We've just released the second edition of "Take Control of .Mac," by Joe Kissell. When you think of Apple's .Mac service, what probably comes to mind is having a mac.com email address or storing files on your iDisk. However, beyond those common uses, .Mac offers many other powerful features - Groups lets you set up mailing lists and members-only Web sites; .Mac Sync helps you coordinate bookmarks, calendars, contacts, keychains, and more among your Macs; Mail lets you read your mac.com account's email in a Web browser; and HomePage lets you make a simple Web site. .Mac also integrates with the whizzy new photo/movie Web Galleries in iLife '08 and Aperture 2, facilitates iCal-based calendar sharing, and serves as a default host for Web sites you make with iWeb. In the 193-page second edition of "Take Control of .Mac," Joe explains all of .Mac's features, walking you through both getting started and going beyond the common features to get your money's worth from your $99.95-per-year .Mac subscription. This second edition has been completely revised to take into account .Mac-related changes due to Leopard and iLife '08.

Of course, our timing is impeccable, what with rumors swirling about how Apple may be planning to rename .Mac to (shudder) "Mobile Me" - see this post and its followup by Dmitry at Blogging Robots. But, there's nothing to do about it until we know more, which probably won't be until the keynote of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on 09-Jun-08. It wouldn't be at all surprising to see Apple add more iPhone integration with .Mac, and with Apple's increasing focus on devices like the iPhone and iPod, the .Mac name may be heading the way of the service's previous moniker, iTools. Remember that?