Poll: Are you renewing .Mac?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you renewing .Mac? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=218&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[goof_ball]

I stopped using .mac once Apple started charging for services that I would never use.

I'm still a bit bitter because I had used my mac.com email as my primary, but I think Apple should (too little too late perhaps) offer email forwarding for free.

It's minimal for Apple to do so in hw requirements, plus isn't it good advertising to see emails with a mac.com domain?? Well, it couldn't have been good with thousands of people emailing all their contacts informing that they are no longer using mac.com :/

[gerror]

I am gonna renew. However I think it is a lot of money. It is just the ease of use with the email and the iPhoto and .Mac intergration is great.
like here (http://homepage.mac.com/gerror/PhotoAlbum6.html)

[scem0]

dont have .mac, don't plan to get it.

scem0

[stefman]

Of course I would prefer if it was free, but will renew and pay.

Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to refer so I'll be paying full price I guess.

[senseibiz]

I will be paying too..
I do use it quite often, because I live in vegas. My parents live in NY and my Inlaws live in FL. I use homepage to post pictures of my kids, so they can see them...

[tazo]

nope because I don't need it :P

[msassman]

I think .Mac is GREAT!! I use iSync all the time, and I use my .Mac account as my primary email address because I don't get all the SPAM I get with other services. I think it is well worth the cost and I have no doubt about renewing.

[mac15]

Definately , I love .Mac

iSync is great and I really think the new Finder in Panther will make idisk even better than before.

I like the backup option , but the backup app is lacking itself (but thats why its not Apple made, another company does it for apple)

[KLFloyd]

I probably will renew my .mac account, just based on my sheer loyalty and obsession with Apple. I really like my @mac.com email address and in reality the only part of .mac that I use.

The iDisk is nice in theory, but it never works well. It's insanely slow and half the time my files never complete their transfer.

The Backup software is about as reliable as the iDisk. It takes FOREVER to create backup CD's and is still slow when writing to my iDisk and most of the time I get an error message about corrupted files or something that causes my backup to fail.

I don't use Virex because Norton Antivirus is much more effective. While I don't normally like Norton's products, antivirus does it's job well, it does it in the background and it doesn't bug me. Virex required too much management for me.

I do like the homepage feature, but I really don't like the long URL who's going to remember that? And it looks unprofessional for doing business work. Also anyone with half a brain can figure out my personal email address once they visit my homepage and I don't like to give out my .mac address

iSync has never worked well for me. I don't have a supported phone and I already use Entourage for all of my Mail, Contacts, and Calendars and have been very happy doing that.

Well, thanks for listening to my little rant. But, as I said. I'm an 18 year Apple Veteran and crazy about the company, so yes...I probably will shell out another $100 for my spam-free email service. I just wish like crazy they'd offer an e-mail only account or $25 a year or something similar.

At least the $20 at the Apple Store is a nice little bonus. I just wish I had someone or multiple someone's to refer. If anyone is interested in joining, send me a message!

It seems from all these special promotions that Apple is getting nervous about their renewil date coming around. My guess is they're about to loose a lot of customers.

[KershMan]

Yep, I will renew. $99 is not a bad price for what you get. I use all the following features:

1. email and webmail. I especially like the webmail and the fact that I can synchronize my address book on my PowerBook and .Mac. I live in a Windows world at work so there is no way for me to access this without webmail.

2. iSynch. This is great. I use it to synch my PowerBook and iMac.

3. Backup. I use if for complete system backups and to put critical information on my iDisk.

4. iDisk. It is a great spot for me to place files that I need at different locations.

5. Web page - digital photo viewing area for my family. Very easy and convient. My wife actually does it all! And she is not very computer literate at all.

[backspinner]

I use the email as a second account, and the homepage for occasional use and as storage space for photo's of my other websites.
But the best feature and the most hidden, is the magical syncing of icals between me and my girfriend.

[bograt]

What about being a complete tramp and simply having a free trial continually?

[Centris 650]

Well, I just got .mac back in april/may and I LOVE it! I wish I could renew for next year to take advantage of the giveaways.

[lokey]

I got .Mac back in December, and I'll be renewing this coming December for sure. Apple provides a very good service, and while I think $99 is a bit much... I gladly pay for it because it just works. @mac.com email addresses are convienient with great IMAP service which is hard to find in my experiences. iSync and iDisk integration is wonderful, and using Backup to send my entire Documents folder up to my webspace is wonderful. I sometimes need to access my documents when I'm at work or school and I always know they will be there.

Homepage could use an update, but I don't use it anyway. I'll be renewing.

[KershMan]

Don't forget that most of the cost can be made up from free or discounted software. In the past year Apple offered Virux for free (this must be a $40-$50 value) and discounts on several games as well as a pretty good discount on Stuffit Deluxe. .Mac members were able to pickup Stuffit Delux for $39, which is a $40 savings!

Those two deals alone are worth .Mac.

[Jerry Spoon]

Originally posted by KLFloyd

It seems from all these special promotions that Apple is getting nervous about their renewil date coming around. My guess is they're about to loose a lot of customers.

I'm betting they're getting nervous too. I'm waiting until the last minute to decide whether I'm renewing or not. I'm hoping that Apple throws another extra or two on there by then to make it worth while for me.

[Squire]

I'm on my trial. Definitely going to get it. The iPhoto integration alone is worth it in my book (my kids and their grandparents half a world away).

Somebody mentioned this in passing, but would it be cheesy to start an "I'm interested in .Mac" thread and try to help our fellow users out? Make it like a pyramid sales structure.

Bad idea. Ok.

Squire

[MacManDan]

I just got my .Mac subscription a couple of days ago, I haven't even thought about renewing yet! Unfortunately, there wasn't even an option for us new members (like "I just got .Mac").

I like it though .. I use my iDisk all the time, and backup is great because it let me save all my stuff before my hard drive gives out .. Integration is great also. However, I wouldn't say it's worth $100/yr .. maybe 1/2 that price (or if I could refer someone, that'd be great too ;) )

[-hh]

Originally posted by goof_ball
I stopped using .mac once Apple started charging for services that I would never use.

I'm still a bit bitter because I had used my mac.com email as my primary, but I think Apple should (too little too late perhaps) offer email forwarding for free.


A friend of mine was also quite ticked off about Apple's change in policy.

But personally, I've not had a .Mac account, nor do I plan to get one. I've already owned my own personal domain for a couple of years, and it provides me greater freedom and flexibility, although at the very low cost of knowning a little HTML.


And to be frank, most of the .Mac homepages that I've visited have underwhelmed me. Most of them are nothing more than a photo dump page. Sure, they look pretty, but its the same boilerplate template on every .mac site, which is anything but creative.

Sorry.


-hh

[-hh]

Originally posted by KershMan
Don't forget that most of the cost can be made up from free or discounted software. ... .Mac members were able to pickup Stuffit Delux for $39, which is a $40 savings!


True, but faithful Mac (not .mac) users paid their shareware fee for utilities like Stuffit years before .mac came out.



-hh

[Giaguara]

i have 3 accounts. i will renew ONE, the one that is now attached to a friend as the 5 mb mailbox. i like that most, and will switch my mails to go to that addy.

[-hh]

Originally posted by msassman
...and I use my .Mac account as my primary email address because I don't get all the SPAM I get with other services. I think it is well worth the cost and I have no doubt about renewing.

For limiting Spam, try SpamFire (http://www.matterform.com/).


-hh

[MacFan25]

I don't have .mac right now. I don't really don't need it now.

[Rower_CPU]

They really need to fix 2 major issues right now:
-email not being delivered from certain sites *cough* MacRumors *cough*
-iDisk performance and availability

I don't know if the latter has anything to do with the changes in Panther, but it's always been slow/flaky.

[patrick0brien]

-All

I'm definitely renewing.

It's value increases exponentially when one has more than one Mac.

But I consider it worth the $9/mo even for one machine.

[zim]

I too will be renewing, iSync alone has improved my work flow 100%. Having mulitiple computers and keeping the synced without it is impossible (almost). Plus, I use the .mac email all the time.

:D

[macdong]

i discontinued for a while after Apple started to charge for .Mac.
but, i subscribed again because i needed a space to host my personal website. my ISP provides 10MB (not even enough for those mp3s of my recording). but in my opinion, it's quite worth it.

[Mudbug]

I just can't see much use for it AFAIC, even tho I've got multiple macs in multiple locations. I've set them up to be separate entities, and like it that way. Until there are more (and better) reasons to join, say free software, I'll be putting my money to a different use.

That is not to say I don't think it's a good idea - just lacking in implimentation for me for now.

[bluedalmatian]

I always found the email unreliable when it was iTools and from what i've heard its no better now so hardly worth paying for.

Apple never responded to technical questions and I don't like the idea of Apple reading my email

[Squire]

Apple never responded to technical questions and I don't like the idea of Apple reading my email

Better than Microsoft (i.e. Hotmail), though.

Squire

[wdlove]

My wife is the one that has the .mac account. She really likes it, hasn't had any problems with her E.Mail account!

[zim]

Originally posted by bluedalmatian
Apple never responded to technical questions and I don't like the idea of Apple reading my email

When did apple say that they read your emails? They have a good privacy policy, I have never had anyone but myself read my email.

[backspinner]

Originally posted by bluedalmatian
I always found the email unreliable when it was iTools and from what i've heard its no better now so hardly worth paying for. It's (now) no worse or better than the email service of the six different accounts/providers I have.

[wdlove]

On another Apple infomation site it says that when you purchase .mac, it's set by to auto renewal by default. Has anyone else noticed this fact. My wife purchased her's at our local Apple Store, so should not be affected!

[MacFan25]

Originally posted by wdlove
On another Apple infomation site it says that when you purchase .mac, it's set by to auto renewal by default. Has anyone else noticed this fact.
I saw this on Spymac earlier. but, I really don't know much about it since I don't have .mac.

[Billicus]

Never have had .Mac, never will need .Mac, never will use .Mac. :o

[Softwareforheal]

While I'm generally pleased with .Mac and would like to renew I'm disappointed to find that to renew in Europe using the Euro currency will cost about $115 (€99 or £69). Of course a currency conversion cost of 1 or 1 and 1/2 % is understandable but a new subscription would cost me some 15% more than my American co-Mac-fans! Might they not loose some popularity or custom with this?

[Squire]

Originally posted by Softwareforheal
While I'm generally pleased with .Mac and would like to renew I'm disappointed to find that to renew in Europe using the Euro currency will cost about $115 (€99 or 69). Of course a currency conversion cost of 1 or 1 and 1/2 % is understandable but a new subscription would cost me some 15% more than my American co-Mac-fans! Might they not loose some popularity or custom with this?

I know what you mean. I paid 790 Hong Kong dollars which was okay ($102 US at the present exchange rate). I pity the Canadians who pay $159 for .Mac. That works out to $118 US. Why don't they just make it $99 at the present exchange? It sucks that some people get shafted.

Squire

[Softwareforheal]

Replying to Squire who replied to me.

Thanks for your response. I'm disapointed to learn that the problem is widespread. I think this is almost as scandalous as Amazon at one time, charging different prices for the same article dependending on the customer's "spending power". I agree with you - they should just charge everyone the same US dollar price. Can we all club together in some way and protest? (I've sent E-mails to Apple in Europe and the US but without response so far, after 2 or 3 days...)

[patrick0brien]

-Ah, the boon and bane of international business.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how Apple could keep up with the exchange rates, they have a hard enough time with RAM (it's averaged)

[mcrain]

The key for me is the ability to use iChat and communicate with others that have AOL, and to communicate with voice and video with other .mac people.

M

[Squire]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-Ah, the boon and bane of international business.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how Apple could keep up with the exchange rates, they have a hard enough time with RAM (it's averaged)

Actually, they wouldn't have to keep up with the exchange rates. As far as I know, they could just charge US $99 for the service and let the credit card companies figure it out. Once the transaction is processed, the amount is converted to the card's "default" currency.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it just seems logical to charge everyone the same price. (Is anyone paying less than 99 dollars? Didn't think so.)

Squire