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Apple Buys Me.com? .Mac's New Name?

Decrepit said:
Maybe this is their way of weaning people away from the name Mac.

Start on the mobile side. iPhone, iPod...

Change the notebooks to AirBook, and AirBook Pro eventually killing the machine in the middle.

They could go with iDesk Mini for the Mini, iDesk for the iMac and iDesk Pro for the Mac Pro.

Just some wild speculation on my part, but they killed the Apple II line pretty harshly. They could kill the Mac name overnight as well.
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.Mac is compatible with Windows, as are the iPhone, iPod and AppleTV...nothing more sensible, given Apple's forays as a consumer electronics company.

I had an Apple II when that decision happened, and it wasn't harsh at all; just an evolution of the market in face of ANOTHER computer line. Besides, they even put an Apple II compatibility card on the LC line for the Mac.

Again: the Mac is gone ONLY if there is a totally new computer line launched by Apple...and this won't happen anytime soon.
 
jonharris200 said:
nlivo, ElectricHermit and kiwi031 you are all too kind, especially kiwi031 who calls me a gentleman. 🙂

Of course what I am saying is nothing new (so I can't take the credit!), but what perhaps is new is a company of Apple's size launching a cloud product for the consumer market.

Also, the fact that, as ever, they control not just the software (the cloud) but also the hardware - a 360° complete solution.

Even though @me.com sounds self-indulgent, Apple is pragmatic about names (ref: MacBook - it's not classy but it works). Me.com is supremely simple and easy-to-use, and we all know how much Apple loves that.

Another thing about names: people don't really care if the service is innovative and reliable (you heard us in the UK, right, Steve?). The most ridiculous name I saw was a computer company called a FRUIT!

ElectricHermit you are right to mention Windows. I think the 'a-browser-is-all-you-need' approach, as dotmac already is, is good enough, but I wonder what the iTunes tie-up might be given that iTunes is Mac + PC. Or they could even make some aspects of it 'Safari only' to entice more Windows users to dip their toe in the Apple water (or should that be juice? 🙄).

Personally I remain a bit nervous about cloud computing as I like the idea that my data is on my hardware thank you very much. But then to be honest I don't live like that - I build websites and trust other companies to host them. I use Facebook, Skype and eBay. So I guess trust is the operative word - there's a lot of sky but whose cloud (as it were) do I trust the most? Apple's not perfect, but by and large I trust them.

I have no idea if such a product will be launched at WWDC, but you'd have to say it could be a great fit for a developers' conference. Sure it leans more towards web applications rather than iPhone or Mac platforms specifically - but in a way it is a whole new paradigm that embraces them both.

Interested in everyone else's input in the discussion too - sorry if this long post sounds a bit me, Me, ME!
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I would like to see the following (posted this on another thread):

--A Cloud iTunes where all the AV I buy from Apple remains on their servers in the Cloud, but can be manipulated and synched/streamed (or rarely downloaded) to any of my computers/iPods/iPhones/AppleTVs

--Expanded capability to the above to allow me to upload all my AV that was not purchased from Apple

--Same for my photos/scans and Home Movies

So my entire iLife repository would reside on Apple's servers in the Cloud-- secure, off-site, redundant, automatically backed-up, manageable and accessible from anywhere, sharable, etc.

This could be expanded to offer Cloud storage/backup of non-iLife files via Cloud TimeMachine.

So, Apple would need to offer large Cloud storage.

In addition, to make this practical, Apple would, likely, need to work with the IPs to offer a reasonably-priced fast upload capability.

So, give me a couple TB of storage and commensurate bandwidth allocation and IP upload/download speeds & I'd be happy to pay $200/yr (even more) for the total package.

For reference, a LaCie 2TB HDD costs about $550-$650:

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Sh...erm=Lacie 2TB&id=21&DefSort=Y&searchFilter=21

and I currently have 2 of these (1 backup) for my iTunes & Photos.

But, I am very uncomfortable with the files & backup, both, being on-site!
 
Peace said:
To be honest after thinking thinking about this overnight the idea of me.com SUX big time.

It is branding suicide..It's a smokescreen just watch.
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While I have reservations, I'm not fully convinced that me.com is branding suicide - though pre-pending it to -Mac, -Phone and -Pod, certainly would be.

Remember too that Mobile Me would be the brand, with me.com as the domain, just as .Mac is currently the brand, and mac.com is the domain. Even Mobile Me takes some getting used to, but I think I could live with it depending on the actual product or service as mentioned earlier.

However I am loathe to quibble with a demi-god, especially one whose stated MR location is 'in the clouds'. 🙂

Maybe Apple will surprise us with social networking... then the me.com domain name would be a better fit. Personally I'm not expecting a Facebook competitor from Apple though.
 
What happened to my Brand?

Decrepit said:
Maybe this is their way of weaning people away from the name Mac.

Start on the mobile side. iPhone, iPod...

Change the notebooks to AirBook, and AirBook Pro eventually killing the machine in the middle.

They could go with iDesk Mini for the Mini, iDesk for the iMac and iDesk Pro for the Mac Pro.

Just some wild speculation on my part, but they killed the Apple II line pretty harshly. They could kill the Mac name overnight as well.
Click to expand...

Come with me on a journey to a future "Get a Mac" commercial:
<start dreamy music sequence>

Mobile Me: Hello, I'm a Mobile Me device

PC: And I'm a PC...
...... PC dressed in an Hawaiian shirt with shades😎, holding a bottle of Champagne. "Happy Days are Here Again" song playing in background. Two scantily clad, buxom blonds at his side

Mobile Me: Hey PC, what's going on, what are you celebrating?

PC: Well Mobile Me <snickering>, happy days are indeed here again. No more, switchers to MAC, I mean come on: idesk, Mobile Me device, I think that the guys over at Apple have been smoking way too much of that funny stuff. <takes long pull of Champagne, blondes giggle>

Mobile Me: What do you mean PC, we got tired of Mac this and Mac that, I mean what's in a brand name anyway..?

PC: That's ok Mac, I mean Mobile Me device, <laughing out loud>, I went through the "ME" phase, what with all the instability and the innovation of my 'Millennium Edition'....

Mobile Me:...but it's not 'Millennium Edition', it's Mobile Experience, or Mobile Entertainment, or...

PC: Yeah, I hear ya bud....😉
..... PC walks into the sunset, one arm with bottle around one of the blonds, his other hand on a butt cheek (the feminists here will have to get over it, it's my commercial, it's going to have alcohol and babes)...song changes to "You shook ME all night long".......

Mobile Me device: <stares at PC leaving, thinking I used to be the cool one with the cool Brand, what happened?>

<cue dreamy sequence music>

One possibility when you let the marketing dept run wild......
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Mac OS X Ocelot said:
Maybe it has nothing to do with .Mac but instead Apple is going to attempt a full-fledged social networking website. Maybe it means nothing and Apple felt whimsical at the time.
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the last thing the world needs is yet another social networking site. It's already too hard to keep up with a blog, facebook account, myspace account, flickr page etc.

Now if it acted as an aggregator or as a plugin for all those other sites, then I could see such a service having a future.
 
Anybody remember the rumors surrounding Vingle.com ?

That came and went like a terrible tornado.POOF! it was gone.

That's what's going to happen to me.


pun intended 😎
 
nlivo said:
I think this post is closest to the money.
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Sync has been changing as well. I think you two are on to something here. Perhaps a full change is exactly what will happen.

I would love an Apple branded social site. I would love Push Email. And in general, I would like some choices for greater online in the cloud software. Google's DOCs is actually growing on me. But imagine something like creating a doc in the cloud and having access to it from your iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple tablet. Imagine a social site where you can share that document with friends in your network. Imagine forums, groups, your email and alerts and content. Imagine all of it tied to your Apple TV. I could easily get excited about such a product.

Alex Alexzander
 
koobcamuk said:
Makes sense, but I prefer .Mac.

It's easy to spell out as an email address and I just like what it assocaites me with. @me.com sounds stupid to me.
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Okay so Mac doesn't taylor to the creative anymore, or pro reallly - no more artists, writers, people who are snobs as everyone has a mac and (okay, not everyone, pun), and the machines really are faster, okay Steve? (remember when he said they were and they were slow as dogs compared to say a AMD at the time for crunching or doing video/audio, and of course gaming.

But today's market is the iphone and ipod user, at least having heywhatup@mac.com said a little something about you, regardless of "status", it said, to some, hip, or cool, of course, @apple.com is better (and that's all I will say about that except you cannot check @apple.com unless in Cuppertino or at a retail back room hard lined computer (grin)....but @me.com? Like I said yesterday, this is very Microsoft sounding, for it to fly it would have to be 99 at time of purchase, 9.99 a month with DSL/CABLE ISP and a heck of a makeover. (lol)...
 
stop worrying about a changing email address

I think a bunch of you are getting way too worried about changing your email address. In fact I think the solution apple offers may be quite the opposite.

I think one of the down-falls of a mac based service is that I will have to get a brand new email address.

Not only do I think apple will certainly allow you to keep the routing of your current .mac email, I think people like myself with Gmail accounts will be able to attach the Imap server settings of our Gmail accounts to this new email service, and seamlessly use the apple framework to run our life, in just the same way, yet quicker and in a more responsive manner.

Apple's not dumb enough to try to get 1 million gmail users to tell all of their contacts a brand new email address. It just doesn't make sense. Its competition, and I think apple and google would do best to avoid competing whenever possible with each other.

*I do feel that competing operating systems for cell phones, IS necessary. so Android vs Iphone as a bad idea was not the intention of this post.
 
hiimamac said:
(and that's all I will say about that except you cannot check @apple.com unless in Cuppertino or at a retail back room hard lined computer (grin)........
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this drives me nuts. My bro has an @apple.com address. I still for the life of me can not figure out why they limit checking of this address to retail/cupertino locations. Its so dumb. They send him emails with important information (like his upcoming work schedule) and then he can't read it without driving 20 min into work. Its an email. Its the internet. Its 2008. Can someone explain this to me?
 
Not just Me, Windows Me

EricNau said:
I'm assuming this correlates with the past story and the new name will be "Mobile Me" with the domain name me.com?

I think a name of just "Me" would get very confusing.
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Yeah, and you would need Windows Me to connect to Apple's Me service.🙂

Hehehehe
 
brucku said:
this drives me nuts. My bro has an @apple.com address. I still for the life of me can not figure out why they limit checking of this address to retail/cupertino locations. Its so dumb. They send him emails with important information (like his upcoming work schedule) and then he can't read it without driving 20 min into work. Its an email. Its the internet. Its 2008. Can someone explain this to me?
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For security purposes. If they create an email server with external access, it opens a door to hacking and information gathering.

What they probably should have done was created applestore.com or something like that email that has web access. That way no confidential information ever makes it offsite.
 
I wonder if this could have something to do with my generation being the "me generation." Supposedly we're sooooooooo into ourselves. Well maybe that's because no one was into us! My generation was the first one to live in institutionalized day care, day long kindergarten, standardized testing, mass mind numbing drugs (legal), and be born to parents who thought of us as housecats that could largely make do on our own and were expected to come along to work, theatre, and museums and just be quiet. Oh, and stay inside of course, because it's a dangerous world out there! To be honest I think it was the baby boomers who were too far into themselves to be real parents! They're the real me generation! I'm part of the shattered dreams generation. Or is that just me?
 
competition with google

Actually, I think this is the next war. Remember, 20 years ago Steve didn't realize in time that IBM wasn't the enemy any longer, it was really microsoft. It's not that that war is won (in terms of usage), but its time to wage war in the clouds.

Google IS the new enemy. Therefore, this new service must equal, and exceed, Google's services and be FREE to Apple hardware users. How about 1 year free with an iphone, 6 months with a touch 2 years with a MAC. Imagine the value perceived by the windows crowd. Now, allow every windows user who bought an ipod, but not a touch or iphone, to buy the same services for their Vistasaster* boxes for $100/year through itunes, using Safari. Why not give them a taste of the Mac Experience if they're paying you? And ultimately, they'll be buying your boxes.

Do you think this might be why Apple doesn't want to "fix" Safari yet? They want everybody to download the new ME-enabled Safari next month!

*credit to FSJ
 
Decrepit said:
For security purposes. If they create an email server with external access, it opens a door to hacking and information gathering.

What they probably should have done was created applestore.com or something like that email that has web access. That way no confidential information ever makes it offsite.
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Security purposes? no way. Hundreds of Fortune 500 companies have webmail accessible email interfaces. And this is apple, if anyone should be able to secure their own corporate network.....
 
brucku said:
Security purposes? no way. Hundreds of Fortune 500 companies have webmail accessible email interfaces. And this is apple, if anyone should be able to secure their own corporate network.....
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Probably so people like you wouldn't try to read their brother's emails and spilling secret/important information to others on the internet. This is Apple we're talking about. They don't want others to know what they know.

:apple:
 
Me?

The name 'me' sounds too tacky. Too on the social networking youth side of the internet.

Think about it, Apples tactic will be to get your .Mac (or 'me' homepage) website will be your equivalent of your Facebook Profile - your web gallery to replace the Facebook photos section. Joining a .Mac group is just like the Facebook Groups. Mac mail is the equivalent to Facebook / Bebo / MySpace mail. AND SO ON.

And all this for still $99 bucks per year when you have Facebook / MySpace for FREE!? It defines belief, who would go for .Mac or 'me' or whatever the name is...??

I think its pointless. .Mac is the one thing I'd like to stay the SAME. Apart from a price drop. That would be nice.
 
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