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Apple Announces 'mobileme' For Syncing Everything In Your Life
Posted by Adam Frucci at 4:15 AM on June 10, 2008
Apple has just unveiled mobileme, "Exchange for the rest of us." It gives push email to regular users and syncs all of your data from Mail, iCal, iDisk and Address book to all your devices at once. It works via a new site, me.com (which isn't up as of now). Me.com replaces .Mac and it'll be an automatic update for current .Mac customers.
It's pretty similar to Microsoft's Mesh software. Essentially, it allows you to do things like make appointments on your phone and have them sync your computer and vice versa, and the updates happen in about 10 seconds. The service will cost you US$99 a year for 20GB of space, and there'll be a 60 day free trial available at launch in early July.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
rexplex
Posted 6:45 AM 10/6/08
What I want to know is - What happens to my iWeb sites?
[web.mac.com]
Am I going to be able to keep them on me.com? This is the .Mac feature that I use the most and it seems to have been deleted from the replacement service.
rexplex
acurrie
Posted 6:26 AM 10/6/08
Who here is smug enough to admit that their 6-year paid subscripton to .Mac has now been justified with an automatic upgrade to mobileMe and and a decipherable login name?
Heading over to .Mac now to lay a claim on "chunkylover" before it's gone...
acurrie
SuppleMonkey
Posted 6:09 AM 10/6/08
Anyone care to guess how much money Apple paid to secure the rights to ME.com?
Seriously, 3-letter domains are impossible to come by. A 2-letter one must have cost a million.
SuppleMonkey
valis
Posted 5:34 AM 10/6/08
@zolointo: Absolutly agree. Very bad taste from Apple's Naming & Branding departments beacuse it also evokes me the worst SO in history, very bad reference... Well, at least they changed the logo to blue... (good work, you graphic designers!)
Valis
valis
zolointo
Posted 5:26 AM 10/6/08
Just a quick note - mobileMe's logo design is uncannily similar to Windows ME's logo: regular font + handwritten font
[en.wikipedia.org]
... not that it's in the minds of many any more. Still, wouldn't want to follow that act!
zolointo
sergio_e
Posted 5:20 AM 10/6/08
@gmark2000: Again I say, phones were shit in comparison back then. 2001 vs. 2008 iPhone 3G? Are you really comparing the usability? Did you see the images in action? Did first class sync three items at once?
Also, did anyone RTFA? It works with Outlook too. I was paying 10 bucks a month per person to have Exchange functionality for my 4 employee operation.
sergio_e
frigg
Posted 5:14 AM 10/6/08
@gmark2000: Yeah, well, everything the new iPhone does I was doing 100 years ago with wax cylinders. So there.
Also, who the hell registered sjobs@me.com? Why won't it let me register that?
frigg
gmark2000
Posted 5:06 AM 10/6/08
MobileMe is what FirstClass was offering seven years ago. Apple tried to buy FirstClass in the 90s but instead offered up Powermail servers that couldn't compete.
Everything MobileMe does, I was doing with FirstClass and my Blackberry seven years ago.
gmark2000
jimbowyer
Posted 5:04 AM 10/6/08
I'll be happy if they let me migrate my @mac.com address to the new me.com
stoplooking @me will be a cool email address!
jimbowyer
Thrillcekr
Posted 4:48 AM 10/6/08
Again, trying to charge a subscription fee for a freebie.
Thrillcekr
eben
Posted 4:39 AM 10/6/08
I wonder what will happen to .Mac services, like hosting my web site that syncs with iWeb.
eben
Rabid Penguin
Posted 4:38 AM 10/6/08
I'm actually surprised they didn't call it "iMe." Kudos. Of course it should be free to Mac people.
Rabid Penguin
wild homes
Posted 4:34 AM 10/6/08
This isn't really "Exchange for the rest of us." What it really is, should frustrate Microsoft even more, seeing as it is the one thing they've been planning and talking about for two years without ever delivering anything.
MobileMe is LIVE ANYWHERE. Somewhere, Microsoft is missing a milkshake.
wild homes
DigitalSciGuy
Posted 4:32 AM 10/6/08
Oh no....I'm thinking of drinking the Kool Aid...
DigitalSciGuy
DomZ
Posted 4:32 AM 10/6/08
@DomZ: Please don't ban me I'm just saying - they are free (even though they're techincally beta they work pretty well).
DomZ
DomZ
Posted 4:31 AM 10/6/08
Windows Live services are free and do most of the same things.
DomZ
thechansen
Posted 4:30 AM 10/6/08
Now this replaces .Mac but will it be a free upgrade because they said i can keep using .Mac....
thechansen
FireBALL
Posted 4:30 AM 10/6/08
99 bones!!!
FireBALL
TimurY
Posted 4:30 AM 10/6/08
@TimurY:
Ah, not free... :(
TimurY
achinda99
Posted 4:30 AM 10/6/08
When was being better than the competition not good enough? Rubbing it in their face with cheap shots like "ActiveStink"? Common Apple, grow up.
achinda99
newgalactic
Posted 4:29 AM 10/6/08
I guess everyone so far got the "black shirt and jeans (blue or black)" memo today. It's the new Apple dress code I guess. Maybe I'm a newbie because I only thought Steve adhered to this guideline. Seeing everyone else up on stage dressed like him is new, and slightly unnerving.
newgalactic
med
Posted 4:26 AM 10/6/08
Am I the only one that's surprised that its name doesn't start with an i?
med
Jim (The Canuck One)
Posted 4:25 AM 10/6/08
Until I saw the photo, I thought it was pronounced "Mo-bill-eeem."
Jim (The Canuck One)
hired_geek
Posted 4:23 AM 10/6/08
no entourage.... hmmmmm not good
hired_geek
FireBALL
Posted 4:23 AM 10/6/08
How about using it with private domain name, like google apps
FireBALL
peteH
Posted 4:23 AM 10/6/08
Uh, 3G iphone?
peteH
TimurY
Posted 4:22 AM 10/6/08
I have to be the first to register certain @me adresses...
TimurY
Monty
Posted 4:21 AM 10/6/08
Oh yes, they did just call it 'ActiveStink'. Did you hear that Redmond? The war is on, baby.
Monty
Rabid Penguin
Posted 7:11 AM 10/6/08
Okay. To everyone saying that The "me" looks like "Windows Me" that's simply not true. Sure they contain the same letters "M" and "E," but as far as I'm aware, that is the only way to spell "me" in the English language. But that is where the similarities end. In Apple's version the "m" is lower case, where the "M" is capitalized in Window's version. In the Windows version the "Me" really stands for "you" as in the user. Users typically suck and don't know what they're are doing, so Microsoft made an OS specifically for them... it really sucks and won't allow you to do anything. Where-as the Apple "me" stands for "Steve Jobs" it's his creation. You have no right to use it unless you pay his fee and he allows you to.
Conclusion: Completely different.
Rabid Penguin
GoodBytes
Posted 6:55 AM 10/6/08
I am sorry but isn't that the "me" logo of "Windows Me" just in blue! What the heck?!
I am no psychologist, but won't people be reminded of Windows me, on how it was terrible... won't they apply the same subconscious idea when they see that?
GoodBytes
GoodBytes
Posted 8:48 AM 10/6/08
Oh really?!
[www.intelliadmin.com]
The m is in lowercase letter. Else it would not have the curve on the sides. That is if you know how to write with attached letters (classic way).
GoodBytes
Lorenc
Posted 9:23 AM 10/6/08
Ok, this is almost too cute. Apple is using MS's activesync to make their service "just work" and they bash it on launch day. How imature. If I was MS I would charge them double the royalties just for that.
Oh and on another note, how is this different from what mesh.com has or even windows live for that matter. Granted there's no contact sync in mesh (yet), but it's still in technical preview and it's FREE with 5GB of storage. Add another 5GB from skydrive and you got 1/2 of what apple is giving you for 100% less price. Sorry apple fails here.
Lorenc
pilotgeg
Posted 9:01 AM 10/6/08
Can anyone tell me if I can use my regular work email name@company.com or will I need to get a name@me.com email to use this service? It's useless if I need a new email.
pilotgeg
Dickey
Posted 12:33 PM 10/6/08
for me the .mac is a cool service because of ease of use and integration. Sure a lot of places have on-line storage, but how many have it where you storage shows up as an icon on your desktop. Whatever you throw in there gets synced up whenever you're online. If you're not online it's still there on your desktop. I just don't have to bother worrying about syncing anything. Plus it does keep my multiple computers synced up with my email, contacts, calender, and websites.
ease of use and integration is what you pay for, not services.
Dickey
Shazzer
Posted 5:27 PM 10/6/08
I've always balked at the idea of paying 99 bucks a year for a .mac account because I don't need/would never use the majority of the services included the package. I would, however, be willing to pay up to 25 a year for sync only, but that doesn't seem to be in the offing.
Shazzer
overdriven707
Posted 5:11 AM 11/6/08
@Monty:
hahaha Redmond.
such a small, shitty little town, I love that.
p.s. I live in redmond, i'm entitled to say that
overdriven707
Kemba5990
Posted 12:16 PM 11/6/08
@SuppleMonkey: Man I was thinking the same thing. Me.com is so common like. They paid a couple Mill(Possible Bill) for that.
Kemba5990
ice2032
Posted 1:09 AM 12/6/08
@GoodBytes: @Rabid Penguin: the "e" is completely different.
ice2032
MillerAstraea
Posted 11:59 AM 10/6/08
@hired_geek:
I think that perhaps it does...at least calendars and contacts http://www.apple.com/iphone/getready.html
MillerAstraea
onyxmicro
Posted 5:40 AM 10/6/08
me.com....aka ([www.apple.com]) is now up and running for those that would care to have a looksee...
onyxmicro
UmbertoCabbageton
Posted 5:14 AM 10/6/08
Thumbs up to the people responsible for the WindowsMe - like logo. Now everytime I see MobileMe I'll think of Windows.
UmbertoCabbageton
rksocks195
Posted 4:24 AM 10/6/08
wow. they didn't call it iMobile *tears of joy* not like mobileMe is any better. ha
rksocks195