Blogging Robots (BTW, best name for a blog ever.) uncovered some interesting information in the latest version of Leopard, 10.5.3.
The strings hint that the .Mac moniker may be in for a name change. iCal, Mail and Safari show the Localizable.string the name .Mac being replaced by %@.
/* Label of .Mac button in iCal’s General preferences. %@ is the new name of Apple’s online service (was .Mac) (remove -XX02)
The characters are a placeholder that could be activated with a system update.
If this is true, what should Apple rename .Mac?
UPDATE: The Blogging Robots folks just found the new .Mac name.
Mobile Me.
Uh, yeah.
Anonymous
June 01, 2008 at 6:11pm
What's the impact or just a name changed? What'd happen to .mac email account?
Mudkips
June 02, 2008 at 8:54pm
Well... i have a different take on this possible name change.... Lets look and the Mac brand... we have these Mac TV ads "hi, im a Mac, im a Pc" so as a result they have clearly bolstered the Mac brand. To a new person to mac, they will say to themselves... hmmm those macs seem pretty cool, i wonder if my Epson printer will work with a mac.... so where do they go? www.mac.com (because they have no knowledge of www.apple.com) so they go to mac.com and ask their computer question (they should have gone to Apple Store) . Same for new users of Macs...... Person just bought an iMac for their first computer... their CD player wont eject their CD so they need HELP! As a result because they have a mac, then and thats the only naming convention they know ,then they contact www.mac.com (should have contacted AppleCare)------ Now lets switch sides of the equation, If you were a service agent for .Mac and was trained on .Mac issues and was trained for iWeb, .Mac email, Syncing, BTMM, Groups, and iPhoto Galleries, i would going crazy spending half of the time forwarding customers to AppleCare and AppleStore. The point is, the average customer cannot distinguish between .Mac support and AppleCare support. (one deals with .Mac... the other deals with everything else Leopard related) . I personally hope they change it to iTools... it is simple clean and works.
Anonymous
May 30, 2008 at 2:59pm
I love the .Mac service and name. Sure there's always room for improvement but I'm more than happy with the service right now. Here are some ideas for a new name for the service:
iTools
Mac Web
Mac Tools
Mac Line
On Mac
Mac HostToo bad iLife and Mac Life are taken as I think those are perfect names for the service.
Travis Ulrich
May 30, 2008 at 5:22pm
I've wanted .Mac for over 5 years, but am not willing to shell out the money. I think a lot of Mac users are in the same boat.
Tim
May 30, 2008 at 12:40pm
Goodbye.
I always thought .Mac was a dumb name.
Scott Brookes
May 30, 2008 at 12:02pm
If theres going to change the name they are going to have a good reason to do it.... the name .Mac is pretty good
I hope they plan some really cool features.... that push email would be awesome
faster iDisk would be nice.....
its all good.... ill use .Mac as long as I can use it on my iPhone and sync with all my macs....
Tanner
May 30, 2008 at 11:03am
iTools! Brilliant. Whatever it becomes, a price drop would be awesome...
BJ Wanlund
May 30, 2008 at 11:52am
That IS a good idea, Tanner. You have iLife, iWork, and then you have dot Mac (which DOESN'T fit in the iApps idea). If this idea goes through, you'd have iLife, iWork, and iTools. That actually makes more sense. Now, about that $99 price point...
If they bundled it in with the next iLife, or at least charged the standard iApps price of $79, I think we as Apple fans would be much happier.
BJ
Anonymous
May 30, 2008 at 11:37am
iPOOP, .Mac sucks. gdisk, thunderbird, and firefox get you 90% of the way there for free.
BJ Wanlund
May 30, 2008 at 10:57am
.Mac (from here on out dot Mac) has served Apple very well. However, since Apple has started to turn dot Mac into a webhost, I suggest two names: MacHarvey (in honor of the late Harvey Korman) and AppleSyndication.
BJ
