Not even Apple had imagined MobileMe could be off to such a rough start, when the company transitioned .Mac users to the new Internet service on Friday. The new push email, push contacts and push calendar features do their bit on the iPhone and the MobileMe site, but not the web apps. Apple apologizes for any inconvenience and claims it has worked through the problems, giving subscribers a free, automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription.

Apple's new Internet service automatically pushes new email, contacts, and calendar events to your Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch. The software was designed by Apple to make sure all your information stays up to date, everywhere. MobileMe also provides support for push email, calendar, and contacts on your iPhone and any computer. The changes you make on one device are automatically "pushed" to the MobileMe "cloud," then back to every device you use. The process sounds simple, yet desktop computer MobileMe users say otherwise (Tiger users apparently have to wait about an hour before their information is synced).

"The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld. "We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge."

Apple has also issued an e-mail to its subscribers, noting that all of the problems occurring with MobileMe's web apps have been taken care of. Users will receive the automatic MobileMe extension period in their accounts in the next few weeks.

According to the same report, Apple is also going to drop the term "push" used to describe the process through which users sync their personal information with their devices and the MobileMe server.