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.Mac not worth the money

dwl017

dwl017

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2007
562
0
Murder Capitol DC
My renewal was at the end of this month and I decied it was just not worth it anymore, over $200 I am using Google Gmail now for free with 1GB of free mail space and just love it. I also went with HostRocket.Com for my hosting needs at a super cheap almost give away monthy fee and there servers are lighting fast! so long .Mac it was nice to know you but not worth my money.

Any one else care to share there .Mac experience, this is not a thread for bashing .Mac I used it for what it was then moved on. I would just like to here a few different opinions.
 
dwl017 said:
My renewal was at the end of this month and I decied it was just not worth it anymore, over $200 I am using Google Gmail now for free with 1GB of free mail space and just love it. I also went with HostRocket.Com for my hosting needs at a super cheap almost give away monthy fee and there servers are lighting fast! so long .Mac it was nice to know you but not worth my money.

Any one else care to share there .Mac experience, this is not a thread for bashing .Mac I used it for what it was then moved on. I would just like to here a few different opinions.
Click to expand...

.Mac certainly is not for everyone, but it works well for me.

It's certainly a waste of $99 if you only use it for e-mail.

I like the fact that I can sync calendars, contacts, bookmarks, e-mail accounts etc. Across my laptop and desktop without even thinking about it.

I use the "Publish to .Mac" with Aperture and iWeb all the time. It's a great way to quickly share images with clients without the muss and fuss of FTP. I also store very important documents (financials) on the iDisk in case there is a fire at home that destroys my normal back up media (external)

I publish calendars to .Mac all the time - friends, family and clients like to see what's going on in my life and this is an easy way to see if I'm free. I have a published calendar for a client that I write for, for example, so they can confirm deadlines with me.

A lot of new Mac users love the learning center videos, and I've used them from time to time for iMovie. Additionally, backup is a good nuts and bolts backup for non tech savvy folks.

Lots of stuff on .Mac, but if you don't use the features, yeah, it's not worth it.
 
i just renewed my .Mac. i was thinking hard about it though because for $69 (or $99) regular price you don't get very much. and recently .Mac or at least the mail was down a lot.

I like the integration with ilife and OSX and the overall convenience. I also have a lot going on in my life right now so i didn't want to switch e-mail adresses, backup plans, website and such. so i renewed.

but i didn't buy extra space although i had planned to. i'll use the next year to slowly set up alternative mail accounts and look for cheap website hosting and online storage. if i'm happy with what i find then "good bye .Mac!".
 
Turkish said:
.Mac certainly is not for everyone, but it works well for me.

It's certainly a waste of $99 if you only use it for e-mail.

I like the fact that I can sync calendars, contacts, bookmarks, e-mail accounts etc. Across my laptop and desktop without even thinking about it.

I use the "Publish to .Mac" with Aperture and iWeb all the time. It's a great way to quickly share images with clients without the muss and fuss of FTP. I also store very important documents (financials) on the iDisk in case there is a fire at home that destroys my normal back up media (external)

I publish calendars to .Mac all the time - friends, family and clients like to see what's going on in my life and this is an easy way to see if I'm free. I have a published calendar for a client that I write for, for example, so they can confirm deadlines with me.

A lot of new Mac users love the learning center videos, and I've used them from time to time for iMovie. Additionally, backup is a good nuts and bolts backup for non tech savvy folks.

Lots of stuff on .Mac, but if you don't use the features, yeah, it's not worth it.
Click to expand...

I have to agree the sync function is probably what I will miss the most.
 
Turkish said:
.Mac certainly is not for everyone, but it works well for me.

It's certainly a waste of $99 if you only use it for e-mail.

I like the fact that I can sync calendars, contacts, bookmarks, e-mail accounts etc. Across my laptop and desktop without even thinking about it.

I use the "Publish to .Mac" with Aperture and iWeb all the time. It's a great way to quickly share images with clients without the muss and fuss of FTP. I also store very important documents (financials) on the iDisk in case there is a fire at home that destroys my normal back up media (external)

I publish calendars to .Mac all the time - friends, family and clients like to see what's going on in my life and this is an easy way to see if I'm free. I have a published calendar for a client that I write for, for example, so they can confirm deadlines with me.

A lot of new Mac users love the learning center videos, and I've used them from time to time for iMovie. Additionally, backup is a good nuts and bolts backup for non tech savvy folks.

Lots of stuff on .Mac, but if you don't use the features, yeah, it's not worth it.
Click to expand...


You bring up a good point and I should clarify that I choose not to renew since I was not using any of the features other then email thanks for the reply.
 
Hopefully they'll make it cheaper and/or better at WWDC :)

A 5GB iDisk would be nice...
 
dwl017 said:
You bring up a good point and I should clarify that I choose not to renew since I was not using any of the features other then email thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if you're using it just for the email, there are plenty of less expensive options out there.

But in regards to the publishing features from the various iLife and other OS X applications, it's invaluable for some non-technical people.

There's no way in hell I could ever explain to my step-mom how to sign up for a hosted web account, register a domain name, and how to have iWeb save her website to a folder that she'll have to manually FTP herself. :eek:
 
psychofreak said:
Hopefully they'll make it cheaper and/or better at WWDC :)

A 5GB iDisk would be nice...
Click to expand...

An iDisk that actually works the way it's supposed to would be nice.

Why does it take forever to find my local iDisk files, even though they're LOCAL?

Why does it not sync half the time when I tell it to sync manually? Sure, eventually it "catches up," but that's not the point.

Usually when I really need iDisk is when I'm working on my desktop and I need to head out with my laptop and access the same files. If iDisk doesn't sync right away, then it's practically useless.
 
aristobrat said:
Yeah, if you're using it just for the email, there are plenty of less expensive options out there.

But in regards to the publishing features from the various iLife and other OS X applications, it's invaluable for some non-technical people.

There's no way in hell I could ever explain to my step-mom how to sign up for a hosted web account, register a domain name, and how to have iWeb save her website to a folder that she'll have to manually FTP herself. :eek:
Click to expand...

These defenses of .mac really make me groan. Sure, there are useful things in .mac ... I've kept it for four years and probably can't leave because it's my main e-mail and I hate switching e-mail. And all the other stuff is nice.

But still ... it's absurdly priced when compared to other products out there. If Google and Yahoo can offer their services for free, why not Apple? Isn't it an incentive to buy and use iLife and iWork?
 
I'd drop $500 for OS X Server instantly if it had all of the features of .Mac.

$99 a year? Neh.
 
I have had a .mac account since it was free and a paid account for as long as one could pay for it.

I recently got a family pack so that my wife could have her own .mac space to upload pictures via iWeb.

Now I am using a flickr pro account for photos and will almost certainly go back to a single user .mac account. She uses hotmail for email and is happy with it (I have no idea why, she has been using hotmail for over 9 years). I'll get her a flickr pro account of her own or share mine.

I will keep .mac for email. I like having secure IMAP email. I like the web interface to .mac email for when I am not at my computer. I like having an email account that is not tied to where I work or what ISP I have. Lastly I don't want to manage my own email server. I have not paid $99 for my yearly fee for a long time. I always manage to get a discounted rate. $69 or so.

My $0.02
 
chicagdan said:
These defenses of .mac really make me groan. Sure, there are useful things in .mac ... I've kept it for four years and probably can't leave because it's my main e-mail and I hate switching e-mail. And all the other stuff is nice.

But still ... it's absurdly priced when compared to other products out there. If Google and Yahoo can offer their services for free, why not Apple? Isn't it an incentive to buy and use iLife and iWork?
Click to expand...
Google and Yahoo's services aren't offered for free.

They may appear free to you because advertisers are paying what you'd normally pay (in return for their ads being displayed to you when you read your email or to you and others who visit your free Yahoo GeoCities website), but it's not like Google/Yahoo are giving you free email just to be charitable.

iLife comes free with Macs, and I see no incentive that .Mac gives people to pay to upgrade it. I haven't messed with iWork, but I haven't heard of any way it uses .Mac.

And I don't understand why bringing up the "defense" that for less-technical people, .Mac really makes a lot of things possible that they wouldn't otherwise be able to pull off on their own makes you groan.
 
If they gave a free .Mac account with your new mac, it would be a great incentive, and not cost them that much (most people wouldn't switch from their current e-mail, use much of the iDisk or sync, especially if they were not going to buy it)...imagine every mac owner that wants one could have a free iWeb website, and an easy way to upload photos from iPhoto...

Anyway, its not $99 really, you can get it from Amazon for $79 :)
 
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I recently purchased .Mac and so far, I've only used the email client. But saying that, I don't use Calender, or have any Contacts etc.

I really should start using them...

But the 1GB combined email/iDisk storage is pretty good.
 
i think that i read somewhere (and people, feel free to shoot me down on this), that you'll be able to sync your dashboard widgets on every mac you use, along with other finder preferences [edit]when leopard is released[/edit]? don't know about you, but if all my settings were the same on every computer i used (i have 3 macs in 3 locations, 2 of which get used on a daily basis), then i'd pay for it in a second (and it's AUD$139 here).

mind you, because of my work, apple have very generously donated me a free account for as long as i work here, so i guess my point is a bit pointless...
 
I am the original poster of the this thread and thought I would post a few more thoughts now that I have been away from .Mac for a few days and getting used to my Google suite which is very Mac friendly.

Gmail 2.8GB of free space and growing every day :)
20MB!! Attachment limit wow! :)
Google Calendar online sharing :)
Google Picasa Web Albums with iPhoto Plugin to export directly from iPhoto :) 1GB of free space :)
Google Checkout eComerce * I actually use this free service also which allows me to process credit cards payemnts through my web site :)

Yeah I will admit I miss the sync compenet of .Mac but thats about it so far considering what I am getting for free :)

Check out the full line of free Google services below.

http://www.google.com/options/
 
.Mac To Receive Substantial Upgrades Next Month?

.Mac To Receive Substantial Upgrades Next Month
During today’s ‘All Things Digital‘ appearance with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs was criticized by host Walt Mossberg for not paying attention to its .Mac strategy. Jobs in response, quickly admitted the company’s faux-pas in terms of its .Mac history.
“I couldn’t agree more, and we’ll make up for lost time in the near future.”
Make up for lost time? That statement sounds like a guarantee promise for a much more substantial upgrade than last year’s overhaul of .Mac’s mail application, which finally received a Web 2.0 facelift in October.
In addition, this is the second time this month, that Steve Jobs has publicly recognized .Mac’s shortcomings. During Apple’s annual shareholders meeting on May 11th, Steve Jobs Jobs admitted that .Mac had fallen behind. “We have not achieved our full potential,” he said, adding that the company planned to soon release a new set of initiatives for .Mac.
Jobs also indicated that Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference would shed more light on the subject next month. As a matter of fact, Apple has already announced some new features for .Mac in Leopard, including the syncing of Dashboard items across multiple Macs.
In the meantime, what could Apple do to improve the .Mac experience? For starters, it needs to increase the storage capacity to match competitors such as Google while at the same time lowering its annual fees. Furthermore, Leopard needs to take full advantage of .Mac and tightly integrate the service within the operating system and Apple’s forthcoming iPhone. Last but not least, Apple needs to fully open .Mac to third party developers. Yes, some applications already do take advantage of basic .mac features (such as backup), however, developers need to be able to tightly integrate their products into the service to make it a truly exciting experience.
Whatever Apple decides to do with .Mac, I think it’s safe to assume that we will see some substantial upgrades to the service by WWDC in June.
Click to expand...

http://www.theapplepress.com/?p=96
 
dwl017 said:
I am the original poster of the this thread and thought I would post a few more thoughts now that I have been away from .Mac for a few days and getting used to my Google suite which is very Mac friendly.

Gmail 2.8GB of free space and growing every day :)
20MB!! Attachment limit wow! :)
Google Calendar online sharing :)
Google Picasa Web Albums with iPhoto Plugin to export directly from iPhoto :) 1GB of free space :)
Google Checkout eComerce * I actually use this free service also which allows me to process credit cards payemnts through my web site :)

Yeah I will admit I miss the sync compenet of .Mac but thats about it so far considering what I am getting for free :)

Check out the full line of free Google services below.

http://www.google.com/options/
Click to expand...
Ow, wow... I never realized Google offered so much. Like you, I have decided not to renew my .Mac subscription... but unlike you, mine's still good until December 23, 2007. Thanks for the link, I will definitely look into those offerings.

On the subject of .Mac, it doesn't really do me much good now that I have my own domain name, email, and a way to sync my bookmarks. Those were the features of .Mac I actually used.
 
chicagdan said:
These defenses of .mac really make me groan. Sure, there are useful things in .mac ... I've kept it for four years and probably can't leave because it's my main e-mail and I hate switching e-mail. And all the other stuff is nice.

But still ... it's absurdly priced when compared to other products out there. If Google and Yahoo can offer their services for free, why not Apple? Isn't it an incentive to buy and use iLife and iWork?
Click to expand...

Prepare to groan more! :D

I love .mac for most of the same reasons listed elsewhere. I also like getting the free jam packs and other stuff for mac apps. It's easy, pretty hassle-free stuff. yes, i probably could find it elsewhere for free in dozens of different places, but for me, it's worth $99 to avoid the hassle. It's also amazing how many people when they see my email address ask if I work for Appel - that's cool by itself. For $99, I think I get a great deal because I use all the features.
 
I think the photo publishing, iWeb and calendar-sharing services are great. Easy to use and good-enough looking not to be embarrassed. I love being able to take 20 minutes to build something and then email the link to my relatives. Impresses the heck out 'em to.

Plus, the email address is nice. My last one was unspacy.org (for you Macross fans) and I wanted something with at least as much cache'.

[edit]
Also, I can't *wait* to see what Apple comes up with next month. Elegant, seamless and useful, doubtlessly.
 
I like the .mac features in general, but the mail needs a serious overhaul. No Junkmail controls, no rules? Unless I have overlooked them.
 
I have had a great experience with .mac in the last year+. (the sounds of groaning are filling the virtual room!) I know I am overpaying for it a little, but I use almost every part of .Mac:

I use iWeb to post web pages
I post pics (and movies) for grandparents
I sync iCal with four comptuers
I sync bookmarks between 2 computers
I sync address book between 3 computers
I use the .Mac email for myself and my wife and use many alias emails as well.
I use Backup to back up two different Macs to my online space for my smaller files and such (stickies, bookmarks, iCal calendars, etc.)
I use Backup to back up to DVD every few months to keep files off site.
I will use Backup to back up two computers to an external HD starting next week.


So all in all I feel like I am getting my moneys worth now that I list everything that I use.

I do miss the freebies they used to do.

I am looking forward to the new integrations into Leopard and whatever else SJ has up his sleeve. I think they lost sight of .Mac and they are seeing many people leaving .Mac therefore they are changing things. I think many are right- they should use it similar to the iTunes strategy- give away .Mac email for free, charge minimal charges for the extra services and it would reap the rewards of having some great free or lower cost benefits to owning a Mac! If people could sync and backup for free along with other things more people might migrate to the Mac. We could call it the .Mac effect!
 
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