MobileMe Changes and Free Find My iPhone/iPad App

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20008164-260.html' target='_blank'>http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-2...008164-260.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Apple made some changes to its MobileMe service Friday.The MobileMe Mail service that was in beta for a little over a month is now available to all members. Mail at me.com now has widescreen and compact views, mail organization rules, single-click archiving, a formatting toolbar, SSL protection, and better junk mail protection. You can also use MobileMe to read mail from your other e-mail addresses now, according to Apple."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1277146407.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Nice changes to the MobileMe interface, more functional in my opinion, but they also made a change that may not keep me as a MobileMe subscriber.</p><p><MORE /></p><p><a href="http://www.apple.com/mobileme/news/2010/06/find-my-iphone-gets-an-update.html" target="_blank">Find My iPhone is now available</a> as a free app, and it also works on your iPad. This has helped me find several iPhones that were "misplaced" and one that was stolen, so it was one of the main reasons I was hanging onto MobileMe. I still use MobileMe to sync my contacts and some documents, but I've moved to Google for my calendar features. I could move contacts to Google and use my DropBox account for files, so is the cost for keeping MobileMe really worth it? I keep hoping they will make it free, and it appears that it may be happening if they are making some of the features such as Find My iPhone available for no cost, so I'll wait out my current subscription before making a decision. But it certainly is giving me food for thought. What are your thoughts? If you are using MobileMe, what is keeping you as a subscriber?&nbsp;</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

The site saysIf 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.
It isn't super clear here but I got the impression you still needed a mobile me account, hence the member name/password, but you could now do it from a phone/ipad, rather than just from a PC. The app to do it from a phone/ipad is free, but it seems to actually use it from these portable locations still requires a mobile me account.

[Jeff Campbell]

I was messing around with it today and indeed, you do still need a MobileMe account for it to work. Still, I'm not so sure it is advantageous with all the other options out there, but I have about 8 months left on my current subscription to see what happens before I go with something else.

[Jerry Raia]

Same here, you still need the ME account as far as I can tell. I have a few months left on mine. Not sure if I will keep it either.

[encece]

I switched from MobileMe in an attempt to rely exclusively on Google for my email, calendar, contacts, and Picasa for photo sharing. Along with Dropbox for files.

It all works...but kinda doesnt. Calendar alerts between Google and iCal are funky. Contacts sync well now including photos, but groups don't sync. Picasa is more of a manual effort to sync with iPhoto. I can't connect to DropBox thru my employer's proxy so that is out as well.

I dont really use my .me mail address.

I switched back to MobileMe. I really hate to use the following stupid Apple cliche, but everything "just works". Everything syncs like it should with an easy setup. iPhone, iMac, and web all perfectly in sync. Even the photo gallery is easy between all devices.

PLUS..I like having FindMyiPhone and have used it to find my phone left in a restaurant already.

$99....worth it for me.

Maybe they'll provide a 2GB Free version one day...but I'm sure they'll leave out a very (as of yet undetermined) important feature that you'll have to pay for to get it!