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Mac Chick of The Month

.Mac to be renamed “Mobile Me”?

May 30, 2008 by Dr. Macenstein
Filed under: News

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Ahh it’s all coming together.

Earlier this week we learned the term “MOBILE_ME” pops up again and again in strings found throughout the SDK, as noticed by John Gruber. Now faithful Macenstein reader o.hickmott points us to a Coding Robots posting about various similar secret strings founds in the 10.5.3 update. AppleInsider discovered Apple filed 4 separate trademarks for the term “Mobile Me” back in 2006.

So, is MobileMe the new .Mac?

I looked up who owns the (non-working) domain “mobileme.com”, and it is registered to a San Fransisco address, which as we all know means Apple owns it. (Just kidding). Actually, the company MarkMonitor is listed as the registrar. MarkMonitor lists itself as a “online brand protection” service used by more than half the Fortune 100. Could Apple be using them to secure the domain until launch?

Could be.

I’m not sure MobileMe is all that much better a name than .Mac, but I suppose pushing the portable OS lifestyle is the goal here, then MobileMe makes Mobile sense. One thing’s for sure, if Apple wants their .Mac e-mail addresses back, they’ll have to pry them from the fanboys cold dead hands!

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Comments

6 Comments on .Mac to be renamed “Mobile Me”?

darrell on Fri, 30th May 2008 12:40 pm

mobile me sounds like a mobile carriers “lifestyle” feature. like ‘fave 5′ or ‘t-zones’ whereas the .mac name sounds as if it encompasses a much larger spectrum of services.

byronchurch on Fri, 30th May 2008 12:51 pm

Mobil me sounds to “Phoney”

mangochutney on Fri, 30th May 2008 2:07 pm

“One thingâ€™s for sure, if Apple wants their .Mac e-mail addresses back, theyâ€™ll have to pry them from the fanboys cold dead hands!”

Very well put!

Dave-O on Fri, 30th May 2008 7:22 pm

All those people stuck with @moblieme.com addresses will be so envious of the ones who landed the @mac.com addresses. Get yours now!

odin on Sat, 31st May 2008 3:36 am

Sounds too much like Windows ME, and we all know how that turned out… Me is a stupid name.

Marvin Kistler on Tue, 29th Jul 2008 3:52 pm

Hi;
When I published my new web site, you sent me an email with an address that must have a direct link to the site at http://web.mac.com/marvkistlerme.com. But when I try to access my site on any search engine, I get a message that nothing matches the address http://web.mac.com/marvkistlerme.com?

Is there any way to access my web site without a direct link? If not I can’t see how my web site can be of much value!
With best regards

Marvin Kistler

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