Apple’s MobileMe calendar is now out of the beta stage! Yesterday, Apple posted a message on their website that all members will now have the option to upgrade (for free, of course).
Highlights include:
Push notifications
Among the new features, there is now support for push on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. New events/changes are automatically pushed and synced to your iOS 4 devices.
Calendar sharing
Share with family and friends using MobileMe and even allow them to make changes.
Polished web interface
The day, week, and month views have all been redesigned, and a list view has been added.
See Apple’s announcement here.
To get started, just sign in to me.com/calendar, and click “Upgrade now.” (For those who had already downloaded the beta and have been using that, you won’t need to do anything further.)
I upgraded last night, and though it took a second try to get everything going, it’s working perfectly. It seems a computer I had previously synced with MobileMe was using 10.5, so it gave me a helpful little popup notice asking me if I’d like to upgrade anyway (to have everything work properly, I need all Macs to be on 10.6). I chose “yes” since that computer is no longer in use (I have since upgraded my workstation). I’m playing with more of the features today, and I suspect this will make iCal much more relevant on my iPhone from here on out!
Be aware that the system requirements for the new calendar are as follows:
iPhone or iPod touch: iOS 4.1
iPad: iOS 3.2; iOS 4.2 (coming in November) required for push calendar updates
Mac: Mac OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6.4
PC: MobileMe Control Panel version 1.6.3 and Outlook 2007 or 2010