dot mac
Latest
Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on
We've had a few weeks to get accustomed to iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, but one headlining feature has been notably inaccessible since it was unveiled earlier this summer. During his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs touted iCloud as a service that will sync many of your Apple devices, for free. Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows computers can synchronize documents, contacts, calendar appointments, and other data. You'll also be able to back up your iOS devices remotely, use an Apple-hosted email account, and store your music in the cloud. Well, this week Apple finally lit up its cloud-based service for developers, letting some of us take a sneak peek at the new service. Apple also announced pricing, confirming that you'll be able to add annual subscriptions with 10GB ($20), 20GB ($40), or 50GB ($100) of storage 'atop your free 5GB account. We took our five gig account for a spin, creating documents in Pages, spreadsheets in Numbers, and presentations in Keynote, then accessing them from the iCloud web interface to download Microsoft Office and PDF versions. We also tried our luck at iOS data syncing and the soon-to-be-controversial Photo Stream, so jump past the break for our full iCloud hands-on.%Gallery-129793%
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 beta brings iCloud support, no bug fixes
We know what you're thinking: Mac OS X Lion (10.7) has been out for nearly a week, so why have we yet to hear anything about Snow Lion? Patience friends, Apple will roar soon enough -- but for now, 10.7.2 will have to do. Apple released the beta update to developers over the weekend, eschewing any acknowledgment of 10.7.1, or correcting any of the bugs that have popped up over the last week. Instead, Lion's pending second update (build 11C26) is required for testing the operating system with iCloud -- a feature notably absent in the public version of the OS released last week. The new System Preferences iCloud module enables granular management of select features, letting you choose which accounts and services to sync. Full iCloud support is coming in the fall with the release of iOS 5, so it's probably safe to assume that Apple plans to patch some of those bugs in the meantime -- any day now, we hope.
Learn how to draw a Mac network node sphere with this tutorial
If you've always wondered how to draw a "ball of nodes" as featured in a variety of Mac OS X icons, wonder no more: Mike Rundle of flyosity.com has written a tutorial to show you how using Photoshop. Rundle discusses "spheric realism," the process of understanding the materials, reflectivity, and roundness of a sphere, and how to accurately illustrate it digitally. Clever users can easily adapt the technique for Illustrator, Acorn, or many other compositing tools that feature blur and blending mode support. Rundle also offers a PSD file containing the artwork with no strings attached. Thanks Todd!
TUAW Review: MobileMe
MobileMe, the successor to Apple's lackluster .Mac service, is poised to bring subscribers into the realm of "cloud computing," one of those nauseating phrases that's been around for a while, but nobody has a better term for. MobileMe provides email, calendaring, contact management, photo sharing, and online file storage to Windows, Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch users for $99. A family pack subscription is also available for $149, which adds four 5GB accounts to a standard-sized 20GB account (making 40GB of storage total). Users can also add 20GB or 40GB of storage to their account for $49 and $99, respectively. MobileMe got off to a really rough start last week, but we still don't know exactly where the hangup was during the transition. I know I'm interested to know what happened, but for now, let's just all be glad that it's working, and have us a look-see at what's new. After the jump, join me for an in-depth look at MobileMe's features, and how they compare to .Mac and other free services available elsewhere on the web.
MobileMe: A First look
We've all awaited the .Mac to MobileMe switch for a while now (some more than others). However, Apple's 6 hour time table for upgrading to MobileMe turned awry and led into an almost 24 hour up, down, up, up, down cycle.If you're like most users experiencing the 24 outage, then you haven't been able to login and experience MobileMe first hand. So why not take a look at our gallery? We've got pictures of the entire MobileMe suite of web applications and user preferences: from the login screen to storage partitioning. %Gallery-27239%
MobileMe launch pushed back two hours
Yesterday, we noticed that the .Mac status page listed a MobileMe launch date and time of July 9th between 6 p.m. until 12 a.m. PT. Tonight, there seems to have been a change. As of this writing, the .Mac status page says, "MobileMe Launch: 7/9/2008, 8pm-2am PT -- As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 8pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th."So, we've got to wait two more hours? Oh, no! Actually, we'd rather the folks at Apple take the time necessary to do things right. Oh, who are we kidding ... we want MobileMe!Stay tuned here for the latest information on this transition.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Saying "goodbye" to .Mac
Tonight, we will all say "goodbye" to .Mac, a service that has been a small part of Apple for almost 8 years. iTools, .Mac's predecessor, was launched on January 5, 2000 at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and was a free service that included a HomePage, iCards and the much coveted @mac.com e-mail address that is commonplace today (as well as the forgotten 'KidSafe,' which was a database of kid friendly websites Apple compiled so you could make sure your children weren't up to no good on your Mac). As more users came to the service and the cost of bandwidth went up, Apple began charging for the service and called it .Mac. The name ".Mac" was born at the Macworld Expo in New York on July 17, 2002 and provided several new services including: a beefed up iDisk (with a dizzying 100 megs of space), Backup, and a free copy of Virex. On September 17, 2002, Apple announced that it would discontinue the free iTools service in favor for .Mac. That brings us to, well, tonight. Apple is scheduled to take down .Mac and replace it with a newer, rebranded service named "MobileMe." While some scoff at the name, TUAW can't help but see the other side of the picture: look how far iTools has evolved over the past 8 years. So, join us in saying, "So long old friend, we hardly knew ye." Do you have a favorite story to tell about iTools or .Mac? Be sure to mention it in the comments below! Apple is scheduled to take down the .Mac service between 6 p.m. and 12 a.m. pacific time.
Apple, Amazon offer boxed versions of MobileMe
Early Tuesday morning, Apple started offering boxed versions of the much awaited MobileMe web service. While buying from Apple costs $99 for the boxed version, Amazon is offering MobileMe for $89.99 (US). According to Amazon, MobileMe has been on sale since "July 1, 2008," however, they also say "This item will not be released until July 12, 2008." We did learn last night that MobileMe is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, July 9th around 6 p.m. pacific time. Stay tuned to TUAW for the latest information regarding the .Mac to MobileMe switch, iPhone 2.0 software, and the iPhone 3G coverage. Thanks, Jay!
MobileMe launch date set: July 9th at 6 p.m. PT
Apple has just updated the .Mac status page with the date/time of the .Mac to MobileMe switch. So, for those of you wondering when Apple might start the switch will not have to wonder any longer. July 9th from 6 p.m. until 12 a.m. PT is the scheduled date and time.Apple says that during the switch, users will be "unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services ... with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch." According to Apple, "MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window." Be sure to stay tuned to TUAW for the latest on the .Mac to MobileMe switch. Thanks, Andy and Barry!
The real .mac opens up with new regulations
ICANN, the ruling body for Internet domain naming, has voted to relax a few rules that will supposedly open up a whole slew of top-level domain names, multiple news sources are reporting. They haven't exactly said why they're doing this, only that it will "preserve the security, stability, and global interoperability of the Internet." Which seems like a good reason, we guess. But whatever the reason, it's good news for people who don't want to use the old standbys of .com or .org -- now, bidding can start for .sex, .xxx, .post, or any other combination of letters.Like, for example, .mac. Yes, for the first time in the history of the Internet, Apple would have been able to make good on its .Mac brand -- except that, as you know, they decided just a few weeks ago to change that brand to Mobile Me. Though we supposed mobile.me is probably out there somewhere.Of course, as we've speculated before, the change to Mobile Me wasn't so much about domain names as it was about just getting away from the Apple brand, and creating a service that both Mac and PC users would be interested in. So odds are that Apple wasn't waiting for .mac anyway. But it is interesting that even though they can finally have it, they don't actually need it any more.Thanks, Darcy L!
UI changes in the MobileMe Guided Tour
Part of the fun of watching the Guided Tour videos that Apple has been producing lately is obsessing over every minor detail. With that in mind, we've gone over the MobileMe Guided Tour with a fine-toothed comb. Here's what we found.%Gallery-24763%
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.
.Mac and Me rumors: TUAW inside look at Apple's next-gen service
What's next for .Mac, Apple's much-maligned online service offering for OS X users? TUAW has learned that .Mac will no longer be sold by Apple after WWDC, as new users will migrate to the new MobileMe service (not too shocking, given the swirling rumors as of late). Existing users will have their @mac.com e-mail addresses forwarded to their @me.com address in perpetuity, which should provide some relief for nervous .Mac users who depend on that email.MobileMe is slated to include a host of new features, which we alluded to early in May; in addition, there will be new web interfaces for all aspects of MobileMe -- calendars will look just like iCal, Contacts will look just like they do in Address Book, etc. This is similar to the way .Mac Webmail works today, though we've heard that the new interfaces will be much snazzier (yes, that's a technical term). Apple should also be updating the .Mac dependent applications (iChat, iWeb, iPhoto etc.) to work with the new service. The new service will be backwards compatible with .Mac protocols for the time being -- so developers will not have to rush out updates as soon as they hear the official word.MobileMe is scheduled to be available sometime in late June/early July. We have also heard reports that the latest build of the iPhone beta firmware (2.0) has already undergone revisions to handle the new MobileMe service. Some of the features of the service on iPhone will include: over-the-air syncing of contacts, calendars, and photos. Interestingly, there is also a Windows version of MobileMe planned. Though we're confident in the source of this information, this is still a rumor until Apple reveals all. We should hear more information about MobileMe at the World Wide Developer's Conference starting on Monday (June 9th).
Apple's .Mac (Google) overhaul finally near?
Warning: rumor and speculation ahead. Here's an oldie but a goodie. Remember rumors last year that Apple's .Mac was about to get a Google overhaul? It's back with a bullet thanks to the latest 10.5.3 Leopard update. That iCal code snippet above replaces ".Mac" with the "%@" variable which Apple can fill-in later with any name it chooses. If that's not enough of a hint then there's always the text, "the new name of Apple's online service (was .Mac)." This code change has also been found in the newly updated Safari and Mail apps and did not exist prior to the 10.5.3 update. So now the question: will the name change, presumably coming next week at WWDC, usher in Jobs' promise to "make up for lost time" with the beleaguered service, or will it simply reflect the new semantics related to Apple's Computer's increased emphasis on iPhones, iPods, and other consumer level products? We're hoping for the former but expecting the latter.[Thanks, Supermario]
.Mac syncing coming to iPhone 2.0?
One of the biggest questions that I had following the iPhone SDK event was how we non-Enterprise users were going to get the cool new wireless syncing features promised to ActiveSync Exchange users. My first guess was that Apple was planning to fold something like that into .Mac, and now iPhone Alley has unearthed something to suggest this might be right.In the just released SDK beta 2, iPhone Alley found a string within a preference bundle that reads: "Syncing with this Dot Mac account will turn off syncing for other Dot Mac accounts and delete any existing synced data." This suggests the possibility of wireless syncing for non-Exchange users. Frankly, this would make a lot of sense. It would add considerably to the (presently somewhat questionable) value of .Mac and give us consumer types access to some of iPhone 2.0's neatest features.
ShareTool offers a Back to my Mac alternative
Back to my Mac is one of the much-touted features that .Mac subscribers gained with Leopard. Basically, it lets you enjoy screen sharing between two appropriately configured Macs. The main drawback for many is the required .Mac subscription.If that's you, check out ShareTool. This $20US utility lets users access all of the Bonjour services on their home network, like iTunes music sharing, screen sharing and file sharing from anywhere.It requires routers that support NAT-PMP or UPnP and Mac OS 10.3.9 (that's right, Leopard is not required). The folks at Bains Software claim that everything is properly encrypted, but we haven't tested this. You can try it out for 15 minutes for free.
How do you sync multiple Macs?
Merlin Mann at 43Folders wants to know how you keep your Macs in sync (other than dot Mac, of course. That's the obvious choice). Are you using a custom-built solution, commercial products or a combination? I use this combination: iDisk for files. Any "reference" material I may want access to - documents for a project, receipts, confirmation emails, etc. - live on my iDisk. I've created a folder called "Reference," which in turn contains 26 sub-folders, labeled "A" through "Z" for simple alphabetical filing. Google Firefox browser sync handles my web bookmark synchronization. It's worked flawlessly since day one, which is a lot more than I can say for .Mac bookmark sync. All that's required is Firefox and a few minutes time for the initial upload to Google's servers. Highrise by 37signals manages my contact information, as well as conversations I want to save or that need follow-up. It's a terrific tool. How about you? Share your answers with Merlin and your fellow TUAW readers. Because sharing is caring.
notMac Challenge winner declared
As you may recall the notMac Challenge was a contest to produce a free method to duplicate most of the functionality of Apple's .mac, with the winner receiving upwards of $8k from various contributors. A few days ago we mentioned that Ben Spinks had posted a possible solution and that it had been released for testing. Yesterday the Challenge sponsor declared that the Ben had in fact won the challenge and would be receiving the prize. As per the rules of the contest Ben's solution, based on his commercial cross-platform CrushFTP product, will be released as open source freeware. A SourceForge repository has already been set up, and the notMac binary is available for download (dmg link).Some loose ends still remain to be tidied up (particularly in documentation and installation), but Ben's solution "appears to be functioning perfectly for most users." So if you have a spare Mac to run as a server, this looks like it could be a great way to get most of the .mac functionality without forking over the cash to Apple.Thanks ed!
Possible Solution to the notMac Challenge
Late last year we mentioned the notMac Challenge. Basically they were offering a largish sum of money (now upwards of 8 grand) for anyone who could duplicate the functionality of .mac for free. Now finally Ben Spink of CrushFTP has stepped to the plate with a possible solution, and they're calling for testers. The initial reports (including from one of our tipsters) seem promising, but more real-world testing is needed to assure that Ben has met the challenge conditions (with slight modification). So if you need .mac functionality, but balk at the price, this may very well be worth checking out.The file for testing is available (dmg link) from Ben's server. Be sure to check out the discussion thread first, however.Just for the record, Mark/Space offers a similar commercial product SyncTogether, but it sells for $49.95.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
TUAW Tip: How to manually delete a .Mac Web Gallery
The new .Mac Web Galleries sure are pretty slick, but their dependency on iPhoto '08 can have some unfortunate side effects. When I first installed iLife '08, I moved my original iPhoto library so I could tinker around with the new version using a few pics I had lying around on my Mac. I then created a Web Gallery with these images just to see how things looked. After deeming it safe to proceed, I replaced my original library to actually begin using the new iPhoto features - the only problem is that, somehow, the .Mac Web Galleries you create seem to be library-specific. In other words: when I created a gallery with my test library and then swapped it out for my true library, the .Mac Web Gallery listing in iPhoto's sidebar was no longer there. I couldn't find any kind of web admin panel at the .Mac site for managing these galleries either, so I quickly found myself in a predicament.Fortunately, I'm not alone here, and I found this thread in the Apple Discussions forums that describes a method for deleting a gallery manually if it no longer appears in iPhoto's sidebar. The solution basically involves logging into your iDisk from the web (http://idisk.mac.com/UserName) and browsing to the directory that houses your galleries, then manually deleting it from there. For some odd reason, this folder doesn't appear in your iDisk on your Desktop like your other .Mac website files, even with hidden files turned on (I used the Show-Hide widget to quickly toggle hidden files. As far as I can tell, Apple simply doesn't sync this folder down to your Mac or give you access to it with the iDisk). The only problem I had with the solution as it is described in that forum thread is that I didn't find the _gallery folder where the forum poster said I should; instead, it's in iDisk > Web > Sites. Each gallery you have created is stored in its own directory under that folder, so you should be able to delete just the ones you want without affecting the others.[Update 2: Matt Ronge, developer of upcoming Mac OS X email client Kiwi, enlightened me in the comments with an even easier solution to this problem: simply go to iPhoto's Web Gallery pane in preferences, and simply click Check Now to cause iPhoto to check your .Mac account for any new photos. This should also cause it to catch any galleries not already listed in iPhoto's sidebar, ultimately allowing you to manage and delete them from the comforts of iPhoto.][Update: Some commenters are reporting that the _gallery folder in question does actually appear in their iDisk when viewed in the Finder. I don't know why only some of us see it, but you could be one of the lucky few.]Considering that your Sites (for the old homepage.mac.com pages) and Web folders are synchronized and fully available in your iDisk, I hope that this strange gallery behavior is simply the result of an oversight. While I understand Apple's desire to use software to manage this stuff instead of forcing users to dig around in folders, having manual access to this directory will be useful in a pinch, especially for users who, for example, buy a new Mac or need to have a sick Mac restored.
