What began life as mac.com email address and became me.com with iPhone OS 2 will now be transitioning again, this to time to icloud.com, and reportedly Apple is starting with the just-released iOS 6 beta 3. This according to information obtained by MacRumors. The notice, supplied to developers by Apple, reads in part:
icloud.com email addresses are now available for iCloud mail users. Users signing up for new Apple IDs, or enabling Mail on their iCloud account for the first time, will automatically receive an @icloud.com email address instead of a me.com email address.
Apple released mac.com email as part of iTools in 2000, which became .Mac in 2002, and switched to MobileMe and me.com in 2008. Apple announced iCloud in 2011, but until now had left email addresses set to me.com. Although only developers seem to be getting transitioned, it seems likely that Apple will transition the rest of the user base when iOS 6 goes into general release this fall.
Like the mac.com to me.com transition, previous email address should continue working as aliases -- so anything sent to youruser@me.com will just go to youruser@icloud.com instead.
Personally, I'm looking forward to this. Even though my own .Mac account switched to me.com back in 2008, any time I enter it on my iPhone, Apple automysteriously switches it back to mac.com. So, with any luck, come October when I enter my shiny new icloud.com email address, Apple will finally let me use me.com...
I kid. I jest.
What it will do is make things more uniform and less confusing for mainstream users who right now probably wonder why, when they sign up for iCloud, get an email at me.com. Consistency is a feature when you're talking hundreds of thousands, and eventually hundreds of millions of users.
Having iCloud.com as the persistent name, place, and address iOS users use for online activities keeps everything nice and simple.
For more, see our Ultimate Guide to iCloud or jump into our iCloud forum, and let us know how you feel -- ready to embrace the iCloud.com future, or will you miss the shorter, more personal sounding me.com days?
Source: MacRumors
