MobileMe Review

Apple is expected to announce once again, that it will revamp it's online storage service MobileMe later this month. Some changes may include more media and business-friendly features. It has stopped selling the boxed software version at it's stores. Is the current service right for you?

Welcome to MobileMe

Apple's cloud computing and online storage service MobileMe has gone through many changes. It introduced new features such as "Find My iPad" and the similar "Find My iPhone" to it's respective users recently. Additionally, with it's $99 annual fee, you get an email account, 20 GBs of online storage known as "iDisk" and the ability to sync your Outlook calendars and contacts through the Windows, iOS and OSX platforms.  You won't have problems anymore trying to look up a phone number from one of your contacts if you're away from that computer.





Your media goes with you as well. MobileMe has individual folders for not just your documents but movies and music files too. Individual Apps on the iPhone (iDisk and Gallery) allow you to access your media files. Though you can't upload or create playlists. This may change with the forthcoming revamp dubbed "iCloud".  Furthermore, with that 20 GB storage you can upload photos and create galleries and in conjunction with it's iWeb program, you can create and host webpages as well.

Synching with MobileMe

Some will balk at the annual cost and there are some alternatives. You can store photos on Flickr, create albums and share them with the world. For 2 GB of storage, DropBox offers the same storage capabilities although it's paid plans are not cost effective compared to MobileMe's base pricing. Microsoft and Google (as do Apple with it's iWork online features) have competing web platforms for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and other business needs, with the ability to edit files.  You can only view files in the iDisk folder on your iPhone. Although this may change as well given the release of the iWork App for mobile users.


While these are great alternatives, MobileMe is a service we would highly recommend and yes, it's just that easy to use. We didn't encounter any outages or glitches with our two months of service. Despite the price, it's heartening to know that your calendar and contacts sync no matter what device or platform you're using. You get convenient storage for documents and multimedia files such as photos, music and movies and overall relief that a reliable company (not some fly by night startup) is taking care of your data and files. Additional storage will cost extra. Information: MobileMe