References to the possibility of a free MobileMe service being offered by Apple has been discovered in the iOS 4.2 and 4.2.1 Gold Master builds. Error messages such as one that accounts for the “maximum number of free accounts” for iOS devices and also mentioning separate paid services have been discovered. An error message also mentioned that a specific Apple ID cannot be used for MobileMe mail, but can be used for other MobileMe services, hinting at the possibility that the free version of MobileMe might not offer access to the mail service in MobileMe. Of course, just because there is such code doesn’t mean that Apple will be releasing such a feature anytime soon, but it definitely looks like we’re moving in that direction.