Apple's MobileMe Debuts Wednesday 7-9-08

Apple is officially notifying its subscribers tonite via a side-note when they log-into their .Mac accounts that the .Mac website will be unavailable on Wednesday July 9, 2008 between 6pm-12am PDT to facilitate the transition of .Mac to the previously announced MobileMe service. The MobileMe service was announced during the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) Keynote address in June. MobileMe will primarily provide Mac, Windows and iPhone users with a unique way to synch their devices over the air, provide push email to iPhone users similar to that of the Blackberry, and offer subscribers substantial online storage (20Gb) all for $99 per year. Buyers of the new 3G iPhone which launches Friday will be able to purchase their first year subscription for a discounted $69. MobileMe is being touted as a Microsoft (MS) Exchange server for consumer iPhone buyers who don't have access to an email account that is linked to an MS exchange server for push email. Here is the announcement:

MobileMe Launch
7/9/2008, 6pm-12am PT

As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th.

Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.

MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window.

MacBook Air SSD Gets A $500 Price Cut

Apple Computer quietly dropped the price of its Solid State Drive (SSD) Macbook Air models on Friday July 4, 2008 by a substantial $500 bringing down the price that much closer to its traditional mechanical hard drive equipped counterpart. The 64Gb SSD equipped models have long been price about $1,000 higher than the models equipped with the somewhat larger 80Gb 1.8" 4200RPM drives. While the 80Gb Macbook Air still sells for the same $1,799, the same model now costs a cool $2,299. SSD drives have obvious speed advantages since they operate with no moving parts, but a recent test done by Tom's Hardware website to compare battery rundown times dispelled any notion that the SSD helped with battery life or prolonged it when compared to a mechanical hard disk drive. Apple notified customers with pending Macbook Air orders that included an SSD to anticipate an adjustment to the final price once the product ships. Given that Apple has a 14 day return policy, anyone who has bought one of the SSD models and are still in that two week period should sprint over to the nearest Apple retailer and kindly request an adjustment. While you're at it, we're sure that Apple won't mind if you take some time to browse more of its overpriced offerings and leave that small chunk of change right where its at. Online and phone orders should call Apple customer service pronto to see some green credited back to their plastic.