Get Inside the Loop

I just added the iPhone to my iMac. Since I raved about the iMac in an earlier post, you might expect some ranting on the iPhone from me. Well, This post is not about the iPhone. I am saving that for a later more detailed post on iPhone apps. This is about a service offered by Apple called MobileMe. I had an opportunity when I got the iMac to subscribe, but I just couldn’t see any reason. Today, I can.

MobileMe is one slick system, if you have ever had a problem with getting several PCs on the same sheet of music. I work on an iMac, HP Media Center PC, Laptop PC and my new iPhone. Before that I had a Microsoft Mobile Smartphone or PPC. I fretted about how to get my 700+ contacts from my Windows PCs, iMac and iPhone consistent on each machine. With MobileMe that is not a problem. Once the devices are set up to sync via MobileMe cloud, no other effort is required to keep them consistent or current. With MobileMe, what I enter on my PC or iMac get automatically updated or changed on the others. That is some lofty computing.

I kept my contacts on my PC, because I used my iMac mainly for photos and video. When I bought my iPhone, I decided to buy MobileMe to provide backup for data rather than buy another external harddrive. Once I subscribed, I discovered I could also use it on my PCs. I installed the small app on my PC and selected what I wanted to sync. The application began syncing the contacts, bookmarks, calendar events, and asked me to resolve any conflicts. It put the conflicted entries side-by side and asked me to select. I resolved the multiple conflicts by deciding to use as source the MobileMe entries made via the iMac for photos and music and from the PC my contacts, calendar and bookmarks. It quietly went about pushing and pulling data until they were all consistent with the MobileMe cloud.

For $99 a year, I get 20GB of storage at www.me.com and an email address. Storage is sliced into 10GB each for email and 10 GB for iDisk (file storage). I can sync my contacts, calendar, photos and files on my PC (XP), iMac and iPhone. Now this is slick. For example, I add an event to my calendar using my iPhone and it shows up on my PC in Outlook.

The product is even more integrated on the iMac side. When I load photos or videos to my iPhoto program, they are backed up to MobileMe and can be configured in MobileMe as galleries accessible to the public or to friends you designate. The generated galleries are well designed and professional looking. You can set them as slideshows using a variety of effects. My Mexico trip is at available via password to family.

The last feature is the iDisk. I can quickly backup document to the cloud or document storage area on MobileMe. There is a public file area that can be used for Web sites that you build using iWeb. Using iWeb, I can quickly built a Web page from templates and my iPhoto galleries. Then click the publish button and it is on MobileMe with the page in http://web.me.com . MobileMe still has me in the clouds. Thanks Apple.
MobileMe