Having a .MAC account

[jbrown]

What are the good points?

What are the bad points?

What can you do with it?

cheers all :)

[ero87]

you'll find a few threads on this with a quick search :)

the general opinion seems to be that it's useful if you have several computers to sync, and not so much if you don't.

but i have no experience with it. just check out the features list on apple.com - if you need it, go for it!

EDIT: check out these threads: 1, (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=238522&highlight=.mac+worth) 2 (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=265427&highlight=.mac+worth).

[dhaen]

I use the syncing, and though it's really usefull, it's unreliable and often slow. Seems the UK (or Europe) service is poor compared with N.America. There's often one or more sync items that won't work first time and so need user intervention so automatic syncing is not a practicality. Occasionaly .mac is completely uncontactable. It's the same story with both my ISP's so I can't blame them.
Why do I stay? Nice short email addresses and a hope that Apple will sort it out eventually...
If I wasn't already member, and locked into email addresses and webspace (by my lazyness), I wouldn't bother joining.

[emtp6811]

This article really helped me in making my decision whether or not to buy a .mac account.

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=690644&rl=1

[davidjearly]

I use the syncing, and though it's really usefull, it's unreliable and often slow. Seems the UK (or Europe) service is poor compared with N.America. There's often one or more sync items that won't work first time and so need user intervention so automatic syncing is not a practicality. Occasionaly .mac is completely uncontactable. It's the same story with both my ISP's so I can't blame them.
Why do I stay? Nice short email addresses and a hope that Apple will sort it out eventually...
If I wasn't already member, and locked into email addresses and webspace (by my lazyness), I wouldn't bother joining.

I have no such problems and I live in the UK. I have used .Mac for two years and sync every day between two machines and it works every time flawlessly.

[weg]

What are the good points?


It's fanboy tax. That's what it is.

[davidjearly]

It's fanboy tax. That's what it is.

That is ignorance. Thats what that is.

[dhaen]

I have no such problems and I live in the UK. I have used .Mac for two years and sync every day between two machines and it works every time flawlessly.
I'm very pleased to hear it. Do you use automatic or timed sync? If so, what time of day does it synchronise?

BTW Does iDisk work properly for you, syncing or otherwise?

[7on]

I like having all my addressbooks/bookmarks etc. available on lab computers. I have used the backup app to retrieve data from my iDisk when I accidently deleted my addressbook a couple of times. I backup the important large stuff to my external with backup.app.

I like the mac.com email too. It's nice. Webspace is ok, cheaper elsewhere but I surprizingly like the homepage builder. It's so simple to throw pictars on your iDisk and in less than 3 minutes have a simple online site to show them off. I've been able to show some people pictures on AIM before they logged off using this method.

I wish it was faster though, as always.

[davidjearly]

I'm very pleased to hear it. Do you use automatic or timed sync? If so, what time of day does it synchronise?

BTW Does iDisk work properly for you, syncing or otherwise?

Sync works well, again I've had no problems with it. I mostly use manual sync (the sync symbol is in my toolbar and I just click on it to sync bookmarks, iCal, Contacts etc...)

Again, iDisk works fine for me too. I use it on my PowerBook G4 and iMac C2D. Also, I have used it on XP/Vista based Windows computers for uploading files with no problems.

Sure, speed increases and storage increases would be great but other than that it is a wonderful service.

David

[925AS]

I sync between 3 machines and everything works great. It is true though, if you don't have multiple machines its really not worth it. Unless you want to have a .mac email address.

[chriscorbin]

You Know ive never used sync feature. i use it for iDisk, web hosting and email the only problem is that .mac goes down a little too often and its usually down for a good while