Apple's subscription-based online storage function MobileMe breathed it last breath Saturday, forcing cloud users who want to stay in the family to turn to iCloud.
Last summer, Apple unveiled its iCloud and iTunes Match products, and said it would discontinue MobileMe. On May 31, users began receiving 30-day reminders to transfer stored filed before all data was lost forever.
Still, some users have, of course, failed to do just that. So Apple is giving them one last chance, with a message on its me.com site saying that "for a limited time," you can still move your account to iCloud, download photos from Gallery, and download files from iDisk.
In an attempt to ease MobileMe users' pain, Apple set up an information website, complete with Q&As and links to more in-depth articles about the changes.
Despite Cupertino's huge technological successes, MobileMe was not an Apple triumph. It launched in 2008 to a number of bugs and an email blackout for thousands of subscribers.
That failure didn't sit well with Steve Jobs. According to a May 2011 Fortune profile, Jobs berated the MobileMe team during a town hall meeting. "Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?" Jobs asked the MobileMe team after gathering them in an Apple auditorium. After someone provided the correct answer, Jobs reportedly said, "So why the f**k doesn't it do that?"
The Apple iCloud's domino effect also hit Apple's iWork.com public beta, which will shutter on July 31, three and a half years after opening as part of an iWork software update that allowed users to share documents online and collaborate with third parties. Again, Apple reminded users to download all documents to your computer before the site closes.
"With a new way to share iWork documents between your devices using iCloud, the iWork.com public beta service will no longer be available," Apple's website said.
In March, Apple reported that millions of iWork customers had stored more than 40 million documents on iCloud.
A revamped iWork was introduced earlier this year, including new 3D charts and animations, builds, and transitions. The Keynote, Numbers, and Pages applications were updated to take advantage of the Retina display option.
For more, see PCMag's review of Apple iCloud and the slideshow below.