Author: Serkadis

The Treasury has released the latest data from the big mortgage modification effort, and actually… things are getting a little better.

RBS breaks down a few key details from the report:

* The permanent modifications comprise 11.6% of the cumulative HAMP total since inception. In addition, servicers have also approved a further 76,000 loans for permanent modifications, out of the loans currently identified as on trial period. These modifications could become permanent pending borrower acceptance, bringing the total permanent modifications approved by servicers to 193,302 or 19.2% of the cumulative HAMP total since inception, up from 12.5% in December. The percentage of loans that have reached permanent modification therefore far exceeds the share that have dropped out of the program to date, though this relationship will likely change as re-default rates increase with time after permanent modification.

* Assuming that the GSE/private-label distribution holds true for loans that have been permanently modified, that would result in almost 40,000 private-label loans that have been permanently modified, most over the past two month. We should therefore expect cure rates in nonagencies to show improvement, as approximately $10 bln of securitized loans return to current status. In agencies, the permanent modifications should increase buyout-related prepayments for loans in MBS pools that have not already been bought out in their trial phase or due to their delinquent status.
 
* The cumulative modifications started represent 28% of the 3.4 million loans that are estimated to be both eligible and currently 60-day plus delinquent as of January. This estimate of 3.4 million comprises delinquent loans from participating servicers that are conforming balance mortgages (excluding FHA/VA), owner-occupied, and originated before January 1, 2009. Yet after adjusting for loans that have failed the NPV test or have not met the 31% DTI requirement, the report indicates that only 1.7 million currently delinquent borrowers are left eligible for HAMP, with cumulative modifications started representing 59% of that total.
 
* All permanent modifications include interest rate reductions, as required in the waterfall process. 42% of the permanent mods also include term extension, while 27% include principal forbearance. The permanent mods have brought median front end debt-to-income ratios to 31% from 45%, as required by the HAMP program, while back-end DTIs have been reduced to 60% from 76%, still relatively high in our opinion.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Obama Terrified Of Another Leg Down In Housing, As Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Are Set To Go In Dramatic New Direction
• Fed Change To Home Appraisal Rules Has Been A Disaster
• Here’s The Secret Reason We Eliminated The Bailout Caps On Fannie And Freddie

Portland’s City Council passed a measure to spend $613 million on bike infrastructure over 20 years, reports the Portland Business Journal. Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, recommended immediately using $20 million in savings from Bureau of Environmental Services programs to get the projects started. “Adams also said he can find savings in lower bids from contractors during the current slow economic climate.”

However, Portland’s ambitious bicycle plan may also require finding new sources of revenue. New bicycle license fees are being considered. “The Bicycle Plan for 2030 also suggests that the city find private funding sources, including the possibility of allowing companies to advertise in right-of-ways near the bike paths.”

Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish told the Portland Business Journal: “This will make bicycling a cornerstone of Portland’s sustainable transportation system. It will focus on equity and bring access to safe and family friendly bikeways for everyone.”

Fish also thinks the plan will improve the health of local citizens, put more money in people’s pockets, and aid businesses. “Hospitals have been big boosters of this plan because of the health impacts. Healthier workers are a big benefit to employers throughout the city. It also has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of transportation to families, which adds discretionary income they can spend on things other than gas and cars. The impact on local businesse could be quite dramatic.” The plan is also expected to reduce local GHG emissions.

To get community feedback, the council held public hearings that brought in hundreds. According to the Portland Business Journal, a poll held before the council vote found that Portland residents were even divided on the issue: 48 percent supported spending $600 million on bike infrastructure; another 48 percent opposed, while 4 percent were undecided.

Streetsblog writes that Portland’s overall bike infrastructure plan calls more than 700 miles of new bikeways, and is expected to increase the share of  bicycling trips to 25 percent of total trips by 2030.

Read the article

Also, The Los Angeles Times’s blog L.A. Now writes that Los Angeles is considering a “mammoth bike plan,” which would result in a bike freeway system. ”Conceptual maps of the proposed Backbone Bikeway Network envision a network of long-distance routes designed to provide cyclists safe passage between different neighborhoods along heavily-traveled corridors.”

Image credit: The Oregonian

Last year the story was all about diversifying away from the dollar.

China engaged in a major project to diversify reserves, and many banks started purchasing euros.

The conventional wisdom of course was that the dollar would be toast.

But as Dennis Gartman points out in his latest letter, suddenly all these central banks are starting to doubt that decision, because if there’s one currency in the world that looks like it could collapse right now, it’s unquestionably the euro.

Simply put, if you are the Reserve Bank of India, or the
People’s Bank of China, or the Reserve Bank of
Russia and you have been buying EURs over the past
five or six years as you tried to diversify your reserves
away from the US dollar and now you find the nations
whose currency you have been diversifying into is in
danger of breaking apart, what would you do? Would
you hold on and hope that what you are watching
happen right before your eyes stops and that your
worst nightmare does not come to fruition? Or would
you begin a hasty exit from as much as you can before
the door is slammed shut entirely and you are left
holding a rather large and very uncomfortable bag? 
Our guess is that you use any minor bounces into
which to sell. You’ve really no choice. You might hope
you have a choice. You pray you have a choice, but
you fear that your choices are few and modest… and
so you saw the “bounce” in the EUR as an opportunity
to get less long of it and you issued the order to your
minions on the trading desk to “Sell… and sell what you
can. Am I clear?”  

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Could Greece Still Leave The Euro? Yes, And Here’s How They’ll Do It
• It’s Been A Rough 24 Hours In Euro-Land
• The Father Of The Euro: It’s Italy That Will Really Torpedo The Union

Jenny Huq received the Civic Engagement Professional of the Year Award, presented on Feb. 10 at Elon University.…

The Civic Engagement Professional of the Year Award recognizes a staff person at a North Carolina Campus Compact member campus who has worked toward the institutionalization of service, created and strived toward a vision of service on campus, supported faculty and students and formed innovative campus-community partnerships.

»Read the entire article in The Carrboro Citizen.

One of the main reasons I like buying e-books for my Kindle instead of physical ones is the price advantage. Yes, portability is nice, and I don’t have to line my apartment walls with bookshelves just to hold everything, but I still do value the book as an artifact, so pricing is really the major attraction. Apple’s $12.99 to $14.99 price range for the iBookstore has begun to erode that primary advantage.

Luckily, according to a new report by the New York Times, Apple’s higher prices aren’t necessarily a permanent thing. Instead, sources at the publishing houses who’ve made agreements with Apple suggest that built-in discounting provisions will result in book prices dropping as low as Amazon’s fast disappearing $9.99 price point.

Under the agency model Apple uses, it will take 30 percent of each e-book sale made, while the publisher gets 70 percent of the take to distribute between itself, the author and other involved in the making of the book. The agency model along with a complicated formula related to the price of print books led publishers to suggest that price points for new fiction and non-fiction releases would fall somewhere between $12.99 and $14.99. Publishers then took that higher price point back to Amazon and essentially insisted that the online bookseller institute a similar model.

Under Amazon’s model, the Kindle maker actually lost money on every e-book, counting instead on revenue from hardware and on building market share to turn a profit. The New York Times describes how this worked:

Amazon has effectively lost money on each sale at that price because it buys and resells e-books as it purchases printed books, by paying publishers a wholesale price generally equivalent to half the list price of a print edition. That means that on a $26 hardcover book, Amazon would typically pay the publisher $13, losing just over $3 on a digital edition it sells for $9.99.

The NYT’s sources, three people involved in the discussions between the publishing houses and Apple, note that even though books will indeed be sold at a higher initial price through the iBookstore, Cupertino built provisions into the agreement that would allow them to discount the prices of hot selling e-books, including those found on the NYT’s bestseller list. Apple wants the ability to undercut or match competitors’ prices for these books, which are often offered at significant discounts in other sales venues.

A book that becomes a bestseller could then see a price drop from say $12.99 to $10.99, or even as low as $9.99, according to the sources. Even books not on the bestseller list would be eligible for this lower-than-normal pricing, since it will be tied to the going print rate for the book. The $12.99 to $14.99 number is based on a new hardcover selling price of $26, and Apple wanted the ability to offer more attractive prices for books that have a lower starting print price.

Apple has the right idea. The reason e-books are attractive to many is a combination of convenience and pricing. But the pricing advantage only exists if consumers aren’t willing to wait for paperback editions of the books they’re purchasing to come out. If they are, though, they can probably buy a physical book at around the same price or lower than its e-book counterpart.

If Apple and its publishing partners really want to make a splash in the e-book market, they have to extend their policy of ultra-competitive pricing to the paperback market, too. $9.99 is, for me, the exact price at which I will opt to buy an e-book over a paperback, even if I can find the print version for slightly cheaper, owing to the convenience factor. I suspect I’m not alone, as Amazon didn’t just pull the number out of a hat. If Apple can hit that sweet spot more often than not for books that have been around for awhile, I’ll gladly give them even more of my hard-earned cash.

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Audi, BMW

BMW and Audi can always be counted on for a good marketing fight. The two German luxury automakers first went kopf an kopf in European print ads, then on U.S. airwaves and next on our billboards. But after a bit of back and forth, the “good natured” ribbing appeared to have died down – at least for a while. We didn’t receive an official notice in the mail stating that the ad battle between BMW and Audi was back on, but the post-jump commercial tells us everything we need to know.

Audi appears to be drawing first blood in round two of BMW v Audi, as the four-ringed automaker gives us a lesson on the dynamics of friendly competition. It appears Audi is very smitten with the fact that its vehicles won three straight Car and Driver comparisons against its German rival; smitten enough to spend bucks on a new 30-second spot to rekindle one of the more entertaining rivalries in the auto industry. We can hardly wait for BMW’s response. Hit the jump to watch the video for yourself.

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Audi renews ad wars, takes shot at BMW in new commercial

Video: Audi renews ad wars, takes shot at BMW in new commercial originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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General Motors announced today that it will invest close to $500 million to produce the next generation fuel-efficient Ecotec engines. The move is expected to create nearly 550 jobs at three U.S. plants. GM said the investment will include facility renovation, new machinery, equipment and special tooling to support this engine

“GM is transforming its product portfolio to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and the next generation Ecotec engine is an integral part of that transformation,” said Denise Johnson, vice president – labor relations. “The investment in state-of-the-art four-cylinder engines is another example of GM’s commitment to replace larger-displacement engines with more compact, advanced four-cylinder engines that optimize fuel savings and performance. We look forward to working with our union partners at these three plants to make this investment a success.”

The biggest chunk of the investment will go into Tonawanda, New York, for a total of $425 million creating up to 470 jobs. Defiance, Ohio, will see an investment of $59 million, while Bay City, Michigan, will get $10.5 million.

GM said that for “competitive reasons, specifics about the engine capabilities as well as product applications will be shared at a later date.”

Click through for specific details.

GM To Invest $494 Million In U.S. Manufacturing For Next-Generation Ecotec Engines

– Three plants involved in project: Tonawanda, NY; Defiance, OH and Bay City, MI
– Project results in nearly 550 jobs
– Next generation Ecotec engines will continue to provide the right combination of fuel efficiency and performance to meet customer expectations

* Tonawanda — $425 million site investment will add capacity for the next generation Ecotec engine at 370,000 per year and bring about 470 jobs to that community
* Defiance – $59 million site investment will support precision sand cast block at a capacity of 188,000 annually and result in about 80 jobs to that community
* Bay City – $10.5 million site investment will bring new product to the plant (Ecotec connecting rod) and will create about 15 jobs for that plant.

– By: Kap Shah

We saw scans of them yesterday, and now it’s time to see Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto in action. The Third Strike trio show off their moves along with the rest of the new Super Street Fighter IV characters

According to The Fly On The Wall, a rumor is abound that Joy Global (JOYG), a Milwaukee-based manufacturer and servicer of mining equipment, could be purchased by construction giant Caterpillar (CAT).

Shares of Joy Global are currently up $0.30 on the news. Below, a YTD chart of both CAT and JOYG.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Toyota Just Got All The Lithium It Needs By Claiming Stake In Mining Company
• Payrolls Show First Job Creation Since 2008 For Medium Businesses, Strip Out Construction Losses And The U.S. Had Overall Job Creation As Well
• Goldman: Commodities Will Soar On Chinese Construction Acceleration

Joe Weisenthal, Deputy Editor, Business Insider

Your Questions (4 min)

• Should we be pumping stimulus into the economy or cutting back on government spending?
• What is the effect of the stimulus on GDP and jobs?
• Is the U.S. economy on steroids?
• What is the long-term damage of overstimulus?

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Video: Click HERE >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The U.S. Economy Is On Steroids
• CHART OF THE DAY: If You Thought The American Economy Was Juiced By Stimulus, You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet
• Joe Biden: Let Me Tell You How The Stimulus Has Been A Raging Success

Gluskin-Sheff’s David Rosenberg reads the tea leaves on the recent market runup and concludes the correction may not be over, drawing particular attention to volume:

IS THE CORRECTION OVER? 
There is room to have an open mind in both directions, though we believe that
there is still more downside than upside risk.  The problem for the bulls is that
the market gains have occurred on lower volume, which was down 6% on the
NYSE yesterday, and the major indices are still stuck below their 50-day moving
averages (the only exception is the S&P 600).  

But the bulls will note that the market now does have some technical strength
(as outlined in today’s Investors Business Daily).  The major averages have
closed in the upper half of their daily ranges for six sessions in a row and often
at or close to the highs of the day.  The list of stocks hitting a new high has hit
200 versus 12 those hitting a new low.  
Sentiment has turned extremely negative considering that this correction was
barely over an 8% down-move but indeed, before it occurred, the Investors
Intelligence poll was at 52.2% bulls (18.9% bears) and at the recent lows it was
at 35.6% bulls (and 27.8% for the bears).  That is a contrarian positive, at least
on a near-term basis.  Moreover, there is a high correlation between the Euro
and the S&P 500 and the short positions in the currency is at an all-time high,
and as these shorts have to be covered, the dollar has softened a tad off its
recent highs and this has corresponded with the rebound in the equity market.  
Finally, we have 73% of companies beating their earnings estimate — this has
dominated the press, and the fact that tech bellwethers like Hewlett-Packard
managed to beat their estimates and raise guidance (as did Deere and Whole
Foods) has also helped add some recent enthusiasm in the bullish camp.  This is
an exercise to see both points of view, keep an open mind; however, we have
not waffling and maintain a cautious view over risk assets for 2010.  This is still
a technically-driven market — for confirmation of the sustainability of the
rebound (recall that there were four other 5%+ declines during this bear market
rally phase) we need to see:

1. Follow throughs (gains of at least 2% consecutively and on higher volume),
and;
2. A move back above the 50-day moving averages for the major indices.      

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Equities Shoot Up, Then Turn Down This Morning As The Indices Turn Negative
• Morgan Stanley: Today’s PPI Explosion Means You Can Kiss Deflation Goodbye
• BNP Paribas: To Save Europe, Devalue The Euro Faster Than Americans Can Devalue The Dollar

Imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan’s wife and lawyer say they are seeking clemency from President Barack Obama, citing health reasons for seeking Ryan’s early release.

Ryan’s 75-year-old wife, Lura Lynn, has a terminal lung disease and says she now is on oxygen 24 hours a day.

And Ryan’s attorney, former Gov. Jim Thompson, says Ryan himself has health problems, including kidney disease and infected teeth.

Ryan, who was sent to a federal prison in Indiana after his 2006 conviction on corruption charges, turns 76 next Wednesday.

In a telephone interview Wednesday with the Chicago Tribune, Lura Lynn Ryan confirmed she had made a previous plea for clemency for her imprisoned husband in 2008 by calling then-President George W. Bush’s mother, former first lady Barbara Bush.

She said she was unsuccessful.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Yorkville, Ill. — Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has spent about $1 million in taxpayer money to keep an office and staff in the Chicago suburb of Yorkville.

Hastert retired from Congress more than two years ago.

But the Chicago Tribune reports that the 68-year-old lobbyist and business consultant still employs three staffers at the office, who each earn more than $100,000 a year.

The Tribune reports the office is funded through a federal law that allows former House speakers to have an office for up to five years to deal with issues pertaining to their time as speaker.

The Republican served as speaker for eight years. Spokesman Brad Hahn says Hastert keeps his business endeavors separate from the office.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

By Mary Jekielek Insprucker, Special to the Tribune

Humvees exploded and bullets flew all around Marine Sgt. Nayelli Cisneros when her convoy came under attack in Afghanistan in 2004.

It was only after the fact that the Wheeling woman could really begin to process what she had been through.

“A bullet grazed the right side of my helmet. I could have been killed. I just broke down and cried,” Cisneros said.

Michael Tumilty, 27, had his own close call. During his 2007 tour in Iraq, the Air Force staff sergeant narrowly escaped injury when a grenade thrown from the roadside struck his convoy.

“When I returned home, I was hyper-vigilant,” said the Round Lake resident. “I looked more at the side of the road than the front.”

The chance to commiserate over such experiences was what prompted Tumilty, a nursing student at Harper College, to establish the Palatine school’s new Veterans Association.

“When Michael approached me about the organization, I thought it was a good idea,” said Bobby Summers, the club’s faculty adviser. “Civilian life is a different beat, and this will help vets share some of their struggles.”

For Cisneros, who recalls field time with no showers and limited shelter, part of her struggle is tolerating attitudes she finds on campus. The Harper international business student said she’s bothered by students who seem focused mainly on their appearances and on having fun, with little understanding of or appreciation for her military service.

“I’ve gone where they would never dare,” said Cisneros, 27. “But they think they’re cool wearing stilettos. Give me a break. This is college, not a fashion show.”

Cisneros said she’s finding it easier to forge friendships with “my fellow military brothers and sisters” because she doesn’t have to explain herself to them. Besides forming social connections, the veterans club, which plans to meet twice a month, also aims to tackle service projects, provide academic aid and help members navigate veterans’ benefits like the post-9/11 GI Bill.

Thomas Warfield, a Harper College financial aid assistant, said the number of military veterans enrolled in the school increased by more than 22 percent from fall 2008 to fall 2009, which he attributed partially to the GI Bill. Popular careers with veterans include trucking, law enforcement, radiological technician and HVAC, he said.

More vets mean more participants in veteran clubs, which are nothing new at college campuses. Northern Illinois University, for example, started its veterans organization in 1954.

“These clubs differ from other Veterans Affairs and VFW outlets because of location and (because) they’re for college students only,” Tumilty said.

 

The new Chevrolet Cruze from General Motors has amassed more than 100,000 in international sales and has been introduced in 60 countries. It was even called the “Car of the Future” by President Obama. And while many of you may think Obama had it confused with the Volt, he didn’t, because he even ended up signing it “The Car of the Future – Barack Obama.”

“Cruze is already a hit across Europe and Asia and now, it’s coming to America to challenge the status quo,” said Jim Campbell, general manager, Chevrolet. “It’s the latest tangible example of how Chevrolet is working to bring new products to market that range from gas-friendly to gas-free.”

The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze will go on sale in the United States during the third-quarter of 2010.

Click here for more news on the Chevrolet Cruze.

Refresher: The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze’s base LS model is powered by a 136-hp 1.8L 4-cylinder engine, while the LT and LTZ model get a 1.4L turbo Ecotec engine with 138-hp and a maximum torque of 148 lb-ft. All 2011 Cruze models will be available with a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission. The 1.4L turbo modes are expected to have a cruising range of more than 500 miles and are expected to get an EPA fuel-economy rating of 40 mpg on the highway.

2011 Chevrolet Cruze:

– By: Omar Rana

Image Source: Flickr – Pete Souza

The City of Chicago has two jobs open and you are being encouraged to apply. The Mayor’s Office has put a “help wanted: alderman” ad on the internet.

The 1st and 29th wards need aldermen.

For the last 33 openings, the mayor has just appointed someone.

Interested applicants need to be residents of the ward, be registered voters, and have a clean criminal record.

Resumes, cover letters and letters of recommendation are being accepted at City Hall until the close of business Friday.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

President Obama’s plan to turn Thomson state prison into “Gitmo North” might hit a new snag, this time in Springfield.

The State House has passed a measure that would require the General Assembly to sign-off on the sale of any state asset valued at more than $1 million, which would apply to Thomson.

The bill now moves to the State Senate for consideration and would require Governor Quinn’s signature for passage.

The U.S. Congress is also working to block the move of hundreds of terror detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Illinois.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO — You may get your hand swabbed the next time you take a flight out of O’Hare or Midway.

TSA security agents have been swabbing luggage for years for signs of explosives, and now they are going to start doing it to people.

The increased swabbing was ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as part of a suite of measures to improve airport security.

The swab contains a chemical that can detect traces of explosive materials.

The measure could take place when you check in, when you pass through security or at the boarding gate.

TSA is expanding the way it screens for explosives following the failed attempt to blow up a flight into Detroit on Christmas Day.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

When Phil Schiller unveiled MobileMe onstage at WWDC in 2008 and described it as “exchange for the rest of us,” I was sold. Who wouldn’t be? All my email, contacts and calendar data pushed to all my devices, all of the time? My entire digital life kept seamlessly, perfectly synchronized with zero effort on my part? I was completely sold.

But MobileMe had a rocky start. By “rocky,” I mean to say that it was an unmitigated disaster, released to the public when it wasn’t even properly baked. Since then, only about five people (including me) have bothered to pay for an annual subscription. But despite all that early negative coverage, I can honestly say that the vast majority of the time, MobileMe works brilliantly.

Of course, there are things that could be done to improve it. And at a time when about half of all new Macs are sold to Switchers, and the iPhone is dominating the smartphone market, it seems a prudent time to ponder what Apple could do to make MobileMe not only brilliant, but irresistible.

So, in no particular order…

Webmail

The web-based mail interface is sleek, minimal and…a bit rubbish. I totally get Apple’s design aesthetic, but every other webmail service on the planet offers more compelling functionality and mail management. The UI feels like it was made in 1998, not 2008. There’s no reason it can’t make it totally modern and totally “Apple.”

Performance

This is another web app issue. The web-based Mail, Contacts and Calendar are too slow. There are odd days when they just pop on the screen -– sometimes so fast I have to wonder whether it was the browser doing a little javascript burp. But other days they’re so painfully slow they time out. This happens to me on different machines, on different networks, in different browsers.

Browsers

While we’re on the subject of browsers…if Google can get Gmail to work in different browsers without resorting to smug incompatibility warnings, Apple should be able to do the same. Dear Apple Engineers: So what if a customer is using IE7? Plenty of people are. That’s not going to change any day soon. Stop worrying about it and just deal with it.

Sync Speed

There are times when a change takes an interminable length of time to propagate through the system to my other devices. Not often, but it would just be awesome if that never happened.

Gallery Overhaul

The MobileMe Gallery looks beautiful. It’s also fantastic for sharing pictures and videos with family who would feel intimidated in Flickr. Yet, Apple really ought to look hard at Flickr and take notes; there’s a lot more the Gallery could do to make it a killer web app.

Massive Storage Upgrade

This one’s easy. In fact, I expect to see this happen, and soon. Google offers gigabytes upon gigabytes of free storage via Gmail, Picasa and Google Docs. Even Microsoft offers more generous storage with Mesh, FolderSync and other Windows Live services. By comparison, MobileMe’s 20GB is not only meager, it’s downright mean-spirited.

More Granular Sharing Options

A MobileMe “family pack” already exists, but doesn’t offer the same kind of flexibility and fine-grained data-sharing one would find in an Exchange service. I’d love to “link” my MobileMe account with my spouse’s so we can both access and edit selected calendars. A global address book would be awesome, too. In a multi-Mac/iPhone household, that kind of granular sharing would be invaluable.

iPhone Backup

Speaking of iPhones, how about automatic wireless backup of an iPhone’s other data not already synced through MobileMe? Sure, emails, contacts and calendars are already covered, as well as Safari Bookmarks. But how about adding SMS messages to that list? Or application preferences? I dream of a day when I can restore my iPhone, or migrate to a new iPhone, and not have to spend an inordinate amount of time tediously configuring app settings one by one; instead, I’d enter my MobileMe data into the iPhone and a few minutes later all my preferences for all installed apps would be set for me. Bliss!

iWork.com

Schiller did say that iWork.com was free while it remained in beta. So once that service gets upgraded into something worth actually using (issues which range far beyond the scope of this article!) and Apple starts charging us to use it, it makes sense that all paying MobileMe subscribers should get unfettered access. Right?

iTunes in the Cloud

Imagine being able to synchronize your entire iTunes library (and I do mean everything in your library) to the cloud and then being able to access it over the web through any Internet-connected device. Would that be worth something to you? Say, $99 per year?

So there you have it — that’s my modest list. Ten simple suggestions for improving and expanding the MobileMe service that will make it a no-brainer for both Mac and PC users alike.

What do you think MobileMe needs to lift it from the doldrums? Share your ideas in the comments below, but, do me a favor -– resist saying “You’re crazy for paying when Gmail is free.” I know I’m crazy. But this isn’t about me.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):

Is It Time for the “Web OS”?