The error and setup

As a new iPhone user, I was pretty excited about the new service Apple launched with the iPhone 3G called Mobile Me. It not only promised a slick, cloud computing solution for mail, calendar, contacts and photos, but also promised all this in a “push environment” that automatically sends updates.  Moreover, it also claimed to provided the ability to keep all these data in synch across multiple Windows or Mac-based machines.

So, I created my free  trial MobileMe account and started with contacts. Since I need to edit and thin my existing contacts list from outlook, I just started from scratch in MobileMe and added contacts. I did try exporting and importing some contacts using the vCard import/export, but had a lot of trouble. I did cut and past some lengthy addresses into fields in MobileMe, but for the most part this was done on the web-based MobileMe site.

I then synched to my iPhone. Worked great, no problems. Changes to either would show up almost instantly on the other device. Next, sync all this up on my Windows XP machine and MS Outlook. I did this through the MobileMe app in Windows Control Panel and selected to “replace all data” on the PC with MobileMe data.  After several minutes, I get the dreaded:

Contacts/Calendars could not be synced due to inconsistent data.  Confirm that your computer’s data is valid, then reset Contacts/Calendars/etc on MobileMe in System Preferences

Since I had deleted all my contacts from Outlook, I could not figure out how this could be inconsistent or invalid. I also tried the same with my brand new Macbook and received the same error. So, I got on the line with Apple support (in chat format) and after several trial and errors we determined that somehow invalid data got into my MobileMe contacts info. Here’s the troubleshooting steps:

1. Export contact from MobileMe as vCard.
2. Import vCard into Address Book on Mac (or you could try it into Outlook on PC)
3. Some contacts imported fine, others did not. Those that did not contained invalid data
4. Some of the invalid data was easy to spot, like extra line returns or unprintable characters. Others DID NOT SHOW ANYTHING. With those, I just deleted any notes or addresses and started over.
5. Worked through all contacts until all could import into contacts cleanly.

To reset and re-synch the data:

1. Got all my contacts imported into Address Book on my Mac and eliminated any duplicates and updated any missing data.
2. Reset sync info in iSync (on PC, you would do this through MobileMe control panel)
3. Synchronized all data on Mac up to MobileMe replacing all MobileMe data.

Note: Unfortunately, in this process I was not able to import my contacts pictures that I had associated on MobileMe. I had to manually add those back on the Mac in contacts since the export/import vCard process did not export the images. I got lucky in that I had created a folder that I used to store my contacts profile images—at least I didn’t have to go back and hunt for those—and it was a fairly quick update to associate the images with the contacts.

After all this, my contacts now sync nicely between my iPhone Contacts, Mac Address Book and Windows Outlook Contacts. It certainly was a frustrating error to track down and not an obvious one.  If you’re having this issue, check your data. It may have invalid data but you may not know it.

I hope this helps!

I recently had a high school classmate recommend a new site to me. She said it was started by a friend’s son, that it was very easy to use (much easier than Quicken) and it had received some very positive reviews.

So I decided to check out Mint.com, the “refreshing money management” site. This site is still in beta with many of the features incomplete; however, there is still enough there today to begin using–if you wish.

Overview of Mint.com

Once you get your login setup and add some accounts, the home screen looks something like this:

The basic premise of the site it to have one central site that allows you access all of your online financial accounts. It then allows you to merge all this data to view your overall financial picture. It also sets up payment alerts and spending trends. All of this is much like a simplified Quicken or Microsoft Money.

So, one site that accesses all your accounts. First thing that popped in to my mind was security. Admittedly, having to log onto the American Express site and then the Discover Card site was an extra step, but at least if the Discover site got hacked the American Express site was separate. With Mint.com, if a hacker gets into this site, they could have field day with all your accounts. The site does stress the strength of its security in the security Privacy & Security section, but let’s take a closer look.

1. You register anonymously so your name is not tied to or displayed on your account. All you need is a valid email (to get alerts and updates) and zip code (to tie back to specific deals in your area)
2. Mint.com asks for your online banking user names and password, but those are not stored on their sites (servers). That means that in order to remember these each time you log on, they are stored on your computer. This is similar to how you now may “remember” passwords for each of your online accounts. It’s also important to remember that this is your online banking login and passwords, not account numbers.
3. Mint.com com actually partners with an online banking service provider to aggregate your account information. This company is Yodlee, which is audited by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Reserve. Your online banking credentials are stored only at Yodlee.
4. All communication between Mint and Yodlee is encrypted using 128-bit SSL, the financial industry standard for data protection.
5. Mint.com uses “banking level” security methods for securing their data. This includes employee background checks to testing their site daily with Hackersafe. So, if you’re not comfortable with what your bank does to secure their data, Mint is no safer.
6. You cannot move money with Mint. It really is just a viewing and analyzing software tool. So, even it someone was able to get into your Mint account, all they can do is view.
7. Mint also has the ability to set up alerts for spending on any of your installed accounts. That’s a great way to track suspicious activity when you’re not looking!
8. Finally, Mint automatically logs you out after a period of inactivity so if you should happen to leave your computer unattended, wandering eyes will not be able to see or access your information.

Ways to Save

A unique aspect to this site is the “ways to save” feature. This is a feature that reviews where you are spending your money and offers up comparable companies that offer similar services but at a possibly lower cost.

This feature looks like this:

This is an interesting and powerful feature, if executed correctly. Find banks with lower interest rates, phone/cable companies with better packages, etc. This is obviously where they are making their money to allow a free site. How well they can manage the customer recommendations against advertisers push will be key to the success of this feature.

Spending Trends

Another great feature is the graphs and reports that are created in the spending trends section. This is similar to reports and graphs from Quicken or Money, but not as many options as those programs. Mint does provide a unique hook on this in that you can track your spending in a particular category (say groceries) to average spending in that same category for your area of the country. I haven’t discovered if this area data comes from other Mint users in your area or another external data source.

I will say I have had some trouble getting the spending trends to work on all my machines. It appears to be a Flash-based application and I may not have all my computers updated correctly or running the right browser or browser plug-ins. In any case, Mint is still in beta and can be expected to have some hiccups.

Final thoughts

This is really a clever idea, with some creative tools for saving and tracking your spending. I wish they had more banks and credit cards implemented. I also really would like to be able to track my investments in this fashion as well, but that is not yet implemented.

I’m going to continue to use this site and anticipate a follow up post once it is out of beta and additional services are implemented.

Greg