The MobileMe problems go all ironic on us [updated]

Despite some recent MobileMe updates that Apple quietly rolled out in an effort to improve the stability and functionality of their “cloud”-based web service, the service still isn’t performing up to the usual Apple standards. Perhaps this is why the updates haven’t been announced as of late—Apple doesn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that the service will actually work, finally, as originally advertised.

Last week, I experienced all kinds of funkiness with e-mail: messages wouldn’t send, my in box wouldn’t load up, I couldn’t delete messages, etc. It was annoying, but par for the course since the switch. This morning, however, I couldn’t log in at all. Visiting www.me.com, I was greeted with the following message:

(The message was still up at press time.)

On a whim, I thought I’d try going directly to www.mac.com. After a few slow redirects, sure enough, I got into my MobileMe account was able to access all my information and use the services provided.

So, next time someone screws up the definition of irony, you can point that person to MobileMe for a true example; Apple switched from .Mac to MobileMe in order to improve use and increase functionality of their server-side data management service, but, in order to even access it, you have to use .Mac.

Other reports and workarounds after the break.