MobileMe

Subscription business model

The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....

collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...

, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription service primarily designed for users of Mac OS X. Apple relaunched the service again as MobileMe at WWDC 2008 on July 9, 2008, now targeting , Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

, iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

, and iPod touch

IPod touch

The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

users.

On February 24, 2011, Apple discontinued offering MobileMe at its retail stores. MobileMe retail boxes are also no longer offered through resellers. Additionally, Apple is also no longer accepting new subscribers for MobileMe. At the iPhone special event on October 4, 2011, Apple announced it would launch iCloud

ICloud

iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. announced on June 6, 2011 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference . The service allows users to store data such as music files on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and...

on October 12, 2011, to replace MobileMe for new users. MobileMe will continue to function until June 30, 2012, at which point the service will no longer be available. MobileMe users are encouraged to migrate to iCloud before then.

Services

iTools and .Mac were designed primarily to provide Internet services for Mac

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

owners. All members of iTools and .Mac received a special @mac.com e-mail address, showing the service's ties to the Mac hardware. However, with the release of the iPhone 3G

IPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G is the second generation of iPhone designed and marketed by Apple Inc.. It was the successor to the original iPhone, and is succeeded by the iPhone 3GS. Introduced on June 9, 2008 at the WWDC 2008 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco...

in 2008, the renamed service, MobileMe, began providing Internet services for , iOS, and Windows

Microsoft Windows

. Members of MobileMe are given a @me.com e-mail address and are no longer restricted to software such as Mail

Mail (application)

Mail is an email program included with Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system. Originally developed by NeXT as NeXTMail, a part of their NeXTSTEP operating system, it was adapted, following Apple's acquisition of NeXT, to become OS X's Mail application.Mail uses the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols,...

and iCal

ICal

iCal is a personal calendar application made by Apple Inc. that runs on the Mac OS X operating system. iCal was the first calendar application for Mac OS X to offer support for multiple calendars and the ability to publish/subscribe calendars to WebDAV server....

, and they can access personal data from any computer connected to the Internet using the web interface at me.com or a number of supported applications, including Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...

as long as the user is using version 2003 or later. Support for MobileMe is available via chat and telephone.

Find My iPhone

MobileMe allows users to track the location of their iPhone

IPhone

, iPod touch

IPod touch

or iPad

IPad

via the web portal at me.com. A user can see the device's approximate location on a map (along with a circle showing the radius of inaccuracy), display a message and/or play a sound on the device (even if it is set to silent), change the password on the device, and remotely erase its contents. An app has also been released by Apple which allows users to locate their iPhone

IPhone

from another device running the iOS 4 software. The feature was first announced on June 10, 2009 and was included in iOS 3.0 software update as a feature for MobileMe users. Find My iPhone was made free of charge with the iOS 4.2.1 software update on November 22, 2010, but only for devices introduced in 2010.

Storage

MobileMe has two different plans. The Individual plan includes 20 GB of email and file storage and 200 GB of monthly data transfer. The Family Pack includes 40 GB of storage split among one 20 GB individual (primary) and four 5 GB sub-accounts, each sub-account having its own email address, online storage and being able to use all the MobileMe features. Family members also have a Shared folder in their iDisk with which they can share access to data amongst themselves. Both the primary account and sub-accounts have read/write access to this folder and is limited to the free space available in the primary user's iDisk.

Members can buy additional storage in 20 GB or 40 GB allocations, although sub-account storage cannot be upgraded. In a family account, the amount of storage is designated per account.

Notes (from the Mail app on a Mac computer, and the Notes app on the iPhone) are synced via the MobileMe service, However cannot be viewed or edited online. To Do lists (controlled from the Mail app and the iCal app on a Mac computer) are viewable and editable through the MobileMe web site (under the Calendar tab), but are not viewable or editable on an iPhone. With the announcement of iOS 4 the sync for Notes over IMAP (including MobileMe) was implemented.

Address book and calendar

MobileMe maintains a synchronized address book and calendar feature using Push

Push-IMAP

Push-IMAP, which is otherwise known as P-IMAP or Push extensions for Internet Message Access Protocol, is based on IMAPv4 Rev1 but contains additional enhancements for optimization in a mobile setting...

functions. If a user makes a change to a contact or event on one device it will be automatically synced to the MobileMe servers and, by extension, all the user's other devices. Supported devices include the iPhone

IPhone

, Address Book and iCal

ICal

on , or Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...

2003 or later on Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

. Subscription calendars in iCal on a Mac computer are not viewable on the online MobileMe service (although "Birthdays" is viewable online; as it gathers its information from Address Book

Address Book

Address Book is an address book for Apple's Mac OS X. It features various syncing features and integrates into the rest of the OS.-Features:*Exports and imports cards to and from vCard 3.0 format....

, rather than CalDAV

CalDAV

Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV, or CalDAV, is an Internet standard allowing a client to access scheduling information on a remote server. It extends WebDAV specification and uses iCalendar format for the data. The protocol is defined by RFC 4791...

or iCalendar (.ics) subscription calendars). Conversely, on the iPhone "Birthdays" from Contacts on the iPhone are not viewable on the Calendar app (nor any other method; except looking them up individually in Contacts. Birthdays Calendar added on iOS 4.3), but subscription calendars are available to view in Calendar by adding them through Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendar>Add Account.

MobileMe Gallery

MobileMe has a public photo and video gallery feature. Photos and videos can be uploaded in the web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

at me.com, synced by iPhoto

IPhoto

iPhoto is a digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. and released with every Macintosh personal computer as part of the iLife suite of digital life management applications...

or Aperture on or uploaded from the iPhone

IPhone

and iPod touch

IPod touch

. Users can also upload movies from within applications available on the Mac, including iPhoto

IPhoto

and iMovie

IMovie

iMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2 users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled consumer Apple...

. MobileMe also provides the user with an e-mail address that is used only for uploading photos and videos. All uploads by viewers of the gallery (either by the iPhone

IPhone

or iPod touch

IPod touch

, me.com, or sent by the dedicated e-mail address), will be synced back to iPhoto

IPhoto

or Aperture. Galleries can be made public or hidden, or can be password protected - but only through iPhoto

IPhoto

or iMovie

IMovie

on .

iDisk

MobileMe features iDisk

IDisk

iDisk is a file hosting service offered by Apple to all MobileMe members that enables them to store their digital photos, movies and personal files online so they can be accessed remotely. With a standard subscription, MobileMe users receive a 20 GB iDisk.iDisk integrates with Mac OS X,...

, an online storage repository accessible via a web browser at me.com, Finder on , various Apps for the iOS, or as a remote disk in Microsoft Windows. It also allows sharing of files by selecting a given file using me.com/idisk or the iDisk iPhone app, and then clicking a Share button that will generate a unique link to this file, protected by password, that can be then shared by email. Another way to use iDisk to share several files easily is by placing them in the iDisk Public Folder, which can also be password protected.

iWeb Publish

Users of Mac OS X v10.5 or later can use the iLife '08

ILife

iLife is a suite of software applications developed by Apple for organizing, editing, and publishing photos, movies, and music. The suite comprises five applications: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb, all of which run on the Mac OS X operating system....

or iLife '09

ILife

or iLife '11 application iWeb

IWeb

iWeb was a template-based website creation tool developed by Apple Inc. The first version of iWeb was announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 10, 2006 as part of the iLife '06 suite of digital lifestyle applications...

to publish websites hosted on their MobileMe account, either to a domain name

Domain name

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....

that they control or to a page on the me.com website. Users without iWeb

IWeb

can also publish websites by placing files to the Web/Sites folder in iDisk. However, the web host doesn't support any server side language such as PHP

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

or Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

Web applications

MobileMe uses Ajax

Ajax (programming)

Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...

and Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is an umbrella term for a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language , a client-side scripting language , a presentation definition language , and the Document Object Model.DHTML...

to simulate the look and feel of desktop applications within the user's web browser. Applications on me.com include Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, Find My iPhone and iDisk access, plus an Account section. Most of the me.com web applications are built on top of the open source SproutCore

SproutCore

SproutCore is an open-source JavaScript framework. Its goal is to allow developers to create web applications with advanced capabilities and a user experience comparable to that of desktop applications. When developing a SproutCore application, all code is written in JavaScript...

Javascript framework. Users can also configure features such as e-mail aliases or domain name

Domain name

s for the iWeb

IWeb

Publish feature.

Supported browsers for me.com are Safari 3.1

Safari (web browser)

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...

or later ( and Windows), Firefox 3.5

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

or later ( and Windows), and Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8

Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...

(Windows). Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7

Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...

(Windows), Safari 3.0

Safari (web browser)

, and Firefox 3.0

Mozilla Firefox

will run the web applications, but are not fully supported.

MobileMe is accessible from Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

using Firefox 3 despite a warning that will be presented to the user upon entry. Success has also been reported using the Konqueror

Konqueror

Not to be confused with the Conqueror web browser.Konqueror is a web browser and file manager that provides file-viewer functionality for file systems such as local files, files on a remote ftp server and files in a disk image. It is a core part of the KDE desktop environment...

browser on Linux, however this has not been confirmed by Apple.

iChat/AIM

MobileMe users can connect to the AIM

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...

service with their @mac.com or @me.com accounts. MobileMe connections are secured by SSL encryption. In addition, iChat

IChat

iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging...

users using a MobileMe account can encrypt their chats with other MobileMe members using iChat. You can also access the MobileMe Chat account on an iPhone

IPhone

or an iPod touch

IPod touch

, using the free or paid-for versions of the AIM

AOL Instant Messenger

application provided by AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

, or any other iOS app that supports the AIM protocol.

PC synchronization

Users who wish to sync their MobileMe data with a PC must download and install MobileMe Control Panel. To install, the user must first download and install the latest version of iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

, and then install MobileMe Control Panel. After installation, the user signs into the control panel using their username and password, and can control sync settings for contacts, calendars and bookmarks, and iDisk settings such as public folder access, in a similar manner to the MobileMe preference panel built into .

MobileMe Mail Beta

MobileMe Mail Beta was released on May 13, 2010. MobileMe Mail Beta includes many new features such as photo inserting, font changing, wide screen views and much more. It was released as a final version on June 18, 2010.

MobileMe Calendar Beta

MobileMe Calendar Beta was released on July 6, 2010. MobileMe Calendar Beta includes a new web application at me.com with redesigned day, week, and month views, as well as a new list view to make scanning events easier. Performance has also been improved. It also features new sharing options that allow invited users to edit a shared calendar. It supports invitation through RSVPs, which sends an email to invited persons, then they answer by clicking a simple link (they don't have to be MobileMe members). It also supports CalDAV standard for compatibility with multiple devices. However, with these updates came some decreased functionality. The capability to publish iCal calendars as publicly viewable web pages was removed. Users wishing to view a public calendar must now manually subscribe with a CalDAV compatible calendar device. Compatibility with Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...

suffered too, since Outlook users cannot sync their primary Outlook calendar to a MobileMe calendar anymore; the only way to integrate MobileMe with Outlook now is to have a MobileMe calendar linked in through CalDAV. This means that a MobileMe calendar is always seen by Outlook as a secondary calendar, and alarms and notifications do not work.

Pricing

Below are the charges that Apple charged before they discontinued purchase on the June 6, 2011 in preparation moving to new service iCloud

Icloud

CloudMe is an online computer, like an operating system running in the cloud with an AJAX-based remote web desktop. The CloudMe service is owned and developed by Xcerion, a Swedish company. It is accessible from both desktop operating systems and mobile operating systems using WebDAV...

entirely. Current users are being encouraged to use MobileMe services inside iCloud (account migration will happen automatically anyway), but can continue to use their MobileMe services and access the me.com website until it is shut down on June 30, 2012. Users wishing to cancel MobileMe —thus immediately end all services— can gain full refunds if purchased within 45 days of June 6, 2011, or pro-rata refunds if purchased 46 days or more, however it is unclear whether this refund policy will apply when the iCloud service launches in Fall 2011.

Market	Price		Personal in US$ (for comparison)
Market	Personal	Family	Personal in US$ (for comparison)
USA	US$ 99	$ 149	$  99
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	C$ Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...  109	C$ 159	$ 104.99
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	£ Pound sterling The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...  60	£ 91	$  96.70
Eurozone Eurozone The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...	€ Euro The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...  79	€ 119	$ 112.45
Europe Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting... (non EU) and Africa	€ Euro The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...  65.29	€ 98.35	$  92.93
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...	S$ Singapore dollar The Singapore dollar or Dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...  148	S$ 228	$ 117.41
Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...	9800 ¥ Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...	15600 ¥	$ 116.63
Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	A$ Australian dollar The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...  119	A$ 179	$ 123.45

With exception of Switzerland: € 70.25 / € 105.82
(Prices sourced from www.apple.com/mobileme on 16 April 2010).

Mac OS X

MobileMe, like .Mac and iTools before it, is closely integrated with . Having a MobileMe account extends the functions of many programs, mostly within the iLife

ILife

suite. Most notably, any iDisk

IDisk

can be mounted as any other volume on the desktop. Furthermore, it is possible to mount the public portion of another user's iDisk. This mechanism was one of the early ways to receive free software as part of .Mac. It is possible to queue files for upload to an offline iDisk, though they are only uploaded when the iDisk is mounted. iDisk commands are located in the "Go" menu of the Finder.

Additionally, any Address Book

Address Book

Address Book is an address book for Apple's Mac OS X. It features various syncing features and integrates into the rest of the OS.-Features:*Exports and imports cards to and from vCard 3.0 format....

entries, iCal

ICal

events and to-do entries, Safari

Safari (web browser)

bookmarks and keychains

Apple Keychain

Keychain is Apple Inc.'s password management system in Mac OS. It was introduced with Mac OS 8.6, and has been included in all subsequent versions of Mac OS, including Mac OS X...

, mail accounts, mail rules, mail signatures, and smart mailboxes can be synched

File synchronization

File synchronization in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules....

with the iDisk, allowing easy synchronization between multiple computers. iWeb

IWeb

allows users to create web pages that can be uploaded to iDisk and published. iPhoto

IPhoto

can be used for one-click web-publishing of photo albums. iCal

ICal

can be used to publish calendars to the web. Also, Backup

Backup (software)

Backup is a backup utility made by Apple for Mac OS X. It is available through Apple's MobileMe collection of Internet services...

software can be used to make backups to iDisk

IDisk

or local media.

With the prior .Mac service, the iMovie

IMovie

, iPhoto

IPhoto

, GarageBand

GarageBand

GarageBand is a software application for Mac OS X and iOS that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc. as a part of the iLife software package on Mac OS X.-Audio recording:...

, and iTunes

ITunes

libraries could easily be uploaded to any iDisk (subject to various licensing agreements).

iOS

MobileMe integrates with various applications on the iPhone

IPhone

, iPad

IPad

and iPod touch

IPod touch

. This includes iCal

ICal

syncing with Calendar

Calendar

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...

, Address Book

Address Book

Address Book is an address book for Apple's Mac OS X. It features various syncing features and integrates into the rest of the OS.-Features:*Exports and imports cards to and from vCard 3.0 format....

syncing with Contacts

Contact list

A contact list is a collection of screen names in an instant messaging or e-mail program or online game or mobile phone. It has various trademarked and proprietary names in different contexts....

, Mail syncing across devices, Safari

Safari (web browser)

Bookmarks syncing across devices. Apple later introduced the iDisk application for the iPhone and iPod touch, which makes it easier for members to access the contents of their iDisk from their iPhone or iPod touch. In August 2010, Apple introduced a feature that allows users to stream music that's stored on their iDisk in the background from their device. There is also a universal application for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that allows mobile access to the Find My iPhone feature.

Public URL subdomains

There are public subdomain access points to each MobileMe members' individual account functions. These provide direct public web access to each MobileMe users account, via links to each function directly; Gallery, Public folder, published website, and published calendars (not available currently). See list:

http://www.me.com – member login.
http://gallery.me.com/ – member public photo/video Gallery.
http://public.me.com/ – member Public folder access.
http://web.me.com/ – member Website access.
http://homepage.mac.com/ – member file sites access.
http://ical.me.com// – member individual calendar publishing. In the older system, many calendars could be published at the same time. In the current iteration of MobileMe, there is no calendar publishing available.

iTools

The original collection of Internet software and services now known as MobileMe was first called iTools. Announced and released at Macworld Expo San Francisco on January 5, 2000, iTools was made available free of charge for Macintosh

Macintosh

users.

Services offered by iTools included the first availability of @mac.com e-mail addresses, which could only be accessed through an email client such as Outlook Express

Outlook Express

Outlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...

; iCards, a free greeting card service; iReview, a collection of reviews of popular web sites; HomePage, a free web page publishing service; the first version of iDisk, an online data storage system; and KidSafe, a directory of family-friendly web sites.

iTools was primarily a Mac-only offering and provided only limited, discussion board-based technical support. However, some features of iTools were accessible via non-Mac platforms although a Mac was needed to establish an account.

For example, modifying HomePage content was possible using a web browser on Windows

Microsoft Windows

or via Linux

Linux

.

Although the original version of iDisk used AppleShare

AppleShare

AppleShare was a product from Apple Computer which implemented various network services. Its main purpose was acting as a file server, using the AFP protocol...

IP for transport and required , it was eventually updated to use WebDAV

WebDAV

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...

technology and therefore opened up access to non-Mac operating systems. Apple even offered an application for use with Windows XP.

The e-mail service only supported IMAP access.

.Mac

As costs rose, most particularly due to iDisk storage space, the wide demand for @mac.com e-mail accounts, and increasing support needs, iTools was renamed .Mac at Macworld Expo New York on July 17, 2002, as a subscription-based suite of services with a dedicated technical support team.

The new .Mac offered several tools to subscribers, including upgraded versions of HomePage, the personal web hosting service; iDisk

IDisk

, the online disk storage service; @mac.com, the e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

service provider offering both POP and IMAP protocols; and iCards, the online greeting card

Greeting card

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...

service. New services offered by .Mac included Backup

Backup (software)

Backup is a backup utility made by Apple for Mac OS X. It is available through Apple's MobileMe collection of Internet services...

, a personal backup solution that allows users to archive data to their iDisk, CD or DVD; and McAfee

McAfee

McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...

Virex, a virus scanner given to .Mac subscribers until June 15, 2005.

Apple announced on September 17, 2002 that more than 100,000 people had subscribed to .Mac since its launch earlier that year. Existing iTools accounts were transitioned to .Mac accounts during a free trial period that ended on September 30, 2002. This move generated a mixed reaction among Mac users, some believing .Mac was overpriced.

.Mac occasionally received new features. In October 2006, Apple launched an update to its .Mac Mail service whose interface was close to that of Mac OS X Mail. The new functionality was built on top of Ajax

Ajax (programming)

Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...

and provided drag-and-drop, a live-updating three-way split view, and ability to resize panels. v10.5 used .Mac to provide dynamic DNS

Dynamic DNS

Dynamic DNS or DDNS is a term used for the updating in real time of Internet Domain Name System name servers to keep up to date the active DNS configuration of their configured hostnames, addresses and other information....

services for its Back to My Mac

Back to My Mac

Back to My Mac is a feature introduced with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that uses Wide-Area Bonjour to securely discover services across the Internet and automatically configure ad hoc, on-demand, point-to-point encrypted connections between computers using IPSec...

feature, a remote desktop

Remote desktop software

In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software or an OS feature allowing applications, either command line programs or graphical applications, to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally. Remote desktop applications have varying features...

service.

On August 7, 2007, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...

announced new features for .Mac, including a new Web Gallery feature, similar to Flickr

Flickr

Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...

and YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

combined. Each .Mac account now came with 10 GB of storage space that could be divided between e-mail storage for an @mac.com e-mail address

E-mail address

An email address identifies an email box to which email messages are delivered. An example format of an email address is lewis@example.net which is read as lewis at example dot net...

and the user's iDisk. An account preference allowed the user to decide how much storage space to allocate to either service as they see fit. Users who wanted additional storage capacity could buy up to a total of 30 GB for a higher annual fee. The storage space for both e-mail and an iDisk could be used in any way the user wanted, subject to the terms of the .Mac license agreement.

.Mac was also offered in a boxed version, available at stores and online (as a physical product). The box contained an activation code that was entered when registering or renewing a subscription.

Initial speculation about a new service to replace .Mac came in early June 2008, when Apple bought the me.com domain name. At WWDC on June 9, 2008, Apple announced that .Mac would be replaced by MobileMe. This was launched on July 9, 2008: mac.com was taken offline from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. that day, and the MobileMe service went live between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. (both Pacific Time

Pacific Time Zone

The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...

). MobileMe was taken offline a short time later, leaving customers redirected to the MobileMe information page, where there was no option to log in. After several hours of infrequent service, MobileMe officially went live during July 11, 2008.

Several .Mac features were removed after the transition to MobileMe:

Support for Mac OS X 10.4.10 or earlier (some features require Mac OS X 10.5 or later, such as iLife integration)
iCards
web-access to bookmarks
.Mac slides
.Mac Groups (with files uploaded to Groups being transferred to group owners' "Group Archive" folder).

The launch of MobileMe was plagued by various issues. MobileMe, as a .Mac successor, was initially criticized during its launch for being unstable and for having syncing problems. There were reports of users being unable to access any of the Mail functions of MobileMe. This was suspected to be related to the .Mac to MobileMe switch-over. The free trial of MobileMe inadvertently charged some Australian and European customers’ credit cards, leading Apple to issue refunds and extend the free trial to four months. Because of the problems with switching over .Mac accounts and other issues, Apple created a status news page and revamped their support page.

Initial versions of the Windows MobileMe control panel allowed synchronization of corporate Outlook accounts with MobileMe. A mid-2008 update to the control panel removed the ability to synchronize Outlook to MobileMe when Outlook is using Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...

Calendars and Contacts. According to Apple Support, this is by design and is not a bug that will be fixed. There is no support for synchronizing even standalone Outlook Tasks and Notes to MobileMe.

In May 2011, Fortune

Fortune (magazine)

Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...

magazine reported that during the summer of 2008, after MobileMe had launched to mostly negative reviews, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

summoned the MobileMe team to a meeting in the Town Hall auditorium at 4 Infinite Loop

Infinite Loop (street)

Infinite Loop is a street encircling the six main buildings of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Each building has a number which corresponds to its single-digit address on the Loop, and so Apple's official mailing address is "1 Infinite Loop". The numbers increment in the clockwise...

. After asking them "what MobileMe is supposed to do," and someone answered, Jobs reportedly shot back, "So why the fuck doesn't it do that?"

In an internal e-mail sent to Apple employees on August 4, 2008, Jobs admitted that MobileMe was launched too hurriedly and “not up to Apple’s standards”. He wrote that “it was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone

IPhone

3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store”. On August 18, 2008, it was announced that MobileMe subscribers would be offered a 60-day extension in addition to the one-month extension previously offered.

iCloud

As of early 2011, MobileMe retail boxes were removed from all Apple Stores, and users were prevented from subscribing via Apple's website. At WWDC 2011 on June 6, 2011, it was announced that MobileMe will continue to be active for current subscribers through June 30, 2012. It will be replaced by iCloud, which in addition to MobileMe's email and calendar services, will sync files across multiple devices. It will give users of Mac OS X Lion 5 GB of 'cloud

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

' data. The service is free of charge and scheduled to begin fall 2011. Because of MobileMe's failings, Jobs anticipated skepticism to his claim that iCloud "just works", and asked rhetorically, "Why should I believe them? They're the ones that brought me MobileMe!". iCloud was released on October 12, alongside iOS 5.

External links

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