apple news/media reports

11/30/2007, 8:15pm, EST

Friday, November 30th

.Mac Web Gallery speed boost not enough?

Apple has worked to rectify dismal speeds for the .Mac Web Gallery in recent weeks, though the changes have not been enough to satiate some users who still report uncomfortably long pauses between images displayed in slideshows and other performance pitfalls. A statement issued from Apple said "we have implemented a number of enhancements that should make your Web Gallery pages load noticeably faster. Actual page load times will vary depending on your connection speed and specific setup, but most customers should notice an immediate improvement."

However, users responded that while the changes are noticeable, performance is still subpar. It appears that the speed increase turned out to be from about 80 KB per second to about 100 KB per second, based on experimentation by a number of users. As described by one MacNN reader "As far as image slideshows are concerned the image displays on your screen for about 3 seconds. The screen then goes blank (black) for about 2-3 seconds before the next image shows."

Users are also experiencing problems with videos, which can be displayed in small, medium and large sizes. According to a number of users, if you choose medium it can take many, many minutes before the video starts streaming for a video that is only seconds long.

Meanwhile, Apple says further improvements may be on the way. A statement reads "We are aware that some customers are still reporting issues and are continuing to investigate concerns on a case by case basis. Performance improvement is an ongoing process and we are working to make sure we provide a world class level of service to all our customers in the weeks and months to come. With that in mind, please note that today's enhancements apply to your .Mac Web Gallery home page and photo albums only. We have not made any changes to Web Gallery movies or any other .Mac services at this time."

Apple previously announced measures to solve problems with the European .Mac service, Apple has announced. Users have complained for months of abnormally slow image uploads, frequently limited to between 78-80kbps.



Filed under: troubleshooting, Apple
Other story tags: .Mac

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Jesus...
0
11/30, 8:32pm, EST
MacCNN, do you read your own articles? The finishing line, "abnormally slow image uploads, frequently limited to between 78-80kbps" - for farks sake, it's download speeds, DOWNLOADS! This error has been repeated time and time again on this excuse for a news service, every time the error has been pointed out and then a week or so later it gets dragged up again.

80kbps upload isn't bad, 80kbps download is abysmal and that's what European .mac users have been putting up with.

Download... ok?
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And…
0
11/30, 9:58pm, EST
Still nothing about the abysmal iDisk speed…
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Joined Feb 2006
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Slow
0
11/30, 10:58pm, EST
Yeah, the speed is pretty slow given that it's a paid service, and apple has a significant partnership with Akamai.
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@ chrissyboy
0
12/01, 5:51am, EST
1B = 8b

You are wrong, the article is right.
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Slow Web Gallery DOWNLOAD
0
12/01, 8:11am, EST
Sorry, londor, you have ckearly not read any of the nearly 1,000 complaints on the Apple discussions list that had over 20,000 reads. The problem is DOWNLOAD speeds rarely exceed 80 to 100 kbps as measured by Activity Monitor - a lot slower than picasa or flickr or even other parts of Apple's own website. I ca only assume you do not live in Europe so cannot know what we are talking about as speeds in the US are not affected.
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@ londor
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12/01, 8:41am, EST
yes 1B = 8b, what's your point? The article is still wrong.

80kbps is slooooow!
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@ swissmac & belugashark
0
12/01, 9:31am, EST
Yes I live in Europe and I get downloads at 80-100KB/s and uploads at 9-10KB/s which is exactly what the article says.

And I know those speeds are slow but that does not mean the article is wrong.
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Reason
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12/01, 10:12am, EST
The big question is "Why the hell is it so freakin' slow???" for .Mac, as opposed to anything else anywhere?
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