I have been using Google for a lot of my things: mail, documents, web page, contacts, pictures. I was offered the free .mac thing when I first bought my computer but never used it, but wished I did. Is there something I am missing from the .mac? The only thing I wish there was for google was a simple ease of sync option, one button and boom, everything I have would sync up to the google account! unless there is already that I never seen yet
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What does .Mac have that google does not
- Thread starter martyrk
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Does it have the ability to back-up your system to a remote server?
But I agree, .mac seems fairly pointless to me too.
But I agree, .mac seems fairly pointless to me too.
I really don't see the value in .Mac anymore. There are just too many free or much cheaper services out there.
No, but then Google don't charge you for accounts either. So you can just register whatever names you want then just set them all to forward to the same account. Or enable POP3 on your other accounts and set your primary account to check that one too. There's any number of options, it's extremely flexible.
.Mac? I can see it has it's uses for real newbies, but with just a little bit of time and know how most things .Mac gives you can be accomplished better, and for free.
The only thing that .mac has and Google doesn't is the plain and straightforward iDisk integration with the OS X. Yet the iDisk is ridiculously small and with some small "engineering" quite easy to actually reproduce (I ended up with a VPN to my home server), so no, .mac is not for me either.
Well, I am by no means new to Macs or computers in general. However, I think .Mac is a fantastic service.
The seamless integration with the OS is the single thing which keeps me coming back to it. I can't be bothered with free webmail services, and I don't like GMail so .Mac Mail is perfect for me.
iDisk comes in handy too, but I tend to use my hosting service for most file uploads. I do value the sync feature to keep certain things on my iMac and MacBook identical.
I would like Apple to drop the price a bit, or offer even more features but I certainly don't think that the service is a complete waste of money or that it should be abandoned completely.
David
The seamless integration with the OS is the single thing which keeps me coming back to it. I can't be bothered with free webmail services, and I don't like GMail so .Mac Mail is perfect for me.
iDisk comes in handy too, but I tend to use my hosting service for most file uploads. I do value the sync feature to keep certain things on my iMac and MacBook identical.
I would like Apple to drop the price a bit, or offer even more features but I certainly don't think that the service is a complete waste of money or that it should be abandoned completely.
David
All those super-secret .Mac exclusive Widgets that Apple are developing at least that's what Stevo promised us way back in 2005.
Boy, those widgets sure better be worth waiting for.
I find .Mac to be worth every penny for me.
The most important reason being, if you have multiple computers (desktop & laptop), then you can keep all of them synced together with the same information.
The level of integration between applications, the OS, and .Mac is certainly unmatched.
I also have multiple email accounts - Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and others - and they all seem to bring in lots of junk mail. This is my theory:
Since all of those email providers are "free" to use, they sell your information to advertisers and other companies, which results in excessive spam.
I remember the day I signed up for Yahoo mail (the absolute worst). A couple of hours after signing up, I was bombarded with junk email! How did these spammers get my email address so fast? Don't be stupid! It is because Yahoo (and other "free" providers) sell your information. Do you really think that everything is free and that Yahoo does not benefit themselves in any way by giving you a "free" email address?
It is like the "free" music and television show trials going on right now. Sure, you can download shows and music content for free, as long as you are also forced to watch or listen to the advertisements that come with it.
With .Mac, I never worry about spam (maybe received one or two spam emails in the 4 years that I have had it) and I also don't have to look at advertisements all over the same page as my emails.
I will admit that Google is certainly the best among the other alternatives (Yahoo, AOL, etc.). I have almost no spam with Google as well. I also really admire the company.
So, I guess to finally answer your question, you may only benefit from .Mac if you have more than one Mac computer and you want a more transparent integration between the Mac applications and the computers - iCal, Address Book, iPhoto, iWeb, Safari, etc.
Oh, and I forgot, .Mac gives you 10GB of network storage for backups or file transfers. Does Google do this? As far as I know, the "free" storage Google provides is used only for emails. Can anyone confirm this? I don't want to post misleading information.
The most important reason being, if you have multiple computers (desktop & laptop), then you can keep all of them synced together with the same information.
The level of integration between applications, the OS, and .Mac is certainly unmatched.
I also have multiple email accounts - Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and others - and they all seem to bring in lots of junk mail. This is my theory:
Since all of those email providers are "free" to use, they sell your information to advertisers and other companies, which results in excessive spam.
I remember the day I signed up for Yahoo mail (the absolute worst). A couple of hours after signing up, I was bombarded with junk email! How did these spammers get my email address so fast? Don't be stupid! It is because Yahoo (and other "free" providers) sell your information. Do you really think that everything is free and that Yahoo does not benefit themselves in any way by giving you a "free" email address?
It is like the "free" music and television show trials going on right now. Sure, you can download shows and music content for free, as long as you are also forced to watch or listen to the advertisements that come with it.
With .Mac, I never worry about spam (maybe received one or two spam emails in the 4 years that I have had it) and I also don't have to look at advertisements all over the same page as my emails.
I will admit that Google is certainly the best among the other alternatives (Yahoo, AOL, etc.). I have almost no spam with Google as well. I also really admire the company.
So, I guess to finally answer your question, you may only benefit from .Mac if you have more than one Mac computer and you want a more transparent integration between the Mac applications and the computers - iCal, Address Book, iPhoto, iWeb, Safari, etc.
Oh, and I forgot, .Mac gives you 10GB of network storage for backups or file transfers. Does Google do this? As far as I know, the "free" storage Google provides is used only for emails. Can anyone confirm this? I don't want to post misleading information.
I have 6.4 GB of free (as in cost) space from Google for email, documents, files, etc. The space is not only for email. If you just want space, I can't see paying for .Mac.
how do you sync keychains between mac's without .mac? and your mail accounts? and the adressbook?
i think .mac is too expensive but then the easy syncing and the simple (but slow) idisk and the mac email are just about worth it.
i think .mac is too expensive but then the easy syncing and the simple (but slow) idisk and the mac email are just about worth it.
They still have a 60-day free trial if you want to play with it. http://www.mac.com
The integration that .Mac has into OS X and iLife is why I love it so much.
I know that there are other free services out there that each emulate one or a few pieces of .Mac, but from having played around with Flickr/Picassa, google calendar, gDisk, etc, the experience hasn't been worth the whole $6/month I'd be saving if I ditched .Mac
If you use Firefox you can use Google Browser Sync to keep all your bookmarks and website passwords in sync. If you use GMail (or any other webmail service) you don't need to sync your address book because you don't use it, you use Gmail (or whatever) contacts.
As previously said... Syncing automatically on multiple Macs (set to run every hour) is invaluable for me... Just means I could have spent all night working on the iMac 24 then just pick up the Mac Air in the morning and dash off out and have EVERYTHING in sync. Yes I know you can sync bookmarks etc with Google etc.. but its a manual task and doesn't do your system preferences and all the other things that .Mac does
AND ... if I have forgotten something I just use Back To My Mac and view any of my Macs on the screen in front of me
AND ... if I have forgotten something I just use Back To My Mac and view any of my Macs on the screen in front of me
I had tried .Mac on the first 60 days free period.
The basic thing puts me off -- response time and bandwidth.
I created my website using iWeb and published to .Mac and a Synology Disk Station (http://www.synology.com) sitting under my table. I have 6MB downlink and 1MB uplink.
Comparing the response of the iWeb composed site, my own website performs much better while I always stare at blank screen with .Mac.
.Mac hosted website allows you to have user comment and hit rate, also their super secretive widgets. No, I don't use any of those widgets.
I can't find a good enough reason for me to part with my 100 bucks per annum.
The basic thing puts me off -- response time and bandwidth.
I created my website using iWeb and published to .Mac and a Synology Disk Station (http://www.synology.com) sitting under my table. I have 6MB downlink and 1MB uplink.
Comparing the response of the iWeb composed site, my own website performs much better while I always stare at blank screen with .Mac.
.Mac hosted website allows you to have user comment and hit rate, also their super secretive widgets. No, I don't use any of those widgets.
I can't find a good enough reason for me to part with my 100 bucks per annum.
