Apple apologizes for MobileMe glitches, offers free month of service

Apple apologized to 3G iPhone users yesterday for glitches in its MobileMe service and offered users a free month of service until the problems can be fixed.

Apple says the problems boil down to this: when an update on the MobileMe platform is sent from a Mac or PC into the MobileMe cloud, it will take as long as 15 minutes to sync up with other devices. Because MobileMe updates will not be instantaneous, Apple says that it will no longer describe them as "push" services until they're able to directly sync up with Macs and PCs without any delays. MobileMe, an online service that Apple unveiled in June as a rebranding of its .Mac services, offers as much as 20GB of storage for mobile push e-mail, calendars and contacts, and costs $99 per year.

Apple says that while MobileMe updates sent to and from iPhones still sync up with other devices instantly, it will give all current subscribers a 30-day extension to their subscription free of charge.

While Apple's 3G iPhone has sold more than 1 million units worldwide since it was released last week, it has experienced some widely reported problems with some of its features. In the United Kingdom, for instance, software compatibility problems resulted in users being unable to activate their devices after they purchased them. Some stores in the United States also experienced problems activating customer iPhones due to a glitch related to the iPhone server.