Apple's .Mac file storage and synchronization service is being expanded and renamed to
MobileMe. The transition will happen before July 11, as the new MobileMe service will provide support for iPhone 2.0 users.
If you've been looking for a way to synchronize your contacts, calendar, email, photos, and files between two or more Macs and Windows computers, this is a great time to evaluate .Mac and MobileMe. Like .Mac, MobileMe will store your files on an iDisk that is available on your Mac and Windows computers, or through Apple's secure web site.
MobileMe Pushes Data
MobileMe provides some features that .Mac lacked - it will push appointments, contacts, bookmarks, and email messages to your iPhone, Mac or Windows PC. iPhone users won't need to dock their iPhones to sync their contacts, appointments, and email. MobileMe will sync this data over-the-air on the cloud, as long as the user has a WiFi or mobile data connection. All of these features will work on the iPod Touch as well.
If you change or add an appointment on one device, your online data and your other registered devices will be updated within a few minutes. Email messages sent and received through MobileMe can be accessed from your MobileMe devices. This features also works with contacts.
If you have a MobileMe family pack, you should be able to push calendar and contact information to other users of your account. When these users check their iPhone, Mac or Windows PC, they'll see the updated and new information.
MobileMe users also get mail accounts on the @me.com domain. People who already use Gmail, IMAP or another email service may not need their .me account, but the feature can be helpful for users who need a new or larger email account.
MobileMe is a Paid Subscription Service
Perhaps the biggest news is that MobileMe will still be a paid subscription service, just as .Mac has been. Mac users can get their first 60 days free of charge, but there's a 1 GB limit on the storage space during the trial period.
MobileMe provides users with online iDisk storage space that can be used for almost any kind of file, including documents, images, music, and photos. Individual subscriptions will get 20 GB of online storage space, which is twice what .Mac individual subscribers receive. The annual subscription retail price is US$99.
.Mac family pack subscribers still get 5 accounts, but the combined storage allocation has been doubled from 20GB to 40GB. The MobileMe family pack provides 5 users accounts, each with 5 GB of online storage, at a retail price of US$149 for an annual subscription.
Apple has been buying and building data centers over the last 2 years, and this will pay off for MobileMe users. MobileMe data gets saved to Apple servers, and this requires a hefty investment in storage area networks by Apple.
Mac OS X Leopard is Recommended
Back in September 2007, Apple revised the .Mac platform, and eliminated support for previous versions of OS X. If you want to use MobileMe on your Mac, you'll need either Tiger or Leopard as your OS.
MobileMe will continue to provide support for versions 3.12 and higher of the Mac Backup application, so users can backup important data to the service. This feature gives home users off-site storage for important data.
iPhone 2.0 Firmware is Required
MobileMe will work with first-generation iPhones, as long as their firmware has been upgraded to version 2.0. Users who have hacked or jailbroken their iPhones may encounter problems when accessing MobileMe services on their devices.
The iPhone 2.0 firmware provides support for applications that users can download from Apple's online store. It's very likely that third-party developers will offer new features that will sync and work with iPhones and Macs.
Music and Notes Sync is Difficult
One feature that MobileMe won't provide sync support for is notes. iPhone users often keep to-do and task lists in their notes, but these cannot be viewed through the MobileMe service. Notes will still be stored in iTunes. MobileMe won't push or sync music to iPhones. iTunes already supports these files, MobileMe will let users upload and share their music files on their registered computers, but this is not a good way to manage anything more than a few songs.