Filed under: Rumors, Internet, .Mac
Rumor: .Mac relaunch to coincide with iPhone 2.0?
A little birdy told us about some unusual happenings at Apple. According to our anonymous tipster, .Mac will undergo a complete revamp that will coincide with the iPhone 2.0 launch (which everyone expects to occur at WWDC 08). We posted about the .Mac push e-mail coming to iPhone 2.0 last night, but according to our tip, that's not all .Mac users are going to get. According to our little birdy, .Mac could undergo the following changes as soon as next month:
- Full over-the-air syncing including calendars, contacts, and email (similar to Exchange)
- .Mac syncing on Windows
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Seth A said 4:48PM on 5-08-2008
.Mac should have been the ultimate service to have along side the iPhone from day one, the fact that it isn't doesn't give me much faith in Apple future for .Mac. When I can sign up for a free email service (Yahoo) and get more than I get with my $99 email service, well... idk. Lets hope this is true.
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Bender Bending Rodriguez said 4:49PM on 5-08-2008
If any of that is true it will be sweeeeeeeeeet!
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mb_dallas said 4:49PM on 5-08-2008
This is such a good idea. It could open up the iPhone to a whole new set of "enterprise" users; small businesses who don't want to use Exchange. Not to mention another revenue stream from .Mac subscriptions.
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MacMacken said 4:51PM on 5-08-2008
What's about encryption? Right now, only the .Mac login is encrypted, all other connection can be easily intercepted, etc. Any news on this issue?
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jon said 4:54PM on 5-08-2008
Can somebody explain why Jobsy had to announce the first iPhone 6 months ahead of time to avoid disclosing it in FCC filings (at least thats what they told us), but this time around everyone is epxecting it to be announced and available next month?
What has changed? I mean there's no way Apple files a public document without someone gleaning each and every detail. If they are going to sell iPhone II in June, why haven't we known all the details for months?
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Bender Bending Rodriguez said 5:19PM on 5-08-2008
FCC submissions aren't public. Neither are the certified independent centers that do all the testing prior to the FCC submission. Only the approval is released to the public, and even that seems to allow you to delay the "official" approval so the company can keep it more secret.
The reason the 1st iPhone was announced 6 months early was to ready the buyer, most of which tend to be under contract. Plus, there would have been no way AT&T could have hid all the changes they were making to their network to accommodate the iPhone.
Geoff Evans said 6:58PM on 5-08-2008
Apple did not want to have leaks on the iphone as the media attention they got from the event was huge where as with the 3G iPhone there has been a lot of leaked information about the phone so far
MacBookOwner said 4:59PM on 5-08-2008
Ok, if this turns out to be true, it may actually get me to take another look at .Mac as a service. Right now it seems ridiculously overpriced / undervalued. But integrated with the iPhone? Hmmmmm.
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Nate said 5:06PM on 5-08-2008
.Mac is just WAY too expensive for the amount of service and features provided. Even with push email. I would be willing to pay... say... $30 a year for .Mac and all of it's useless "goodies." If they add syncing with google and stuff... idk... if they make the whole package a lot more useful than it is I would totally consider it... If they would back up all my pictures, movies, music... Yeah sure I'd pay $100 a year...
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Aaron Richard said 5:47PM on 5-08-2008
.Mac is just one of those things you get suckered into, and then once you start using it you can't ever stop. After you start using it for syncing, you just sort of swallow the $100/yr fee becuase you wouldn't want to be without it. Still, It would be nice to see the price more in the $59-$69 range.
If you only have one machine, it's completely worthless.
DrWho said 6:23PM on 5-08-2008
You wish may have come true - it's $69.99 at Amazon
Kolby said 7:26PM on 5-08-2008
yep, and sometimes cheaper, last time I bought it it was just 60 dollars from amazon - you only have to remember to buy it before you subscription ends each year
that 30 - 40 dollar discount is what makes it almost worth it, now if we can get over the air syncing for the iphone it will be totally worth it.
Ryan Trevisol said 5:03PM on 5-08-2008
Yes, that $100/year pill would be a lot easier to swallow if it syncs me up OTA. With 3G, my life would be complete.
I'm really seriously considering selling my iPhone and using my trusty Nokia 6061 for a month. :)
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Ryan Trevisol said 5:08PM on 5-08-2008
One more thing, Mr. Bohon, It's "expects" not "expect."
ben babics said 8:20PM on 5-08-2008
I just sold my 8gb iPhone today! I was lucky enough to squeeze $300 out of it while the general public is still clueless that the new iPhone is so close and they're still hungry for the "old" iPhone.
SELL SELL SELL!! :)
altoidboy said 1:23AM on 5-10-2008
if anyone wants to unload a first generation iphone, i'm ready to take one! even the entry-level model. altoidboy615@yahoo.com
Jake said 5:08PM on 5-08-2008
ZOMG!
I WANT IT!
Please Apple?
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Techtistic said 5:11PM on 5-08-2008
Taken from the transcript of the interview with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at the D5 conference on May 30, 2007.
Walt Mossberg (addressing Steve Jobs): You obviously have a very large Internet business with iTunes and you sell a lot of stuff in the Apple Store, but, you know, you were early with this idea that when you bought a computer from Apple, you had this kind of Internet service back end, and it was called “.Mac”. And I think a lot of people feel you haven’t developed it very much.
Steve Jobs: I couldn’t agree with you more, and we’ll make up for lost time in the near future.
I thought it was great to hear Steve say this. I have yet to ever use .Mac services. I have wanted to, but I could never justify it because of the abundance of free alternatives. When they are up to par with Apple's standard for innovation I guarantee I will be there.
Below is a link to the video clip that contains this part of the interview. It is at the 4 Min. 29 Sec. mark.
http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070531/video-steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-together-part-4-of-7/
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Ed said 5:18PM on 5-08-2008
I hope so. .Mac has massive potential, if Apple would only put in the time to improve it... I'm not sure I'd buy it, but it could certainly be useful to many people (SMBs and consumers), if not the more technically inclined...
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harsh said 5:26PM on 5-08-2008
if apple really wants to take over the world, they should turn .mac into an ad based revenue model and offer the services we're talking about in this post for free to users. free .mac OTA synching via the iPhone = total destruction.
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