Apple to Focus on Streaming, Social and Geolocation Services With MobileMe Overhaul?

[MacRumors]

Cult of Mac reports that it has received information from a source regarding Apple's efforts to revamp its MobileMe service, suggesting that the company is going well beyond simple cloud-based media streaming to include social and location-based services.

Among the many services Apple is working on are:

- A live video-streaming service like Ustream
- A location-based check-in system like Gowalla or Foursquare
- A geo-tagging system codenamed "Tokens" that tags real-world locations, like Facebook Places on steroids.

According to the report, the focus of the revamped MobileMe will be on a "dynamic webpage" that is constantly updated with the user's latest activity with their iOS device, from locations to photos and videos to music.

"The concept is that you would have you own website that's dynamic, all based on what you are doing at that moment," said our source. "Apple thinks of it as having a webserver in your pocket... everything will be dynamically updated to MobileMe."

With "Tokens", users would be able to tag GPS locations with photos, reviews, and other information that would be available to other MobileMe users visiting those locations.

While Apple is not known for being on the cutting edge of social networking and its Ping component of iTunes has struggled to catch on as a music-focused network, the company has clearly shown interest in developing social features, particularly when it comes to location-based technologies. Over a year ago, the company advertised for a software engineer who could help take the iOS Maps application "to the next level", while more recent job postings have hinted at integrated navigation software. And more recently, builds of iOS 4.3 have hinted at a feature called "Find My Friends" that could easily be a part of the rumored MobileMe revamp.

Differing schools of thought regarding a MobileMe revamp have arisen over the past few days, with some suggesting a very strong focus on true cloud-based services beaming data from Apple's servers to a variety of devices, while others have suggested that the user's own home computer will be the source from which data is disseminated to portable devices.

Article Link: Apple to Focus on Streaming, Social and Geolocation Services With MobileMe Overhaul?

 

[iPhoneCollector]

its like apples very own facebook.

 

[bluemonkeyguy]

There was and will be a pricetag.

 

[topmounter]

Wow guys... enough with the rumors... I thought this was a news site... err wait... never mind, rumor-monger on!!!

 

[Andronicus]

I wish apple would stop with the social network stuff. Leave that to Facebook and the likes. I especially am not a fan of letting people know where I am at all times.

 

[ipedro]

I bet we see Steve come out to introduce this. MobileMe is becoming Apple's own long due Facebook competitor. This is potentially huge for Apple.

With an installed base of over 160 million iOS devices, they're going to get a real nice head start. Facebook is at 300 million.

If Apple makes Me.com a free service for every iOS user, then they're not only going to instantly compete at the level of Facebook but they're going to totally murder BBM. Everybody's going to want an iPhone so that they can become a member of Apple's social network.

I expect Apple to re-brand it to simply me.com. I mean, what is Facebook all about? It's your "Me" online. That's the best social network URL right there.

 

[goobot]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I could care less about the social stuff

 

[dkingofpa]

All my friends don't use iOS devices

I guess I need to get cooler friends so we can stalk each other.

 

[Eduardo1971]

I'm not impressed. Granted, I also do not care nor use 'social networking' sites.

Bring on the iMac rumours!!!

Now that would interest me.

 

[blacktape242]

I wish apple would stop with the social network stuff. Leave that to Facebook and the likes. I especially am not a fan of letting people know where I am at all times.

I agree.......

 

[iamrawr]

just give it to us already

 

[Tonewheel]

I agree.

I wish apple would stop with the social network stuff. Leave that to Facebook and the likes. I especially am not a fan of letting people know where I am at all times.

Foursquare. One of the more narcissistic things I've seen. Besides being useful to businesses (eventually), why in the world would anyone partake in that nonsense? Self-importance.

 

[Biscuit411]

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 wish apple would stop with the social network stuff. Leave that to Facebook and the likes. I especially am not a fan of letting people know where I am at all times.

Foursquare. One of the more narcissistic things I've seen. Besides being useful to businesses (eventually), why in the world would anyone partake in that nonsense? Self-importance.

THIS!

 

[patsfan83]

I bet we see Steve come out to introduce this. MobileMe is becoming Apple's own long due Facebook competitor. This is potentially huge for Apple.

With an installed base of over 160 million iOS devices, they're going to get a real nice head start. Facebook is at 300 million.

If Apple makes Me.com a free service for every iOS user, then they're not only going to instantly compete at the level of Facebook but they're going to totally murder BBM. Everybody's going to want an iPhone so that they can become a member of Apple's social network.

Will it allow you to connect with Facebook (postings and status) or is it a stand alone system?

 

[ELMI0001]

I'm not impressed.

Neither am I. I don't care about the 160 million iOS users that could be MobileMe users. The fact is, and will remain, we're all using these services elsewhere with no incentive to switch to a new service.

 

[ziggyonice]

Foursquare. One of the more narcissistic things I've seen. Besides being useful to businesses (eventually), why in the world would anyone partake in that nonsense? Self-importance.

I LOVE foursquare! It's a ton of fun — it's more than just a way to let friends know where you are. It's great for restaurant reviews, getting special deals at businesses, and is just a fun game to play (unlocking achievements, getting points, and earning mayorships).

Try it.

 

[Mister Snitch]

Wow guys... enough with the rumors... I thought this was a news site... err wait... never mind, rumor-monger on!!!

So, you thought a site called 'MacRumors' was NOT a rumors site?

All righty, then.

 

[anjonjp]

Disappointing

If this particular rumour is true, then I find it disappointing. I am not against social networking sites and am indeed on Facebook. I just don't see the need for yet another social networking platform. I am not even using Ping.

If this is only a reasonable portion of the new MobileMe package that's fine. I recognise that many people out there will appreciate this service. I personally am hoping for more practical enhancements to MobileMe from a productivity and utility point of view. (Background to that rationale is that I am a small business owner.)

 

[thetexan]

I bet we see Steve come out to introduce this. MobileMe is becoming Apple's own long due Facebook competitor. This is potentially huge for Apple.

With an installed base of over 160 million iOS devices, they're going to get a real nice head start. Facebook is at 300 million.

If Apple makes Me.com a free service for every iOS user, then they're not only going to instantly compete at the level of Facebook but they're going to totally murder BBM. Everybody's going to want an iPhone so that they can become a member of Apple's social network.

I expect Apple to re-brand it to simply me.com. I mean, what is Facebook all about? It's your "Me" online. That's the best social network URL right there.

Yea, everyone I know is dying to get into iTunes because Ping was a huge success.

 

[0815]

I don't care about all that social network garbage ... I want dropbox like features!

 

[Thunderhawks]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I could care less about the social stuff

I am told it is a generation thing.

Being older, I value my privacy and consider all personal info released dangerous and nobody's business.

Also, I do not need additional work to keep updating anything, or reading what somebody wrote on a wall etc.
My personal viewpoints are also not of interest to most people, nor is what music I listen to. So, for me Ping is dead!

The kids of today have no clue what a malicious person could put together from the info they release on their facebook pages.

Looks like good stuff for a horror movie

Already personnel managers look up how "stable" a person is , friends, pictures etc.

Geotagging is the worst and comes close to big brother watching you.

Maybe Apple can copy Twitter, call it Spitter like we spit out Apple pits.

So, we can all spit what we are doing.

 

[NebulaClash]

Foursquare. One of the more narcissistic things I've seen. Besides being useful to businesses (eventually), why in the world would anyone partake in that nonsense? Self-importance.

I asked that very question to a heavy Foursquare user I met at work. He explained that it's about becoming a restaurant's best customer, at which point you get special treatment as soon as you walk in the door. So it's not just a game, it's got tangible benefits for heavy users.

OK, now I understand it.

Still not interested.

 

[scotty321]

Oh god, Apple should stop trying to imitate other companies who have already innovated in & dominate these fields. What we really need is for Apple to get Address Book syncing working reliably, bring back bookmark syncing onto the web, and buy Dropbox. Nobody needs these superfluous social networking things!!

 

[xraydoc]

I hope you can turn this off.
I don't need people seeing where I am or when I'm not at home.

I'd prefer expanded file sharing services, location-aware productivity apps and streaming functionality - but I don't need to auto-post on Facebook every time I step out of the house!

 

[ipedro]

Yea, everyone I know is dying to get into iTunes because Ping was a huge success.

Ping is struggling because it has no quick way of spreading -- i.e. a built in list of friends like Facebook. Zuckerberg denied Jobs this because he knows that Ping would encroach on Facebook and along with Apple's future plans, could become a true competition.

On the other hand, anybody with an iPhone will instantly become a Me.com subscriber because they're going to want to use it to sync their email/calendar/address book and it'll be a hardwired feature of iOS.

Not everybody's going to use the social features of Me.com but it has a built in member base from day one. If you figure in Apple's cheaper iPhone being rumored and will likely be teen focused, then you've got a social network with a steady major stream of built in users.

Ping will then by default have a path to grow as well. It'll become a part of Me.com. Its potential will be realized once you have a way to connect with your friends.

I think that with this, we're already getting a peak into iOS 5.