Several MobileMe Mail users, including our very own Preshit, noticed that the certificate for Apple’s MobileMe’s SMTP server (outgoing mail) had expired. The error showed up no matter what, including on the iPhone. Thinking that it was just MobileMe acting up again (after a while, mind you), Preshit contacted Apple Support. He was horrified to find that they actually forgot to renew it!

The Apple support executive was clueless about this issue, and after much convincing that the problem was on their end, has decided to investigate the matter. The fact of the matter is of course, that Apple has forgotten to update their me.com smtp certificate (much like Google did last year). Users around the globe will soon see the shiny warning that their certificate has expired. If you do get the warning, all you can do right now is to click “Continue” and hope that someone doesn’t think you are a spammer or your mail doesn’t land in the hands of a hacker. I personally do not know the implications of having a security certificate expire, but if it’s a security certificate, it’s obviously there for a big reason.

You’d think they use iCal or something to remind them once a year to renew something as simple as a certificate. Oh, and before you start blaming Apple, Google also had a very similar slip up some time back. Talk about large companies with big budgets!