syncing
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1183

MobileMe, Address Book Sharing: Contacts or Groups get out of sync
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1744

MobileMe, iDisk: About the invisible ".filler.idsff" file
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1065

MobileMe, Mac OS X 10.5: "An error was returned from the server" alert after changing your MobileMe password
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1748

MobileMe, Mac OS X 10.5: iDisk Sync may not automatically sync changes
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1745

MobileMe, Mail: Copying MobileMe or IMAP email messages to your hard disk
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1063

MobileMe: "iDisk full" error
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1764

MobileMe: "Temporarily unavailable" message when viewing a published calendar
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1658

MobileMe: "The size of the iDisk on your computer needs to be adjusted" alert in Mac OS X 10.4
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1160

MobileMe: About syncing more than one Mac to the same iDisk at the same time in Mac OS X 10.5
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1168

MobileMe: Arabic characters in file names change after iDisk sync in Mac OS X 10.4
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2079

MobileMe: Changes on an iPhone/iPod touch made to your calendars, contacts, or bookmarks while a sync is occuring may not sync to MobileMe
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1794

MobileMe: Computer has less free disk space after turning on iDisk Syncing
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1154

MobileMe: Configuring third-party email applications
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1625

MobileMe: Email message "bounces" back after sending
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1187

MobileMe: Empty browser cache if issues occur after a MobileMe Mail service interruption
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2078

MobileMe: File contributed to a MobileMe Gallery via email doesn’t appear
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1747

MobileMe: Identifying fraudulent "phishing" email
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2080

MobileMe: iDisk Sync – Items in non-synced folders cannot be opened
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1761

MobileMe: Issues sending messages in Mail or other email applications
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1152

MobileMe: MobileMe Gallery maximum photo size
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1071

MobileMe: Prompted for password when opening some folders on your iDisk in Mac OS X 10.5
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1749

MobileMe: Prompted for password when syncing keychains
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1181

MobileMe: Providing MobileMe support with long email headers for troubleshooting
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT1066

MobileMe: Published photos or movies may take a long time to appear on your MobileMe Gallery
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1746

MobileMe: Troubleshooting Syncing from Mac OS X
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=TS1679

MobileMe: Using SSL encryption with your email
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2082

Publishing a password-protected iCal calendar to iDisk
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2071

Some items in Outlook may cause calendars to not sync
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306757

Why was I "spammed" at my MobileMe Mail address?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT2073 mobileme, technotes, apple, ical, idisk, sync, contacts, iweb, mail.app, apple mail, gallery, dotmac, the week from hell

Tags: Apple, Apple Mail, calendar, contacts, dotmac, gallery, iCal, iDisk, iweb, mail.app, mobileme, problems, support, sync, technotes, the week from hell

BusyMac has released an update to its BusySync software, which adds the ability to sync iCal calendars over the internet. The company has also released a public beta of BusySync 2.0 (due in February) which will add syncing between iCal and Google Calendar.

Previously, BusySync users were limited to sharing calendars over a local network, but now distance is no obstacle. With the BusySync Preference Pane installed, users are able to view, edit and manage shared calendars remotely, without the need for a .Mac account.

Options to allow and control the sharing are provided in the Preference Pane:

BusySync 1.5 costs USD 19.95 and is available from the developer’s web site .

The company’s press release for the 1.5 update gives more details of this clever utility.

In addition, BusyMac has launched a public beta of BusySync 2.0. It promises Mac users “bidirectional synchronization between iCal and Google Calendar, providing web based access to your calendars from anywhere”:

When it is released in February, it will provide a cheaper option than SpanningSync , which costs USD 25 for a 12 month subscription and
USD 65 to purchase outright. BusySync 2.0 will cost USD 24.95.

You can sign up to be added to the public beta trial on the BusyMac web site.ical, productivity, google, calendar, syncing, dotmac, spanningsync, busysync

Tags: busysync, calendar, dotmac, Google, iCal, Productivity, spanningsync, syncing

Christina Laun at VirtualHosting.com has posted a killer list of 50 tips, scripts, extensions and hacks to make the most of Google’s Calendar service.

She starts off with some basic tips, keyboard shortcuts, integration with Gmail, reminders and so forth.

Things get more interesting for seasoned users with her collection of 15 (mostly Greasemonkey) scripts that offer skinning, interface streamlining and more, including the Better Gcal script, which combines several of the most useful scripts (à la Gina Trapani’s Better Gmail Firefox extension).

Finally, she provides a list of Firefox Extensions, hacks and some syncing utilities that help Outlook users and others get the most of Gcal. She doesn’t mention BusySync’s public beta that offers iCal-Gcal syncing or Spanning Sync , but I guess you knew about those already.

If you use Goolge’s Calendar, you will want to bookmark Christina’s collection of tips for sure.not mail.app, not apple mail, google, calendar, tips, scripts, greasemonkey, web 20, ical, productivity, firefox, syncing

Tags: Apple Mail Tips, calendar, FireFox, Google, greasemonkey, iCal, not apple mail, not mail.app, Productivity, scripts, syncing, web 2.0

MenuCalendarClock is a menubar app for iCal that gives you quick access to your iCal events and to-dos. Another menubar app, High Priority, had the jump on it in Tiger, as High Priority offered the ability to create new to-dos and mark tasks as completed.

Now, the new Leopard-friendly MenuCalendarClock 3.0 offers the same interaction with to-dos. There are no plans to rewrite High Priority for Leopard, so MenuCalendarClock is worth another look.

It adds a menubar item with the date and/or the time, replacing the default System date/time display. Clicking on it opens a drop-down box with the current month, and a list of events and tasks for the day which can be toggled on and off.

Hovering over the calendar displays a tooltip containing that day’s events.

The Action wheel opens a menu with options to reveal a search field, copy today’s date into the clipboard, display the app’s preferences and more.

MenuCalendarClock is also very well provided with keyboard shortcut. By default Control-Option-Command-C pops down the display, although the combination can be set by the user in the preferences.

A further option in the preferences enables a tooltip display of the days events and to-dos when the mouse is hovered over the menubar item.

The Preference Pane controls options for general display, customising the font and colour of the time display and the choice of a number of icons.

Further options allow you to set which iCal calendars it should display and options for dealing with the birthdays of your Address Book contacts.

New in the latest version is the ability to create tasks and to edit and mark them as complete. Needless to say this passes through seamlessly into iCal and Leopard Mail’s new to-do lists.

A keyboard shortcut pops up a “heads up display” for creating a new task. I find it easier to use that the list of to-dos in Mail (subject for another post, but why are Mail’s to-do features so underdone?!).

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like one can tab through the fields in the display, which is a pain. Also I find that I can associate a to-do with any of my iCal calendars in MenuCalendarClock, something I can’t do in Mail.app. The to-do icons are colour-coded to the particular iCal calendar. The option to colour the text of the to-do as well would be nice.

Highlighting a task, pressing Command-I to bring up the Inspector allows existing to-dos to be edited, Shift-Command-C marks it as complete. It’s fast and it’s easy to master.

MenuCalendarClock costs USD 19.95 to register. You will need to buy a licence to access the to-do management features, although some basic features can be used when it is unregistered. Also, it does the job in English, German, Finnish, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Russian, Norwegian, Japanese and Simplified Chinese.

Get it from the developer’s web site .leopard, ical, menubar, task management, productivity, mail.app, calendar, to-dos, events

Tags: calendar, events, iCal, Leopard, mail.app, menubar, Productivity, task management, to dos

Mac OS X Tips UK has written up a list of tips to wring the most out of the menubar helper for Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar.

It shows you how to set the default number of messages displayed using the hidden Defaults Editor.

You can also set the Notifier to display only email matching a particular label in the same way.

Of course, the Defaults Editor just a fancy GUI to Notifier’s preferences file — com.google.GmailNotifier — stored in your ~/Library/Preferences folder, which you can edit directly with Proprty List Editor or any text editor.

The list also mentions Gmail+Growl , a plugin for Google Notifier that passes notification of new messages to the Growl alert system .Gmail, google, calendar, menubar, notification, not apple mail, not mail.app, email, tips

Tags: Apple Mail Tips, calendar, email, GMAIL, Google, menubar, not apple mail, not mail.app, notification

DoBeDo, one of the smarter iCal widgets, has just been updated.

The new version (2.5) can be resized, adds support for groups of calendars, task clustering and scheduling and offers “natural language” support for due dates.

It now also supports international date formats, which is good news for people who put their months in the right place.

The widget comes with three skins. The one on the left, Duke, is new:

It has a built-in drop-down dialog for entering new tasks:

After the task is created, another drop-down calendar makes assigning a due date easy.

Printer settings allow you to nominate a default printer for printing lists of tasks or the option to preview it as a PDF first.

It now also come with hotkeys. ⌘-D will show or hide dates and priorities, ⌘-F expands the tasks beyond the user-determined future date.

And in a nice touch, ⌘-E will email a list of the tasks to an address you specify:

Some bugfixes round out the new version.

DoBeDo is freeware and available from the developer’s web site .ical, productivity, to-dos, widget, dashboard, email, hotkeys, calendar

Tags: calendar, Dashboard, email, hotkeys, iCal, Productivity, to dos, widget

Spanning Sync has finally released a public beta of its Google Calendar-iCal two-way sync app, only to experience so overwhelming a demand for new signups that the beta was closed again.

Spanning Sync is said to offer reliable bidirectional syncing of user-selected Calendars in iCal and Google’s calendar (see a previous Hawk Wings post).

The interface in the beta looks promising:

In a post that went up on the company’s blog soon after the announcement of the public beta, relief was promised for those eager to try out the service:

We’re thrilled (and a little freaked out) by the literally overwhelming response, but we want to make sure all of our users have the best experience possible. With any luck, the public beta will open again tomorrow, with a lot more capacity to handle the load. Thank you for your patience.

Keep your eyes peeled for the re-opening.

[Via TUAW ]ical, google, calendar, syncing, two-way, beta, spanning sync, not apple mail

Tags: beta, calendar, Google, iCal, not apple mail, spanning sync, syncing, two-way