.Mac Update on Jan 10th

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Readers report that Apple's .Mac service will be undergoing scheduled maintenance during the Macworld Keynote speech, spawning speculation that .Mac updates are in the works:

Mac will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All .Mac services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Previous rumors had suggested (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/12/20051202133834.shtml) that Apple was revamping its content delivery system to offer feature-length content. Rumors pointed towards the use of .Mac storage for delivery of these products.

[iMeowbot]

.Mac was also taken down for maintenance during the WWDC keynote last year. Did anything change then, or was all that held off until Paris? I kind of forget.

[mad jew]

I can't wait to see what comes of this iWeb. I hope it's an iLife-style app to make site design simple yet more customisable than current .Mac sites. :)

[irmongoose]

So no email during MWSF??




irmongoose

[ph0rce]

nice :) may think of getting it if thats the case

[Lacero]

The only .Mac update I look forward to would be a cutting of the price to 1/3rd of what it is now. And maybe add another 5GBs.

Here's to the Crazy Ones http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35452 (http://www.uriah.com/apple-qt/movies/think-different.mov)

[thejadedmonkey]

Maybe I'll finally get a reason to get a .mac account!

[BlueRevolution]

I don't understand the allure of .Mac. I had the trial period when I first got my computer and didn't even notice when it expired. so it'll take a lot of updating to get me to pay for it.

[evilfunkgenius]

Lets hope they reduce the price while they are at it.

[Machead III]

If they triple the content and half the price, maybe I'll consider it.

[Veldek]

So no email during MWSF??That's what I wondered, too.

[texasmafia]

I agree with those who just haven't seen the need to subscribe to .mac. I hope they add several features that make it a must have and lower the price. I need more than a tiny bit of online storage, a .mac e-mail address and a website to get me to spend $99.

[yoak]

I do use .Mac and I´m quite happy with it.
I still think it´s overpriced and should have more features. That might happen now, and then I´ll stay on, if not...

PS Is this the most exciting rumor this close to MW? How dissapointing, I thought we would see more exciting stuff.
I do realise everything under the moon has been rumored, so I´m thinking more in the line of "confirmed". Then again, makes the Keynote more exciting (and hopefully less dissapointing)

[iMe]

don´t tell me ichat doesn´t work then... how else would i get all the info?? i use my .mac adress in ichat.. thats why i am wondering...

[bignumbers]

Putting aside whatever features they might be adding, a five hour downtime window during regular business hours for much of the US is a very bad thing. Quite a number of people use their .Mac accounts - email, web hosting, and otherwise - as a core part of their business. If my main web/email provider ever told me this I'd have a new provider.

If the whole service really, really needs to be down for the upgrade (which itself is poor planning), then announce the upgrade and bring it online that night. Ugh.

[Diatribe]

The last time it was down that long, they added a huge amount of space.

So I'm guessing at least more space. Combine that with the rumored price drop to $69 and you have yourself a nice upgrade. Though I still think more is coming.

don´t tell me ichat doesn´t work then... how else would i get all the info?? i use my .mac adress in ichat.. thats why i am wondering...

It uses the AIM network, regardless of the user name you use. So yes, it'll work.

[Staffroomer]

I've never really been all that interested in .Mac.. What's the big deal? What has it got to offer me.. Seriously...

[Diatribe]

I've never really been all that interested in .Mac.. What's the big deal? What has it got to offer me.. Seriously...
http://www.mac.com

[paddy]

Whats so good about .mac? It would take a lot to make me fork out $99 a year for whats basically an e-mail service with a few bells and whistles. Maybe if they cut the price i might consider....

[spakle]

ok, enough of this .mac stuff. where are my new ibook specs bitches. i'm POed that the rumors and leaks have all come to a complete halt. it was much better finding out some tidbits a day or before the show.

[iMeowbot]

I've never really been all that interested in .Mac.. What's the big deal? What has it got to offer me.. Seriously...
I hope this isn't too painfully obvious, but one could ask the same questions about any product ever offered by anyone. Either a product offers something that is useful to you, or it doesn't. One may as well complain about the uselessness of Final Cut Pro if one isn't a film editor.

[irmongoose]

it was much better finding out some tidbits a day or before the show.

Actually I appreciate the full blow and surprise of Steve's keynote... I always stay away from the MR page 24 hours before the show, because by then the wait is bearable and any "rumor" is so reliable that is takes the fun away.

But, to each his own, I guess.




irmongoose

[aafuss1]

I'd be happy to see a .Mac price cut and even more enhancements.

[wasimyaqoob]

.Mac accounts are brilliant - But the price is on the little expensive side, but to get your own @mac.com email address - Its all worth it :D

[ebunton]

It's all slowly coming together...

[mad jew]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though.

[Lacero]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though. That may be, but the price is way too high for such "integration". There just isn't enough compelling features for me to want to pay $100 a year for .Mac. I find most utilities free on the .net, such as web design and blogging tools. Syncing is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, syncing is fairly easy enough to do. I sync my macs perhaps every other month, so it's not that hard at all!

[Applespider]

It's a long time to take it down but it could be a 'worst estimate' and they'll actually have it back up earlier but are covering themselves.

So far as business use goes, well, aside from Mac developers who use .Mac to distribute their apps, then I can't imagine many people who use it as their sold business email address. Don't most, even Mom and Pop, ones these days have their own domain and email hosting?

And I do use .Mac - less for the email and more for the backup of contacts/ical/bookmarks to the web so I can access that information from other places (and not have to remember to do it) and for the homepage features. It's the first time in about 9 years that I haven't bothered paying for my own domain. I used to build websites and update them but, now it's easier to have a blog for some stuff and use .Mac to stick any pictures/movies I want to share online. I know I could do it... but for £50 a year, it's not that bad (and hey, I've never paid full price for .Mac, there's usually a promotion at least once a year to buy it cheaply so I get the box and then use that code when my subscription runs out)

[Staffroomer]

I hope this isn't too painfully obvious, but one could ask the same questions about any product ever offered by anyone. Either a product offers something that is useful to you, or it doesn't. One may as well complain about the uselessness of Final Cut Pro if one isn't a film editor.

Well, I own three websites and use the Internet like a junkie uses heroin..... I still don't get .mac....

Don't attack me, just explain the purpose.. :rolleyes:

[MacsRgr8]

So no email during MWSF??


No iChat either?? :eek:

I don't think those services will be affected.
I expect only the .Mac -web related services, and maybe the iDisk aswell.

But mail protocols and AIM will probably stay online.

[crazedbytheheat]

Well, I own three websites and use the Internet like a junkie uses heroin..... I still don't get .mac....

Don't attack me, just explain the purpose.. :rolleyes:

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

[MacsRgr8]

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

Excatly.
It is NOT for the internet junkies, but more for those who prefer using one-click from iPhoto, have just published a website.
Besides that, the sync feature, backup, etc. are usefull too.

... and having a <yourname>@mac.com email address is cool :cool:

[mac-er]

So no email during MWSF??




irmongoose


The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

[MacsRgr8]

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Damn...

No torrents then :o

:D :D

[applemax]

I think Apple need to do a competition. The prize? An @apple.com address!!! I'd do anything for one of those :)

[animefan_1]

...PS Is this the most exciting rumor this close to MW? How dissapointing, I thought we would see more exciting stuff.
I do realise everything under the moon has been rumored, so I´m thinking more in the line of "confirmed". Then again, makes the Keynote more exciting (and hopefully less dissapointing)

I agree. I hope there aren't any confirmations so even if it is "disappointing", we won't be disappointed too much. Then again, if it's awesome, we can all be excited. :D

[highpass]

Unimportant i know, but whatever happened to the promised .Mac widgets?

[Detlev]

It's nice to see something is getting updated. I was getting worried that we haven't seen much come by way of Software Update recently. Usually we get a clue there. All I can imagine is that the Apple servers (including .Mac) will be too busy for most of you to be checking during work, school, vacation etc. So, just wait till the day after. I'll let you know if there is anything of importance. ;)

For all the marketing managers out there who keep saying lower the price of .Mac. Can you explain why you would do that from the point of view of the Apple Corp? Then explain how you would do it. This is Marketing 101 stuff here folks.

[windowuser82]

I don't understand the allure of .Mac. I had the trial period when I first got my computer and didn't even notice when it expired. so it'll take a lot of updating to get me to pay for it.

At first I thought it was kinda dumb also, being from the "other side" of the fence... 99 bucks a year just for a .mac email addy.....

My aunt, however, uses the service and I quickly found out how handy it can be. We use iDisk (i think is the correct name) to share and trade family photos (we have a large family) and lil 30 second clips of whoevers new born. Just for that purpose it's sorta worth the money.

My ex partner (who tried to mac-vert me) and I also used the service a bit. He was always away on business and so was I, so to share images without having to email them or rough drafts of things we were working on, and being able to have easy access and communication came in very very handy.

Those who get it just for the .mac email addy tho are a bit nuts.

[emulator]

Excatly.
... and having a <yourname>@mac.com email address is cool :cool:
Or rather snobbery. ;) To had a gmail account 1.5 years ago was being cool. :D

[Yvan256]

I hope this isn't too painfully obvious, but one could ask the same questions about any product ever offered by anyone. Either a product offers something that is useful to you, or it doesn't. One may as well complain about the uselessness of Final Cut Pro if one isn't a film editor.

Yeah! What's with this "Aperture" thingy?! It's useless!

... to me. :D

[Detlev]

Those who get it just for the .mac email addy tho are a bit nuts.

OK, what if I got it originally (when it came out) for the email addy but now use it for Backup, email addy, Groups, another email addy, sharing photos, yet another email addy, storage, did I mention the fourth email addy, Syncing, oh yeah a fifth email addy, iChat, and last but not least a sixth email addy? Do I still qualify as nuts?

[Yvan256]

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

That's one thing I hate about .Mac... Why can't two (or more) machines sync themselves together without some external help? :mad:

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Oh, CRAP! :rolleyes:

Funniest technical warning message I've read in a long time. :D

[windowuser82]

OK, what if I got it originally (when it came out) for the email addy but now use it for Backup, email addy, Groups, another email addy, shsring photos, yet another email addy, storage, did I mention the fourth email addy, Syncing, oh yeah a fifth email addy, iChat, and last but not least a sixth email addy? Do I still qualify as nuts?


Yes, yes you do. Just old-man-rocking-chair-shotgun nuts instead of eating-toilet-tissue-from-a-spoon nuts

Maybe I should have said "have it only for a .mac email addy"

[Stella]

If .Mac is going to be used for full length content then Apple had better increase the speed of iDisk, otherwise such content will be unplayable, or, wait a week and the content may just have downloaded to your local machine.

iDisk is so unbelievably slow, don't even think about the iDisk Sync feature - I gave up using that the day they announced it. Sad thing is, Apple have done nothing to improve performance.

[hob]

Whilst I think that Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, I find it useful enough to pay for it.

If I find myself on a friends Mac, I just make myself a new account on their computer, type in my .Mac username and password, and all of a sudden Mail has all my emails, Safari has all my Bookmarks, Address Book has all of my contacts and iCal has all of my entries. This information is also all available through the HTTP front-end at www.mac.com.

If you don't find it useful, no-one MAKES you pay for it... :rolleyes:

[Yvan256]

For all the marketing managers out there who keep saying lower the price of .Mac. Can you explain why you would do that from the point of view of the Apple Corp? Then explain how you would do it. This is Marketing 101 stuff here folks.

I'd lower the price so even people like me (who already pay for hosting his personnal website) would get .Mac instead of something else. Yes, you make more profits if you sell something 100$, but you could be making even more money by selling it 50$ if more than twice as many people get it. That's Economics 101. ;)

I'm currently using PowWeb (http://www.powweb.com). Look at those stats:
- 7.77$US/month
- 12GB storage
- 300GB monthly transfers
- Free setup and domain
- Near-unlimited email adresses (via aliases anyway)

I don't really need 12GB of storage, so I don't think 300GB of monthly transfers is that useful to me. But they offer me all this at a lower price than a .Mac address and with my own domain name (instead of www.mac.com/yournamehere/).

I know .Mac is more than a simple web hosting service, but still, I need .Mac to beat PowWeb to even consider switching. Can't even remember how far in advance I paid PowWeb, so even if .Mac was free maybe I couldn't switch anyway (not for years).

[hob]

Like a coupla other people here, one of my first reactions to the news of downtime was "oh, they're just trying to stop people getting news out of MWSF" - but I don't think even Apple are arrogant enough to think everyone at MWSF uses .Mac! Even I have a backup GMail account...

[Yvan256]

Whilst I think that Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, I find it useful enough to pay for it.

If I find myself on a friends Mac, I just make myself a new account on their computer, type in my .Mac username and password, and all of a sudden Mail has all my emails, Safari has all my Bookmarks, Address Book has all of my contacts and iCal has all of my entries. This information is also all available through the HTTP front-end at www.mac.com

Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, but only from your local network. I do agree that it could be worth its price if a remote server is needed.

All I ask is to be able to sync my PowerBook from my Mac mini, go on vacation, work, get back home and sync my PowerBook back to my Mac mini. That's far less than what .Mac does.

[Applespider]

I'd lower the price so even people like me (who already pay for hosting his personnal website) would get .Mac instead of something else.

- 7.77$US/month


It's only about $5 a year cheaper...

Remember we're not typical Apple consumers. .Mac is designed to appeal to those who either don't have any time/inclination to design their own website or have no idea on how to go about it. There are far more of those people in the world than geeks who are comfortable building sites and enjoy doing it.

[Detlev]

Yes, yes you do. Just old-man-rocking-chair-shotgun nuts...
Dang, I left my iSight on again :D

[bigandy]

So no email during MWSF??
irmongoose

NO! YOUR WORLD WILL STAND STILL! :rolleyes: :cool: ;)

[ketha]

I'm hoping that Apple builds Podcast software to both iLife and .mac.

[adamfilip]

Putting aside whatever features they might be adding, a five hour downtime window during regular business hours for much of the US is a very bad thing. Quite a number of people use their .Mac accounts - email, web hosting, and otherwise - as a core part of their business. If my main web/email provider ever told me this I'd have a new provider.

If the whole service really, really needs to be down for the upgrade (which itself is poor planning), then announce the upgrade and bring it online that night. Ugh.

well.

regardless of what time its done.. its night somewhere in the world and regular business hours too.

the US isnt the centre of the universe. even tho apple is based there

[Yvan256]

It's only about $5 a year cheaper...

I maybe be almost the same price as .Mac, but last time I checked (not thoroughly) I couldn't keep my own domain name, the storage was a joke and the monthly transfers were pathetic.

Then again, I may remember wrong... I'll go check mac.com right now. :o

Edit: quite useless... It keeps telling me my .Mac account expired (I've set it up when I bought my Mac mini but never used it). Where can I read the .Mac features?

Edit 2: never mind, I found the "FAQ" link.

[boombashi]

Oh, CRAP! :rolleyes:

Funniest technical warning message I've read in a long time. :D

It's true - they are shutting down the entire internet so nobody can give information out of what's going on at the keynote, and they are upgrading the entire internet backbone to serve High-Def content in real time to everyone in the world simultaneously - even over dial up. :eek: :D

[d.perel]

If .Mac is going to be used for full length content then Apple had better increase the speed of iDisk, otherwise such content will be unplayable, or, wait a week and the content may just have downloaded to your local machine.

iDisk is so unbelievably slow, don't even think about the iDisk Sync feature - I gave up using that the day they announced it. Sad thing is, Apple have done nothing to improve performance.


For my .mac homepage, when i open a folder of pictures, it can take 5 minutes just to load all of the file names. Other than that, though, I like .Mac overall. Syncing computers has really helped me

[irmongoose]

Just for your knowledge - .Mac has 1GB of storage with 1TB of bandwidth per month.

The bandwidth is good... now give me 10 GB storage! :mad: ;) :D




irmongoose

[boombashi]

Just for your knowledge - .Mac has 1GB of storage with 1TB of bandwidth per month.

The bandwidth is good... now give me 10 GB storage! :mad: ;) :D

irmongoose

I agee - The bandwidth is good - 10GB needs to happen to make this a worthwhile service - and drop the price to $69 and I'll think about it when I get my new PowerBook (hopefully within a couple of weeks)

I used it when it was called PowerTools and it was free - I still think free is a good price point and feature to the Mac faithful and would "urge" windows users to switch with a cool "free" service such as .mac

[ibook30]

I'm anxious to hear the details - .mac has a lot of potential as a product, but in it's current form I doubt many folks see value. I imagine they sell a fair amount of .mac to new computer buyers - but I'd guess the amount of second year subscribers is low.

[Porchland]

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Steve can take down the Internet whenever he wants to. He knows where you live and what browser you use. (He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!)

Thankfully, Steve is a benevolent dictator.

[Detlev]

I'd lower the price so even people like me (who already pay for hosting his personnal website) would get .Mac instead of something else.

How many personal website publishers do you think would switch to .Mac just because they had a lower price? Are they the market you think Apple should be after? Are there enough of them to make up for lost profit? Take into account that there are free hosting sites, hosts that are regionally targeted, hosts that offer similar services for other platforms, publishers who do not know about .Mac, publishers who think Mac fans are zealots and would never support Apple, folks who cannot break contracts (see your comment), the list goes on.

If you are head of Marketing at Apple are you going to walk in to the CEO and say, 'Hey, I think we can switch X% of all personal website publishers to our service by lowering our profit margin.' or would you suggest we should find out how to continue to serve our consumer base?

Yes, you make more profits if you sell something 100$, but you could be making even more money by selling it 50$ if more than twice as many people get it. That's Economics 101. ;)

A lot more than twice as many people. Try somewhere in the vicinity of 10X. In order to produce that nice profit quarterly for its stock holders, make sure they keep their jobs (and Jobs), and stay in business they need to make a Net Profit not just a Gross Profit. With the increase of sales comes increased overhead. With the increase of overhead comes an additional decrease in profit.

I'm currently using PowWeb (http://www.powweb.com). Look at those stats:
- 7.77$US/month
- 12GB storage
- 300GB monthly transfers
- Free setup and domain
- Near-unlimited email adresses (via aliases anyway)

I don't really need 12GB of storage, so I don't think 300GB of monthly transfers is that useful to me. But they offer me all this at a lower price than a .Mac address and with my own domain name (instead of www.mac.com/yournamehere/).

I know .Mac is more than a simple web hosting service, but still, I need .Mac to beat PowWeb to even consider switching. Can't even remember how far in advance I paid PowWeb, so even if .Mac was free maybe I couldn't switch anyway (not for years).

You are correct, these services do not even compare. Powweb seems like a nice place to do just what you are doing. But I think you have just proven the point. .Mac is more than a simple web hosting service and not for everyone.

People complained when they first put a price on the service (which was lower). It is likely that unless it were free there will always be people out there saying, 'Lower the price—I can get it cheaper' but you can't. Nowhere else do you have this setup built right into your computer when you turn it on and easy to use (it's not perfect though).

[Stella]

Any feature length content will of course be for the minority, i.e., those living in the states only.

The rest of the world can stop getting excited right now, because its not going to happen for the rest of us!

[Porchland]

I maybe be almost the same price as .Mac, but last time I checked (not thoroughly) I couldn't keep my own domain name, the storage was a joke and the monthly transfers were pathetic.

Then again, I may remember wrong... I'll go check mac.com right now. :o

Edit: quite useless... It keeps telling me my .Mac account expired (I've set it up when I bought my Mac mini but never used it). Where can I read the .Mac features?

Edit 2: never mind, I found the "FAQ" link.

Thanks. Next time, just replace your entire post with "Deleted by user."

[tny]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though. That may be, but the price is way too high for such "integration". There just isn't enough compelling features for me to want to pay $100 a year for .Mac. I find most utilities free on the .net, such as web design and blogging tools. Syncing is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, syncing is fairly easy enough to do. I sync my macs perhaps every other month, so it's not that hard at all!

OS X is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, and what BSD libraries to compile and how to fiddle with window manager widgets, creating your own OS X-like operating system from existing free tools is fairly easy enough to do. I recompile apps every few weeks, so it's not that hard at all!

In all seriousness, $99/year (what, $8.25 a month) for synching built into the operating system, a backup program that can use up to 1 GB of online storage, webmail, web-based calendaring, easy to use web publishing, and a WebDAV-based file transfer point is a pretty decent deal. I pay it, and I also have separate webhosting ($25/month) for multiple domains and offsite storage of 6 GB ($14/month) from another vendor. It's all cheaper than my time: setting up synching between my Macs alone without .Mac would take at least long enough for me to earn back that $99 by doing job-related tasks.

That said, anyone who uses .Mac as their primary business communication channel is at best a hobbyist. $12/month for a decent hosting service is pretty easy to find, and if your business isn't earning you enough money to justify spending $12/month, you probably don't have enough volume to worry about your .Mac email being down for a few hours.

[Detlev]

the US isnt the centre of the universe.
Prove it!

[yankeefan24]

Just renewed 4th year a couple of weeks ago. I think that with a new computer, you could get an email address like first_last@powerbook.mac.com and 1 GB of mail + idisk and 500 GB bandwidth. update to regular .mac, and get 10 GB for mail, 10 GB for iDisk, 1 TB of bandwidth, and whatever else seems good. Also, when you get .mac u also get a regular .mac address, so u have whatever@powerbook.mac.com and whateverelse@mac.com. Just my idea.

EDIT: Those rnt real email accounts so dont try to email them.

[rogozhin]

I think Apple need to do a competition. The prize? An @apple.com address!!! I'd do anything for one of those :)

Well, you could always apply for a job at apple...


;)

[Norse Son]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Readers report that Apple's .Mac service will be undergoing scheduled maintenance during the Macworld Keynote speech, spawning speculation that .Mac updates are in the works:

Quote:
Mac will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All .Mac services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Previous rumors had suggested (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/12/20051202133834.shtml) that Apple was revamping its content delivery system to offer feature-length content. Rumors pointed towards the use of .Mac storage for delivery of these products.
Well, it just says that services will be affected; it doesn't (necessarily) state that the .Mac service will be down.

Also, I had Hotmail even before Microslop gobbled them up - and noticed the amount of junkmail take an "uptick" after their involvment - but I just grew tired of the lack of Mac-equity, the potential for viruses affecting my e-mail (not my MacOS X system), etc. Finally this Fall I signed up for .Mac - it was $69 for me, because I bought it with Tiger.

I haven't explored all the ins & outs of it, yet, but I am quite happy. It's kinda the same reasoning that I didn't mind shelling out $129 every Christmas for the new version of MacOS X (great upgrade features, but I was supporting Apple's efforts)... At any rate, I haven't taken the time to create my Homepage - one of these days... But just being able to sync my address book, and use Mail with .Mac - I could never get that to work with MSN Hotmail.

Rumor-wise, I've heard about the 1TB bandwidth some users reported, and about the mysterious "iWeb" that appears to be part of iLife '06, and even the .Mac-related on-demand streaming video service... Well, all I want - and I'd pay $150 a year for it - is a .Mac Premium Service that gives me a Global iTMS Bazaar. I can preview, purchase & download music, videos & tv shows from any of the International iTMSs, and Apple will manage the currency exchange rates for me. Yeah, I suspect I may end up paying more than $.99 per song off the UK iTMS, but that's mainly 'cuz their British Pound is worth more than the US Dollar... But the freedom to find artists & songs that are not available on the US iTMS - well worth $150 per year...

Don't get me wrong, though, I'll take any other new features Apple will add to make .Mac more compelling... I'm not stupid.

[EMKoper]

... drop the price to $69 ...
Why would $70 versus $100 be compelling? That's a difference of only $2.50 per month. That is like getting a couple of extra toppings on your monthly pizza or the cost per month of setting the thermostat up 1-deg in your house. Most folks spend/waste/"lose in the seat of your car" $2.50/month and don't get excited about it. But for some reason, when applied to .Mac, it becomes a big deal.

I personally like .Mac ... I use it to host a family website as well as use the iPhoto integration to do monthly updates when I don't have time to debug my crappy html code (plus backup and the sync features). Apple, up to this point hasn't sought more .Mac customers by sweetening the deal for some reason. I would personally rather see them spend time/effort improving the iLife suite since most of us use something in the suite daily and it IS a software feature that attracts new Mac users.

[windowuser82]

Why would $70 versus $100 be compelling? That's a difference of only $2.50 per month. That is like getting a couple of extra toppings on your monthly pizza or the cost per month of setting the thermostat up 1-deg in your house. Most folks spend/waste/"lose in the seat of your car" $2.50/month and don't get excited about it. But for some reason, when applied to .Mac, it becomes a big deal.

Combination of factors. The old $9.95 v/s $10.

General rule of 1's and 10's. Under $50 drop 1 over $50 drop 10. That combined with "ooh, it's a service by APPLE!" and......there ya go.

Customers aren't thinking monthy installments when it comes to stuff like this, unless its advertised originally that way.

[Bonte]

yey, ultra slow movie downloads. :cool:
I hope they up the speed to.

[kddpop]

It's only about $5 a year cheaper...


i too am a powweb user and i switched from .mac.

when we signed up for powweb, they were offering a 18 months free deal. so that's 30 months at 7.70 per month.

that comes to $3.08 per month for 30 months.

that's 36.96 per year. for .mac you pay a lot more for a lot less. granted, everything is easier and more integrated with .mac. and i do miss the backup and syncing....but for the price....

~kyle

[MikeLord]

What Apple should do with .Mac is allow for a monthly billing option. That way, each month, on the date you initially selected, it would automatically renew for the next month. Apple then wouldn't have to send you those annoying renewal e-mails at the end of your subscription each year. At just $8.25 ($99.00/12) per month most people wouldn't even notice or bother to cancel.

By forcing the user to make a $99.00 purchase decision each year, you're forcing them to re-evaluate the value proposition, which, as has been said here, isn't compelling to some. So, why ask 'em?!

--Mike

P.S.: I also like the idea of a 30-day trial period (Of course, they'd already have your billing set up, so you'd have to remember to cancel.)

P.P.S: Let's add some more features and fixes to .Mac while were at it.

[Norse Son]

Another thing that I'd love to see in .Mac is the ability to boot from a MacOS X Tiger "image" on Apple's servers, so that I can perform some repairs & maintenance on my Mac - I know, that's what your startup DVD/CD is for. But people don't always have their disks with them, if they're on the road, so it would be real handy in that sense. Also, my DVD drive died around June-ish of 2004 (3rd one on my lemon-esque Pismo)...

Another thought is extra templates & functionality for Apple (and 3rd party developers?) software - I know they've done this in the past, via the iDisk software folder, but what if it were possible to (essentially) reserve time on Apple's servers? For example, your iMac G5 2.1GHz is fast, but what if you could use Apple's server farm to take care of some rendering chores in iMovie HD, iDVD, etc.?

One more thought: WiMax is coming - I don't understand all it's technical capabilities, but understand the range to be approx. 5km(?) What if Apple put WiMax transceivers(?) in every one of their Apple stores, and/or (perhaps) licensed some bandwidth from cell-carriers that installed WiMax. And evolved .Mac into more of an Internet Portal... I pay about $95 a month for Time Warner basic cable & high-speed internet, but if I could use WiMax and Apple as my Web Gateway, I could drop the Time Warner service for that. Heck, if Apple came out with streaming video on a subscription base that provided the tv shows I currently watch, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

[MacsRgr8]

NO! YOUR WORLD WILL STAND STILL! :rolleyes: :cool: ;)

As it should be during a MacWorld Keynote speech!

;)

[spyderracer393]

Some people have been talking about iDisk being too slow, and if feature length films will be added and using iDisk to transfer them, way too slow. But if you all recall, about 4 days ago in the .Mac acount settings it said that the bandwith had been raised to some outrageous amount, and then about 1 hour later it went back to how it had previously been. Well, someone probably goofed up and that wasn't meant to be up until the 10th. They are probably gonna make the bandwith much faster after MacWorld so this can be done with long video clips. They will all probably increase the size of iDisk so it can hold Movies, or possibly there will be an option for a larger iDisk for holding movies, music, pictures, and any other type of large files.

[highpass]

Some people have been talking about iDisk being too slow

Yup, forgetting bandwidth for the moment, if I use iDisk syncing (as in keeping a copy of the iDisk on your computer), I get huge delays whenever a save prompt scans the computer. Annoying, as i'd prefer to use it that way.

[Super Dave]

I think Apple need to do a competition. The prize? An @apple.com address!!! I'd do anything for one of those :)

Me too. (lame post I know, but the idea excites me)

David :cool:

[Peace]

Been a .Mac user for 3 years now.Any improvement will be good!

And Welcome all you Newbies!! Haven't seen so many users in quit a long time..

This is what happens when Apple goes Intel eh?

[hayesk]

That's one thing I hate about .Mac... Why can't two (or more) machines sync themselves together without some external help? :mad:

Software needs to be written to handle and store the indexes and perform conflict resolution. Not only that, the two machines need to be on and accessible to each other.

Also, when I'm away from home with my PowerBook, I like being able to update my address book, calendar, etc., and synching right away, knowing my Mac at home will automatically pick up the changes when it synchs. I don't have to open a firewall and leave my home machine on to perform the sync and I don't have to remember to do it when I get back home.

But anyone who thinks it should be easy, why doesn't one of you write a synching utility and sell it as shareware. You should make a lot of money if it really is a desired feature.

[boombashi]

This means nothing but I thought it was funny - In the Yahoo keynote speach they have this cheesy user testimonial video at 5:35 seconds in and the guy screws up and says "The New Apple Mail Beta..." He was supposed to say "Yahoo" but he clearly says "Apple" - I can't believe the editor didn't catch that! Please tell me I miss heard, but I listen to it like 5 times because I couldn't believe it. Right after he says this they also have screen shots of Safari, which also means nothing...but you tell can tell what is REALLY on everyone's minds :D

here's the link to the keynote it is second one down.

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,1907609,00.asp#

[LimeiBook86]

I thought the Keynote was on the 9th, I got all excited, this happens to me every year...I always get the dates messed up, ugh! >_<!!

And for .Mac to be down that long...come on that's crazy!! I mean 2 hours while they fix one section is one thing...but, everything?! Down for 5 hours? Oh that'll be fun...Not checking my e-mail or accessing my iDisk will be horrible. I don't know why it has to take this long this is crazy...I guess I'll have to wait until the 9th...err....10th, to see what changes they made are worthwhile...:rolleyes:

[LimeiBook86]

Some people have been talking about iDisk being too slow, and if feature length films will be added and using iDisk to transfer them, way too slow. But if you all recall, about 4 days ago in the .Mac acount settings it said that the bandwith had been raised to some outrageous amount, and then about 1 hour later it went back to how it had previously been. Well, someone probably goofed up and that wasn't meant to be up until the 10th. They are probably gonna make the bandwith much faster after MacWorld so this can be done with long video clips. They will all probably increase the size of iDisk so it can hold Movies, or possibly there will be an option for a larger iDisk for holding movies, music, pictures, and any other type of large files.

Well bandwidth is one thing, having a speedy enough connection to access your iDisk is another. I have a cable modem and most of the time it's alright but, due to Cable Modems being the only high-speed connection option where I live it's flooded with users and can slow to a crawl at random anytime of the day. Even if you have Cable or DSL iDisk transfers can still be slow, if your upload is only 300-400k it won't make any difference what bandwidth your iDisk has, it'll still take a long time to upload files.

A lot of internet companies (mostly cable ones, although they almost never admit it) cap your maximum speed if they see that you've been downloading or uploading a lot of content. This is crazy and I can go on about how this is wrong for hours but, the main point is the iDisk could be faster if the iDisk servers were quicker and if our home broadband connections had a better upload speed. So upgrading the bandwidth is nice but, there's still a lot to be improved.

[maxtrax]

Finally, someone who can actually add up the values of what .mac really does, and agree that $8.25 a month is not really all that much to pay for it, if they are features you actually need! I own a web development company and still use .mac for my personal email and everything else it offers. Of course new features are great, but the current deal is pretty fair, especially if you do the family plan!!

OS X is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, and what BSD libraries to compile and how to fiddle with window manager widgets, creating your own OS X-like operating system from existing free tools is fairly easy enough to do. I recompile apps every few weeks, so it's not that hard at all!

In all seriousness, $99/year (what, $8.25 a month) for synching built into the operating system, a backup program that can use up to 1 GB of online storage, webmail, web-based calendaring, easy to use web publishing, and a WebDAV-based file transfer point is a pretty decent deal. I pay it, and I also have separate webhosting ($25/month) for multiple domains and offsite storage of 6 GB ($14/month) from another vendor. It's all cheaper than my time: setting up synching between my Macs alone without .Mac would take at least long enough for me to earn back that $99 by doing job-related tasks.

That said, anyone who uses .Mac as their primary business communication channel is at best a hobbyist. $12/month for a decent hosting service is pretty easy to find, and if your business isn't earning you enough money to justify spending $12/month, you probably don't have enough volume to worry about your .Mac email being down for a few hours.

[autrefois]

If .Mac is going to be used for full length content then Apple had better increase the speed of iDisk, otherwise such content will be unplayable, or, wait a week and the content may just have downloaded to your local machine.

iDisk is so unbelievably slow, don't even think about the iDisk Sync feature - I gave up using that the day they announced it. Sad thing is, Apple have done nothing to improve performance.

I gave up on iDisk Syncing ages ago. Apple Support sincerely tried to help me, but for whatever reason there were errors syncing they couldn't figure out and I just gave up. It was really slow as well. Hopefully a major upgrade will mean better performance.

well.

regardless of what time its done.. its night somewhere in the world and regular business hours too.

the US isnt the centre of the universe. even tho apple is based there

Last time .Mac was down for an extended period, it was during business hours in Asia. I remember a lot of people complaining. Now it'll be during business hours in the Americas. I guess this shows that Apple doesn't (always) think the US is the center of the universe.

Unimportant i know, but whatever happened to the promised .Mac widgets?

Apparently we're the only two people who care about this anymore. The .mac site clearly promised exclusive widgets, but they never came out with any. I think they had no idea widgets would be so popular, and probably the widgets they had in the works were quickly made by some third party and done better than what they had in store.

I personally think after the announcements on the Intel Mac mini, the Intel iBook, the Plasma displays, the new iPod shuffle, iLife with iWeb, Leopard, Asteroid, and iPod invisa all available for immediate purchase :eek: :D the "one more thing" will be "We FINALLY have a new .Mac exclusive widget as promised." :p

PS Then again, we were promised 3 GHz Power Macs how long ago... ;)

[boombashi]

I personally think after the announcements on the Intel Mac mini, the Intel iBook, the Plasma displays, the new iPod shuffle, iLife with iWeb, Leopard, Asteroid, and iPod invisa all available for immediate purchase :eek: :D the "one more thing" will be "We FINALLY have a new .Mac exclusive widget as promised." :p

PS Then again, we were promised 3 GHz Power Macs how long ago... ;)

"oh yeah - I almost forgot - even another one more thing - 3lb 15" Intel PowerBooks w/ built in iSight and 16x SuperDrives"

[hayesk]

Another thing that I'd love to see in .Mac is the ability to boot from a MacOS X Tiger "image" on Apple's servers, so that I can perform some repairs & maintenance on my Mac - I know, that's what your startup DVD/CD is for.

I don't think that's technically possible with current hardware. NetBoot only works on a local LAN.

[rtdunham]

here's the link to the keynote it is second one down.

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,1907609,00.asp#

can't get the keynote to play, tried 3-4 times and it freezes at same stage in the introduction. this is always frustrating when the experts can't make work the systems the rest of us are looking forward to.

at least one of the other segments, though, loaded and played correctly--the daily news report.

terry

[Cubert]

I sure hope Apple doesn't tie a feature-length film digital download service to .Mac (as has been rumored). If they do, they should provide some way of using a free .Mac account for that purpose alone. I don't want to pay $99 (or even the rumored decrease to $69) to use .Mac. I did use iTools before it became .Mac, but because it was free.

[autrefois]

I sure hope Apple doesn't tie a feature-length film digital download service to .Mac (as has been rumored). If they do, they should provide some way of using a free .Mac account for that purpose alone. I don't want to pay $99 (or even the rumored decrease to $69) to use .Mac. I did use iTools before it became .Mac, but because it was free.

What if you got unlimited movie downloads (up to 1TB) AND the current .Mac services for $99 a year? Now that would be a deal...

[tny]

What if you got unlimited movie downloads (up to 1TB) AND the current .Mac services for $99 a year? Now that would be a deal...

The thing that worries me about this idea is that it suggests that Apple is moving toward a subsciption service for movies; why is a pay-once-listen-forever model good for iTunes, but a subscription service (or worse, pay-per-view) better for movies?

[NAG]

The thing that worries me about this idea is that it suggests that Apple is moving toward a subsciption service for movies; why is a pay-once-listen-forever model good for iTunes, but a subscription service (or worse, pay-per-view) better for movies?
Your analogy is flawed. If it followed the iTunes model your account would be charged every time any accessed your iDisk, every time you emailed, every time you accessed a dotMac group, etc... (assuming this is the movie through .Mac rumor).

[kcmac]

I think the only reason they are doing it at the same time as the Keynote is because it will be something good and fairly significant. If they try to do this early, things like iWeb get leaked, even when they show up for a nano second on the web. If they do it later, Jobs can't say available now.

[puckhead193]

The last time it was down that long, they added a huge amount of space.

So I'm guessing at least more space. Combine that with the rumored price drop to $69 and you have yourself a nice upgrade. Though I still think more is coming.
what about current users who paid the $100, do we get a refund.. :(

[boombashi]

can't get the keynote to play, tried 3-4 times and it freezes at same stage in the introduction. this is always frustrating when the experts can't make work the systems the rest of us are looking forward to.

at least one of the other segments, though, loaded and played correctly--the daily news report.

terry

They use Windows Media Player - of course it doesn't work correctly :D

[ClimbingTheLog]

Putting aside whatever features they might be adding, a five hour downtime window during regular business hours for much of the US is a very bad thing

Yeah, if I was ever thinking of getting a .Mac account this decides it for me. They don't know how to sysadmin their .Mac cluster.

All I ask is to be able to sync my PowerBook from my Mac mini, go on vacation, work, get back home and sync my PowerBook back to my Mac mini. That's far less than what .Mac does.

Funny that Windows can do this but .Mac is still pay-for-service. That's ballsy on Apple's part.

well.

regardless of what time its done.. its night somewhere in the world and regular business hours too.

the US isnt the centre of the universe. even tho apple is based there

It's a matter of inconveniencing the smallest number of users.

If they were smart they'd group their users on servers by either mailing address or statistically based on their usage patterns (best). Then they can upgrade servers to minimize user disruptions.

Assuming they even care - I guess I'd rather assume they don't care than they're incompetent.

I don't think that's technically possible with current hardware. NetBoot only works on a local LAN.

Only because it relies on a DHCP reply to tell it where to look up the boot server information.

A firmware update to hold down A during boot could pre-populate those numbers, assuming a DHCP reply on local net with an addr. so it can route out.

[ALoveSupreme]

Hi,

although it is a bit off topic, here is the link to the earlier metioned Yahoo CES keynote.

http://us.games2.yimg.com/download.games.yahoo.com/games/buzz2/content/p/6/430485/yahoo_keynote.mp4

It works using the "open URL" in Quicktime, I haven't tried downloading
it but it should also work.

And the guy in the video does indeed say "the new apple mail beta"...
:eek: :D

[boombashi]

Hi,

although it is a bit off topic, here is the link to the earlier metioned Yahoo CES keynote....And the guy in the video does indeed say "the new apple mail beta"...
:eek: :D

Yeah, I know I originally posted that off topic but let me bring it back on topic - what if this guy IS actually a beta tester for a new iWeb mail .mac application that is designed to compete with gmail, and yahoo mail...everyone likes the webmail applications, although I havn't used .mac mail in forever, I'm sure it doesn't have as much functionality as gmail - make it better and give it away, pleeeeease...sorry for the people that paid for .mac, but maybe they will give you a refund.

[ktb53]

Does anyone thing that with these upgrades that they will change the price of .mac. I'm not currently a member and I'm wondering if I should "get in" before htey up the price and services. I only have a powerbook and haven't found a enough benefits to be a .mac member in the past so what do you guys think?

[Arcus]

If iWeb is just a .Mac thing , what a shame that would be. Id never use .mac. I have more email addresses than I want now. Online storage? Hamachi solves that for me. A mac version is coming soon.

Boo on .Mac only web app.

Yay if its a Front Page like app!!

[fjs08]

My account is due to renew for year 2 at the beginning of February. I've been toying with letting it go. $ 100/yr seems a bit steep for what you get, really.

I'm surprised Apple is doing its maintenance during the day too. Doesn't make sense to me.

I'd like to see them add more content to .mac. Mostly, I use My Yahoo for not only e-mail, but news, stocks, sports, etc. It's all right there. If I could get my e-mail and news at the .mac site, I'd love it.

I do like the link between iPhoto and Home Page though. It's very easy to post pics for family and friends.

Frank

[boombashi]

If iWeb is just a .Mac thing , what a shame that would be. Id never use .mac. I have more email addresses than I want now. Online storage? Hamachi solves that for me. A mac version is coming soon.

Boo on .Mac only web app.

Yay if its a Front Page like app!!

It'll be an iLife app - but I'd like them to give away .mac with iLife and integrate the two a little more - that way $99 a year wouldn't be so bad if you got new versions of iLife every year with your .mac subscription. I think that would be huge for Apple.

Yeah, if I was ever thinking of getting a .Mac account this decides it for me. They don't know how to sysadmin their .Mac cluster.

I doubt that - BTW night and day is different in other places of the world. Is it annoying when systems go down for maintenace? yes. Is it on occasion neccesary? yes it is, especially for upgrades.

[Sierran]

One thing that I could see them adding (in my dreams) that I would pay for - PVR update functionality. i.e. they introduce an Intel Mini with decent storage and an updated version of FrontRow that has TiVo-like functionality - and then tie the scheduling information to .mac, like TiVo ties its updates to a dial/net subscription update. That would, in my mind, go a long way towards increasing the value proposition of .mac!

Of course, they seem bent on converting everyone to the download model, rather than the PVR model. But even so...perhaps they could negotiate with the networks such that .mac subscribers would get unlimited access to current-run shows, much as cable network subscribers get access? No more a-la-carte pricing per download? Would that help some of the naysayers here, if .mac offered access to the equivalent of 'basic cable' downloads? Perhaps you could select 'channels' with .mac, and finally get 'subscriptions' to shows in the iTunes music store.

[boombashi]

If anyone caught the Intel CES keynote you would realize that content distribution is one of the main focuses of Intel and the CES conference as a whole. Apple isn't stupid, they know where everything is going, I am betting on some major Apple content distribution anouncement at MacWorld...I really hope it is a little more than hey this new Mac Mini can record TV...but that would be pretty cool as well.

[daddy-mojo]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though. That may be, but the price is way too high for such "integration". There just isn't enough compelling features for me to want to pay $100 a year for .Mac. I find most utilities free on the .net, such as web design and blogging tools. Syncing is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, syncing is fairly easy enough to do. I sync my macs perhaps every other month, so it's not that hard at all!

syncing for noobs? are you serious??? its a freakin wonderful feature! syncing my macs and with my phone with my ipods, in one step. Not to mention having everything backed up online. I'm a busy person (I used to do mac tech work and now I'm a video editor, more time spent in front of other peoples macs then my own), I don't have time to search for multiple free things that may or may not work correctly in order to save a little bit each month. Part of the price is for convienence. Yes the price should be a little less. But come on, $8.50 a month, not so bad. I've had my mac account since like 1998 (when it was free), so long as .mac never goes away, I've got a permanent email address. And the tight integration with OS X is very important as well. I sync my macs weekly, automatically, without any additonal effort on my part. Nice. Its just going to keep getting better.

[Capt. Obvious]

Yeah, if I was ever thinking of getting a .Mac account this decides it for me. They don't know how to sysadmin their .Mac cluster.
maybe so, but what if they're migrating to a new, more distributed server topology?

[Stella]

Yeah, if I was ever thinking of getting a .Mac account this decides it for me. They don't know how to sysadmin their .Mac cluster.

Its how many times per year .Mac goes down for scheduled upgrades? Very rarely.

Boo hoo - your being unconvinced for a few hours.

As someone else said - no matter when Apple chose to do the upgrade some one is going to be inconvenienced.

Timing of the upgrade is probably critical - major upgrades for .Mac that cannot be avoided.

[Detlev]

maybe so, but what if they're migrating to a new, more distributed server topology?
Windows?

[powerbook911]

I thought the Keynote was on the 9th, I got all excited, this happens to me every year...I always get the dates messed up, ugh! >_<!!

And for .Mac to be down that long...come on that's crazy!! I mean 2 hours while they fix one section is one thing...but, everything?! Down for 5 hours? Oh that'll be fun...Not checking my e-mail or accessing my iDisk will be horrible. I don't know why it has to take this long this is crazy...I guess I'll have to wait until the 9th...err....10th, to see what changes they made are worthwhile...:rolleyes:

I think the POP mail always works, when .mac is down.

[Xtremehkr]

I'm still waiting for those .Mac widgets :mad:

[chubad]

So this means that some sort of big thing is coming to .mac. I think the movie download is the only thing that makes sense for the timing for this. If it was just a simple feature upgrade why would they chose to do it on the morning of the Keynote? Nope. This is something major.:eek:

[WindowsSUCKSX5]

So this means that some sort of big thing is coming to .mac. I think the movie download is the only thing that makes sense for the timing for this. If it was just a simple feature upgrade why would they chose to do it on the morning of the Keynote? Nope. This is something major.:eek:


That just adds on to the theory about this new iweb program. It must have some connection to .mac. Ilife 06 will be announced supposedly with iweb on the 10th

[mdavey]

And for .Mac to be down that long...come on that's crazy!! I mean 2 hours while they fix one section is one thing...but, everything?! Down for 5 hours? Oh that'll be fun...Not checking my e-mail or accessing my iDisk will be horrible. I don't know why it has to take this long this is crazy...

They didn't say that the service will be down. They didn't say that services would be affected for the entire 5 hours. They said that scheduled maintenance window was 5 hours and that all .mac services would be affected.

It may be that the servers will be a little slow at times during the service window. It may even be that one or more services will be completely offline at some point (or even for multiple periods of time) during that window.

Apple is a big company. You can be sure that both they and others track annual uptime. 5 hours straight downtime across all .mac services would pretty much use up all their target downtime in one go (assuming they want to be be in the top 10% compared to their industry peers), leaving very little for other scheduled maintenance tasks and unforseen outages for the rest of the year.

[ClimbingTheLog]

Its (sic) how many times per year .Mac goes down for scheduled upgrades? Very rarely.
Boo hoo - your (sic) being unconvinced (sic) for a few hours.

In real IT projects you go for 5 9's availability. That's minutes per year downtime.

How often is Google down?

As someone else said - no matter when Apple chose to do the upgrade some one (sic) is going to be inconvenienced.

Timing of the upgrade is probably critical - major upgrades for .Mac that cannot be avoided.

With their current architecture, perhaps. That doesn't mean they can't do right. It would lower their margins, that's all. There's no voodoo about how to make a reliable web service any more. The required amount of downtime is the amount of time it takes to copy all the data for an account. That's probably like 5 minutes per account, max. They call it where they want to and we can each choose whether that call is worth $99/yr.

maybe so, but what if they're migrating to a new, more distributed server topology?

Well, that would be fantastic. None of the previous .Mac downtimes have lead to such a development, unfortunately.

[liquidh2o]

haven't used .mac in a couple of years, so if this is standard now please excuse my ignorance :)

I'd like to see the ability to back up all photos/music/video and then have the ability to stream them on demand.

A set top media box would probably be necessary to stream it to a tv or stereo, but if they could pack all that into something like the airport express and it came with a remote, I'd be sold on it.

[eXan]

If they triple the content and half the price, maybe I'll consider it.

Agree. I also wish they offered a simple e-mail-only account (with iChat support, of course) for free or at least 10$-per-year

[supafly1703]

Spymac offers 12gb for blogging, websites, online storage, etc. with templates and all that for $25 a year!

http://www.spymac.com/club/

[manuelpl]

It would be nice for Apple to give its .Mac Members an exclusive Stream of the Keynote. The same idea Sirius is doing with Howard Stearn.
or Maybe a iChat .mac exclusive , were you can view the keynote via ichat.

Something!

Maybe an exclusive .mac widget that gives you leetness

[sw1tcher]

Putting aside whatever features they might be adding, a five hour downtime window during regular business hours for much of the US is a very bad thing. Quite a number of people use their .Mac accounts - email, web hosting, and otherwise - as a core part of their business. If my main web/email provider ever told me this I'd have a new provider.

If the whole service really, really needs to be down for the upgrade (which itself is poor planning), then announce the upgrade and bring it online that night. Ugh.

Exactly what I was thinking too. Remember, this is Apple... they have to make a big media event out of everything. This is why I'd rather get my own domain and host if I needed one. Many web hosts typically guarantee a 99% uptime. Apple, correct me if I'm wrong, guarantees nothing.

[Diatribe]

what about current users who paid the $100, do we get a refund.. :(

I would expect that to depend on when you signed up. But you'll never know.

[yankeefan24]

I would expect that to depend on when you signed up. But you'll never know.

well i could get the refund, i guess, my account expired on the 25 of december, but i didnt renew until the 1 or 2 (of january) so i could, but only if i could keep my account.

EDIT: OMG, IM A MEMBER NOW!!!

[Eniregnat]

Looking at the last BT update to OSX, and seeing as it at some interaction with the firmware, I bet a BT remote is on its way. I haven’t seen any rumors about this, but then again I haven't been the boards for a while.

The idea of the iBook Nano or iBook Mini (an ultra thin laptop) would be quite the show piece for Apple.

Of course, Apple is good about spreading out it's press announcements, mostly so each fiscal quarter has at least one major announcement. So what ever doesn’t come (an there is much that is rumored) will likely come with in the next 6 months.

[2nyRiggz]

maybe i should start using .mac if they add some new stuff.


Bless

[Stella]

iBook Nano - wouldn't that be a PDA?! :-)


Looking at the last BT update to OSX, and seeing as it at some interaction with the firmware, I bet a BT remote is on its way. I haven’t seen any rumors about this, but then again I haven't been the boards for a while.

The idea of the iBook Nano or iBook Mini (an ultra thin laptop) would be quite the show piece for Apple.

Of course, Apple is good about spreading out it's press announcements, mostly so each fiscal quarter has at least one major announcement. So what ever doesn’t come (an there is much that is rumored) will likely come with in the next 6 months.

[nxtort]

i am excited to see what changes they are making, but I would love to see some more value for $99 a year or maybe offer a monthly subscription with yearly discounts. eg $6 a month or $69 a year. That is one nice coffee a month. If it was charged monthly it would make life easy. Most people would hardly notice it.

This begs the question what top three things would you change to make .Mac better?
my top three
• Speed, speed, speed… from iDisk support to people viewing my photos online [in comparison to dreamhost|1and1|blacksuns for example]
• two network computer sync as mentioned above
• monthly|yearly|lifetime options for billing
ok maybe four
-make Backup part of the iLife|iWork suite already and get it outta .Mac.

-nx:D

[autrefois]

Spymac offers 12gb for blogging, websites, online storage, etc. with templates and all that for $25 a year!

http://www.spymac.com/club/

It's true they offer more overall than .Mac does and for a much lower price, but Spymac's still in a prolonged transitional period. I'm not saying Spymac is bad, but I personally would wait until Tuesday to see what's announced for .Mac and then get informed about pros and cons of each before making a decision either way.

[boombashi]

It's true they offer more overall than .Mac does and for a much lower price, but Spymac's still in a prolonged transitional period. I'm not saying Spymac is bad, but I personally would wait until Tuesday to see what's announced for .Mac and then get informed about pros and cons of each before making a decision either way.
12GB of online storage for $25 a year plus all the software and extras is a pretty compelling, but I think Apple has an Ace up their sleave. I fold - Steve, show us your cards! :D

[chubad]

It would be nice for Apple to give its .Mac Members an exclusive Stream of the Keynote. The same idea Sirius is doing with Howard Stearn.
or Maybe a iChat .mac exclusive , were you can view the keynote via ichat.

Something!

Maybe an exclusive .mac widget that gives you leetness

That's the best idea I've read in a while! That would be cool. I miss seeing the Keynotes streamed live.
:D

[richdun]

eg $6 a month or $69 a year. That is one nice coffee a month.

I'd love to see it for free, maybe with payment for video streaming subscription, or for expanded web-hosting, kind of an a la carte system. $69 a year isn't too bad, but for those that would call that 6 Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers a month rather than one nice coffee, having a low-end cheap service level would help with adoption.

[boombashi]

I'd love to see it for free

First year free with new computer purchase and free with iLife updates sounds pretty good to me. It would be a constant revenue stream for Apple, and a good benefit for their customers. It could be made for free with some kind of other revenue stream such as a subscription service for content (music TV, or movies), but they are going to want Windows users for that and I don't think they want to give Windows .mac - it's part of their incentive for getting people to switch.

[nirvana06]

any idea if there will be any upgrades to Nano? I'm looking to upgrade my 4GB Mini but I'm hopping for a 6GB Nano.

[boombashi]

any idea if there will be any upgrades to Nano? I'm looking to upgrade my 4GB Mini but I'm hopping for a 6GB Nano.

it's pretty early to revamp that line, but if they come out with a 1GB nano for around $130, they may also up the higher end.

[chicagdan]

I fold - Steve, show us your cards! :D

You play much poker? If you want to see someone's cards, you have to call ... fold and they keep the pot without showing.

I agree with everyone that $99 for .mac is outrageous and I've been paying it from the start ... bad habit, I guess.

But .mac has tremendous potential -- everyone who has an iTunes account has a .mac-based ID. If they could add enough features and create a compelling price point, .mac could turn into a portal that reaches inside the Windows community.

It's far from there right now ... but I'm eager to hear what's in iWeb ... if they can come up with an easier to configure alternative to MovableType, I'd move my blog to the iWeb solution in a heartbeat.

Final thought -- .mac mail better not be down for five hours on Tuesday, it's my primary e-mail account.

[boombashi]

You play much poker? If you want to see someone's cards, you have to call ... fold and they keep the pot without showing.

No, not really - But Apple will get my pot if they come out with what I'm hoping for :D I knew that sounded wrong, I couldn't think of the right word :o and I just watch Rounders not too long ago - It's late where I am, and I can't sleep, too much anticipation :p

[Clix Pix]

When I bought my iMac, the .mac deal was offered to me and I went ahead and took it, even though at that time I really wasn't sure of what all the benefits would be. I find that now I use it primarily for the backup software -- works a treat -- and I use the email address for all of my Apple/Mac related mail, which works out nicely. I have my own domain-related email address, too, plus the one from my regular ISP, so the .mac email address was not a key factor in my decision. I haven't yet gotten around to experimenting with some of the other features, but one of these days...

OTB

[chicagdan]

So no email during MWSF??
irmongoose

It's outrageous that Apple:

1) charges a premium price for .mac, more than any e-mail service on the market today

2) drops a statement like this on the .mac site instead of sending out an e-mail

3) doesn't clarify whether this means we'll have no e-mail or iDisk access -- does it just apply to webmail or to all .mac mail?

I use my .mac account for my business ... what the hell am I supposed to do, take the day off because Steve Jobs is giving a speech? Well I'm sorry Mr. Jobs, but I'm a professional speechwriter and I have speeches to write for other people that day, the world doesn't stop for you.

If all of this is to upgrade .mac and make it more attractive, starting the day off by pissing off their most loyal customers is a pretty bad first step.

[fjs08]

>>I'm still waiting for those .Mac widgets<<

I'd like to see Dashboard work more like a standard application. Unless I'm doing it wrong, when I click on the icon in the tray, it takes literally 40 seconds for all my widgets to start up. It shuts down everything else I have going. Then when I click on the screen to go back to my open programs, the widges disappear. Why can't they operate like other programs so I can bring them up via Expose and then put them in the background when I don't need them??

Frank

[mdavey]

Looking at the last BT update to OSX, and seeing as it at some interaction with the firmware, I bet a BT remote is on its way.

It is on its way. It will be an option when buying FrontRow. What isn't known is whether FrontRow will be a stand-alone product or part of iLife. I'm hoping for the later.

[liketom]

EDIT : Solved

[asphalt-proof]

If .Mac is going to be used for full length content then Apple had better increase the speed of iDisk, otherwise such content will be unplayable, or, wait a week and the content may just have downloaded to your local machine.

iDisk is so unbelievably slow, don't even think about the iDisk Sync feature - I gave up using that the day they announced it. Sad thing is, Apple have done nothing to improve performance.

Agreed!! I have tried to use it a couple of times (it seems the most valuable feature for me) but never got it to complete the syncing. Took waaaaay too much time. I just don't have that kind of patience.

[Diatribe]

well i could get the refund, i guess, my account expired on the 25 of december, but i didnt renew until the 1 or 2 (of january) so i could, but only if i could keep my account.

EDIT: OMG, IM A MEMBER NOW!!!

Yep, I guess for those having renewed recently Apple would give a refund but don't quote me on that. ;)

Oh and congrats. :)

[Bonte]

http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/small_and_nimble_the_long_s.html

Karelia software's take on the iWeb danger. I'l choose the best app cos i need a cheap and simple web-builder.

[Applespider]

Yep, I guess for those having renewed recently Apple would give a refund but don't quote me on that. ;)


I had a .mac box upgrade so I figured I would be smart and put it in before Tuesday so that if there was a benefit/refund/extension, I'd gain. But unfortunately, the upgrade doesn't go through until March. It's in their system as being used but won't trigger til then so I guess I might not get the full beneft :(

[Sunrunner]

I had a .mac box upgrade so I figured I would be smart and put it in before Tuesday so that if there was a benefit/refund/extension, I'd gain. But unfortunately, the upgrade doesn't go through until March. It's in their system as being used but won't trigger til then so I guess I might not get the full beneft :(

Heres hoping for some payback after paying $99 a year for so long... (not including my email-only accounts) :rolleyes:

[dernhelm]

So no email during MWSF??




irmongoose

Hmmm... How convenient for Apple!

[Diatribe]

I had a .mac box upgrade so I figured I would be smart and put it in before Tuesday so that if there was a benefit/refund/extension, I'd gain. But unfortunately, the upgrade doesn't go through until March. It's in their system as being used but won't trigger til then so I guess I might not get the full beneft :(

What do you mean? If there's an increase in functions you'll get that. Since you had already paid for the box before, it doesn't really matter, does it? Or am I missing something?

[LimeiBook86]

.Mac has always had some down time. But, usually when it's "down" things still work, I still get my e-mail and even sometimes the web mail still works. I don't think everything will be completely down, i just think that some services will be down for a bit, I wouldn't worry too much. Things have happened before but, usually you can still access some features...they just might be going on and off for a bit :p

[61132]

Now does this mean emails sent to my address, will be bounced back? or will my account receive them, but I wont be able to get to them until the update is completed? I just ordered something online and I want to make sure that I receive the emails.

[Applespider]

What do you mean? If there's an increase in functions you'll get that. Since you had already paid for the box before, it doesn't really matter, does it? Or am I missing something?

No, and to be honest, I'm not expecting anything. But should they extend expiry dates on a pro rata basis for those who'd already paid, I thought I'd be prepared and enjoy the bonus. I'm not bothered with the current rate for it to be honest (well, at least when you buy during promotions) :p

[Diatribe]

No, and to be honest, I'm not expecting anything. But should they extend expiry dates on a pro rata basis for those who'd already paid, I thought I'd be prepared and enjoy the bonus. I'm not bothered with the current rate for it to be honest (well, at least when you buy during promotions) :p

True. I guess they'll just upgrade the specs but you might be lucky since it doesn't apply until march. Anyway, if they really implement more storage and drop the price to $69 this will be a great service. The only thing for me to be REALY happy would be a fast iDisk...
Do you hear me Apple...??? I WANT A FAST iDISK!!! :D

[Peace]

True. I guess they'll just upgrade the specs but you might be lucky since it doesn't apply until march. Anyway, if they really implement more storage and drop the price to $69 this will be a great service. The only thing for me to be REALY happy would be a fast iDisk...
Do you hear me Apple...??? I WANT A FAST iDISK!!! :D


Something tells me you're gonna get that wish ;)

[hulugu]

Well, I own three websites and use the Internet like a junkie uses heroin..... I still don't get .mac....

Don't attack me, just explain the purpose.. :rolleyes:


The integration of sync to other macs, the webspace, email, integration with Backup, the public ftp folder. The .Mac site does lots of interesting things very easily. Of course you can get all of these things for free, but you would need to keep track of several disparate systems to get the same thing.

When I first got .Mac, I was a web newbie and the system helped me do some really cool things quickly. Now, although I know what I'm doing—maybe—I still keep it around because it's helpful and my wife still really likes to use it. For 8 bucks a month, it's really worth it. To me.

[Diatribe]

Something tells me you're gonna get that wish ;)

I'd even say, scratch the bigger storage and leave it at 1GB if they upped the speed... I can only hope that they do. It is the only gripe I have with it. It would be so nice to work off of documents from the iDisk but atm you cannot because of the speed.

[Sunrunner]

I'd even say, scratch the bigger storage and leave it at 1GB if they upped the speed... I can only hope that they do. It is the only gripe I have with it. It would be so nice to work off of documents from the iDisk but atm you cannot because of the speed.


The problem with iDisk access times is not so much simple bandwidth, though that is definitely a contributing factor, but also the inherent latency involved with accessing a remote volume over the net.

[Diatribe]

The problem with iDisk access times is not so much simple bandwidth, though that is definitely a contributing factor, but also the inherent latency involved with accessing a remote volume over the net.

A couple of new servers would help here ;)

[Peace]

A couple of new servers would help here ;)



Give that person a prize!!

[frome]

Even if Apple updates .mac and makes it alsome plus cheap i doubt if I would get it. Mainly due to the fact my internet is terrible slllooowwww... :(

[Sky Blue]

it begins...

".Mac will be back shortly.
The .Mac service you are looking for is temporarily unavailable while we perform scheduled maintenance. .Mac services are available 24/7 with the exception of short maintenance periods such as this. Currently we are at work to provide you with an even better .Mac experience. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please check back shortly. "


and i really need my email right now!!

[LimeiBook86]

it begins...

".Mac will be back shortly.
The .Mac service you are looking for is temporarily unavailable while we perform scheduled maintenance. .Mac services are available 24/7 with the exception of short maintenance periods such as this. Currently we are at work to provide you with an even better .Mac experience. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please check back shortly. "


and i really need my email right now!!
Well my client based .Mac e-mail still works :) Seems like all the web services are down but, my .Mac webpage works fine :D

[mad jew]

Amazingly, my .mac email is still working too, depsite Steve being well into the keynote. :)

[fjs08]

My .mac mail via Mail has worked all day so far.

Frank

[LimeiBook86]

Here's a screenshot of the new .Mac page layout! This is so cool! :D