“When Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs took the stage on Monday at Apple Inc.’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the focus of attention was on the new iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 — the coming firmware update for all iPhones that will bring with it a slew of new applications,” Michael DeAgonia writes for Computerworld.
“But one of the most important announcements concerned Apple’s new suite of online services, called MobileMe. Think of it as a revamped .Mac with an eye on tying the iPhone to what has until now been largely a syncing/storage/Web-based tool. Oh, and say goodbye to .Mac, which will disappear next month, replaced basically by ‘.me.’ Old .Mac e-mail accounts and Web pages will still work fine. But the emphasis will be on ‘Me.’ In fact. .Mac e-mail addresses can be converted to .me addresses once .Mac users are upgraded to MobileMe,” DeAgonia writes.
“What’s new now, and what’s important, is the emphasis on the push technology unveiled in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software update. On the business front, that software adds direct integration for Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology out of the box. This eliminates the added server, software and licensing costs inherent to the BlackBerry and simplifies the job of IT support. By licensing Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology, Apple is making the iPhone a real alternative to the popular BlackBerry, which offers similar ‘push’ functionality. For those without access to an Exchange server and Active Sync, MobileMe offers a solution,” DeAgonia writes.
“Put simply: Exchange enables push technology for business users; MobileMe means push technology for the rest of us,” DeAgonia writes.
“It’s also a replacement for Apple’s current .Mac Web services, which currently include online storage, e-mail addresses, contact and calendar syncing across multiple computers, Back to my Mac and photo sharing. While the majority of functions in MobileMe are similar to those in .Mac, one of the big differences is that Apple is making MobileMe accessible to iPhones and iPod touches — and it has made the service entirely cross-platform. Once MobileMe rolls out, Windows users will be able to sign up for Apple’s previously Mac-only Web services,” DeAgonia writes.
Full article here.
How many glasses of ice water is Jobs gonna give those suminabitches?
I still want to know whether back-to-my-mac will still work with MobileMe. I haven’t seen it mentioned.
in fact, mobileme will provide also “push services and background notifications” for third party developers to avoid background applications.
back-to-my-me?
Yes. Yes. and Yes.
Anyone know if these same features would be available on the iPod touch through WiFi.
Forget about .Mac, what’s going on with Apple stock? down $6.06 per share.
Yes back-to-my-mac will still be a part of MobileMe. Check out this page at Apple:
http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/mac.html
@Joe: I’m guessing that the rumors about Steve Jobs’ health are contributing to the stock drop.
Too damn expensive. It’s not going to do much better than .Mac at that price.
The “new” .Me should cover the loss of revenue from the monthly pay-out AT&T used to pay. The iPhone linkage is one of the major new features – one I won’t be taking advantage of – in the .Mac package.
Down $6 (~3%) a share is “not good”, but nothing compared to the nearly 20% the rest of my portfolio suffered. Jobs looks sick, and if he’s as sick as he looks then we need to get a search committee looking for a replacement. NOT a bean-counter, but a another dreamer.
Yeah, $99 per year is TOTALLY UNREASONABLE!!!
Imagine $8.25 per month!!! Why, that’ll buy you TWO cups of Starbucks! Or like 6 whole packs of gum! Or half a fscking lunch!!!
I personally think it should be free. I’m a tight ass, you see
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Great MDN take. LOL. Not everyone will get it. See last year’s D2 highlight video of Mossberg’s interview with Steve Jobs.
@ Cheap and Stupid like R2
Everythings always “only a few dollars more a month”. That sort of rationale is exactly why this country is in so much debt.
The debate is whether the MobileMe services are WORTH “only $8.25 per month”. The features ARE more compelling than .Mac, but I’m still not convinced. Push email can be had for free elsewhere, the contact and calendar syncing is cool, but I use my iPhone 95% of the time for this. Do I really need to spend 8.25 a month for the other 5%? Uploading of photo’s can be done by emails to any range of photo/blog sites already. Online storage is not tied to the iPhone. It’s also not a very exciting feature and can be had elsewhere. I’m not knocking MobileMe, it is a slick all in one package…. but for the price I don’t think it’s worth it and I’d wager that many others will not as well.
Guys, the price is GREAT when you consider the $149 “Family Pack”! The price-per-computer goes down in a hurry on that deal. If you can share between computers just ONE “address book collection” or just ONE “calendar”, and turn off syncing email on a computer-by-computer basis, this would ROCK!!!
I can’t wait to get out of my @$$ raping Verizon Wireless contract. The old AT&T;plan was exactly the same price as mine for what I get, but of course you get so much more with an iPhone. I’ll be willing to pay $10 more a month for an iPhone plan.
Regarding MobileMe, it’s all up to how much of a use you have for the service. If you don’t, don’t pay for it. And, you’ll be able to get 2 extra coffees per month!
To Cire….
Check : http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/mac.html
At the bottom of the page you will see your answer for “Back to My Mac”
Cheers!
Whine Whine Whine! Every time this issue of cost on .mac and now the Modbil Me service people kvetch about cost. Although Apple is charging $99 you can go to Amazon.com or other price shopping sites and find the service for much less. I just resigned up ( (renewed) my .Mac service after being expired for probably over 2 years. I just used the sign up # as my renewal # and everything is fine. Cost? It was about $67 I think from Amazon. I also ordered a sign up kit for my room mate for his birthday because he lost all of his iTunes library and other infor due to a hd corruption issue and dind’t have his G4 Mac backed up. Since he doesn’t have Leopard with Time Machine, .Mac offers a backup and sycnh capability for him that is easy to use.
The cost may not be worth it to some people but it’s features, and now enhanced with MobileMe, it is nice to have and the monthly cost is less if you get a reduced cost package or go with a Family Pack as someone else suggested.
.Me, .mac or. my it still a rip and I’ll still be sticking with google.
“Forget the Mac”
Steve already has with his “No New Features” policy in Snow Job Leopard.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I hate the name @me.com for an email address. I’m glad that I can keep using @mac.com. @me sounds childish and unprofessional, especially when handing it out in the business world. Additonally, @mac says that I use Mac and not to sound cheesy, but I like when people ask because that usually leads them to start questioning Apple’s computers and I try and do my best to sell them on one. The whole cloud logo and the big ME just don’t do it – That ME looks like Windows ME, that’s what I think about. I know they’re trying to appeal to a larger base, but I’m now worried they’ll only keep my @mac addresses available for a year or so before killing them away… And then I’m not too sure I’ll want to represent my business with an @me address. Does anyone else have these thoughts?
Just bought it for $69 at Amazon. Figure I’ll activate around July 10…
To .Mac
I’m with you on this. I’m happy to use .mac in my email address but .me sounds childish and unprofessional. If and when Apple forces me to stop using my .mac address, I’ll probably move to gmail and forgo the whole .me business. But as long as I can still use .mac, I will.
.Mac and Snow Leopard Man,
I’m with you guys. I just started a new business and have a .Mac email address for the business. A “dot-me” email address will do my business more PR harm than good. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read the MDN summary above (before reading the comments posted to the article) — “Will I still be able to use my .Mac email addresses?”
Exactly how will MobileMe integrate iWeb? Will we finally be capable of updating our iWeb sites from different computers with ease?