New navigation on Me.com
Now when you go to me.com you’ll see two persistent navigation features at the top of every page: a cloud icon on the left, and your name on the right. Clicking the cloud icon (or using the key combination of Shift-Esc) opens a new application switcher which lets you move to any other MobileMe web application from the one you’re currently using. Clicking your name on the right opens a menu you can use to visit your account settings, access help, or sign out.
New MobileMe Mail now available to all members
The all-new MobileMe Mail at me.com is now out of beta and available to all members.
Here’s a summary of what’s new in the Mail web application, including a couple of new features Apple has added since the beta went live:
• Widescreen and compact views. When reading your mail at me.com, the new widescreen view lets you see more of each message with less scrolling. Choose compact view to hide your folders or classic view to see more of your message list.
• Rules to keep your email organized everywhere. Mail rules help you reduce inbox clutter by automatically filing messages into folders you select ahead of time. Set them up at me.com, and your rules organize your incoming email on the web and everywhere else — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
• Single-click archiving. Click the Archive button and the selected message is quickly filed into the Archive folder where it’s always available for future reference.
• Formatting toolbar. You can create great-looking email messages using formatting buttons to bold or italicize text, change font color, insert images, and more. You can even create formatted web links to hide long URLs.
• Faster performance. Mail at me.com loads your inbox and messages faster. And with interface refinements such as the ability to scroll through your entire inbox without having to manually click to load the next set of messages, you’ll be able to work more efficiently.
• Increased security with SSL. With MobileMe Mail, accessing your email on the web is more secure than ever. Your inbox is protected to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on your webmail. As always, you receive SSL protection when you use your MobileMe Mail account on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
• Support for external email addresses (new since the beta). Reading all your email in one place is easy with MobileMe Mail. You can receive email from another service by having the email forwarded to your me.com address.* And when you reply to a message using webmail, you can choose to send it from the address it was sent to, or from your MobileMe account.
• Improved junk mail filtering (new since the beta). MobileMe Mail places suspected spam messages directly in the Junk folder. If you see an email that you actually want, click the “Not Junk” button on me.com. MobileMe moves the message to your Inbox and makes sure that messages from that sender are not sent to your Junk folder again.
• To use the new MobileMe Mail, just sign in to your account at me.com.
Find My iPhone app now available
The Find My iPhone app is now available as a free download from the App Store.
If you lose your iPhone or iPad while on the go, simply install the Find My iPhone app on any other iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to find it. Sign in with your member name and password to locate your missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound. You can even remotely lock the missing device to protect your privacy, or wipe it to permanently delete all of your data if you think that it won’t be returned. The app will automatically sign you out after 15 minutes of inactivity or you can manually sign out at any time.
In addition to the new app, the Find My iPhone web application on me.com now displays your device location on a full-screen map. Simply click the device on the map to reveal the full set of Find My iPhone actions.
To download the new Find My iPhone app for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, visit the App Store. To use Find My iPhone on your Mac or PC, go to me.com/find. As a reminder, be sure to set up MobileMe and Find My iPhone on all the devices you want to locate.
More info via Apple’s MobileMe News here.
[Attribution: The Register. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]
I’m a subscriber, but I’d really rather that the service was free. I like the calendar syncing the most. I never use the email application, gmail is still so much better. These changes seem rather blah to me.
Apple just doesn’t seem able to compete with Google with web applications. I wish they’d do more in that regard.
Jim Lynch
Tech Analyst and Community Manager
http://jimlynch.com
http://desktoplinuxreviews.com
@Jim Lynch
I’m a mortgage holder, but I’d really rather that my house was free.
I’m a vehicle owner, but I’d really rather that my car was free.
Etc.
@JIm Lynch
Apple doesn’t pay for it’s service by placing ads on every one of it’s service’s web pages. That’s how the big Goog makes theirs free.
I agree that I’d rather pay $99/year than have ads.
MobileMe costs me (annually) about what twelve orders of a typical fast food lunch cost. I can handle that.
I’m an Apple investor and subscriber, I’d rather it remain a “paid” service thank you.
(sent from my {non-free} iPhone)
Still over priced. Still convinced a lower rate should exist for Apple hardware purchases. Say half off one or two years everytime you buy an iPhone.
@Yawn
You do save $30 when purchasing mobile me with an iPhone. I’m not currently a subscriber, but i will get mobile me (with the discount) when I pick up my iphone 4 on Thursday. The family plan is a great deal if you have 2 or more iPhones.
You can by mobileme packs from Amazon for $67 for single and $99 for Family from Amazon and use them to renew, saving $33 to $50, just activate the code in the box to extend your membership and save.
I just want push email, calendaring and contacts for my iPhone. Google and Yahoo let me have it for free; as soon as Apple does I’ll switch.
@Yawn
It’s only overpriced if you are unwilling to pay it. Many people do not think it’s overpriced.
It breaks down to about $8 per month
If you make a little effort sometimes you can find it for about $60 on sale.
Use Mobile Me to host my web site + synchronise Mac-iPod Touch-Web.
Just the hosting (20 Go + 300 Go/month) is cheapest than everything else here in Quebec for 109$/year.
Why would anyone pay for MobileMe, which isn’t very good, when Google provides a free service.
Apple will never make it free while there are people silly enough to pay for it.
Seriously guys, you don’t have to buy EVERYTHING apple sells.
@Jason
I’m agreed with you, except for web hosting and find my iPhone function.
Everything else, Google make it better, for free!
I’m betting that when Apple rolls out iAd they’ll make Mobile Me free or have a “free” version with ads.
As for the new mail features… I like the new view and wonder if we’ll have to wait for 10.7 to see a updated version of the Mail app?
I have been a subscriber for 3 years and find it to be much better then any Free offerings, it is well worth the cost and as others have posted you can pick it up yearly well bellow the $99.00 price.
Last year I purchased the renewal for $51.00 on Newegg, this year I purchased the renewal for $42.99 on Amazon. If you look around you can always get it close to half off. And you can buy at anytime since its just a renewal code, so you have a whole year to look for the best deal.
I was gonna buy some lint, but I had some in my pocket already.
I was gonna buy some dust but I found some on the floor.
I was gonna buy some oxygen but I was already breathing.
I was gonna buy MobileMe but I have an iPhone and some patience.
MobileMeh?
Hmm… New webpage doesn’t like my password. I know for sure that the info is correct. Mail app on Mac iPad and iPhone work just fine with same password.
I like MobileMe okay, except for the name, which I think is so ghey it’s not even funny. I like the online storage but have found it to be slow and paltry. Hopefully it will be faster and eventually more capacious. Maybe someday I can have all my music in the cloud.
You need Mobile me so you can have Find My iPhone when it’s stolen or lost. That’s a pretty important reason that Google and Yahoo can’t do.
Glitch encountered already: When mail folders are nested, the web interface does not display a rolled-up number of unread messages next to the top folder.
Of all the things to improve with MobileMe they choose mail? Are notes ever going to sync with MM?
@jason
I will purchase what the hell I want and buy who I want & when I want.
I don’t need some knee slapping idiot to tell me what is good and bad in a product.
Just because some of us purchase MobileMe for the Value added extras it’s to bad Apple might not make it free to the “I want it free Cheap Crowd”
You see at least i can Trust my email and information on Apples site, and now the added extra protection that google doesn’t offer.
I have received “0” spam related messages and garbage emails with my MobileMe account, With My other gmail account i have more then what we have time to go into.
So adding on Free Web Page Hosting ( Google Doesn’t Offer) on top of being able to use idisk to read my pdf’s and all the extra Security and Peace of mind that is offered is worth it, and millions of other subscribers think so also.
Going to underscore part of Scot B.’s post: you can find MM at way lower prices with a few single clicks. Thus far I’ve only paid Apple’s price once; subsequently eBay, Amazon, and a couple local shops have offered me great prices.