Apple Takes Down iTools Pages, ".Mac" References Appear On Some iTools Web Pages

D uring the night before the keynote for MACWORLD New York 2002, Apple started playing with the iTools Web pages. As of this writing, the iTools home page points to a "Weire sorry. iTools is temporarily unavailable." Web page. Several Observers wrote in saying that ".Mac" branding began appearing as well.

Apple has not officially announced any changes to its iTools services, but the .Mac references are appearing on Web pages freely available to the public.

As of this writing, the bottom of photo gallery pages show a "Created with .Mac" icon that includes a silver Apple logo. If one attempts to pull up an iTools HomePage that doesnit exist, one gets a message saying "Thanks for visiting .Mac," with a "Join Now" button to the right. While the toolbar images are currently broken, there is "Alt" text that says ".Mac" in place of the image normally used by "iTools."

Steve Jobs is set to deliver the keynote address for MACWORLD, and itis a good bet that he will be telling us more about .Mac.