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Mac Musings

Leaving MobileMe Behind

Dan Knight - 2009.12.01 - Tip Jar

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It's time to say good-bye to MobileMe.

I started using Apple's online service, originally known as iTools, when it was free. It was nice to have an email address that promoted the Mac with every message I sent from my_name@mac.com. In addition to free email, Apple also provided HomePage to host a small personal website and iDisk, where you could store files on Apple's servers.

iTools had been launched in early 2000. But when Apple announced in mid-2002 that it would no longer be free, I looked at my use of the service, weighed the benefits, and concluded that since I only used it for email at that time, it wasn't worth $99 a year. But Apple offered a $50 discount, and in the end I decided to renew - as I've done every year since.

Apple renamed the service .mac (dot-mac) when it went from free to fee, and as I became an OS X user, I found more reasons to keep using it. iSync let my synchronize my Address Book, iCal calendars, Safari bookmarks, and passwords among two or more Macs. Combined with email, I figured it was worth $99 a year.

In July 2008, .mac became MobileMe, putting more emphasis on the iPhone and iPod touch - and less on the Mac. Over time, HomePage has disappeared, a real disappointment to many who had used it to promote their freeware and shareware apps. (That said, iWeb users can still have a personal online presence on the me.com domain.)

When I had two or three production Macs, including a PowerBook, it made a lot of sense to use .mac. I could make sure that both eMacs and the PowerBook had the same iCal and Address Book data. I could make sure that site passwords used on one Mac would be in the keychain of the other Macs.

However, I no longer work that way. My two production Macs sit side-by-side on my desk, and while I'm still using iSync to synchronize things between them, the day has already come when that is no longer necessary. I really don't need Address Book and iCal on my Tiger machine, since I do all of my email and scheduling on the Leopard machine right next to it. I don't use Safari enough to bother with synchronizing its bookmarks, and since I do 90% of my browsing on the Leopard Power Mac, I don't really need to synchronize the password keychains either.

I renewed MobileMe last year before finances got tight, and thanks to some extended outages, Apple extended every user's account by a few months. However, finances are very tight (in addition to working full time on Low End Mac, I've been working a third-shift job at Kohl's since October), and I can no longer justify spending $99 for something that is a convenience but not a necessity.

I'm not going to be replacing MobileMe. I already have several free email addresses thanks to Gmail and Yahoo Mail. I can use Google Calendar if I want an online calendar. I have lowendmac.com to hosting my website and a few software downloads (all freeware or shareware). I backup regularly. I can get by without MobileMe.

My MobileMe subscription ends on December 28, 2009, and after nearly ten years, I will no longer have an email address @mac.com. I can live without it.

Good-bye, MobileMe. LEM

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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