| Developed by | Apple Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | January 5, 2000 as iTools July 17, 2002 as .Mac July 9, 2008 as MobileMe |
| Latest release | 1.1 / July 9, 2008 |
| OS | Mac OS X / Microsoft Windows / Web-based |
| Type | Internet suite |
| License | Subscription |
| Website | www.me.com |
MobileMe (formerly .Mac and iTools) is a subscription-based 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, 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 both Mac and iPhone users.
Apple's Phil Schiller introduced MobileMe as "Microsoft Exchange for the rest of us." All existing .Mac members were migrated to MobileMe automatically.[1] For two weeks after the launch of MobileMe, an estimated 20,000 members were unable to access their e-mail through MobileMe, which Apple reluctantly acknowledged after widespread press attention.[2]
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iTools and .Mac were designed primarily to provide Internet services for Mac owners. All members of iTools and .Mac received a special @mac.com e-mail address, which represented the service's ties to the Mac hardware. However, with the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, the renamed service, MobileMe, began providing Internet services for Mac OS X, iPhone OS, and Microsoft Windows. Members of MobileMe are given a @me.com e-mail address and are no longer restricted to Mac OS X software such as Mail and iCal, 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.
MobileMe has two different plans. The Individual plan includes 20 GB of storage and 200 GB of data transfer. The Family Pack includes 40 GB of storage split up between one 20 GB individual and four 5 GB e-mail plans. Members can purchase additional storage in 20 GB or 40 GB allocations.
MobileMe includes an @me.com e-mail address (previous .Mac and iTools users also keep their @mac.com address and can use either as both addresses are linked). When a message is received it is sent directly to all the user's devices using Push Mail. Supported devices include the iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple Mail on Mac OS X, and Microsoft Outlook on Microsoft Windows. Users can also setup e-mail aliases that will be redirected to their MobileMe Mail account.
MobileMe maintains a synchronized address book and calendar feature using Push 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, Address Book and iCal on Mac OS X, or Microsoft Outlook on Microsoft Windows.
MobileMe has a public photo gallery feature. Photos can be uploaded in the web browser at me.com, synced by iPhoto or Aperture on Mac OS X or by sending it from the iPhone and iPod Touch.
MobileMe features iDisk, which is an online storage repository accessible via a web browser at me.com, Finder on Mac OS X, or as a remote disk in Microsoft Windows. It also allows sharing of files by placing them in the iDisk Public Folder, while owners can set passwords to protect them.[3]
Users of Mac OS X Leopard or later can use the iLife 08 application iWeb to publish websites hosted on their MobileMe account, either to a domain name that the user controls or a page on the me.com website. Users without iWeb can also publish websites by placing files to the Web/Sites folder. However, as a website host, it doesn't support any server side language such as PHP.
MobileMe uses Ajax and Dynamic HTML to simulate the look and feel of desktop applications within the user's web browser. Applications on me.com include Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery and iDisk access. Users can also configure features such as e-mail aliases or domain names for the iWeb Publish feature.
Supported browsers for me.com are: Safari 3 or later (Mac OS X and Windows), Firefox 2 or later (Mac OS X and Windows). Internet Explorer 7 (Windows) is not fully supported.
Earlier versions of Safari 4 Developer Preview are not fully compatible and prevented the user from clicking on most Ajax items, but the most recent update solves this issue. MobileMe is also inaccessible from Linux using Mozilla Firefox[4], though success has been reported using Mozilla Firefox 3 by changing the User agent.[5] The Konqueror browser on Linux seems to support MobileMe, however this has not been confirmed by Apple.[6]
MobileMe users can connect to the AIM service with their @mac.com or @me.com accounts. MobileMe connections are secured by SSL encryption. In addition, iChat users using a MobileMe account can encrypt their chats with other MobileMe members using iChat.
MobileMe, along with .Mac and iTools before it, is closely integrated with the Mac OS. Having a MobileMe account extends the functions of many programs, mostly within the iLife suite. Most notably, any iDisk can be mounted as any other volume on the Mac OS X 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 actual uploading is done only when the iDisk is mounted. iDisk commands are located in the "Go" menu of the Finder.
Additionally, any Address Book entries, iCal events and to-do entries, Safari bookmarks and keychains, mail accounts, mail rules, mail signatures, and smart mailboxes can be synced with the iDisk, allowing easy synchronization between multiple computers. iWeb allows users to create web pages that could be uploaded to iDisk and published. iPhoto can be used for one-click web-publishing of photo albums.[7] iCal can be used to publish calendars to the web.[8]
With the previous .Mac service, the iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, and iTunes libraries could easily be uploaded to any iDisk (subject to various licensing agreements). Also, Backup software under .Mac could be used to make backups to iDisk or local media.
MobileMe integrates with various applications on the iPhone and iPod touch, including Calendar, Contacts and Mail..
The original collection of Internet software and services currently 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 Mac OS 9 users.
Services offered by iTools included the first availability of @mac.com e-mail addresses, for use through a web-based interface or other applications such as Outlook Express; iCards, a free greeting card service; 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, such as modifying HomePage content with Internet Explorer on a Microsoft Windows-based PC. As iDisk made use of WebDAV technology and the e-mail address was an IMAP service, these services could be accessed from any other computer platform, though a Mac was needed to establish an account.
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.[9]
The new .Mac offered several tools to subscribers, including upgraded versions of HomePage, the personal web hosting service; iDisk, the online disk storage service; @mac.com, the e-mail service provider offering both POP and IMAP protocols; and iCards, the online greeting card service. New services offered by .Mac included Backup, a personal backup solution that allows users to archive data to their iDisk, CD or DVD; and McAfee Virex, a complimentary copy of the virus scanner given to .Mac subscribers until June 15, 2005.
Apple announced on September 17, 2002 that more than 100,000 .Mac users had subscribed to the company’s .Mac suite of Internet services and software since its launch earlier that year.[10] 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 the Mac community, with some believing .Mac was overpriced.[11]
.Mac received new features occasionally. In October 2006, Apple launched an update to its .Mac Mail service that closely resembled the experience of the Mac OS X Mail application. The new functionality was built on top of AJAX and provided rich user experience such as drag-and-drop, a live-updating three-way split view, and ability to resize panels.[12] Mac OS X Leopard used .Mac to provide dynamic DNS services for its Back to My Mac feature, a remote desktop service.
At a special event on August 7, 2007, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced new features for .Mac, including a new Web Gallery feature, similar to Flickr and YouTube 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 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 desired additional storage capacity could purchase some for a higher annual fee, up to 30 GB total. The storage space for both e-mail and an iDisk could be used in any manner the user deemed necessary, 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 purchased the me.com domain name.[13] At WWDC on June 9, 2008, Apple announced that .Mac would be replaced by MobileMe. The launch of MobileMe took place on July 9, 2008, while mac.com was taken offline from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Pacific Time on July 9th, 2008, and the MobileMe service went live between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. Pacific Time.[14] 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 the day on July 11, 2008.[15]
Several .Mac features were removed after the transition to MobileMe. Support for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" has been discontinued, as well as other features such as iCards, web-access to bookmarks and .Mac slides.[16]
The launch of MobileMe was plagued by many issues. 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.[17] The free trial of MobileMe inadvertently charged some Australian and European customers’ credit cards, causing Apple to issue refunds and extend the free trial to four months.[18][19] Because of the problems with switching over .Mac accounts and other issues, Apple created a status news page and revamped their support page.
Additionally, some users have misunderstood the nature of synchronization between their MobileMe accounts and Microsoft Outlook. When used with a Microsoft Exchange Server, Exchange-based Calendars and Contact lists will not currently synchronize. According to Apple Support, this is by design and is not a bug that will be fixed.
In an internal e-mail sent to Apple employees on August 4, 2008, Steve 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 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store”.[20] On August 18, 2008, it was announced to offer MobileMe subscribers another 60 days extension, which is in addition to the one-month extension previously offered. [21] The service, particularly the Mail feature, continues to function poorly for some.
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