Recently, during one of Apple’s biggest events, the WWDC ’08, Apple’s Steve Jobs announced that the .Mac (dot Mac) suite of online service will be re-branded as MobileMe. Today, Apple has updated the .Mac status page with the date when the transition from .Mac to MobileMe will be initiated.
.Mac is a collection of web services available on yearly subscriptions. Services include Mail, personal Web Hosting, online syncronized web storage, backup, iCards etc. .Mac was available for Rs. 5000 / year and offered a @mac.com ID. It was originally launched as iTools, a free set of tools for the Mac OS users, back in 2000.
However, MobileMe is not just a re-branding of the .Mac suite of services. MobileMe has set a whole new dimension to the term ‘online services’ and is said to be Gmail’s newest competition. MobileMe stores all the user data, securely in an encrypted data cloud. This provides the user with the benefit that he can access his data from anywhere in the world.
How is it different from other services?
MobileMe brings the technology of ‘Push’ to be used by the common man. ‘Push’ makes sure that the same data is available in all the devices that the user has set up his account on. What it means is that a new contact added by the user on his phone will also be ‘pushed’ to the data cloud which, in turn, will then be ‘pushed’ to all his computers. Effectively, no matter which interface he uses, the user will always have the same up-to-date data. MobileMe currently supports Push Email, Push Contacts and Push Calendar events.
However, true to its practices, Apple is mainly targeting this service to its Mac and iPhone users. The MobileMe service is currently compatible with an iPhone, Mac OS X and Outlook on Windows XP/Vista. Of course, you can use the web interface from any modern browser, but that defeats the very purpose of ‘Push’ stuff.
That’s it? MobileMe is only about ‘Push’?
No. The MobileMe web interface itself is worth investing money in. It makes use of advanced AJAX technology to give the user the same look and feel as his Desktop application. Actions such as QuickReply, Drag and Drop have been provided in the web interface.
Apple has announced that the transition from .Mac to MobileMe will begin from July 9th, 2008 at 6PM Pacific Time. During the transition, all web services will be unavailable to users. .Mac Mail, though, will be available via the desktop client or the iPhone.
Personally, I am counting down each and every minute till the transition begins. I’m awestruck by MobileMe. Although Gmail still leads the web-service front with an integrated suite of services, the User Interface has not changed in quite some time. Now that MobileMe is out, Google needs to start churning out some good ideas from its thinking mills.
