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MacManiac1224

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 21, 2001
227
0
NY
I am thinking of getting .mac, do you guys think it is worth it? I am only going to be using the e-mail, iDisk, and Anti-virus capabilites. What do you guys think?
 

hugemullens

macrumors 6502a
Dec 15, 2002
604
0
Michigan
its nice to have, but i think i could find a better use for 99 dollars. i got it for 50 when it first came out, i dont know if i will renew at 99 bucks. I'm curious if Panther will bring any tighter intergration with .mac. But most everything .mac gives you can find for free on the net.
 

HasanDaddy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2002
585
27
Los Angeles
.mac is VERY worth it ---

especially if you like to put stuff on the web with convenience

I've got movies, pics, files, etc, all on .mac for my buds to see and download

and it works so easily --- you just load your photos into iPhoto, and make a homepage right there....or the same way in iMovie

I HIGHLY recommend it if you own a Digital Camera and have a high speed internet connection

in addition, you can also put your iCal calendars online, among other things

anyhoo --- get it! It's well worth it if you are going to do all the uses I listed above (and P.S......buy an iPod for backup, don't use .mac for backing up....its too slow for backup, and you'll wanna save your space on there for movies and photos)
 

iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
dont't listen to woodsey, he didnt give you any reason at all. i think .mac is plenty worth it. first you get the idisk, which comes in handy a lot for me. you have a web page, which i designed my own and its great. you can easily add pictures to your web page from iphoto, so wonderful. you also get virex, which is pointless because we dont see virurese in mac land. you get backup software which is probably some of teh best backup software ive used. i can even back up my system prefs to make my computer the way it was before. you also can put your address box and calendar online so you can check it all tiem time. probably my favorite feature is .mac syncing with isync. i can keep my powerbook and powermac always up to date.

iJon
 

JPGR_Fan

macrumors regular
Apr 5, 2003
188
29
St. Louis
With my .Mac e-mail account I have never received any spam. Plus, you will probably be able to choose any address name you wish.

Some think the virus protection is not needed, and/or the particular program is not the best.

The iDisk is slow. If you are used to speed with broadband or new machine, you may not appreciate the slowness.

If they give a freebe that I really like or that saves me money, or if there is a renewal special, I will consider renewing when the time comes.
 

evoluzione

macrumors 68020
definitely worth it.

i've been meaning to get a homepage of sortd online for 5 years, and it wasn't until i got .mac that i finally sorted it out, it was SO easy I thought there must be something wrong... :) it's great also with the iDisk, although it can be slow at times, I've had varied performance out of it, sometimes good though. yeah i'd say if you have a digi camera, and/or high speed internet, get it.

the (occasional) slowness of iDisk is my only (small) complaint.
 

RBMaraman

macrumors 65816
Jul 25, 2002
1,228
39
New Albany, IN
I definitely think .Mac is worth it.

The @Mac.com email works great. It hasn't been down in months.

The Backup software is excellent! It really saved my butt when I had to do a clean install!

The iPhoto integration works great!

Overall, I don't see any downsides to .Mac. Sure, it's a little expensive, but money's really no object to me....
 

dkeninitz

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2003
182
0
Germantown, MD
It's been worth it for me. I bought my first Mac a few months ago, a TiBook, and I use .Mac to share files with my home office desktop PC and with my office PC. I like the convenience of being able to access my files via any computer with Web access.
 

bennetsaysargh

macrumors 68020
Jan 20, 2003
2,367
1
New York
But most everything .mac gives you can find for free on the net.

where are you looking? i can't find all of those features even seperate. please tell me where you can get 100mb of free disc space online for free?
 

Cecret

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2003
78
0
It's less than $10 a month. Let's face it, we pay more for macs to have a more user friendly environment, it's just an extension of that philiosophy. If you can't afford $99 a year then go buy a dell and use hotmail.
 

iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
Originally posted by Cecret
It's less than $10 a month. Let's face it, we pay more for macs to have a more user friendly environment, it's just an extension of that philiosophy. If you can't afford $99 a year then go buy a dell and use hotmail.
now that was kind of uncalled for, i have a couple of friends who have saved up money forever to buy a mac, just beacuse you have a mac doesnt mean you are rich.

iJon
 

bennetsaysargh

macrumors 68020
Jan 20, 2003
2,367
1
New York
Originally posted by iJon
now that was kind of uncalled for, i have a couple of friends who have saved up money forever to buy a mac, just beacuse you have a mac doesnt mean you are rich.

iJon

totally agree with you there. by no means is me or my family rich. we have a mac because they last, are good and reliable.

i wish i could burn money on a faster mac than 400Mhz, but i can't.
 

Cecret

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2003
78
0
I'm not saying we are all rich, but if you are so cash starved that you can't pay $8 a month (thats $2/week) then you might be better off selling your mac on ebay and buying pc. I also have a 400mhz g4 and don't see a new mac in my future for at least the next few years. But, to me, I would rather eat at home one more day a week and have my .mac account than dealing with yahoo or hotmail not to mention all the other services of .mac.
 

bennetsaysargh

macrumors 68020
Jan 20, 2003
2,367
1
New York
ok. it sounded like you were being offensive.
sorry about that.

i want to get .Mac,but my parents won't let me "waste my money" on it.

also, im on a g3:p
 

iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
Originally posted by Cecret
I'm not saying we are all rich, but if you are so cash starved that you can't pay $8 a month (thats $2/week) then you might be better off selling your mac on ebay and buying pc. I also have a 400mhz g4 and don't see a new mac in my future for at least the next few years. But, to me, I would rather eat at home one more day a week and have my .mac account than dealing with yahoo or hotmail not to mention all the other services of .mac.
well you have to have internet to begin with to use the mail feature of .mac, so that means you have to have an email, so i dont know where hot mail came into this. 8 bucks a month isnt a lot, but this thread isnt about who can afford .mac, its about is it worth it. and for 8 bucks a month may not be worth .mac for some people.

iJon
 

mac15

macrumors 68040
Dec 29, 2001
3,099
0
.mac is very much worth it. Soon I think apple will bundle .mac onto your computer when you buy it. As a ploy to sell more
 

Cecret

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2003
78
0
All I'm saying is that it is worth it. It's like buying a song from itms. 99cents may sound like a lot, but when you think about it, we all spend at least 5 bucks a day on thinks that we really don't need but are conveint.
 

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
I can't imagine a possible reason that I would ever, under any circumstances, use a .mac account for anything. e mail- get it through isp at home, school network at college. virus- never gotten a virus, and I'd use norton if I were worried. idisk- the coolest feature as far as I can tell, but I would never use it. backup software- I have no problem backing up on an external HD.

There may be more to .mac, but I really don't care. The most useless release in apple's history, IMHO. I'm not even activating the free 2 months I can get with my new ibook. There's simply nothing there that I would ever use.
 

Chad4Mac

macrumors 6502
Apr 20, 2002
299
0
Los Angeles
.mac is worth it, and I think that if you don't have it, you are truely missing out on the total Mac experience.

I have a little digital camera that I take everywhere, and I can plug it into my mac, and in no time the photos are edited and on the web or emailed out to friends and family. I have used this feature countless of times and I don't know what I would do without it :)

Same with some of the short and funny movie clips that I have -- they're on my .mac homepage so all my peeps can see it.

Email works so well, in combo with iCal and Address Book. iDisk is little slow, but not too bad. Backup is a blessing...

...it's just worth it and if you break it down to 8 bucks a month, well, it's really not expensive.

Just try the trial...

Chad4Mac
 

jholzner

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2002
1,385
21
Champaign, IL
Well, I really like it and plan to renew when the time comes. I use the online address book all the time and has been a live saver a time or two...when i NEEDED a number...I would have been SOL if I didn't have it. Plus I love their webmail and IMAP support.
 

Chimaera

macrumors regular
Nov 15, 2002
181
0
Its all relative, for some people the feature are worth it, for some they are not - for example I personally do not use .mac and will not either, but this is mainly because I and some friends rent a co-lo in a data center for about the same amount a month each, but the machine is ours to do with as we please, meaning we run what we want and when.

As for the simplicity stuff, well me and mine are all well above average in terms of computer literacy, much like most of the users here - photo albums I handle using a combination of iPhoto (quickest way for tasks like rotating photos and so on) and then run them through a java app called Jalbum which will render a *very* nice photo album from a template, which is also fairly easy to modify.

Other advantages? well we have a lot of choice in what software we run, and much more generous filestore allocations - we each have 5gig as opposed to .macs 100meg. In fact, the only thing we *don't* get is Virex protection, but then I get that through work anyway, and the rest of my computers (all PCs bar one mac) are norton'd up (unlike with macs, Norton is about the best there is on PCs).

But all that doesn't change the fact that I would find the .mac services useful, I just found a better alterrnative with a group of like-minded friends :)
 

Riko19

macrumors member
Mar 5, 2003
97
0
Warrington UK
Very good do far on trial

hey guess what yes im a mac switcher ive been playing about with my powerbook 17incher for a month now.
I think that the .mac account is very sleak in design and runs very smooth, very easy interface dont you think? well i think i will purchase it but i do tink it is a bit steep.

Then again im newish to these.....anyone know any good like mic chat rooms or cam chat rooms im thinking i cant think of any that work with mac the msn dont mic chat and yahoo doesnt have the voice button so it is rather odd.

as for everything else i got all adobe products on it and even office.

Happy here :)

overall:get.mac if u can its worth getting!
 

5300cs

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2002
1,862
0
japan
I think just the email itself is almost worth it. I never get spam EVER. They must be doing something right.

iDisk is cool and really easy to use, but if you don't have fast internet, better stock up on Tylenol 'cause it's a slow train to Migrane-ville.

Hotmail needs to roll over and DIE. Or it should be dragged out into the street, rocked, shot and then spit on. I joined Hotmail when it was at only 200,000 members and it was great. It's a perfect example of how M$ mounts everything it takes over and fricks it to death.

Yahoo! wasn't too bad when I used it.

Overall I think $100 isn't that bad.
 

davy the bunny

macrumors regular
Jan 9, 2003
156
0
Dallas
*homepage? - I've got a hosted website from Catalog.com

*Virus Protection - I've never known anyone with a Mac who has gotten a virus so for me that's a non-issue, I'm not saying it won't ever happen but. . .

*Automatic File Backup - (can't touch that one, but I know that there are competing products, heck if you look into it you can write your own script to do this with a double click of the mouse)

*iDisk online Storage and File sharing - I can ftp to my website at any time, simply using any web browser.

*.Mac Mail - Neither my ISP's mail nor my website's mail ever get spammed

*Calendar Publishing - Try iCalX

edit: also, I must say that I'm one of those people that had to save up for months to get my mac. Maybe you can't understand how much a question of "worth" may mean, but to some it is a huge deal.
 
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