14 DAY TRIAL // Apple and Mac users alike are taking the final steps towards transitioning to MobileMe, the company's revamped version of the .Mac (Dot Mac) service. Apple is warning .Mac users that the service will be shut down on Wednesday in advance of the MobileMe launch. Therefore, .Mac subscribers have to sync their information with their Mac, as some of .Mac's syncing capabilities don't match with what MobileMe has to offer.
MobileMe is Apple's new Internet service that automatically pushes new email, contacts and calendar events to your Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch, and makes sure all your information stays up to date across all your devices. The changes you make on one device are automatically "pushed" to the MobileMe "cloud," then back to every device you use.
Here's what Apple says on its support page:
"MobileMe Launch 7/9/2008, 6pm-12am PT
As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th.
Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.
MobileMe will require Mac OS X v10.4.11, the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard, Safari 3, Firefox 2, or later, software version 2.0 for iPhone and iPod touch and the latest version of iTunes (iTunes 7.7, expected to launch this week)."
"Think of MobileMe as 'Exchange for the rest of us'," explained Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, at the time Apple was introducing the service. "Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get."
Apple claims its MobileMe service is a simple and efficient way of keeping everything up to date. Aside push email, push calendar and push contacts, MobileMe also offers web applications at me.com, a MobileMe Gallery for photo sharing, MobileMe iDisk for online document access and a generous 20GB of online storage.