According to a note posted on the .Mac System Status web page, MobileMe is about to go live. This is the first time Apple has listed an official end date for the .Mac service, and an official start date for MobileMe.

Courtesy of Apple

From the .Mac web site:

“MobileMe Launch
7/9/2008, 6pm-12am PT

As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6 pm PT on Wednesday, July 9.

Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.

MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window.”

Don’t forget: Before 6 pm, July 9, you should back up all of your .Mac data, before the change over to MobileMe. Also, remember that some .Mac services won’t make the transition to MobileMe, and will no longer be available. These services are: iCards, .Mac Slides, support for OS X 10.3 syncing, and .Mac bookmarks.

Doug Field, Segway’s Chief Technology Officer, will be the new VP of Product Design at Apple. Doug headed up the engineering and design group at Segway since its inception, and was the driving force behind the Segway PT (Personal Transporter), the two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle formerly known as ‘IT.’

The announcement is generating a great deal of speculation about what Doug will bring to Apple (besides his Segway). What new products do you think Doug and Apple will create? My money is on a new MobileMac platform. I’m not saying it will have wheels, but you never know.