Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 9, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
MobileMe also includes a collection of elegant, ad-free internet applications that provide a desktop-like experience through modern web browsers. In addition to Mail, Contacts and Calendar, the MobileMe applications (www.me.com) include Web Gallery for viewing and sharing photos, and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online.
“Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that uses Exchange can have the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys have.”
With a MobileMe email account, all folders, messages and status indicators look the same whether users manage their email on an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. New email messages are pushed immediately to the iPhone over a mobile network or WLAN, eliminating the need to check for email manually and wait for downloads. Push also keeps contacts and calendars up to date: changes made on one device are automatically pushed to the others through cloud computing. Push works with the native applications on iPhone and iPod touch, Microsoft Outlook on the PC, the Mac OS X applications Mail, Address Book and iCal, and the MobileMe collection of web applications.
The MobileMe web applications are completely ad-free and offer a desktop-like experience that lets users drag and drop, click and drag, and even use keyboard shortcuts. MobileMe provides access to mail, contacts and calendars from anywhere, while its consistent interface lets users switch between applications with a single click. Web Gallery makes it easy to use a browser to share, upload, rearrange, rotate and name high-quality photos online. Photos can be posted directly from an iPhone; visitors can download the images at print quality and contribute photos to an album. With MobileMe iDisk, users can drag and drop files for online storage and management. Documents too large to send by email can be downloaded conveniently through a link sent automatically by email. MobileMe provides 20 GB of online storage for mail, contacts, calendars, photos, films and documents.
Prices & Availability
MobileMe will be available from July 11 as an annual subscription service with 20 GB of storage for €79 including VAT for an individual user and €119 including VAT for a family licence. The latter includes one master account with 20 GB and four additional family accounts with 5 GB each. Users can obtain a free 60-day MobileMe trial at http://www.apple.com/mobileme, while existing .Mac members will be upgraded automatically to a MobileMe account. An additional 20 GB of MobileMe storage costs €40 including VAT, and 40 GB costs €79 including VAT.
