Apple discontinuing HomePage file sharing November 8

Through the various changes to Apple's online services (iTools, .Mac, and MobileMe), Apple still retained the option to access photos, movies, and other shared files via Web sites created in the older .Mac "home page" feature, but in an e-mail announcement to .Mac subscribers this morning, Apple announced it will be discontinuing this support on November 8.

Dear MobileMe member,

Over a year ago, we retired the .Mac HomePage application for publishing new pages, but allowed previously published pages to remain viewable on the Web. On November 8, 2010, we will discontinue online viewing of photos, movies, and files shared using .Mac HomePage.

Please note that your content will not be deleted. Any photos, movies, or files you have published using HomePage will continue to remain on your MobileMe iDisk in the Movies, Pictures, or Public folders. We recommend MobileMe Gallery as a great way to share photos and movies on the Web. Please read these instructions on how to move your HomePage photos and movies to MobileMe Gallery.

MobileMe members who have published Web pages using iWeb will not be affected by this change. If you have used other software to publish Web content to MobileMe or .Mac, or have questions about this change, please read this FAQ.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

Though the service will no longer allow you to access shared photos and movies through HomePage, there is no indication that the Web pages themselves will no longer be accessible, so it is possible that Web page content will still remain active. The .Mac HomePage FAQ that is linked to in the announcement was created in mid-2009 when Apple initially discontinued the .Mac HomePage service, and does not reflect any new changes to the service.

Despite the lack of specific details in FAQs or elsewhere, Apple is clearly moving away from the old .Mac options so if you still have active Web sites using .Mac, you might want to consider migrating them to the MobileMe Web hosting service or elsewhere.

Apple's online services started more than 10 years ago as iTools, offering free e-mail and iDisk storage, along with iCards and a home page option where you organized a personal Web site based off templates built with a WebObjects application. The service improved and morphed into .Mac in 2002, and finally into MobileMe in 2008 where Apple encouraged the use of iWeb for personal Web sites and MobileMe's Gallery integration with iPhoto for sharing and presentation features.

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