MobileMe Email Addresses go Online [Updated]

by , 12:00 PM EDT, June 30th, 2008

Current .Mac subscribers can already take advantage of their MobileMe email addresses even though the new service isn't scheduled to launch until July 11. The transition means that anyone with a .Mac email address can receive messages at their current mac.com address as well as their new me.com address.

Apple won't be shutting down current .Mac subscriber's mac.com email addresses when it completes the transition to MobileMe. Instead, subscribers will be able to use both addresses as they wish. For example, messages sent to stevejobs@mac.com and stevejobs@me.com will be delivered as if they are the same address.

Apple has set different mail exchange records for the two domains, but currently they both funnel into the same place, and one is a domain alias for the other. Since .Mac subscribers will be able to continue using their mac.com email addresses, Apple will presumably continue pointing an alias to .Mac addresses from MobileMe addresses.

The transition from the current .Mac service to MobileMe should be relatively transparent for most subscribers, but users will need to take a couple of steps to help ensure there aren't any headaches following the July 11 switchover.

Apple is launching MobileMe along with the iPhone 3G and iPhone Software 2.0 on July 11. iPhone Software 2.0 will let iPhone and iPod touch users push iCal and Address Book data between their computer and handheld through the MobileMe service.

[This article has been updated with additional information about MobileMe email addresses.]