Apple to Discontinue .Mac HomePage and Groups

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/09/apple-to-discontinue-mac-homepage-and-groups/)

Apple today announced that two legacy tools associated with .Mac, HomePage and Groups, will no longer be offered as of July 7, 2009. The two services are not currently offered as part of MobileMe but were still accessible to former .Mac users whose accounts had been transitioned to MobileMe at its launch last year.

.Mac HomePage is a web hosting service that made its debut as part of Apple's iTools package in January 2000. The service was significantly upgraded when iTools was turned into a subscription-based service and renamed .Mac in 2002. Apple's landing page for HomePage (http://www.mac.com/1/homepage/) currently displays a splash page announcing the discontinuation.On July 7, 2009, we are retiring .Mac HomePage. Your published pages will remain live on the web for as long as you wish after this date, but you will not be able to edit or delete them using HomePage. If you want to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Going forward, we recommend MobileMe Gallery (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/gallery.html) for online photo and movie sharing, and iWeb (http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/) for custom websites and blogs. Please visit this FAQ (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2049) for more information..Mac Groups is a service that allowed .Mac users to set up "a group page, email address, and iDisk space for clubs, teams, and other groups of people. Similar to HomePage, the Groups landing page (http://www.mac.com/1/groups/) is currently displaying a splash page regarding the discontinuation of the service.On July 7, 2009, .Mac Groups will be discontinued. After this date, all Groups features, including group pages, group message boards, group email addresses, and the "Groups" iDisk folder will no longer be available.

Any files contained in the "Groups" iDisk folder will be moved on July 7 into a new folder titled "Groups Archive" where they will remain accessible by the group owner, as long as the group owner remains a MobileMe member. Please visit this FAQ (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2050?viewlocale=en_US) for more information.

Article Link: Apple to Discontinue .Mac HomePage and Groups (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/09/apple-to-discontinue-mac-homepage-and-groups/)

[Schizoid]

I forgot my stupidly slow webpage was still there...

[nep61]

Hmmm, First FW400 now .mac. Wonder what's next?

[synth3tik]

I forgot my stupidly slow webpage was still there...

Well you better start using iWeb, per their helpful instructions.


I guess if they don't want to bother making something work, just getting rid of parts that don't is easier then fixing them.

[celticpride678]

Hmmm, First FW400 now .mac. Wonder what's next?

Well, they are not "taking" away .Mac, there is now Mobile Me. .Mac should have been discontinued back when Mobile Me came out.

[h.21]

Old news day today at macrumors.com

[Mykbibby]

Really? Page 1? This seems more like Page 2 to me.

Nevertheless, I think its good. The more Apple focuses on the present, the better for me.

[Spades]

Well, they are not "taking" away .Mac, there is now Mobile Me. .Mac should have been discontinued back when Mobile Me came out.

MobileMe is .Mac with a different name and some "upgraded" web apps.

I never used HomePage or Groups, but it stinks to have them discontinued with no replacement. Removing services, crappy as they may have been, isn't exactly a nice thing to do to paying customers.

[whynot83706]

I guess i was one of few who used web hosting services, it was really not that bad as some may say.

[meli]

Don't forget about the loss of bookmarks. Hopefully, MobileMe will soon provide their own version of Bookmarks and Groups.

[whynot83706]

$99 per year it was a good deal having those two features.

[turtlebud]

sure, they replaced .mac with mobileme, but they're taking away .mac groups and not replacing it with anything. a shame, that was one of the few things that I used in my .mac account. guess i'm in the minority though.

[fleshman03]

Ah "times, they are a changin'..."

[Sun Baked]

Hmmm, First FW400 now .mac. Wonder what's next?

Maybe Apple should also replace USB2 with USB1.1 or a serial port when they delete the FW800 ports and replace them with FW400.

[rjrufo]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.

(Someone else named it Marvin in this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=56837). Please pay your respects to Marvin, and for god's sake, when he asks to be left alone, don't pester him.)

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Gah! Looking at those old pages just reminds me of how ugly the internet used to be.

[jaw04005]

I hope .Mac's Backup.app is next. I can't even delete old Backups within my iDisk.

Very annoying and a waste of space.

[Lyra]

Hmmm, First FW400 now .mac. Wonder what's next?

Optical Disk drives in laptops etc. They'll probably make a DVD drive the size of the one offered for the Air and build it so it's airborn, meaning it's going to have wireless capabilities and maybe even some TV function doubling as a DVD player... oh yeah I forgot... we're talking about Apple here... this isn't the Apple we used to know who'd go all the way out to give us what we dream of. In stead they'll bill our A$$'s till we die.

So yeah expect an Airport based Optical Drive that will work on all future macs without any optical drives. Then they'll claim it will be super amazing and how much space it saves yada yada yada blah.... Oh but they'll then claim to have an amazing battery life, unlike anything else. Claim 14 hours but then in reality (meaning OUR reality) it's only 8 hours.

Sorry but lately Apple has been too disappointing and have been doing odd things. The MacMini update was a boring update, nothing special, same external design, not even bothered to pep it up to look cool like the iMac. Then the internals weren't worth the money they are asking for it. I mean look at the two models they are offering. It's shameful and even the Mac magazines are claiming it's simply not worth investing in.

Then we got the new iPod Shuffle... (can ONLY use Apple brand ear phones)
Useless...

I'm really confused where Apple is going, one thing is for certain, it's lost it's way. Before all of this hoohaa with the iPod, we all know there were PowerMacs, PowerBooks and iMacs. Now? Most people don't even notice the PowerMacs, even in their stores, it's all about the iPods and iPhones... oh and laptops.

Seriously I have no idea what happened to Apple, but it's gotten a little too fat and greedy lately... Come on man, no remote in the Laptop boxes anymore? You pay almost $3000 and no remote? What the hell? Sorry but that's just being sickly greedy to ask money for that too.

Alright I'll stop my ranting... well till Snow Leopard comes out, with "improvements" or as we see it a facelift and they'll suck us dry once more by asking the usual amount for it. Ok, ok, ok... it's a new architecture etc. BUT.... Tell that to the average user... they'll say... Huh? what? looks just like the other one... why bother?

Me? I'll end up buying it cause I don't think Leopard came out right. Too many odd bugs and system slowdowns. It's a high maintenance OS compared to the other ones. Being a filmmaker and photographer, I can't stress enough the disappointment in how my Pro apps have been acting up.

I'm sure that last bit is my own fault somehow... (AppleCare probably says that alot)

[Lyra]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.

HA HA HA HA

That was funny...
:D

[mikeinternet]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.

Why can't Apple be more like the folks at Sirius Cybernetics Corp?

[MrSmith]

The webpages will remain. It's just we can't edit them anymore. Just delete directly from iDisk? Anyway, does anyone seriously still add or even edit through Homepage?

[iPhoneNYC]

I find .mac or mobile me inferior to the free Gmail. The search on the mobile me is clunky and the service goes down often. The only thing of value is use of the iDisk and perhaps a cool .mac in your address. But Apple seems to be moving away from the use of .mac.

[MacFly123]

Well, they are not "taking" away .Mac, there is now Mobile Me. .Mac should have been discontinued back when Mobile Me came out.

No kidding. What is with the whining in here? Nobody ever used those things and it was nice to have them leave them hanging around this long to give people a transition. Honestly who cares? .mac is OLD, move on people! :rolleyes:

[MrSmith]

I find .mac or mobile me inferior to the free Gmail. The search on the mobile me is clunky and the service goes down often. The only thing of value is use of the iDisk and perhaps a cool .mac in your address. But Apple seems to be moving away from the use of .mac.
Can you sync all your family and work computers and iPhones through Gmail?

[MrMoore]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.



LOL! That was excellent. I thought "Marvin" would go on forever. He sure is sad.


What kind of life is that anyway for a web server.
No webpage to load.
Bummer
I feel for the guy.
;)

[meli]

No kidding. What is with the whining in here? Nobody ever used those things and it was nice to have them leave them hanging around this long to give people a transition. Honestly who cares? .mac is OLD, move on people! :rolleyes:


MobileMe still doesn't have all the same features as dot Mac. Bookmarks and postcards were the first features taken away, now Groups and Homepage. While I mostly use the MobileMe Gallery, just because it's easier, I liked the themes (such as Baby, Road Trip, etc) of dot Mac better.

[MrSmith]

I put up MobileMe Galleries but Windows users couldn't see half of it (specifically, the movies) so I reverted back to iWeb. :rolleyes:

[fleshman03]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.

(Someone else named it Marvin in this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=56837). Please pay your respects to Marvin, and for god's sake, when he asks to be left alone, don't pester him.)

ha-ha

[iMacoo7]

That bites on several levels but I guess its a way to weed out older .mac access to editing files and what not.:(

[MNTwinsFan]

Maybe, Apple should lower the Mobile Me price? Instead of $99 how about $49?

There cutting features anyway, so cut the price too! :)

[h.21]

Maybe Apple should also replace USB2 with USB1.1 or a serial port when they delete the FW800 ports and replace them with FW400.

ADB is the new SATA.

[FrankieTDouglas]

Maybe Apple should also replace USB2 with USB1.1 or a serial port when they delete the FW800 ports and replace them with FW400.

I sense your sarcasm but Apple's juggling with firewire has seriously pissed people off and led to some stressful situations.

Easy example: last week, someone I know calls asking if I have an 800 to 400 firewire cord. I say no. Their new Macbook Pro was crashing and they needed to back up, pronto. So they wanted to transfer their files to a friend's Macbook in the meantime using target disk mode. Problem was, everyone they and I know have 400 to 400 firewire cords. Luckily they even had a Macbook still containing firewire.

They call up Apple and are put on hold for an hour as the customer support guy calls local and not so local businesses in this area until he finally finds someone who carries a firewire 800 to 400 cord in the store. It was an hour's drive away for them to purchase it, just to connect these two computers. Meanwhile, every electronic store in the area easily carries 400 to 400 cords.

But, thanks to Apple looking to the future, abruptly cutting out peripherals ****s people over. Good job. And good job for encouraging such behavior.

[jaw04005]

They call up Apple and are put on hold for an hour as the customer support guy calls local and not so local businesses in this area until he finally finds someone who carries a firewire 800 to 400 cord in the store. It was an hour's drive away for them to purchase it, just to connect these two computers. Meanwhile, every electronic store in the area easily carries 400 to 400 cords.

Really? An AppleCare Rep actually called your friend's local electronic stores to track down a firewire cable. And for an hour? Now, that's superior service.

Why didn't your friend just use an external hard drive?

[firewood]

So what's the easiest way to migrate some old *.html web pages and photos from my .Mac Public directory to the "replacement"?

[BlueRevolution]

$100 for glorified email and file server = rip-off.
$100 for glorified email, file server, and web hosting = good deal.

Seriously. I have two Macs and an iPod Touch, and I still don't see how it's worth that much money. If I could ditch my web hosting plan in favour of Mobile Me, I would. Otherwise... well, yet another of Apple's overpriced frills and gimmicks. Just give me a Mac and go home.

Oh yeah, and it goes without saying that any web host would need PHP/MySQL support at a minimum.

[sal]

Darn, my HomePage (http://homepage.mac.com/rjrufo/) will be gone...

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.

(Someone else named it Marvin in this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=56837). Please pay your respects to Marvin, and for god's sake, when he asks to be left alone, don't pester him.)
HAHA

poor marvin.

[dante@sisna.com]

Does anyone know of a good sync alternative to MobileMe?

Sync should include contacts, addresses, keychains, etc?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Dante

[SeaFox]

sure, they replaced .mac with mobileme, but they're taking away .mac groups and not replacing it with anything. a shame, that was one of the few things that I used in my .mac account. guess i'm in the minority though.
I hope they plan on coming out with a Windows version of iWeb then if they want me to keep subscribing. Some of us want to be able to change things when we're NOT sitting down at a Mac.

Apple must think their platform is more popular than it is.

[JoshuaGross]

Well, so long Marvin. You're finally being consigned to the trash.


I registered to MacRumors just to pay my respects to Marvin. He made me smile.

[Casiotone]

I first got my .Mac account because I needed web hosting, but didn't have a credit card. Buying a .Mac box was the easy way for me. I was aware that I was paying too much, but $99 for a year is not the end of the world...

As for all the "free web hosting" sites, they all have some limitations (there's no such thing as free lunch) such as embedding ads in pages (which I didn't want) and forbidding "hot-linking" and other crippling stuff like that.

I'm sure I'll get ridiculed by all the .mac/MobileMe bashers roaming around this thread, but here's the feedback I sent to Apple:

Hello,

I'm extremely displeased by the planned phasing out of homepage.mac.com pages after July 7 2009.

I invested in creating my webpage using .Mac, having my website address published all over the internet on many other sites, thinking that it would be a sure and safe way to ensure that my webpage would be accessible AND updatable through many years to come, since I trust(ed) Apple and know it will still be there for a long time, as opposed to superwebhosting.com and whatnot.

I don't use the "Homepage" web tool to manage my pages, so its disappearance doesn't bother me. I'm managing/updating my web page directly by accessing the "Sites" folder on my iDisk.

What I don't understand is that according to your FAQ and an Apple representative I chatted with, is that while the pages will still be accessible at the same URL after July 7, and the "Sites" folder will still exist on my iDisk, I will only be allowed to delete files, but not update content manually simply by dragging .html pages into my iDisk "Sites" folder.

While I do use my MobileMe email account, I mainly bought and renewed my .Mac/MobileMe account to host my webpage.

Using iWeb would not fix my main problem with this transition, which is losing the ability to update my Webpage at its current address. Using redirection to the iWeb page will be not only confusing, but will also destroy all my Google rankings.

I'm a long time Mac/Apple user, and I've been very satisfied with every product I've owned from your company, but my webpage is something very important to me, and while I understand that the homepage.mac.com addresses may not have been used by many customers, I'm angry that you don't leave the ability to manually edit the content of the "Sites" folder to the few of us that choose to use it.

The .Mac HomePage FAQ (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2049?viewlocale=en_US) is pretty confusing about the whole thing: "You will still be able to manually delete your pages after July 7, but you will no longer be able to make any changes using the HomePage application."

Well I don't use the HomePage application, I do my changes directly in the "Sites" folder... But according to the Apple rep I chatted with, I won't be able to do so after July 7.

So, the whole "costly" infrastructure will remain there (pages will remain accessible at the same url), except that they'll prevent users from modifying the content of the "Sites" folder on their iDisk (this folder is the one mirrored by the http://homepage.mac.com/username/ url), aside from deleting stuff.

[HiRez]

Yay, more Apple abandonware. "Heyyyy there DotMac Homepage, thanks for coming...meet Final Cut Express, Cyberdog, OpenDoc, WebObjects, KidSafe, HyperCard, Carbon, QuickDraw 3D, Newton OS, and all these other guys..."

[Chip NoVaMac]

Really? Page 1? This seems more like Page 2 to me.

Nevertheless, I think its good. The more Apple focuses on the present, the better for me.

You may have a point there; but there were a few of us that liked the "old school" in the .mac days.

I realize that times marches on; but if you is paying to be a part of a "service" - then maybe legacy needs trump the update.

$99 per year it was a good deal having those two features.

I seem to remember in the past the cost was $79.... I maybe wrong....

But so far in my years with .MAC and now with MobileMe accounts - I never used then them to to point that Apple needed to go this far.

Just seems to be less for more...

Maybe, Apple should lower the Mobile Me price? Instead of $99 how about $49?

There cutting features anyway, so cut the price too! :)

Amen to that... I hung on so far just for continuity.... and features that took away over the years.....

$100 for glorified email and file server = rip-off.
$100 for glorified email, file server, and web hosting = good deal.

Seriously. I have two Macs and an iPod Touch, and I still don't see how it's worth that much money. If I could ditch my web hosting plan in favour of Mobile Me, I would. Otherwise... well, yet another of Apple's overpriced frills and gimmicks. Just give me a Mac and go home.

Oh yeah, and it goes without saying that any web host would need PHP/MySQL support at a minimum.

Amen there!

gMail or Yahoo here I come!

[jockmoron]

I'm not sure why the .mac service is being so criticised here. I use it, have done so for five years, and I publish my web page using a program called "PageSpinner". I am 62 years old, and I am not a computer geek - it's taken me some time to learn how to use the .mac. I find it convenient, I think I know what I'm doing, and I am at a loss to understand why Apple has withdrawn support for this service. I had no inkling they would. It's very, very annoying.

I have hundreds of pages on my .mac account.

What am I supposed to do now? Apple's own explanation is confusing and contradictory. How do I transfer all my pages, and how do I redirect people visiting my site to any new one? It seems like a lot of extra work for nothing. I don't have a program called iWeb, and if I did, I suspect transferring my present web site could be fraught with all sorts of problems.

I am so cross I am thinking I'll let my .mac (Mobile Me - what a stupid title) lapse and find some other way of publishing my pages. I understand Google run a free service, but of course it'll probably be saturated with ads etc, which I really hate.

Any suggestions?

My homepage is http://homepage.mac.com/j.monro

Thanks.

[Floptop]

I used mac.com very often for hosting pictures I wanted to post on message boards. Will this still be possible? (so I would post a picture of my head or something on mac.com page, then open the image, then open the image in a new window and copy the URL, then past the url within a thingee)

I just tried a test run and it seems so far like I can't do this with iWeb, it seems to turn the photos into some kind of flash thing. Please tell me I'm wrong.

Anybody? Thanks!

[simX]

The .Mac HomePage FAQ (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2049?viewlocale=en_US) is pretty confusing about the whole thing: "You will still be able to manually delete your pages after July 7, but you will no longer be able to make any changes using the HomePage application."

Well I don't use the HomePage application, I do my changes directly in the "Sites" folder... But according to the Apple rep I chatted with, I won't be able to do so after July 7.

So, the whole "costly" infrastructure will remain there (pages will remain accessible at the same url), except that they'll prevent users from modifying the content of the "Sites" folder on their iDisk (this folder is the one mirrored by the http://homepage.mac.com/username/ url), aside from deleting stuff.

Dude, chill the **** out. Jeebus.

First of all, all the FAQs and documents I've read seem to indicate that you will not be able to change your sites via the *HomePage web app*, not that they'll restrict manual modification of the webpages. Despite the fact that your rep said that the Sites folder will be made read-only, I remain skeptical since the e-mail was sent out only 24 hours ago.

Despite that, even if the Sites folder is restricted, the "Web" folder will not. iWeb uses that folder, and it will have to allow write access to that folder in order to publish websites.

Just like the Sites folder, you can manually put your web sites in the Web folder and have access to them from the web. If you put a file at /<your iDisk>/Web/Sites/test.html , anybody can see the website by visiting http://web.mac.com/<your MobileMe member name>/test.html, just like they can with existing sites in the Sites folder from the homepage.mac.com URL.

You will *still* be able to host manually-created websites on your iDisk regardless of what happens to the Sites folder.

Seriously, calm down.

[stofferdk]

I'm not sure why the .mac service is being so criticised here. I use it, have done so for five years, and I publish my web page using a program called "PageSpinner". I am 62 years old, and I am not a computer geek - it's taken me some time to learn how to use the .mac. I find it convenient, I think I know what I'm doing, and I am at a loss to understand why Apple has withdrawn support for this service. I had no inkling they would. It's very, very annoying.

I have hundreds of pages on my .mac account.

What am I supposed to do now? Apple's own explanation is confusing and contradictory. How do I transfer all my pages, and how do I redirect people visiting my site to any new one? It seems like a lot of extra work for nothing. I don't have a program called iWeb, and if I did, I suspect transferring my present web site could be fraught with all sorts of problems.

I am so cross I am thinking I'll let my .mac (Mobile Me - what a stupid title) lapse and find some other way of publishing my pages. I understand Google run a free service, but of course it'll probably be saturated with ads etc, which I really hate.

Any suggestions?

My homepage is http://homepage.mac.com/j.monro

Thanks.

uhm... maybe you should.. protect your "family section" better as both user ID and password is spelled out in your source code?
A real webhost,.. like one.com would provide you with online webdesign tools in 3 steps and proper loginforms.

[scooterbaga]

Don't forget about the loss of bookmarks. Hopefully, MobileMe will soon provide their own version of Bookmarks and Groups.

I miss bookmarks. That was damn handy.

[Mac4Brains]

Maybe, Apple should lower the Mobile Me price? Instead of $99 how about $49?

There cutting features anyway, so cut the price too! :)

Thats a good idea. Sell us a slimed down product then slim down the price!

[lascott]

I miss bookmarks. That was damn handy.

Me too, I ended using the firefox plugin called "xmarks" (used to be called foxmarks).

I sync my bookmarks between my computers, works for firefox, safari and ie.

and I can access my bookmarks via their site. (for free)

I use google for my contacts/calendar and email now also. I only keep MobileMe right now for the people who still use my old address, and I get it off ebay cheap so I can't complain too much :D

[scottness]

If they kill the ability to edit the sites folder, I quit.

Never cared for homepage, until I met Marvin. ;)

[soup4you2]

Been a subscriber since back in the early iDisk days, and now my membership expires next month, I have no plans to renew it.

[Mac4Brains]

I have had my account since it was called iTools and was only 20Meg from 2000. So far the entire MobleMe issue has been a complete disaster. The next thing Apple is going to try (this would cause me to dump my account) is to drop all of the @mac.com address and force us to use @me.com.

In the end it I am starting to dislike Apple’s business decisions of late. For what are the most overpriced computers on the market, why do I feel as if I am being steered towards buying more products like the iPhone (that is not available in Vermont) just to use the services I am paying for anyway? Well I can’t get to my bookmarks anymore so I need to go out to get a pocket sized computer for another $300.

When I got Windows running on my iMac, the first thing I did was to get all of the old games I loved in OS 7 8 and 9 for the Windows environment. I can still play them in Windows but my ability to play them on the Mac ended a decade ago.

Right now Apple is enjoying the good times because of the Vista disaster. Vista has steered more people towards the Mac than any possible advertisement stunt Apple could of ever thought up. But with the trend of skimping out on the cool stuff in order to increase profits, Apple is going to have big issues in the coming years, especially if Steve Jobs crokes, with there current trend. It almost feels as if Apple is trying to emulate Microsoft’s “The money is all I give a dam about” business tactics.

The things that Apple has done for the sake of greed I can list, some of them go back a ways.

Split the QuickTime functions so you need to pay for an upgrade in order to use QuickTime. Then blast everyone with an advertisement every time they try to use it.

Fix it so the operating system can’t support older software, forcing people to get new software with every system upgrade. First the OS9 to OSX change, then turn OS9 into classic, Then block the computers from directly booting into Classic, Then the PPC to Intel change and the total loss of any Classic. So far Apple has the WORST legacy support in the computer industry.

Come up with the (Original) iPod shuffle that also works like a convenient USB Flash Drive. Then update it with something that needs a docking station. Then change that so you can only use the ear peaces from Apple and block the use of the by far better $7.99 models.

I’m not even going to start my gripping over the Firewire issue. Apple’s prices, the use of the worst mouse and keyboard on the market for 6X times what better models costs.

P.S. The main reason groups failed is that you need to get an Dot-Mac account to access it. OR you can use the trial so you can see it for a short while before your forced to pay for an account. If people did not need an account, it would of taken off.

[twoodcc]

i got an email about both. i did used to use the groups. i liked it. i wish they would replace them with something

[law guy]

That's annoying and one more reason not to use Apple's services for web content. I have photo galleries of my girls for every month for serveral years using Homepage templates (which were fun - like the Halloween one) and when iWeb was released, I just cross linked to those galleries. The specter of having to recreate 60 or 70 galleries isn't welcome. If they were generated in a desktop program and then uploaded, it wouldn't be a big deal, as I'd just upload the pages to a different site. ... but alas.

[jimoase]

...... The next thing Apple is going to try (this would cause me to dump my account) is to drop all of the @mac.com address and force us to use @me.com. .........

As I grew up my parents, who grew up during the depression, taught me to be self sufficient. One of the keys to self sufficiency is giving, volunteering to help grow my community because when my community grows where I live is a better place. The worse thing I could do is want everything for me because instead of helping to grow my community I would become a parasite who takes from my community while adding nothing.

Just previous to the age of Stimulus, Apple comes along with its ME program which for a self sufficient person is like scratching a chalk board, drinking dish water.... a very unpleasant thought. Imagine the image of having an email address xxxxxx@me.com to a self sufficient person, its like getting a check from the government because I couldn't take care of myself.

If Apple takes away my xxxxxxx@mac.com address they can cancel my account at the same instant because I will. No questions asked. I will not alter my life standards to join the ME generation....period

Jim

[DELLsFan]

Thats a good idea. Sell us a slimed down product then slim down the price!

+1

I really like having my own .mac / MobileMe email / sync service. Have more than one Mac user in the house? Family pack FTW. I just wish I didn't have to pay the Apple tax on the subscription.

:apple:

[Eric S.]

Well I don't use the HomePage application, I do my changes directly in the "Sites" folder... But according to the Apple rep I chatted with, I won't be able to do so after July 7.

So, the whole "costly" infrastructure will remain there (pages will remain accessible at the same url), except that they'll prevent users from modifying the content of the "Sites" folder on their iDisk (this folder is the one mirrored by the http://homepage.mac.com/username/ url), aside from deleting stuff.

I also directly edit the html files in the Sites folder. This sucks. I like the convenience of being able to edit them through iDisk from either OS X or Windows, without going through an upload procedure.

[Spades]

Well I don't use the HomePage application, I do my changes directly in the "Sites" folder... But according to the Apple rep I chatted with, I won't be able to do so after July 7.

Are you serious? It's not just removing the HomePage app, but disabling any means of making web pages except iWeb? I use the Sites folder as a way of getting files from home to work, or anywhere else. I won't be able to do that any more?!

Unbelievable. :mad:

I've always accepted .Mac for the mediocre service that it is because the integration with Apple's apps is very convenient. But this change is one that has me finally considering canceling.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Yay, more Apple abandonware. "Heyyyy there DotMac Homepage, thanks for coming...meet Final Cut Express, Cyberdog, OpenDoc, WebObjects, KidSafe, HyperCard, Carbon, QuickDraw 3D, Newton OS, and all these other guys..."

Final Cut Express was updated within the last year. It has hardly been abandoned.

[bankshot]

Maybe, Apple should lower the Mobile Me price? Instead of $99 how about $49?

If you buy it on eBay, you can get close to that price. I got my family pack on eBay for $70.

Well I don't use the HomePage application, I do my changes directly in the "Sites" folder... But according to the Apple rep I chatted with, I won't be able to do so after July 7.

I'd bet a fair amount of money that the rep simply guessed and doesn't really know. In a large company like Apple, I'm sure there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy between the developers who really know the answer and the lowly support reps who're given not much more than a script to read from. I'm sure that little advanced tidbit never reached the support team.

[Xtremehkr]

After 8 years of patiently waiting for Apple to do something interesting with .mac, or whatever it is now I'm finally dumping it this year.

There's absolutely nothing in there that can't be had for free elsewhere, even worse, some of the free apps are better!

[Casiotone]

If you buy it on eBay, you can get close to that price. I got my family pack on eBay for $70.



I'd bet a fair amount of money that the rep simply guessed and doesn't really know. In a large company like Apple, I'm sure there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy between the developers who really know the answer and the lowly support reps who're given not much more than a script to read from. I'm sure that little advanced tidbit never reached the support team.

It's very possible. And I was aware of this possibility before I started to investigate the problem, that's why I decided to use the chat support line instead of simply emailing them. I knew they would probably reply a canned response simply restating the vague wording of the FAQ. Chatting with the rep, I insisted that I didn't use the "Homepage" web app and that I only edited the "Sites" folder. I got him to go ask someone else and do some research a few times, eventually got him to precisely tell me what I didn't want to hear, that the "Sites" folder would not be updatable after July 7.

But you're right, it may still not be the right answer. Still, since we can't get an official answer about it, we should still ask them/complain until we get an official confirmation from them. If we don't, we'll have to assume that the Sites folder will get locked, and we'll have to take the appropriate measures (redirects) before it potentially gets locked.

Even if we found that the folder is still modifiable after July 7, if we don't get some official reassurance that it won't be locked afterwards, we'll pretty much be in the same situation, because they could lock it like one month after without any notice, and we wouldn't have time to put redirections.

Edit:

I've found this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1971108&tstart=0) on the Apple support site about the issue and confusion regarding the use of the Sites folder after July 7th. It seems that people got different answers from reps in the support Live Chat.

Re: when Homepage goes away, what of Sites folder on iDisk?

I just been on to MobileMe Chat Support and they said:

"Yes only the Homepage is being retired. You will still be able to use other tools to edit your site."

I specifically asked if you can manually upload files to the Sites directory and would they still be available at the homepage.mac.com URL, and they said "Yes".

I would still be nice to have an official response from Apple, perhaps by updating the FAQ or creating a new one.

[simX]

I contacted MobileMe chat support too, and it seems like most are in the dark about this issue (this may not be their fault). My support rep initially said the Sites folder would be completely gone from the iDisk; after asking more specific questions, he then said that it would *not* be gone but it would *not* be editable. Then after contacting an engineer, he said that all files will remain accessible *and* editable (but only those web pages initially created with HomePage would *not* be editable).

That was the final word from the support representative.

I received word through my own contacts that the Sites folder will remain fully accessible and editable, and even those pages initially created with HomePage will still remain *editable* via a text editor or some other web page creation app.

The bottom line is: read the MobileMe e-mail literally. The HomePage *web app* is going away, the groups feature is going away, but no other features are affected *in any way*. If you haven't been using the HomePage *web app*, then you can still do what you've been doing with *no disruption*.

[japanime]

The next thing Apple is going to try (this would cause me to dump my account) is to drop all of the @mac.com address and force us to use @me.com.

If and when that happens, I'm gone too. I've also had an account since the iTools days, and have been oh so patient all these years of substandard service. (It actually worked a lot better when it was free!)

Taking away my .Mac email address would be the last straw.

[MNTwinsFan]

If and when that happens, I'm gone too. I've also had an account since the iTools days, and have been oh so patient all these years of substandard service. (It actually worked a lot better when it was free!)

Taking away my .Mac email address would be the last straw.

Me too!

[booksacool1]

Bit of a nostalgic moment here, but I remember using itools back in the day. It was one of the best free webpage & email providers. No ads, decent amount of data in an easy to use WebDAV format, no bandwidth limit, great email which used SMTP. I remember spending hours trying to replicate apples buttons for my own website.

Then it went commercial (.mac). $99 USD/year I think. I signed up because I wanted to keep my email. I stayed onboard because apple kept increasing data allowances and they even sent me a free copy of everquest. Unfortunately my .mac email picked up a lot of spam and it wasn't all the reliable. But then gmail brought out SMTP and I figured out how to use my ISP's ftp storage. I coudn't justify it anymore and didn't renew my subscription.

Since then, its never been better.

[charlituna]

just getting rid of parts that don't is easier then fixing them.

have you considered that they got rid of those parts because few folks are using them compared to the whole of the members.

emoving services, crappy as they may have been, isn't exactly a nice thing to do to paying customers.

you aren't really paying for those services anyway. they are perks that come from paying for the 20gb of space. it's no worse than what you pay with someone like godaddy.

plus you can sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks to an ipod touch or an iphone and between two macs, those 3 along with keychains, mail account settings and more.

While I mostly use the MobileMe Gallery, just because it's easier, I liked the themes (such as Baby, Road Trip, etc) of dot Mac better.

they moved them to iweb's page themes. which isn't a total shock since all new macs come with iweb and iphoto and have for a while.

If they were generated in a desktop program and then uploaded, it wouldn't be a big deal, as I'd just upload the pages to a different site. ... but alas.

iphoto.

[FrankieTDouglas]

Really? An AppleCare Rep actually called your friend's local electronic stores to track down a firewire cable. And for an hour? Now, that's superior service.

Why didn't your friend just use an external hard drive?

That is great service! Now the bigger issue is why that had to happen. Apple is marginalizing peripherals to a market that simply does not offer what is needed. Better research is needed because the situation that happened is absolutely ludicrous.

An external hard-drive? Perhaps she did not have one? Must one spend $100-$200 on another hard drive for their computer when a $10 cord will work... except they don't easily exist.

[ravenvii]

I contacted MobileMe chat support too, and it seems like most are in the dark about this issue (this may not be their fault). My support rep initially said the Sites folder would be completely gone from the iDisk; after asking more specific questions, he then said that it would *not* be gone but it would *not* be editable. Then after contacting an engineer, he said that all files will remain accessible *and* editable (but only those web pages initially created with HomePage would *not* be editable).

That was the final word from the support representative.

I received word through my own contacts that the Sites folder will remain fully accessible and editable, and even those pages initially created with HomePage will still remain *editable* via a text editor or some other web page creation app.

The bottom line is: read the MobileMe e-mail literally. The HomePage *web app* is going away, the groups feature is going away, but no other features are affected *in any way*. If you haven't been using the HomePage *web app*, then you can still do what you've been doing with *no disruption*.

I hope you're right. I've never used the HomePage web app, but I use the Sites folder extensively to make access to my files elsewhere easy, and to use as a repository of gifs I use on forums.

For instance, I put powerpoint files in the Sites folder, and when I'm at the school computer, I simply type in "http://homepage.mac.com/myusername/myppt.ppt" and bam! There it is. Much easier and faster than going through the me.com site.

It's one of the main things I use iDisk for, so they better not mess with it (or if they do, give an identical alternative, like allowing the use of the Web folder for the same purpose.)