Face it: your address book and your contacts, they're personal. They reveal a lot about you: your friends, your business partners, your cake buying proclivities, and more. The address book you see at the top of this post appears to be for someone in the Denver area. I know that because of the REI Denver listing and Le Bakery Sensual on 6th, which I drive by whenever I head East from Broadway.

These contacts, along with their notes, their phone numbers, dates of birth, and other information say a lot about the person whose address book this is, and also about the people who appear in that contact list, with all their personal and professional info.

There's one big problem. The screen shot you see wasn't made by the person who owns this me.com account. Under certain very specific conditions, Apple is inadvertently sharing data from other people's accounts. Ouch.

A TUAW reader sent us a video made as he renewed his me.com account from the UK. The address book data he accessed during that time included this Denver-based set shown here, as well as data from an Ireland-based user of Polish descent (all his contacts were back in Poland although his business was based in Ireland).

This all went down during the period when his MobileMe account was renewing. Each time he logged off and back on, he was presented with yet another set of contacts--none of them his. He writes, "Each time I logged off and on I got a different address book. All the other options were disabled (because my renewal was being processed) but clicking the Contacts icon showed me *an* address book," just not his address book.

With a little Internet-fu, he checked out some of the numbers and found that they were valid and operational. This leads him to believe that this is real data. My inspection of the local Denver data from his screen shots convinces me of the same. Further inspection of work addresses and personal family names makes us believe we know whose Denver-based address book this is. We've attempted to contact this person but as yet have not heard back.

The address book glitch ended once the registration process finished, leaving our TUAW reader with a series of screen shots and videos and a deep concern about Apple's ability to safeguard personal data. He's already contacted Apple about the bug. "I contacted them by two means: their web-chat thing where they told me that they 'had no reports of such an issue'. They suggested closing and reopening Safari (helpful eh?) and a generic autoresponse saying they'd reply within 5 days when i sent an email." He adds, "I don't think the people manning the help desk appreciated the seriousness of the situation."

TUAW has sent a heads-up to Apple and will keep monitoring the situation to see how it develops.

iPhone OS 3.1 made the scene today at the Apple event, with a number of new features and fixes that should make iPhone owners happy (and iPod touch owners -- although for them, the version number is 3.1.1 instead). After a slow start to the download, I was able to get the update loaded onto my iPhone 3GS and I gave some of the new features a test drive.

The first big new feature is the Genius for Apps. To turn it on, you go to the Featured screen the App Store, and click the Genius button at the top of the display. After approving the license agreement, Genius is up and running, and clicking on the Genius button gives you a list of what it considers to be good suggestions based on what I have purchased. I wasn't very happy with the first list it produced (see screenshot at right), since I don't live in NYC, don't read Time, and really don't want something called The Most Useless App Ever.

The Genius lets you refine this list by swiping items to remove them. I did notice by the third screen of suggestions that the Genius was starting to pick apps that were more my style, so I think it's going to work out.

Read on for more impressions of 3.1.

Earlier this week, I noticed that the calendars on my Mac and my iPhone weren't in sync. "More MobileMe nonsense," I thought. However, I soon found the culprit, and it wasn't MobileMe acting wonky. My account had expired, and I was within the 15 day grace period.

I saw the "Renew" button and reached for my wallet like a well-trained Pavlov iDog. Then something stopped me. "Do I really want to do this?" There are so many alternatives that offer nearly the same services. Calling upon my days as a used car salesman (true story), I pulled out a piece of paper and drew a vertical line down the center, labeling one side "Pros" and the other "Cons." Then, I got to work.

Pros

First of all, I should outline what I use MobileMe for. An email account, address book, calendar sync between my Mac and iPhone and iDisk storage. I don't use the photo galleries, though my kids' grandparents wish I did, or the web apps. With that in mind, here are the pros.

Everything is built in. There's nothing to download, install or configure. iCal, Address Book, Mail (OK, I have to set up an account. Nit-pickers) and iDisk are ready to go from the start.

My iDisk is accessible from the Finder, and things like MobileMe Galleries just work. Sounds like an easy choice, eh? Keep reading.

Cons

Honestly, it doesn't always "just work." The synchronization has been flaky in the past, and push notifications have been pokey. Granted, it's light-years beyond where it was after launch, but I don't really trust it 100%.

It's a bit pricey. The standard fee is $99US/year. I've got one additional email address for my wife, so tack on another ten bucks. Before you fly into an iRage, know that I realize that one hundred bucks for push email, contacts and calendar, 10GB online storage, web hosting and so on is not a bad deal. It's just that there are less expensive alternatives.

With Gmail, I can have email, address book and calendar for free. With Spanning Sync, [TUAW Spanning Sync posts here] I can sync Google Calendar and iCal in both directions for $25 per year or $65 as a one-time fee. And I can easily set up my iPhone to send and receive Gmail.

Let's look at the available-anywhere online storage. Here at the TUAW offices, we're big fans of Dropbox [TUAW Dropbox posts here]. Once installed, it's super easy to use. A menu bar item and a Finder window item make access a snap. Additionally, sharing files and folders is just as simple.

The first 2GB of storage are free. After that, you'll pay $9.99US/month or $99US/year for 50GB of storage.

So why not just switch? It's not that easy. My MobileMe email address is in heavy use. Not only among my contacts, but across many places online. Switching would be a hassle. I'm also held back by the "What If Factor."

There's a part of me, deep inside my cynical, self-deprecating heart that's convinced that the very day I cancel my subscription, Apple will release the MobileMe update of my dreams. It's the same certainty that prevents me from buying a DVD player or a Blu-ray player as I watch my VHS tapes.

For now, I've got 14 days to decide. I'll let you know what I chose in a future post.

Apple has just updated the .Mac status page with the date/time of the .Mac to MobileMe switch. So, for those of you wondering when Apple might start the switch will not have to wonder any longer. July 9th from 6 p.m. until 12 a.m. PT is the scheduled date and time.

Apple says that during the switch, users will be "unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services ... with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch."

According to Apple, "MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window." Be sure to stay tuned to TUAW for the latest on the .Mac to MobileMe switch.


Thanks, Andy and Barry!

With only a week before July, we're eager to get our hands on the new goodies from Apple. With so much to look forward to and try out, we're wondering which of the pending updates you're most interested in.

Is it Mobile Me's offer of "Exchange for the rest of us?" Perhaps it's iPhone software 2.0, or even the snazzy 3G iPhone you're waiting for.

Here's your chance to let us now. Add your answer to our highly unscientific poll, and we'll post the results tomorrow. Oh, it's like Christmas! In July. Or something.

Today Apple demoed the much anticipated MobileMe application that we were tipped to last month. Currently, we were correct in what we thought would be the features list:

• Web version of mail, calendars, and contacts (look similar to desktop apps)
• Old .Mac users will be transitioned over to MobileMe when it launches
• Launch in early July
• Same $99 /year price that we've all come to expect
  
• Sync between iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PCs

As soon as we have more information, we will post about it. Be sure to stay tuned to TUAW as we have continuing coverage of WWDC.

What's next for .Mac, Apple's much-maligned online service offering for OS X users? TUAW has learned that .Mac will no longer be sold by Apple after WWDC, as new users will migrate to the new MobileMe service (not too shocking, given the swirling rumors as of late). Existing users will have their @mac.com e-mail addresses forwarded to their @me.com address in perpetuity, which should provide some relief for nervous .Mac users who depend on that email.

MobileMe is slated to include a host of new features, which we alluded to early in May; in addition, there will be new web interfaces for all aspects of MobileMe -- calendars will look just like iCal, Contacts will look just like they do in Address Book, etc. This is similar to the way .Mac Webmail works today, though we've heard that the new interfaces will be much snazzier (yes, that's a technical term). Apple should also be updating the .Mac dependent applications (iChat, iWeb, iPhoto etc.) to work with the new service. The new service will be backwards compatible with .Mac protocols for the time being -- so developers will not have to rush out updates as soon as they hear the official word.

MobileMe is scheduled to be available sometime in late June/early July. We have also heard reports that the latest build of the iPhone beta firmware (2.0) has already undergone revisions to handle the new MobileMe service. Some of the features of the service on iPhone will include: over-the-air syncing of contacts, calendars, and photos. Interestingly, there is also a Windows version of MobileMe planned.

Though we're confident in the source of this information, this is still a rumor until Apple reveals all. We should hear more information about MobileMe at the World Wide Developer's Conference starting on Monday (June 9th).

TUAW is hearing that Apple recently acquired the domain name "mobileme.com." This domain name, would of course agree with the recent rumors of the .Mac re-branding to gain the "Mobile Me" name. However, the domain name is currently in the hands of Apple's registrar, Mark Monitor.

When you query the domain with a whois search, the following information is revealed about the domain name:

Domain Name: MOBILEME.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
Name Server: NS1.MARKMONITOR.COM
Name Server: NS2.MARKMONITOR.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 07-aug-2007
Creation Date: 23-aug-2002
Expiration Date: 23-aug-2009

This rumor comes after Apple recently bought the me.com domain name.

As Mat noted last night, it's looking like a name change is in store for the .Mac service. CodingRobots.com and Deep Apple (via Daring Fireball) have found some additional interesting strings in the newest release of the iPhone SDK, building on strings found in other parts of the Mac OS X update (iCal, Mail and more) released Tuesday.

Apparently, Mobile Me looks like it wil be the name of the new service: CodingRobots has a screenshot of the "MobileMe" string inside the SDK 2.0 release. Add in the 2006 AppleInsider report, noted by DF, that Apple filed a trademark application for the name "Mobile Me" in early 2006, and all signs point to the new branding for .Mac. What Mobile Me could offer is known only by Apple at this point, though Gruber speculates that Mobile Me might extend the over-the-air sync capabilities of iPhone 2.0 (as announced, limited to Microsoft Exchange/ActiveSync users in the enterprise) to the rest of us.

Take this with several grains of salt, but an anonymous tipster has sent the above photo to us of what appears to be an Apple branded SIM card (or an iTunes gift card modified to look like a SIM card). Our tipster says that Apple is about 85% ready to roll out a cell service using the moniker Mobile Me, which was recently trademarked. Apple will be using Cingular's network and Motorola's hardware.

We are told that the service is on track to launch sometime in February (or so we are told).

Update: I should point out that our source isn't claiming that the phone pictured is the fabled iPhone (it is a Samsung SGH x497). He claims that the SIM card is Apple's.

Update II: Our friends at Engadget also got the same tip that we did, so check out their take on it.

Another picture after the jump.

According to Apple Insider, Apple has filed a request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the phrase "Mobile Me." The request is divided into four main sections. The first concerns, "...Computer services; computer data recovery; data analysis being computer services; computer programming; updating of computer software; maintenance of computer software, computer and communications networks, and computer systems..."

Next, the request discusses "...providing digital music from local or global communications networks, including the internet, intranets, extranets, television, mobile communication, cellular and satellite networks; operating chat rooms..." The same phrase is repeated to include audio books, electronics games, information regarding music and  "...seminars and training courses relating to science, engineering, computer systems and business."

The remaining sections discuss portable devices, and are by far the most interesting: "...Portable digital electronic devices and software related thereto; handheld digital electronic devices and software related thereto; digital audio players, including digital music players, and software related thereto..."

It goes on from there. Of course, it could just be an example of Apple wanting to protect ideas that may or may not see the light of day in the future.