It’s the entire package that makes MobileMe worthwhile. It’s like those academic teardowns of new iPhones that identify every component and attempt to add up the actual total cost of the device: run through every feature in MobileMe, assign it a value, and you typically come up with something greater than $100 per year.

iDisk: $20; automatically sync of all of my personal calendars, contacts, and app settings across all Macs and backed up to a central server: $15; Find My iPhone: $5; Back To My Mac: $30… it adds up.

MobileMe isn’t a specific feature or function. It’s a utility, like the water or electricity. Its actual purpose is to maintain a pipeline so that Apple can deliver digital services and feature enhancements to whatever device they’ve sold you.

I just wish they’d punch that button more aggressively. Things I want MobileMe to do:

(See, my defense was that Steve Jobs has so much money that he certainly could have bribed the Tampa Bay Rays to throw the deciding Game 5 of the 2008 World Series, solely to ensure that the next episode of “House” wouldn’t be pre-empted by a Game 6. “Has he ever it?” is the disturbing question.)