Too lazy to cancel your $99
MobileMe automatic subscription renewal and make the jump to one of the many free alternatives? Don't worry, your lethargy has paid off this morning as Apple introduces its new MobileMe
iDisk 1.2 app and a beta version of its new MobileMe Calendar. iDisk is pretty much the same app you know and ignore only now it's optimized for the bigger iPad screen, tweaked to support iOS 4 multitasking, and offers the option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps -- like using
iBooks for PDFs for example. The faster loading MobileMe Calendar beta (login to MobileMe to request an invite) features redesigned day, week, and month views; calendar sharing amongst friends, family, and predators (if you like); the ability to publish a calendar to a team or group; and event invitations to anyone holding an email address (me.com or not) with RSVP support and automatic change notifications. Best of all, the Calendar beta uses the CalDAV standard, you know, just like that free Calendar from the company that rhymes with frugal.
posted July 7th 2010 4:08AM
The iPad supports multitasking now?
@tobsmonster2
"...tweaked to support iOS 4 multitasking,..."
You didnt know iOS4 had multitasking? Welcome to Engadget.
@engadget "Just like that free Calendar from the company that rhymes with frugal"
The bestiality site f*ckmypoodle has a free calendar?
As calendars go, this looks nice but who the hell is using a big calendar like this? It works fine on a phone and you get notifications everywhere you go. I just don't see many people using this on an iPad.
@TinWard Well..first of all, the calendar has looked (almost) like this since launch, this is an update to interface of the MobileMe calendar. And I know a lot of people who either use physical calendars or calendars in their computer at home..so I think a lot of people do use this. It's quite handy to keep it synced between your iPhone, iPad and Mac too.
@Wesscoast
iOS 4 does support multitasking but that is on the new iPhone 4, not the iPad. You could jailbreak your iPad to support multitasking though.
Otherwise wait until the fall to get multitasking on the iPad.
Looks pretty.
Statement: While the more optimistic appearance of the new interface annoys me, I look forward to acquiring this upgrade.
This just makes me love googles free products even more...love how everything I do on my N1 transfers instantly to my PC, and vice versa.
@B3astofthe3ast Well, MobileMe and iPhone have been doing that since the iphone was launched (and between all my computers as well before that). So no news there...
@disappearhere You've skipped past the part where he said FREE...
@Kaiser
Advertisement-supported (monetarily free). Google is not in this for charity.
Lunch with Dimitri?
The Russians are coming!
"offers the option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps -- like using iBooks for PDFs for example."
Wait wait wait wait.
I didn't recall the public Keynote at WWDC 2010 talking about apps being able to register to the iOS to advertises supported file format.
This would be REALLY great : another way to exchange data and documents between app.
And a storage app (local or in the cloud, like iDisk) could advertize supporting all file formats.
@AWx I would be great if for example the photoshop app could register that it can handle jpg-files and you can then edit all your fotos on the idisk with photoshop :)
@fabianpimminger This is EXACTLY what I had in mind.
And then the PS app could "forward" the current document to other JPG supporting apps, like an EXIF reader/editor or event back to the iDisk (or equivalent like Air Sharing, ...) since the later would register as handling all formats.
This would be a great usage of MacOS Leopard Uniform Type Identifier (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/22/inside_snow_leopards_uti_apple_fixes_the_creator_code.html)
@AWx After a quick check, this was introduced in 3.2 for the iPad and indeed uses UTI to identify compatible applications. It seems to work exactly as decribed in the link above/
MobileMe should be free, it was suggested that Apple were going to make it free.
$99.99 is too much, and as you say, there are alternatives which are just as good if not better which are free.
@RSebire if you look online, you can easily get MobileMe for half that price...
@Cats Having to search online for deals is not Apples target audience! (I meant the target audience that just wants stuff to work and knows nothing about anything tech, Not the one that likes to overpay)
@B3astofthe3ast...So true man. I love how my tasks, contacts and calendar automatically syncs up on it's own without me having to do anything. I hate iTunes with a passion and would never want to be tied down to. I definitely wouldn't want to hook up to it everyday just so I can sync stuff. Apple really needs to learn how to use the cloud.
Ugh. Make it free.
It would be great if they updated the desktop app to look like this rather than the dated appearance it has now.
@VictorRaikkonen
Not likely. The iPad is a touch interface UI and Mac OS X is keyboard/mouse.
Good night.
@Wesscoast It's very likely. Safari runs on Mac OS X which uses a keyboard/mouse input so what stops the desktop app from getting the same interface?
The party will be better organised, and in time...
Slowly but Apple improve this expencive thing.
MobileMe has been there for me multiple times...with find my phone, and find my kids phone I've been able to locate my lost gadget and lost kid! Lol. The resyncing of EVERYTHInG is awesome and much smoother between my iMac and iPhone/iPad. I DO NOT feel comfortable with google having access to ALL my contacts for free, google is becoming sketchier by the day...I shut down my google account recently because of privacy concerns, I'm sick of having this huge untouchable company having such intimate access to all my stuff...it's creepy the way they use it...yuck
Looks pretty Windowish. Not always a bad thing.
It's not that it's too much at $99. I just wouldn't use it, even if it were free.
Apple needs to get over itself and enable Google syncing of email, cal and contacts.
Do that and you adopt one of Android's killer features.
@djbentley Apple already syncs Google Mail Calendars and Contacts in Mac OS X and iOS devices. I've been using that functionality for quite a while and it works great. Just enable Exchange syncing (Google Sync) and then then add your GMail as an Exchange account on your Mac, or iOS device. Your Google Calendars and Contacts will come along for the ride and they will sync across your devices ... like MobileMe. :)
@djbentley you can use Google Sync on the iPhone and have been able to since iOS 2.0 I think... Google has Exchange servers setup to work with Gmail, Gcal and Gmail Contacts that will sync via push to the iPhone... I've been doing this forever
http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/
@djbentley As the guys have said, it's a feature they've had for a while. Gmail is my preferred email service, and it works great (I have five Gmail accounts for different things, all sync perfectly).
I like it. I'd like to see an updated iCal, at some point. I'm finding that I use iCal and MobileMe more and more, lately.
To those whining about this needing to be free, I'd like to remind you that you don't have to use MobileMe unless you want to, and if you want to, it's HIGHLY unlikely you have to pay the $99. Most people track down the $30 discount or get it free from a friend who has a free family pack.
@al3xstone No it suppose to be FREE, everything should be free. No rent, no bills, it should be free world. Why the hell should we pay fir anything.
What they really need to do with MobileMe is enable Back to my Mac with the iPad. Then I'll be able to kiss LogMeIn goodbye, and get more from my existing MobileMe subscription.
Fundemental question: As a huge fan of apple, I really don't see why ppl want to pay $99 a year for MobileMe.....
@iantolee I didn't get it either, but recently I've been trialing it. I have an iPhone, iPad, Windows 7 PC and a MacBook Pro. None of the free services can...
- Allow me to locate my iPhone or iPad in the event of loss or theft.
- Give me 20GB of storage space for any and all files I choose to throw at it.
MobileMe also integrates extremely well with all of my devices - even the PC. I was shocked at how little resource hogging it does on Windows, considering iTunes PC and the trillion services it installs are a crapfest.
I already paying far more than $99 for my ZumoDrive account (I pay $20/month for 100GB of space to back-up my MP3 collection), and ZumoDrive is limited in what it can do.
For many, the free services are perfect; and I would love a price reduction; but Kool Aid drinking aside, it works wonders for my needs. Mileage will vary considerably for others.
Waaaaaa! Its 99.00 a year. Sounds like you people are in the wrong line of work! Can't afford 99.00 a year? 2 hours work at best for a full year? What's the beef?
Remember the courier concept which was out ther for a while and a while ago... just asking.
Pfft. Two years later and a Calendar Invitation is in the works now. Everyone else has MS Exchange invitations and they kept MobileMe people away from inviting. Bull!
I like the cleaner, more modern look of this design as compared to the current calendar app on iPad. Hope that when iOS4 gets ported to the iPad they replace what's currently there with this....
Finally. Apple started doing something about those crippled web-based MobileMe services. First they got Mail to do a few cool tricks, not Calendar. I hope they'll get all of their online apps updated, and then make MobileMe FREE! This will kill competition right on the spot.
Honestly, the first thing I thought was, "Wait, isn't that a Windows 7 application (with W7 styling, no less)?"
Yes, I am currently in the hospital.
Omg you are all such complainers. Like it was said above me, you seriously can't afford 99$ for a year? Must everything be free? Free apps only! Free phones only! Free sync services! Do u think they don't actually pay the people to develop these services?
Go to google & dropbox & busysync and all these other services to get the same thing u get from ONE login and service. It's worth the fee. I've been saved plenty of times. And engadget, please w the sarcasm. I CHOOSE to pay for my mobile me and I USE my iDisk cuz I get 20gbs not a measly 2 from dropbox or 7 from gmail.
Get over yourself an stop advocating foe free everything. The govt should just pay for it too while we're at it huh?
@knightGeek But that 2GB from Dropbox and 7GB for Gmail, 1GB for Picasaweb and 1GB for Google Docs. 11GB there for grabs! You can sync your iPhone with Google's Mobile Sync to get push e-mail, contacts and calendars, see http://m.google.com/sync. I'm a recent convert from iPhone to Android, because of Google's free sync service the migration of my mail, contacts and calendars was super easy.
I can't justify spending $99 on a service which I can get for free and in some cases better.
@DaveF81 Sometimes I think apple has some kind of brain washing. The things I hear from Apple buyers are unbelievable. 99$ for something that has been free since the 90s
Sheesh.
I checked out the trial for mobileme, its really sleek...much more organized than Google.
But its 99 bux too many for me...
Less than two bucks a week, and that's if you don't use a promo. People are complaining over 1.80 something a week? Good grief. Must be a slow day.