That's pretty nasty of Apple. I'd be pissed off if some 3rd party vendor installed an unsolicited System Prefs pane on my Mac. That's a BAD APPLE!

Let all the bloggers, podcasters, and other Mac and Windows "analysts" tear this whole story apart. The Software Update auto checking Safari thing lasted for weeks and I was tired of everyone complaining. I guess I get to hear everyone complain that Apple is again a company that puts out spyware and/or Trojans just because they decided to put a piece of software that really hurts no one. I understand security concerns for businesses, but then don't install iTunes. Since when has iTunes been business software anyway?

Even though most PCs are full of spyware that the users did not purposefully install, I'm very sure that people will b**** when they see this preference pane and vilify Apple again in the same way that they did with the Safari update debacle.

So.. installing a preference pane RELATED TO AN APP THAT THE USER ALREADY INSTALLED ON THEIR OWN (iTunes) is somehow an unethical decision? This makes no sense.

Just shows how pathetic windows security is that an app can install another app without asking the user. THAT is the REAL issue here. Perhaps Apple is just showing how bad Windows really is.

Windows MobileMe preferences panel installs with iTunes 7.7. Have it on XP and Vista machines since the day iTunes was released. The panel doesn't do anything until user have signed up, it just displays login and password fields for MobileMe.

This conspiracy, unlike the previous one with Safari, will fail to gain enough attention that would have resulted in public outcry. Why? First, because there's no autoupdate involved. Second, because MobileMe considered a part of iPhone experience, and anything iPhone needs is installed together with iTunes, like device agent service for instance.

And the last but not the least: to start public outcry from a stupid blog post is possible only when public is ignorant in its majority. Unfortunately for Steve Clayton the maximum effect his post may cause is some users complaining that iTunes installed extra stuff they personally don't need or don't know the purpose of. Wow.

Is it just me, or does the MobileMe icon look like it fits better with the Vista interface than with the Mac?

And you'd think the bigger complaint from the user community would be the fact it doesn't work well, if at all.

Safari bookmarks come in. OK. Outlook gets copies of .Mac calendars, but Outlook calendar doesn't push to .Mac (sorry, MM). Changes in Outlook don't push out.

Contacts doesn't work at all that I can tell. None of my contacts came into Outlook, and none of my outlook contacts went to MM.

Oh, and I just did a sync on my mac, and it tells me it wants to delete 147 calendar entries from my computer, which is definitely wrong.

.... on a roll.

I guess Mom's asleep so he has access to the PC to post.

...and his usual "I hate all things Apple. Waaa, Waaa, Waaa" posting continues.

Particularly when it's amusing the he complains about things of his own doing, or that he doesn't understand how to use.

@testudo: "and I just did a sync on my mac, and it tells me it wants to delete 147 calendar entries from my computer "

If the data on your computer is the most up-to-date, then you should replace all the sync data on your MobileMe account with it.

It works fine for me. Having an issue with the address book, but otherwise everything is working great.

Back on subject... Actually my brother has a PC and a MobileMe account. He was pleasantly surprised that after upgrading iTunes, the MobileMe preferences was automatically installed. Besides all that, it's probably written in the EULA that it installs the preference pane.