Although there are already platforms like Dropbox and MobileMe for the Mac when it comes to syncing your data with the cloud, these solutions may not be right for some users. Those people will be happy to know that Microsoft’s Live Mesh platform has now made its way to your Mac OS X machine. All that’s required is a small application and a Windows Live ID, and you’ll be on your way to adding Mac computers to your Live Mesh account and staying in sync with the cloud.

Like MobileMe and me.com, Live Mesh has a website (mesh.com) that allows its users to get and download their content and files from any computer. In the storage area, MobileMe quadruples the storage of Live Mesh, with a nice sized 20GB compared to Mesh’s 5GB. However, when it comes to price, Live Mesh can’t be beat. MobileMe will run you $99 a year whereas Live Mesh is 100% free. The choice is yours now between these options, I leave it up to you to make the right one.

Via [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Despite some recent MobileMe updates that Apple quietly rolled out in an effort to improve the stability and functionality of their “cloud”-based web service, the service still isn’t performing up to the usual Apple standards. Perhaps this is why the updates haven’t been announced as of late—Apple doesn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that the service will actually work, finally, as originally advertised.

Last week, I experienced all kinds of funkiness with e-mail: messages wouldn’t send, my in box wouldn’t load up, I couldn’t delete messages, etc. It was annoying, but par for the course since the switch. This morning, however, I couldn’t log in at all. Visiting www.me.com, I was greeted with the following message:

(The message was still up at press time.)

On a whim, I thought I’d try going directly to www.mac.com. After a few slow redirects, sure enough, I got into my MobileMe account was able to access all my information and use the services provided.

So, next time someone screws up the definition of irony, you can point that person to MobileMe for a true example; Apple switched from .Mac to MobileMe in order to improve use and increase functionality of their server-side data management service, but, in order to even access it, you have to use .Mac.

Update: 8:00 a.m.

Reports of similar problems are starting to surface in user forums around the web:

• MacRumors
• MacTalk
• Apple.com

The topic in the Apple forums was created on November 1st, so it seems some people have been having the problem since at least Saturday. Further into that thread is an expanded suggestion of my workaround above, along with an explanation of what’s going on:

It looks like someone messed up the me domain and http://www.me.com/ doesn’t resolve properly to the auth server giving the ‘Not Found: Resource does not exist’ error.

Until Apple fix the problem try using one of the following as a workaround:
http://www.me.com/index.html
https://auth.apple.com/authenticate
https://auth.apple.com/authenticate?service=DockStatus
These should get you where you need to be

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If the two criteria for Mac-ness are “it just works” and being “insanely great,” then Skitch has to be the most Mac-like program I’ve seen in quite some time.

Skitch is a screenshot program, and while there’s nothing wrong with the screenshot capabilities built into OS X (other than it’s deliberately disabled when DVD Player is running), Skitch does everything Grab does, does it better, then adds labeling features you’ll wonder how you ever lived without, along with built-in sharing features that “just work” to allow you pass your pictures on via e-mail, web, and chat.

Currently a free beta from the mad geniuses at Plasq (best known to Mac users as the creators of Comic Life, a program I admire but haven’t found much practical use for), Skitch is a small program that waits in the background until you need to take a screenshot and/or do simple editing to a photo.

To take a screenshot, just click on a button in the Skitch floating panel, or use the shortcut. You can also use Skitch to take a webcam photo (much like Photo Booth). Once you’ve got your pic, you can add text, lines, arrows, boxes, or whatever you like. Now, the neat thing is that Skitch keeps these marks in layers, allowing you manipulate (or remove) them at any point. Skitch also allows you to crop and edit the photos using a simple process; if you pull the outside of the Skitch window, you can resize the photo; dragging the inside part of the window (the edges of the picture) crops the photo.

From there, you can save the photo (as a Skitch file), export it as a JPG, PNG, PDF, SVG, or TIF to your desktop, or upload it using the built-in Webpost feature to your (currently free) webspace on Skitch.com or .Mac (or MobileMe or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week). From the Skitch page, you get a series of links for a variety or purposes: embedding in a web page, sharing via e-mail or chat, or directing people to your Skitch page. You can also set the privacy options for the photo.

For simple screenshots and photo editing, Skitch might be the most intuitive program around. You can register and download the free beta, and watch a video that further explains how the program works.

Product [Skitch]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Just when you thought nothing else could possibly go wrong with MobileMess, it seems that Apple has created a spammer’s paradise!

From The Register:

The email harvesting issue arises because every MobileMe user gets a public idisk file-sharing site. These sites have an address tied into a user’s email username. A user can’t hide or delete his/her public folder and there’s no way to choose what the name will be.

As a result spammers only need to map the iDisk domain using web crawler tools to extract the entire MobileMe user name list. Taking this username list and simply adding either @me.com or @mac.com will give an email list, Techcrunch reports.

This news comes at the same incredibly inconvenient time that MobileMe users are being bombarded with elaborate and convincing emails from a Romanian phishing scam. Wow. Just when Apple thought that the horrendous launch issues were behind them.

Read [Techcrunch] Via [The Register]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Goonan for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A lot of people are looking at Apple’s new MobileMe service and seeing push delays, e-mail server outages and other oddities that have led to the service being dubbed “Apple’s MobileMess” by New York Times columnist David Pogue. Me? I’m looking at it and seeing, as of this morning, a total of 90 days of free service.

In their ongoing effort to smooth things over with angry customers, Apple has announced that those with active MobileMe accounts as of August 19, 2008 will receive a free 60 day extension to their subscription. This is in addition to the free 30 day MobileMe extension offered a little over a month ago.

From the release:

Why is Apple granting a 60-day subscription extension?
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped. While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.

Am I eligible for the 60-day extension?
You are eligible if you are a MobileMe member whose account was active as of August 19, 2008 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time.

Now, this pleases me. Who doesn’t like to get some free stuff every now and again? But I’m also wondering why Apple is pampering us so much all of a sudden. The current condition of MobileMe is certainly not the biggest blunder in Apple’s history, so why all the love over such a seemingly insignificant element of the company’s bottom line? I’m guessing it’s because it’s not as insignificant as it would seem. MobileMe is apparently a major part of Apple’s business strategy, or they wouldn’t be working so hard to keep customers. I’m encouraged by this, as MobileMe could be something truly great once Apple works out the kinks.

Or, maybe it’s just that a disproportionate number of subscribers will be up for renewal in the next 60 days, and Apple wanted to be sure to keep them around. Regardless, I don’t think any of us have lost 90 days worth of work because of the MobileMe problems, so these extensions from Apple have been more than fair. I’ll certainly take them over the mysterious David G.‘s MobileMe Status blog, which saw four posts in a month before being shut down in favor of something, you know, useful.

Get back to your real job, now, David. I take my coffee dark.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

David Pogue of The New York Times calls it “Apple’s MobileMess”. Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal says it is “far too flawed to be reliable.” When Apple is hearing these sorts of things about MobileMe from a usually unmistakable Apple fanboy (Pogue) and a man who has called the iMac “the best desktop PC on the market at many price” (Mossberg), in addition to thousands of unsatisfied customers, former .Mac members and new members of the bandwagon alike, I think it’s pretty clear that they have not “finally got it right” as far as their online services are concerned, as Steve Jobs said at WWDC.

MobileMe’s launch was, as the former .Mac members among us are well aware, a complete disaster that took days to finally get somewhat right. In fact, not all of the launch issues have been worked out even now, two weeks after MobileMe’s initial release.

To add to the chaos associated with its launch, there have long been gripes about MobileMe’s horrendous branding and the abandonment of the mac.com domain name for Apple’s online offerings. Many have said that the whole “me.com” branding reminds them of another disastrous tech product: Microsoft’s Windows ME.

While I could understand Apple’s need to move away from the Mac centric branding because MobileMe is not a Mac centric service, I have to say I am seriously disappointed with their branding on this one. Apple’s marketing and branding are usually superb, and I expect much better from them. I, for one, am not thrilled about the idea of paying $99 per year for “push” e-mail anyway, and I wouldn’t use a “@me.com” e-mail address even if I could get it for free. Don’t we have enough narcissism in our society today? Do we really need our e-mail to reflect that?

I think it’s pretty clear that Apple’s MobileMe is even more of a flop than .Mac was. While .Mac wasn’t perfect and wasn’t a great value, at least it was farily reliable and offered a professional sounding e-mail address. All that MobileMe offers is extremely buggy service and a juvenile sounding e-mail address. I expect much better from Apple. I think we all do.

Via [The New York Times] and [The Wall Street Journal]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Goonan for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

MobileMe, Apple’s upgrade to their previous .Mac web service, has been available pretty much since the iPhone 3G launch. We’ve seen MobileMe 30 day extensions and MobileMe reviews since then, so why are some Apple users just now seeing the official release announcement? Perhaps Apple was waiting until the kinks were worked out before beginning the big promotional blitz, as their e-mail campaign seems geared towards attracting new users:

The simple way to keep everything in sync. Stay up to date with email, contacts, and calendars that sync across your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. Access it all using the feature-rich web applications at me.com. You’ll also get an email address at me.com, easy online photo sharing, 20GB of online storage, and more.

Obviously, the rest of us already knew about this and have been taking advantage of these features for a couple weeks now. Those new to the service, however, can sign up for a free, 60-day trial. I recommend Mac users take advantage of the trial; the apps really are pretty sweet.

Product [MobileMe]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple’s successor to .Mac, MobileMe, announced during WWDC and touting a release date of one week ago, has faced some difficulties with stability. Thus, Apple is offering a 30-day service extension to eligible users, gratis. An e-mail was sent out to all MobileMe/.Mac users, apologizing and informing them of the 30 day increase in their subscriptions. If you were a .Mac member whose account was active as of July 9, 2008, or a new MobileMe user who created your account on or before July 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time, the 30-day extension will be added to all qualifying accounts (surprisingly, including free trial accounts) in a matter of weeks. In the same e-mail, Apple has also apologized to the time lag of the “push” features of MobileMe, citing that they will not use the term until it is completely true.

Can you name another company besides Apple that would go to such lengths?

The full e-mail follows:

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word “push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

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. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,
The MobileMe Team

Via [Apple]

Full Story » | Written by Indraneel Purohit for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

For those of you who are patiently awaiting your .Mac address to officially become a MobileMe address with all the nice, new features, the wait is almost over.  On July 9th at 6 p.m. PT you will officially be able to sync all of your information to the cloud, using that wonderfully designed interface that was shown off and WWDC ‘08.  This means you will get that new @me.com e-mail address you have been waiting for, as well as double the amount of storage (10GB to 20GB for individuals). Are you excited?

One of the best parts about this upgrade is that Apple is making it super easy for the end users. Not only is this upgrade completely free, .Mac users will still have a fully functional @mac.com e-mail address they can continue to use. Apple will be sending an official e-mail to all of their subscribers to alert them of the change. Best of all, it works on every browser except Firefox 3, making it extremely accessible to both Macs and PCs.

Via [Apple Support Page]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Amazon.com is now offering MobileMe for pre-order on their website at $89.99—about 9% off Apple’s price. This comes after Amazon has apparently sold out of .Mac retail boxes which they were selling for $69.99, but raised to $77.99 after MobileMe was announced at WWDC.

This has to be welcome news for Apple, as their web services have never really taken off in the past. MobileMe is still a little pricey for me, and I’m sure for many others as well, but Apple certainly has added a lot more value into their services with MobileMe. That Amazon feels it can get away with upping the price by $20 over the past month or so shows that demand for MobileMe is certainly there.

While Amazon’s price is still a discount over Apple’s, it’s still probably worth shopping around for one of the remaining .Mac retail boxes while you still can, as they are generally less expensive.

Product [MobileMe]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Goonan for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As you can tell from the picture above, Apple’s MobileMe has been accidentally shipped to a lucky customer. MobileMe announced at WWDC and (truly) available worldwide on July 11, is the successor to Apple’s .Mac service. The customer in question, who reaped the benefits of a trigger happy Apple shipping worker, had his joy taken back. When he called Apple Support (why?), he was told a courier would be at his doorstep the next day to pick up the advance copy of the service. While I, personally, would not have told Apple, the service probably would not have worked 100% this early.

Read [Meckimac]

Full Story » | Written by Indraneel Purohit for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If you are thinking about signing up for .Mac in anticipation of the release of MobileMe, don’t be too trigger happy and shell out your $99 to Apple just yet. Instead, check out some of these third party vendors for much better deals on Apple’s revamped online application suite. Amazon is probably the best deal because they offer free shipping, saving you up to $22 on the package.
These .Mac retail boxes will still work to activate MobileMe accounts even after .Mac has been discontinued, but if you hurry, you’ll be able to get your coveted @mac.com e-mail address while you still can.

UPDATE: Macworld seems to have removed Amazon’s listing from its site. To see Amazon’s listing for .Mac as well as customer reviews, click here.

Regardless, it seems as though you can get a slightly better deal from CompuDirect.

Via [Macworld]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Goonan for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The first stage of the .Mac revamp is underway as some users are noticing that their .Mac addresses are now also working with MobileMe.  To get your MobileMe e-mail address, simply take your existing e-mail address with @mac.com and change it to @me.com.  For example, “myemail@mac.com” would now be “myemail@me.com.” However, your .Mac address will still work for a while to make sure you don’t miss any e-mails.

Apple announced MobileMe at this year’s WWDC as an updated .Mac service. It’s beautiful online interface is what you would expect from a desktop application, but it is accessible from any computer, anywhere. Dubbed “exchange for the rest of us,” it will keep all of your calendars, contacts, e-mails, and other personal information up to date in the cloud. It’s going to be great.

Via [Macrumors]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Marketcircle, a popular purveyor of Mac organization tools, has officially announced it is bringing the Daylite Productivity Suite to the iPhone. The application has been named Daylite Touch, and can be expected by year’s end.

Daylite is an application currently in use on many business Macs, and provide the users with a group calendar, address book, and many other organizational and productivity tools. Along with the server version of the program, companies will be able to add more devices and really help business. 

In the announcement, Marketcircle CEO Alykhan Jetha pointed out that there are many different tools available to iPhone and iPod Touch users that are not available on a desktop. Thus, it will be even better for most companies. Even when away from the computer, Daylite users will still be able to stay productive.

This product could really become popular in a business setting, as it is pretty much a simplified version of MobileMe for businesses. It will be interesting to see the impact that products like this have on the iPhone in relation to the business environment.

Via [iPhone Central] Product [Daylite Productivity Suite]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

It seems Apple has decided to restrict access to its online storage component, iDisk, from certain browsers. iDisk, once supported by any browser, is now blocking access to the site unless the browser used to visit it is officially supported.

Supported browsers include:

• Safari 1.3 or Firefox 1.0.4 (And later versions of these browsers)
• Camino (Which uses Firefox’s Gecko technology)
• Opera 9.5

PC users can access their iDisk using:

• Firefox 1.0.4 (Or later)
• Internet Explorer 6 (Or Later)

Browsers which are now officially unsupported (and consequently blocked) include OmniWeb and Firefox 3 release candidates, although the upcoming Firefox 3 will most likely be supported soon. If your browser is not supported, a warning message appears (see picture).

Browser restrictions are limited to iDisk pages, as all other .Mac services are still available for use with any browser. Is Apple ramping up security, or does this have something to do with Apple’s upcoming service, MobileMe which will replace .Mac and include the iDisk feature. Restrictions shouldn’t affect most people, though the move is interesting since Apple touts the new MobileMe service as being accessible by virtually any computer in the world.

Via [MacNN]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Embleton for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today, Apple seeded the newest version of Mac OS X v10.5.4 to developers. The new version is build 9e12. Currently, the biggest additions are support for MobileMe, Apple’s new replacement for .Mac. MobileMe will enable users to sync contacts, e-mail, and iCal events between many different devices seamlessly. 

Given that MobileMe is slated for release in July, and that it requires Mac OS 10.5.4 along with iTunes 7.7, it is safe to say those updates will be released around the same time, probably a few days before. Although Mac OS 10.4.11 is compatible with MobileMe, the MobileMe transition FAQ states that certain features and functionalities require 10.5.4 along with iLife ‘08.

Via [MacRumors] 

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Originally, I absolutely hated the name MobileMe as a replacement for .Mac. It just seemed so un-Apple. But, ever since the keynote, the name has been growing on me. I think that it was partially due to the great logo Apple made for it. It just seems to work. But in a recent post by none other then Fake Steve Jobs, he points out certain similarities between the logos for MobileMe and WindowsMe, focusing on the similarities between the “Me” sections. No word on whether Microsoft will take any legal action, let alone whether they care or have the legal grounds to do anything about it if they do.

Via [The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Amidst all the Mac OS X 10.6 Hype, Apple has officially seeded Safari 4 to developers. This new version focuses on performance and stability. Using the Squirrelfish program with WebKit, Apple says Safari 4 will be “the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.”  Since speed, quality, and stability are the main focus of 10.6, it seems Apple is getting a jump on those upgrades. Another example of lightning quick web applications is the newly announced MobileMe, the replacement for .Mac. 

With upcoming system upgrades and subsequent release of 10.6, Apple is really focusing now on speed and stability, especially in web apps.

Via [MacRumors

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Phil Schiller came onstage today to tell us about Mobile Me. Exchange for the rest of us. We can all now get push email, calendars, and contacts. On a Mac, a PC, or an iPhone or iPod Touch. And it is called Mobile Me.

Mobile Me will work for Mobile Me. It works with Outlook and other native applications. But best of all, it is best used in a Web 2.0 application suite at me.com. According to Phil, it “feels like a desktop application.” it even includes drag and drop, live search (just like Spotlight,) iDisk functionality, and a basic photo editor integrated with web galleries. There will be direct access to Mail, and all other features currently in .Mac.

While the name and logo is horrendous, the service is amazing. But one question. How much does it cost? And when will it be available? It costs $99/year, just like .Mac. A free trial, just like .Mac. It completely replaces .Mac. And it looks really great.

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Well, folks, its this time of year again. Tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. EST/9:00 a.m. PST, Steve will be donning the blue jeans and black turtle neck and heading for the stage of the Moscone Center. As this year’s World Wide Developer Conference gets ever closer, it’s time for a rumor and speculation round-up.

Regarding a New iPhone

• 3G iPhone Firmware Leaked? by Patrick Lutz for Appletell “There is a lot of speculation about the details of the suspected 3G iPhone release at Apple’s WWDC keynote. However, there has been little material evidence on which to rely, until now; a reliable source has leaked details of the 3G iPhone’s firmware…”
• Apple Casting for New Product TV Ad by Patrick Lutz for Appletell\ “According to an unverified source, Apple has just sent out the following casting call through a major talent agency this week in search for actors to do an advertisement for a new Apple product. The casting call is as follows…”
• Loads of Crap…er, Fake iPhone Photos by Arnold Zafra for appletell “We expected this to happen. With the anticipation, excitement and hype building up as the WWDC approaches, an iPhone fan leaked faked photos of the supposedly new iPhone. Actually, CrunchGear was the first to break the news, claiming it the images arrived in their e-mail inbox…”
• Rumor: O2 to Offer Free 3G Upgrade; Pay as You Go Option by Steve Embleton for Appletell “According to Macworld UK, O2, the network carrier for the iPhone in the UK, could soon be offering new deals to try to boost sales in the UK. iPhone sales have been sluggish in the UK so far; could this be how O2 plans to change that?”
• Apple to release two new iPhones? by JG Mason for Gadgetell “Rumors are flying fast and hard as we all gear up mentally for the big Apple party coming June 9 at 10 am.  One I really like is the idea of 2 iPhones being introduced.  Isn’t it more like Apple to whip out something they’ve undersold and surprise us?”
• Glimpse at the future or bad Photoshop Job? by Mark Rowland for Appletell “A post in a MacRumors forum by mrat93 exposes a hidden file in the iPhone SDK that could be a preview of the next iPhone.  The poster found a document titled iPhone.icns…”
• Are we really looking at a white 3G iPhone? by Arnold Zafra for Appletell “In the mood for some juicy rumors or a news item that may perk up your day? Here’s something from Dutch community site iPhoneclub.nl with some fresh pictures of a new iPhone model…”
• New shipping terminology points to 3G iPhone by Mark Rowland for Appletell ”...In recent shipping manifests for Apple product shipments, a new term has popped up. Apple apparently is using “Electric Computers” as a disguised product name…”
• AT&T wrapping up 3G network upgrade just in time for Apple by Partick Lutz for Appletell “Yesterday, AT&T announced that it plans to release its High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) in six more US markets by the end of June, completing its deployment of HSPA. Once that task is completed, the company says that the 3G service will offer uplink speeds of between 500 and 800Kbps…”
• iPhone 3G Date Confirmed? by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell “Gizmodo is claiming that someone “very closely related” to the 3G iPhone launch has given them a confirmation announcement date of June 9th. Apparently, the second-generation iPhone will be available straight after its launch at the WWDC conference on June 9th…”
• We’re certain about 3G, now let’s speculate features! by Mark Rowland for Appletell “Okay, it’s official. 3G iPhone rumors have become a little too much. Asking “Will a 3G iPhone be released at WWDC?” is up there with the likes of “Does a bear use the restroom in the woods?” and “Is the Pope Catholic?” In other words, yes. It will be there…”
• 3G iPhone set to impact mobile TV market by Kirk Hiner for Appletell “Can the imminent 3G iPhone really make a significant impact on the mobile TV market? The folks over at Analasys Mason sure believe it can, according to their report, “iPhone Shows the Way for Mobile TV.” Mark Heath, co-author of the report, states, “The iPhone could become the mobile video delivery device of choice for many consumers, by providing a compelling mobile TV and video proposition before mobile broadcasting networks, such as DVB-H, become widely available.”
• Apple reverses its stand on the proposed iPhone subsidies by Arnold Zafra for Appletell “Barely two days to go before launching the new iPhone, Apple reportedly issued a statement reversing its earlier stand of not allowing U.S. and European mobile carriers to bring down the price of the iPhone by subsidizing part of the cost that consumers have to pay for it…”

Regarding .Mac

• Are major changes coming to .Mac? by Opal Tribble for Appletell “Rumors have been circulating about Apple’s .Mac service. Many believe that we will be seeing a massive upgrade to its service we will see these features revealed alongside the launch of the iPhone Software 2.0 in June…”
• Apple set to change .Mac to Me.com? by Opal Tribble for Appletell “The rumors have been flying about the upcoming changes to Apple’s .Mac service. Will .Mac service be changed to MobileMe? What about .Mac? Will it redirect to a new domain?”

Regarding an iTablet

• Tablet Mac coming this fall? by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell “According to Jason D. O’Grady of ZDNet, Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch Mac tablet this fall – most likely in September or October…”
• No, the WWDC banner doesn’t reveal an iTablet by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell “The folks over at 9to5Mac on Thursday posted a news item entirely about the leaked WWDC photo you see above. The article in question, if you can call it that, has an ultra-cropped version of the photo zeroing in on the iPhone in the background poster. Their charge is that the iPhone is much too square, even compensating for the squishing effects of foreshortening, to be the iPhone. Could it be the iTablet?”

Regarding Mac OS 10.6

• Mac OS 10.6 to support Power PC despite rumors by Patrick Lutz for Appletell “Contrary to the recent rumors that Apple would drop PowerPC architecture support with its newest update to OS X, a tipster (and possible Apple insider) was able to acquire the latest build of the soon to be released update of Mac OS X 10.6, and found some evidence that Apple might actually be keeping the chip alive…”

All Other WWDC Info

• How to prepare for WWDC ‘08 by Josh Holat for Appletell “Are you so excited for WWDC that you can barely wait for June?  Do you need something to hold you over until then to stop you from going insane?  With the event containing over 150 labs and sessions this year as well as being sold out, there are endless possibilities for this year.  Well, good thing for you there are plenty of ways to prepare for this years WWDC. Here are the top 3…”

• Christmas to Come Early by Mark Rowland for Appletell “With all the WDDC rumors flying around Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, it has become tough to keep track of them all. Here is a list of recent rumors, and details on their credibility…”

This year’s WWDC will not disappoint.  The show is sold out, and a few wonderful new products are probably going to come out of the wraps. Be sure to tune in tomorrow starting at 12:00 EST/9:00 am PST for our live-blog coverage of the event! 

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

According to AppleInsider, Apple is getting ready to send out developer builds of Mac OS X 10.5.4. 10.5.3 was just released about a week ago, and many users have been reporting graphics issues and issues with files and Adobe CS3. Apple will likely be addressing these issues in 10.5.4.

The new update may come sooner rather than later, as it is expected to carry updates pertaining to the 3G iPhone and a .Mac renaming, both of which are expected to launch at WWDC June 10th, less than a week away.

Direct quote from Apple Insider:

People familiar with the matter say developers could have the first pre-release copies of the update in their hands by week’s end. It’s almost a certainty that the beta software will surface by the company’s developer’s conference next week, they add.

Only time will tell if Apple plans to push out another update so close following 10.5.3.

Via [AppleInsider]

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple’s .Mac service. Will .Mac service be changed to MobileMe? What about .Mac will it redirect to a new domain?

Mac.Rumors has reported that .Me is registered to the MarkMonitor domain service. For those who don’t know MarkMonitor is a global leader in enterprise brand protection. It’s a service that Apple, along with over half of Fortune 100 companies depend on. Earlier this year MarkMonitor purchased the following domains on behalf of Apple: MacBookAir.net, MacBookAir.org, MacBookAir.us, MacBookAir.info, MacBookAir.biz. If you type in .Me com now it will redirect you to Snappville.com, which is a social networking website that used to be called to .Me com. It changed its name in December 2007.

Will we definitely see a name change to MobileMe along with a redirect to Me.com?  While nothing is definite it’s interesting to note that Apple filed a patent for the MobileMe name in 2006. Also, Kenneth Eddings has his name and Apple email listed as the DNS admin for Me.com.

Here’s another juicy tidbit, “MobileMe” has been found in numerous iPhoneSDK files. The good news is we don’t have much longer to wait WWDC 2008 is almost here and if changes are to be made to the .Mac service it most likely will be announced at that time.

Full Story » | Written by Opal Tribble for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

With all the WDDC rumors flying around Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, it has become tough to keep track of them all.  Here is a list of recent rumors, and details on their credibility.

1.  3G iPhone - Is the Pope Catholic?  I think that it is safe to say that this is the only rumor that is definitely going to become a reality.  Now the only question is what it will look like and what any changes to the OS will be.  Personally, I would love the iPhone to look something like this.  Two of the biggest proofs behind this rumor are a lack of iPhones (“Currently unavailable”) on the Apple website and the fact that AT&T are not allowing their employees to take vacations for a period of time this summer, supposedly around the 3G iPhone launch.  Also pointing to 3G are supposedly leaked screenshots of the 3G iPhone, strange new terms on shipping manifests, dates supposedly being announced, strange looking icons buried deep within the iPhone SDK, and announcements coming straight from the horse’s mouth, or in this case, the mouth of the Telefónica Europe’s CEO.

2.  .Mac take two - No one is positive, but I think that this one is fairly likely.  Opal Tribble reports on the subject.  Oh, and Steve? If you are reading this, just know that changing the name to Mobile Me will beat the great service that .Mac provides around the head, and then proceed with a sharp kick to the groin for good measure.  In other words, I really really really don’t like the sound of that name.

3.  Tablet Mac - about a 60-75% chance of truth.  A tablet Mac would be nice, and it would really put an emphasis on portability.  MacRumors reports the following:

As part of an Intel event for the 40th birthday of the semiconductor company at Munich’s BMW World, Germany managing director Hannes Schwaderer confirmed today what has long been a rumor on the Internet: namely, that there is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer said. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

A Tablet Mac would be awesome, and Apple has been known to surprise, but I think that rumors surrounding a large iPhone type device should be taken with a grain of salt.

4. MacBook Redesign - the chances of this are only slightly better then those of George Bush being reelected.  More possible, I think, would simply be upgrades to the innards of the current MacBook.

5. OS 10.6 demo -  Least likely of the group.  Apple has patented the possible names Lynx and Cougar, following the large cats theme, so something should be coming soon.  Personally, I prefer Cougar.  The only possible reasoning behind the demo is it would put the new OS in good position for a MacWorld ‘09 release.

I think that it is definitely safe to say that this year’s WWDC conference will not disappoint.  Sound off in the comments if you have any rumors (with proof, please) of WWDC happenings that were left out in this post.

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Rumors have been circulating about Apple’s .Mac service. Many believe that we will be seeing a massive upgrade to its service we will see these features revealed alongside the launch of the iPhone Software 2.0 in June.

Recently, TUAW reported that Dmitry Chestnykh, CEO of Coding Robots, discovered something interesting after he had updated to Mac OS X 10.5.3. Dmitry claimed that he discovered “evidence that the .Mac brand name is going to be replaced.”  Regarding the name change if this turns out to be true Mac, users would simply have to install a second update, and all the .Mac applications would be removed.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed other users, on various Mac forums, have been reporting that recently .Mac has been down a lot. Many people believe the name change along with upgrades to the .Mac service will be made at the WWDC 2008.

I purchased my first Mac in October 2006, a 17” MacBook Pro. I used the .Mac service my first year but didn’t extend renew service. The main reason was I wasn’t impressed with what the .Mac service had to offer. If the rumor is true and Apple has made major changes to .Mac that I would actually use I definitely would use the service again.

What features would you like to see with the .Mac service?

Full Story » | Written by Opal Tribble for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

TUAW has received information from an anonymous tipster about future Apple plans. Apparently, .Mac is going to undergo a complete revamp - and will be re-launched at the same time as the iPhone 2.0 launch - which is expected some time in June (most likely in the Worldwide Developers’ Conference). .Mac’s new changes would bring new features to the service for both Mac and Windows users for the first time; some of these features include:

• .Mac push e-mail
• Wireless syncing for calendars, contacts, and email (similar to Microsoft Exchange)
• .Mac syncing on Windows

It makes sense for Apple to integrate .Mac into the iPhone. Wireless syncing of calendars and contacts would make it a big competitor to Microsoft’s Exchange service - which is widely used as the standard for many businesses. .Mac hasn’t been too successful either, this could be Apple’s way of bringing the product to success.

Via [TUAW]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Recently, Apple has been stepping up in the business environment and has really begun hammering it home that they are ready to more aggressively enter this field.  With the new iPhone software to contain ActiveSync support for Microsoft Exchange and possibly more business geared features such as a camera for video conferencing, this move is no joke.  Furthermore, it was recently reported that according to a rumor from TUAW, .Mac will soon include “Full over-the-air syncing including calendars, contacts, and email (similar to Exchange).”  What do both of these have in common?  They are very attractive offers for anyone involved in a high business position at a big or small company.  Apple has made their impression in the everyday consumer market and is now moving onto bigger goals.  A smart move, I may add.

By making their products better for a business environment, Apple is opening them up to a large amount of potentially new customers.  Many businesses have stuck with Windows as their main OS for years, and Apple has realized that.  By realizing that, they are now beginning to compete with it.  Most of their new products and updates have more features that are meant for business type people which can only lead to good.  Good on you Apple for taking a risk and putting your cards into this deck.  Keep on innovating, we all look forward to you having more of a presence in larger corporation settings!

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Surely you remember Adobe’s new web-based image editor, Photoshop Express.  Why would Adobe release part of Photoshop’s power for free to the public?  Simple.  They want to allow users to familiarize themselves with some of the features of PS for free in hopes that they will then go on to purchase the boxed version.  Now, it just so happens that one of Photoshop’s main competitors, Aperture, is made by Apple.  What is Apple doing to drive sales of their image editor software?  Frankly, not enough.  The real question is, what can they do?  If you ask me, it starts with .Mac Web Gallery, but first some important changes must be made to it.

1) Obviously, add image editing features to it.  The image viewing on .Mac Web Gallery is slick and easy as you would expect from an Apple product, but it could be so much more.  Allow users to edit the photo while online just like Photoshop Express does, except with an Aperture style twist, and you’ve got yourself one awesome platform.  This, like PS Express, could give users a chance to see what Aperture is like without having to install a whole demo.  It could also prove to the user how functional Aperture can be, even at a limited level.  Who knows, maybe they will like the online version so much they will buy the desktop version which would be the whole goal in the first place.

2) Open it up!  Currently, the only way to have a Web Gallery is to purchase a .Mac Membership, a $99.95 a year package.  Why limit this great service to just a select few who are willing to pay for it?  Steve Jobs said it himself in a 2007 press conference, people are moving away from hard media and onto digital media.  Apple should be helping them do this by easing the difficulty of the transition (i.e. making a service like this free).  Giving them a free, easy to use, feature limited (compared to the desktop version) Aperture online would be a great start to opening up this service and getting some hype behind Aperture.

3) Build a community around it.  Everywhere you go, you hear it, “Companies need to start embracing social media.”  In my opinion, Apple hasn’t done much to that effect.  They could use .Mac Web Gallery as a social service that would not only allow for image editing, but a better way of sharing media.  Sure, you can share your Gallery now by sending friends and family the link, but I mean at a higher level, such as being able to add friends.  Mr. Jobs also mentioned in that same keynote that the point of this service was to make “send [your media] to the world.”  If so, make it easier and more fun to do that.  “If you build it, they will come.”

As with anything. there would be roadblocks in tackling such a task.  For example, how do deal with the extra traffic to the servers and how much space to give each user.  However, Apple has plenty of money to make this work and the outcome would be worth it.  In summary, all Apple needs to do it open up .Mac Web Gallery (also, untie it from the .Mac package) and add some more features to it.  If you’re from Apple, this would be great to have by, let’s say, June.  Sound good?  Awesome.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Lately Apple has been pushing their windows products, more specifically Safari, and this has got us thinking what the next move may be. Kevin from jkOnTheRun thinks he may know what Apple has up their sleeves and it makes sense, .Mac for the PC.

In this new age we use multiple machines and multiple operating systems. Apple has made major breakthroughs with file sharing and usability between Macs and PCs, but there is still a gap when it comes to syncing up these machines. A new version of .Mac, possibly a “.Mac lite,” could definitely be in the works from Apple for integrating and syncing between your Mac, PC, and maybe even your iPhone.

On the Windows front there are options including Windows Live SkyDrive, a free service with half the space of .Mac. If Apple could launch this service so current .Mac users get a free upgrade or the features for a small fee, Apple could have a hit. Of course, all of this is speculation - we’re basically writing your business plan Apple, no excuses, get to it!

Check out the full post here as it goes into much more detail.

Read [jkOnTheRun]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Yurechko for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A lot of people love the “Back To My Mac” feature shipped with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Sadly, few people get to use this feature, as it is only available for .Mac subscribers. However, Lifehacker has put together an article describing, step by step, how to enable Faux Back To My Mac. Essentially, you’ll have to enable Screen Sharing and FTP file sharing in System Preferences, and then access these two features from other computers using a Static IP you assigned to your computer, and a domain name assigned to that IP (if you don’t like to remember numbers). The “hack” takes advantage of OS X’s built in FTP/ADP, and the Screen Sharing app found in /System/Library/CoreServices. Although the method they describe works fine, a VPN would also do the trick, such as Hamachi. Some people may prefer LogMeIn to the hack, and some people, like me, will save the time and hassle and take my computer with me.

Article [Lifehacker]

Full Story » | Written by Alec Feld for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple has given a much needed boost to the .Mac service. Offering more storage, better integration with iLife ‘08 and even server side SPAM filtering for email.

The online storage has been increased from 1GB to 10GB for individual accounts and from 2GB to 20GB for family packs. Web Gallery will require iPhoto ‘08 and will allow you to upload and share pictures and video from either iPhoto ‘08 or iMovie ‘08. You can also let friends and family upload photos by email or browser or print out images at up to 16x20. The .Mac email now allows for attachments up to 20mb and has spam filtering available. To activate the spam filtering go to your webmail preferences in your .Mac account.

The updates and upgrades to the .Mac service will be given to the current users automatically and should take effect no later than August 14th. New users can sign up for $99.95 a year for an individual or $179.95 for a family pack with a 30-day free trial available. Overall this seems like some much needed improvements, I would say it’s still far from perfect but in my opinion it is now worth the yearly cost.

Read [Apple]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »