Aside from the obvious 3G iPhone rumor floating around this year's WWDC, the other, quieter rumor has been that Apple will be revamping .Mac in a major way. Now one code enthusiast thinks he's found some evidence in a pile of 10.5.3 strings that points to a name change (which we think points to a revamp). He explains:

Almost everywhere ".Mac" has been replaced with %@, which means that the name of Apple's online service will be inserted programmatically by applications.

You can spot the %@ in places like Apple's mail client and iCal—you know, spots that would reference .Mac.

Here's hoping that our assumptions are right and Apple is just using "%@" as filler. Because typing "the service formerly known as .Mac" would be a bitch. [Coding Robots via TUAW]

UPDATE: AppleInsider reports that the new brand may be "Mobile Me."

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.