Chicago (IL) - After initial hiccups, Apple’s new online service MobileMe is now live. Dubbed "Exchange for the rest of us", the service delivers push email, contacts, calendars and bookmarks to Mac/PC and iPhone/iPod touch devices and keeps data in sync.

Apple has finally released its new suite of cloud services after a bumpy online and offline ride throughout Thursday, which apparently was caused by heavy traffic. The service, which replaces Apple’s .Mac online suite, is now live and available at http://www.me.com. All .Mac members are automatically transferred to MobileMe and, according to Apple, their online storage will be doubled in the coming days.

MobileMe is a $99/year subscription that delivers a suite of online services aimed at keeping data stored on notebooks, desktops and iPhones sync. It requires iTunes 7.7, Mac OS X 10.4.11/Windows XP or Vista, Safari 3/Firefox 2/IE7, the iPhone 2.0 software update and Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later. A free 60-day trial is also available.

MobileMe stores your contacts, calendars, emails, bookmarks, photos and any other files from your Mac, PC and iPhone/iPod touch, using 20 GB of allocated storage on Apple’s servers. Any change of any data on any device is automatically pushed to all authorized devices, provided they are connected to the Internet. This seamless synchronization capability makes MobileMe a convenient companion to individual iPhone/iPod touch users who want to keep their device automatically in sync.

For instance, if you change contact information on your iPhone, the updated contact information is automatically sent over-the-air to the cloud and then back down to your authorized Macs and PCs. Apple calls MobileMe the "Exchange for the rest of us" since the service works similar to the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology that keeps an iPhone/iPod touch synchronized with the information stored on a company’s Exchange server. Exchange ActiveSync is a built-in feature of the iPhone 2.0 software update.

WSJ’s Walt Mossberg wrote in his early iPhone 3G review that it is not possible to mix both business (Exchange) and personal (MobileMe) schedules and contacts. According to Mossberg, Microsoft Exchange syncing wipes your personal calendar and contacts on the handset. However, Gizmodo reports that MobileMe and Exchange can co-exist on your iPhone and wirelessly sync their own data.

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