Back in July Apple dropped a press release announcing updates to features in Apple services. Buried in it was a nugget about a change to the AppleID.
What’s an AppleID
The AppleID is the key to all things Apple: email, photos, storage, streaming, workouts, and more. But this is only the most recent iteration in a history of online services. How did we get to the AppleID?
It all started with iTunes
Back in 2000, Apple launched their first foray into bundling services as a subscription with iTools. iTools was a collection of services including Mac.com email; Homepage personal websites; iCards, greeting cards using your iPhotos, and personal online storage with iDisk and a few other oddities.
Note: eWorld, which preceded iTools, was a subscription service. However, eWorld was Apple’s answer to America Online and not a bundled services solution.
Shortly after .Mac arrived
Just a few years later ‘iTools’ was rebranded as .Mac. .Mac offered access to mail using IMAP, larger iDisk storage space, the ability to share calendars with iCal, Virex anti-virus, and Backup, a means of archiving your iDisk.
The rise of MobileMe
The iPhone brought on some significant change to Apple’s online services. Where MobileMe mail pulled data when a user opened their mailbox, the iPhone’s 24/7 connection to a cellular network introduced ‘Push’ services to the fold.
With ‘Push’ enabled mail, you didn’t have to open your mail and wait for the lasted mail to be pulled (downloaded) into your mailbox. Push allowed mail to be constantly updated in the background while your phone was locked, or sitting on your desk charging. Opening mail, or your calendar now presented you the latest messages and events.
MobileMe also saw the replacement of Homepage with iWeb, a feature introduced in a software suite loving known as iLife. iLife brought the ability to edit video with iMovie, “Rip, Mix, Burn” your tracks into iTunes and burn them to CDs. iMovie would later allow you to burn DVDs.
MobileMe is reimagined as iCloud
Change being inevitable, Apple once again revisited their subscription bundle and felt the inevitable was necessary. 2011 brought on the introduction of iCloud.
iCloud received a raft of changes which include not just the ability to sync your files across devices, but now per application. This change brought us, the ability to stream our iTunes purchases with iTunes in the Cloud and the ability to upload our entire library of ripped music into iTunes for an additional fee. One key feature of iTunes Match is the replacement of your MP3’s to the very 256kbps AAC files from Apple’s music library.
Even more with Apple One
On September of 2020, during the height of COVID, Apple launched a new suite of services on top of iTunes. Apple One added streaming original content with AppleTV+, workouts with Fitness+, streaming games with Apple Arcade+, and enhanced news with Apple News+.
With this a renaming of the AppleID.
Back when iTools was introduced, the AppleID was associated with you ‘.Mac’ email account. Today, the AppleID is your key to passwords, the credit cards in your Wallet app, health data, fitness data, TV and music streaming services, and for some an Apple-branded credit card.
To acknowledge this and prepare for future services, the AppleID will become your Apple Account. You can expect to start seeing the change in iOS and iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11, as well as the website.
Changes like this give rise to phishing emails suggesting something is amiss with your account. Message of this nature suggest that if you don’t act right now, your account will be cancelled or deleted.
Trust your gut if you encounter such and email and immediately reject the urge to click on any links. Instead, visit Apple’s website directly and either call, chat, or use the support links to contact Apple to learn if in fact your account is in jeopardy.
You must be logged in to post a comment.