Looks like I was quite wrong about being the only one remembering iTools.
Yep nuck, that has always bugged the hell outa me too.
Yep nuck, that has always bugged the hell outa me too.
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MobileMe to Become a Free Service?
- Thread starter bowlerman625
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I guess the question would be, would people feel MobileMe has $20 worth of value? As some folks have mentioned already, there's some free services that compete with some of the MobileMe tools. I don't use MobileMe at all now, but I certainly would give it a shot it were free. If a lot of people were like me, that might be a valuable subscriber base for iAds.
I think people think of "free" generally as being "no money out of my pocket." And I don't pay Google any money to use their products. I do pay them in the loss of privacy, this is true. But that's a less tangible "price" than a bill coming every month or year.
Not Sure How I feel About That...
At the end of the day, cloud syncing should not be a paid service -they could easily bake it into the price of Mac hardware (and it probably already is). On the other hand, the IMAP email, iWeb, and gallery hosting it comes with do warrant a premium. Not the current premium by any stretch of the immagination (I get far better deals on web hosting and email elsewhere), but a premium of some dollar value is warranted, I think.
But, when I really think about it, I don't use my MobileMe email for anything important, I haven't updated my galleries in months, and iWeb sites hosted on Apple's MobileMe servers run slower than steam rising off a manure pile. The syncing however, is invaluable.
At the end of the day, cloud syncing should not be a paid service -they could easily bake it into the price of Mac hardware (and it probably already is). On the other hand, the IMAP email, iWeb, and gallery hosting it comes with do warrant a premium. Not the current premium by any stretch of the immagination (I get far better deals on web hosting and email elsewhere), but a premium of some dollar value is warranted, I think.
But, when I really think about it, I don't use my MobileMe email for anything important, I haven't updated my galleries in months, and iWeb sites hosted on Apple's MobileMe servers run slower than steam rising off a manure pile. The syncing however, is invaluable.
Eric Schmidt on privacy
Eric Schmidt said:
What Eric like posting my pics of my son up on a page yet not wanting the freakin' world to see? Or how about my list of friends exposed to the world with the automatic opt in of Google Buzz
Google and Facebook are nothing but data mining scavengers. Try this...if the **** hits the fan on either site tell me how quickly you can call and talk to a human? I'll wait.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)
I could see iAd playing a role in this decision. Apple
pays for it through ads. Makes sense.
I could see iAd playing a role in this decision. Apple
pays for it through ads. Makes sense.
Man my renewal is coming up on the 23rd. I will definitely renew as we love the iWeb hosting among other things. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple said the .me email address, the push syncing for address book and iCal and other settings were included, and then maybe started charging a smaller amount for the iWeb/iDisk services.
I cant remember where it was mentioned, but I recall (dreamed?) that Apple had 1 million paid-up MobileMe members at one stage. If you even multiply that by the lowest amount you can purchase it for, thats what, $69 million a year. Cant be losing that much money.
Maybe an apple giftcard for the difference? Like apple did for the early adopters of iPhone 2G when there was a price drop
At least thatd make me buy a product Ive had my eye on but havent had incentive to take the plunge
I like this idea but not the following one
Id still pay in this case, but the price better not increase
I use Mobileme every day and it comes through for me every time. I also use it knowing that when i'm reading my email it's just me reading it not some automatic data mining program watching my every move.
Think about this. Your life, your privacy and ability to communicate without someone watching was sold down the river for a pittance. It's seems fair to you because your are the one that gets capitalized on in a capitalist society.
It makes absolutely no sense.
Steve Jobs said iAd was a way to have Free or low cost apps on the app store and still get the developer a little compensation.
How does that translate into a closed cloud service like Mobileme? Apple isn't trying to be Cupertino Google here.
There will be a free version of mobileme, if only to save people having to register for a free AIM account to video conference on the new iPhoneHD.
Making it free would be a smart move by Apple. It would help bond iphone users more effectively to Apple ecosystem.
At the moment, I don't use the MobileMe service (though I'd like to have findmyphone and perhaps back to my mac services) but if I had it free, it would be a thing that would make it less likely that I would switch to RIM/WIN7 or Android.
Does anyone know if the Windows version of this similar service bundle is free?
EDIT: From MS
# How much does the My Phone service cost? It's free! Except for a few optional services, Microsoft does not charge for use of Microsoft My Phone. However, your mobile operator may charge for data usage so please ensure that you have an appropriate data plan. If you are unsure of your data plan coverage, contact your mobile operator.
At the moment, I don't use the MobileMe service (though I'd like to have findmyphone and perhaps back to my mac services) but if I had it free, it would be a thing that would make it less likely that I would switch to RIM/WIN7 or Android.
Does anyone know if the Windows version of this similar service bundle is free?
EDIT: From MS
# How much does the My Phone service cost? It's free! Except for a few optional services, Microsoft does not charge for use of Microsoft My Phone. However, your mobile operator may charge for data usage so please ensure that you have an appropriate data plan. If you are unsure of your data plan coverage, contact your mobile operator.
The download for the Mobileme control panel for windows is free. It's very basic but all people really need is to link with Outlook contacts and Exchange. Everything else can be done me.com.
Thanks. I was thinking of the equivalent phone/cloud service offered by Microsoft. Looks like it includes a Findmyphone feature and some basic storage and photo options and assumedly an email account.
It should be free. Further lock people into this ecosystem. Besides, the future is in the cloud...
Google
Google wants to be Apple. So now Apple wants to be Google.
Given the market cap of those two companies, it doesn't seem like that bad a strategy for either of them.
Google wants to be Apple. So now Apple wants to be Google.
Given the market cap of those two companies, it doesn't seem like that bad a strategy for either of them.
OK, I'll grant you that MobileMe doesn't suck as much as I make it sound. I just don't like it and so I don't use it anymore. Fair enough.
But, I think you misunderstand how Google's ads work. They aren't indexing and storing your emails in some data bank to sell off to ad companies. They do simple pattern matching on the text in your email to figure out which ads are most relevant and then displays those to you. The ad companies don't have access to your emails and can't read them, etc. I'm not being capitalized. If I don't want the ads I can pay $50 / year, or I can take the ads for free. That's just business, I enter into that in full agreement. And I trust Google just as much (if not more) than some random schmo ISP that would give me shoddy email service and just as much privacy as Google does but without the ads.
A small price to pay as it is now...
I don't want it to be free unless they keep improving it and don't downgrade the service that it is now just because it would become free. Mobile me is quite useful and perfect for my use:
Email address (with practically zero spam)
syncing my macs and iPod touch.
encrypted iChat conversations and screen sharing
online photo galleries
hosting my 4 websites
Back to my Mac
the ability to transfer/upload and download large files (FTP site).
And it all integrates perfectly because I'm 100% Apple/Mac.
I get all this for a paltry $69 through Amazon. No one one should be complaining over the price.
I don't want it to be free unless they keep improving it and don't downgrade the service that it is now just because it would become free. Mobile me is quite useful and perfect for my use:
Email address (with practically zero spam)
syncing my macs and iPod touch.
encrypted iChat conversations and screen sharing
online photo galleries
hosting my 4 websites
Back to my Mac
the ability to transfer/upload and download large files (FTP site).
And it all integrates perfectly because I'm 100% Apple/Mac.
I get all this for a paltry $69 through Amazon. No one one should be complaining over the price.
You've said the magic words Friscohoya. "Lock". Unlike Google's web initiative, Apple making MobileMe free can only benefit iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps and the Mac community.
I still think there should be a paid version for heavy duty users that want a better performing iDisk and more cloud features. But the masses would be happy with lite versions of what we have now sans the cost.
People need to remember that Apple is building an NC datacenter...no make that a HUGE NC datacenter. It is so large that it defies logic as to what they're going to do with it. Current MobileMe subscriptions cannot explain why this datacenter is 500 thousand sq ft.
I expect that we're going to see Lala style music streaming from this dc. Free MobileMe is likely and other cloud services.
Good article on NC datacenter with pic
"It should be free. It's craptastic; painfully slow and full of bugs."
--I agree with you, this is why I dumped it; I did not want to pay $90 for a service that was slow, and buggy. I switched to Gmail, although I still liked Mobile Me calendar, photos etc better.
If they want to compete with Google, I think this is a good idea. I like Gmail better than Mobile me mail, but I love the other features of Mobile me like calendar, photos, iDisk, etc. Google has also still a very "basic" feeling to me. While Apple has a much nicer look and more options.
--I agree with you, this is why I dumped it; I did not want to pay $90 for a service that was slow, and buggy. I switched to Gmail, although I still liked Mobile Me calendar, photos etc better.
If they want to compete with Google, I think this is a good idea. I like Gmail better than Mobile me mail, but I love the other features of Mobile me like calendar, photos, iDisk, etc. Google has also still a very "basic" feeling to me. While Apple has a much nicer look and more options.
Point taken but what kind of FOOL am I to trade my privacy to Google for a paltry $6 at any level?
Where you go, who you speak to and how you communicate is of tremendous value and I recommend that people think about actual value. We're moving from this era where the expectation should be that Cloud services at a basic level should be incorporated into the product without the vendor resorting to advertisements.
Google and Facebook have both come out with disturbing revelations about how they feel about consumer privacy. I think the beauty of the web is that no company is irreplaceable. I could continue to get email, online calendar, pictures, documents and more without Google and that's a great feeling.
