The real .mac opens up with new regulations
ICANN, the ruling body for Internet domain naming, has voted to relax a few rules that will supposedly open up a whole slew of top-level domain names, multiple news sources are reporting. They haven’t exactly said why they’re doing this, only that it will “preserve the security, stability, and global interoperability of the Internet.” Which seems like a good reason, we guess. But whatever the reason, it’s good news for people who don’t want to use the old standbys of .com or .org — now, bidding can start for .sex, .xxx, .post, or any other combination of letters.
Like, for example, .mac. Yes, for the first time in the history of the Internet, Apple would have been able to make good on its .Mac brand — except that, as you know, they decided just a few weeks ago to change that brand to Mobile Me. Though we supposed mobile.me is probably out there somewhere.
Of course, as we’ve speculated before, the change to Mobile Me wasn’t so much about domain names as it was about just getting away from the Apple brand, and creating a service that both Mac and PC users would be interested in. So odds are that Apple wasn’t waiting for .mac anyway. But it is interesting that even though they can finally have it, they don’t actually need it any more.Thanks, Darcy L!
[Source: CNN.com]
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Rumor: Me.com bought by Apple?
Over the weekend, the rumor mills went crazy with reports that Apple had bought a new domain name from their registrar (Mark Monitor). The domain name in question: me.com, which would agree with previous reports of Apple re-branding their .Mac service as “Mobile Me.”
As we reported earlier it seems Apple is re-launching their .Mac service as an Exchange style service that might even be moving onto other mobile platforms as well as other OSes (including Windows).
As an additional reconfirmation of this rumor, the same tipster that told TUAW first about the .Mac refresh contacted us again to say that the rumors are in fact true. This is still solidly in the rumor category, but it is certainly shaping up to be an interesting WWDC.
[via MacRumors]
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