MobileMe announced for iPhones, Macs, and PCs -- .Mac is dead

The rumors were true, Apple just announced their new MobileMe service. Push mail, contacts and calendar data all in the cloud and synced back to your iPhone over the air. Works with the Mac's Mail.app, iCal, and Address Book as well as on PCs for those using Microsoft's Outlook. It's built around Ajax and fully "web 2.0" so that you can access the service from your favorite web browser while maintaining the look and feel of your desktop applications. Syncs photos from your iPhone too. Available at me.com for $99/year and 20GB of on-line storage -- 60 day free trial in early July. Dot mac (.Mac) is gone, baby gone.

[wako @ Jun 9th 2008 2:14PM]

wtf? im hoping you forgot to click the submit button before you finished writing up the article

[wako @ Jun 9th 2008 2:17PM]

Oh damn... okay its just another Apple story...


if you guys are going to post anything apple related tell me something that is interesting. Like when the hell I can get my dirty hands on a 3G iPhone...

[Flashpoint @ Jun 9th 2008 2:26PM]

So while I'm in France taking pictures of women - my wife will be at home watching my Photo album get updated.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 9th 2008 4:40PM]

Sounds like an even faster way for you to get your stolen iPhone back.

Whoever steals it starts taking pictures - you get the updates...notify the police.

[matt @ Jun 9th 2008 2:15PM]

oooh developing...

[Leandro Almeida @ Jun 9th 2008 2:15PM]

what?

[Richard Walker @ Jun 9th 2008 2:15PM]

I love the amount of detail in this story! haha

[matt @ Jun 9th 2008 2:17PM]

The logo looks like windows me HAHAHAHA

[Nabil @ Jun 9th 2008 2:25PM]

maybe it will be as usable as windows me

[The Apple @ Jun 9th 2008 2:58PM]

That was just uncalled for...
Cruelty

[Darwin @ Jun 9th 2008 7:15PM]

mos def. certainly was the first thing I thought.

I want to see M$ sue for logo infringement because, you know, this really harms the Windows ME marque...

[Brian! @ Jun 9th 2008 2:19PM]

I am listening to the life audio stream here.

I am glad that the iPhone is starting to have the features it needed (better sync, persistent data, etc...), but I always feel a little disappointed how so many people get so excited about features that already exist in other products.

Also, I am very uncomfortable with the iTunes, MobileMe, etc... stuff that locks me into Apple's software. Only because my production computers are 64bit Vista and iTunes has never been that friendly on Vista. I would like to see the opportunity for 3rd party developers to access my phone better. I feel that they might be able to make better tools.

[John @ Jun 9th 2008 3:56PM]

I think what you really mean is that Vista isn't friendly with iTunes. Gee whiz, I wonder why?

[t3_slider @ Jun 10th 2008 12:11AM]

Yeah, because application developers that write buggy programs that crash is VISTA'S fault. You're smart to realize that. Dumbass. I hate Microsoft and even I can realize how moronic your fanboy statement is. Geez.

[Idlemind @ Jun 9th 2008 2:20PM]

they should have just made iSync wireless...

This thing is gonna be like the WebApp on the sidekick...

[Jon B @ Jun 9th 2008 2:25PM]

it IS wireless :)

[DYLAN C @ Jun 9th 2008 2:20PM]

Go to me.com right now....it's a social networking site that moved...not this apple bootleg exchange.

[Jake @ Jun 9th 2008 2:21PM]

The post is short because it was posted most likely from WWDC.

[huh @ Jun 9th 2008 2:21PM]

mobile me-too ... once again apple tries with their me-too web based services (like mac.com) vs the world.. when will they learn? I guess people just don't want a gated garden path, they'd rather have choice.

[john @ Jun 9th 2008 2:21PM]

What about Google apps?

What about Mozilla apps (Thunderbird/Sunbird/Lightning)?

What about Linux clients other than Mozilla ones?

[Brian! @ Jun 9th 2008 2:25PM]

Google? Mozilla?

Today is Apple day. No other software exists. Trust me, you have never seen anything like MobileMe before. Those others are not the apps you are looking for. They never existed.

Bow down to the one true software vendor... Apple.

[Mark Anderson @ Jun 9th 2008 2:23PM]

This is new?

Hardly. Other providers have had similar stuff for ages.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[Alex Hempton-Smith @ Jun 9th 2008 2:24PM]

I wonder if the "web 2.0 apps" will support IE6? :P

[Low Ranked @ Jun 9th 2008 2:24PM]

Oh God. The last thing I remember having the letters 'ME' in it was the horribly doomed Windows OS.

This may be cursed from the start.

[Frederik @ Jun 9th 2008 3:16PM]

I actually wish that Apple could have come up with a more appealing name than this. It really sounds like Mini Me from Austin Powers.

[Kai @ Jun 10th 2008 6:27AM]

Agreed. With all the marketing smarts at Apple, they could probably think of a better name. The logo (presuming the "cloud" picture is the logo) is also not very "Apple-like" (maybe the colors are somewhat off in the pic, but still)...

[drgambit @ Jun 9th 2008 2:25PM]

me.com doesnt exist

[Todd @ Jun 9th 2008 3:02PM]

Wrong, it does exist, but it redirects to a Google "supported" web 2.0 company. I think we can safely bet who sold the domain to Apple...

If we look at the domain's history, it looks like its last owner was Small Seed Company (makers of Me.com, turned Snappville). They started using the domain in late 2004. Before Snappville, me.com was home to holidaychannel.com (believe it or not) and a super-crapy web conferencing system (circa 1999).

Welcome home me.com, you finally (probably) don't suck.

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 9th 2008 2:26PM]

so...whats new???

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 9th 2008 2:27PM]

oh ya forgot...how much do the ipeople have to pay for this service???

[DG @ Jun 9th 2008 2:27PM]

Why would I choose this over Google Apps? It seems like it does the same stuff but with a different interface. Will it use my Gmail account? Does it cost money? Am I missing something?

[Brian! @ Jun 9th 2008 2:30PM]

"It's available for $99 per year -- 20GB of storage."

[Brian! @ Jun 9th 2008 2:29PM]

A serious comment. As I listen to MobileMe I am reminded about the same problem with gmail: Many of these tools are great for individuals, but horrible for business/enterprise.

The truth is, no matter how well Apple makes MobileMe, I have to use my corporate email server. The last thing I want clients doing is communicating to me through [e-mail], or [e-mail] or anything of that sort.

I suppose they might integrate pop3 checking from their App. I dunno... I have my doubts.

[davidwes @ Jun 9th 2008 3:01PM]

That is why they are supporting exchange and this. This is "exchange for the rest of us" as Jobs said. Also you can use your own domain name on .mac but I am not sure about mobileme.

[PSM @ Jun 9th 2008 3:02PM]

Which is probably why they specifically said its purpose is to give Exchange-like features to people who don't have corporate Exchange access.

[Jake @ Jun 9th 2008 2:29PM]

99 bucks a year!!!!! Ripoff!!!!! I'll do it the old fashioned way.

[Mark Anderson @ Jun 9th 2008 2:30PM]

$99 for a year with only 20GB storage?

This is going to fail and fail hard.

[Patrick @ Jun 9th 2008 2:32PM]

What if i still have a .mac prepaid card? Will that transfer? or dead?

[Galley @ Jun 9th 2008 3:07PM]

You should be upgraded for free.

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 9th 2008 2:36PM]

For $99 a year, no cheapster will buy it. They keep saying the free storage sites are better and free. Apple might have stood a chance if it was $50, but if people can't spend $10 for a software update then $99 is far too expensive. A pity.

[Danial @ Jun 9th 2008 2:55PM]

I quite like all of those features... in my Google account. Hell, as long as I provide the domain, I get all those features and more for free with my own domain name attached. I'll admit, the Google products could be tied together a little better, but they all are extremely good and function as needed beyond expectation. I think this is one market Apple is hitting all wrong.

[Adam @ Jun 9th 2008 4:05PM]

Classic comment!

" ... in my Google account."

Too true.

I think Steve Jobs just admitted that he's not going to take it to the mat with Google until he absolutely has to get into a fight.

I only hope that Apple and Google can shake hands and work on a deal otherwise they'll get into a sh*t fight that can only benefit the competitors. I'd like to think Google is already too smart to tackle Apple on their own ground (hardware and desktop OS) but it seems Apple is going to hang on to denial a little longer (as far as the mobile OS goes) and that leaves them open to value-add like me.com unable to "gain market traction." As long as Apple wants $99 for a bunch of free services, I doubt they can make it fly. After all, hard core Apple techs pride themselves on not paying for .mac for just this reason -- it should be free and you've already paid for it by being an Apple customer.

[Christopher @ Jun 9th 2008 2:59PM]

$99!!!! Too expensive...my personal exchange account is only about half of that for a year and it does the same thing. I'm interested, but probably not at that price.

[Kevin @ Jun 9th 2008 3:01PM]

Where is the Linux syncing support?! I just want to playback, add/remove music with ease :(

[alpha @ Jun 9th 2008 3:05PM]

I don't understand about these comments. I now pay >$10/month for exchange push service. If they truly deliver what they said about MobileMe, how is that expensive?

[Witch-King @ Jun 9th 2008 3:11PM]

I tend to agree with alpha. I pay more than $99/year for my hosted exchange account that only gives me 500MB of email storage. Even if you split the MobileMe storage in half (default allocation in .Mac) you still end up with 10GB of email storage.

How exactly is that a bad thing?

[SupaDave @ Jun 9th 2008 3:16PM]

I think this is an excellent service, except for the mobileme domain. If they had an option for the small business user to use their own domain (like Google), I would gladly pay $100 a year for full wireless sync.

There is a huge market out there for consumers who need this type of service. The enterprise has enjoyed the benefits for years. I think the iPhone is going to be the catalyst...

[Danny @ Jun 9th 2008 3:29PM]

.Mac does let you use a personal domain now

[gmark2000 @ Jun 9th 2008 3:21PM]

MobileMe is what FirstClass was offering seven years ago. Apple tried to buy FirstClass in the 90s but instead offered up Apple Powermail servers that couldn't compete.

Everything MobileMe does, I was doing with FirstClass and my Blackberry and my Mac seven years ago.

[Shahryar @ Jun 9th 2008 3:32PM]

I'm pretty excited about this, but the $99 is scaring me. Right now, me and my wife both have MBPs and I have a N76 and she has a N82. I sync our contacts and our calendar via isync whenever we get near one of our MBPs, and other than Symbian's stupid recreation of Birthdays as midnight to midnight events on our Nokias, the process works pretty good.

I do wish for something more instant though as I could go a week or so without syncing our cells. This would be a nice solution to that. it'd be nice if it has notes too (didn't see that explicitly mentioned) so I can be at the grocery store and have the latest list on me.

Looking at other comments, it seems there are options out there that may do this but I haven't really tried to go out and find them. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.