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Code strings suggest name change coming for .Mac

Apple's latest Mac OS X update contains some interesting code that could signal an upcoming change to the company's .Mac Internet service.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
2 min read

Apple may be getting ready to overhaul its .Mac service--or at least change the name.

New code within Mac OS X could mean the end of the .Mac name for Apple's Internet service. Apple

A Russian site called Deep Apple noted that code within the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3 software update contains placeholders for the .Mac name that would allow Apple to drop in a new name at a later date. Dmitry Chestnykh of Coding Robots also noticed similar code within Mail and Safari applications.

Apple's .Mac service is designed to help Mac users extend the capabilities of their iLife software to the Internet by publishing Web pages, sharing photos, and storing data, among other things. But it's not exactly the company's most popular service, and looks expensive and out-of-date next to competing services from companies that make their living on the Internet.

The iPhone might be giving Apple a reason to think different about .Mac. If Apple were to revamp the .Mac service and turn it into something that ties Macs and iPhones together--and cut the price--they might be able to marshal an army of online Mac users and add a nice little chunk of revenue to the income statement.

But as John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, a service called ".Mac" that is morphing into something more iPhone-centric might need a different name. Apple trademarked a name called "Mobile Me" that seems to fit the bill, according to Gruber.

The pending code changes could also mean, however, that Apple wants to tie iPhones and Macs into other Internet services, perhaps having decided that others could do a better job providing these types of services.

UPDATE 10:15am - Chestnykh found references to "Mobile Me" in the latest version of the iPhone SDK.