I signed up for the free trial of .Mac. I know I get an email address, but what other cool stuff can I do with .Mac? I certainly don't think an email account with a 50mb limit is worth $99 a year, so there must be other really awesome stuff right?
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Advantages of .Mac?
- Thread starter Razorhog
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well, you signed for a trail account and you didn't inform yourself about it? 
look at http://www.apple.com/dotmac/ and you will see what you get with a registered account.
50mb is trial and the email adress is just one feature.
you can sync your application preferences with .mac and save all your settings (mail accounts, ical, safari bookmarks and many more, inclusive 3rd party apps that includes this feature).
if you register you will get 1GB of space so the idisk will get usefull.
i just reinstalled osx because i got a new hdd. i just typed in my .mac name and password and all stuff that i automatically saved to .mac was there again. i think it's very usefull.
i also play with the thoughts to buy the registered account, too. but 99 is a bit too much i think.
look at http://www.apple.com/dotmac/ and you will see what you get with a registered account.
50mb is trial and the email adress is just one feature.
you can sync your application preferences with .mac and save all your settings (mail accounts, ical, safari bookmarks and many more, inclusive 3rd party apps that includes this feature).
if you register you will get 1GB of space so the idisk will get usefull.
i just reinstalled osx because i got a new hdd. i just typed in my .mac name and password and all stuff that i automatically saved to .mac was there again. i think it's very usefull.
i also play with the thoughts to buy the registered account, too. but 99 is a bit too much i think.
Ditto on going to Apple.com to find out all of the benefits.
Also, I never pay more than 40USD for .mac , I can always find it for cheap on eBay.
Also, I never pay more than 40USD for .mac , I can always find it for cheap on eBay.
I briefly read about it, but this is my first Mac and I was eager to play with other things.
I like the idea of syncing files, but this is the only Mac I own and the only one I use.
What do you mean you think about buying a registered account? Can you use the trial indefinitely or something?
I like the idea of syncing files, but this is the only Mac I own and the only one I use.
Markleshark said:Personally I think its just an expensive email address...
personally i love my e-mail address, much better then the crud you get from Yahoo or Hotmail , someuser123892@hotmail.com
the Mac e-mail address looks better on C.V's and business cards i think
I keep my .Mac account if only because it's the only POP mail account I've got that works no matter where I am for both sending and receiving e-mail. I'm not entirely sure why this is so, but my domain-based mail servers cannot be accessed for sending e-mail anywhere but from my home IP.
Markleshark said:Personally I think its just an expensive email address...
Agreed.
The features are skimpy and the price is ridiculous.
You can get 10x (or more!) features elsewhere at a fraction of that price.
I've got *unlimted* email address for the domain of my choice, unlimited SQL databases, php, tech support, ftp/sftp, automatic script installation, and hundreds of features I never use.
All for $30 a year.
liketom said:
Although I do agree. I don't have that problem. markleshark [at] gmail [dot] com baby... Can't beat an invite 2 days after it opens
But I really do think its just a hugely over priced email account. I'd rather backup onto my external drive and use my Gmail. That costs me... Nothing a year...
Razorhog said:
No you can't. I registered a trail account that will expire in 12 days or so. Now I'm thinking about buying the full account but I'm not sure for now because of the 99...
Just not understanding you, Krestfallen. You are using .Mac, but you are thinking about buying a registered account. Are you still in the trial period?
EDIT: Bah, you must have answered my question while I was typing this post
I find the only real advantage of .Mac is some of the OS X and iLife integration. The rest you can get cheaper and better elsewhere. I signed up last year and I wont be renewing. Thats not to say its bad, I just didnt use it.
Its good for novice users who want to create their first blog or try out podcasting or something, but anyone who knows their stuff will know of other more flexible means to the same end.
My advice would be to hang fire till the trial expires and ask yourself "could I live without it?"
The answer is probably yes.
Its good for novice users who want to create their first blog or try out podcasting or something, but anyone who knows their stuff will know of other more flexible means to the same end.
My advice would be to hang fire till the trial expires and ask yourself "could I live without it?"
The answer is probably yes.
This is a hard decision...pros and cons:
I like the seamless posting of webpages and photos when using iWeb and iPhoto in conjunction with .Mac.
I like having a name@mac.com email addy
I like the sync feature, but I only have one Mac at the moment.
I like how Mail works with the .Mac email account
I don't like the cost...I just spent a fortune on the iMac
I don't like the fact that I cannot use iWeb to seamlessly publish to my current blogspot blog
I like the seamless posting of webpages and photos when using iWeb and iPhoto in conjunction with .Mac.
I like having a name@mac.com email addy
I like the sync feature, but I only have one Mac at the moment.
I like how Mail works with the .Mac email account
I don't like the cost...I just spent a fortune on the iMac
I don't like the fact that I cannot use iWeb to seamlessly publish to my current blogspot blog
The syncing feature is great for me since I have two macs, three in the house. However, as everyone is saying, I'm not sure even $40 is worth it just for syncing. and an email address. If it's webspace you need, there are plenty of hosting companies that will give you much more for much less.
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i think most of us think that the .mac service is too expensive for what you get.
of course there a services that are cheaper and you get more than one gig of space. but .mac has the great sync feature for backups, webpage-hosting and the possibility to access all that files via http.
i just know services where you can get webspace (via ftp) or webspace for filehosting where you just can access the files via their webpage.
is there another solution where we can do all that .mac stuff with something else?
i think about a tool that creates backups of your chosen files and that uploads them periodically and automatically...
of course there a services that are cheaper and you get more than one gig of space. but .mac has the great sync feature for backups, webpage-hosting and the possibility to access all that files via http.
i just know services where you can get webspace (via ftp) or webspace for filehosting where you just can access the files via their webpage.
is there another solution where we can do all that .mac stuff with something else?
i think about a tool that creates backups of your chosen files and that uploads them periodically and automatically...
IJ Reilly said:
That's because .Mac's SMTP server authenticates with a user name and password, just like POP servers do, and almost all ISPs restrict their SMTP servers to be accessible only to clients within the subnets they own, though IIRC Earthlink changed their STMP servers to act more like .Mac's. This is all in the name of spam-fighting, of course.
I don't think SMTP authentication was ever officially part of the STMP specification, but more and more clients and servers are adding support for it to give mobile users the flexibility to send mail through their regular servers from outside locations, while protecting against hijacking by spammers. I think the whole POP/SMTP system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, but that's another thread.
The sync services alone make .Mac worth it for me. Creating open APIs for third party developers in Tiger was a masterful move. That, and I've had my mac.com email address for so long, it's a hard habit to break. iDisk is a pretty handy way to post files to friends and clients who are not quite so tech savvy. And I guess the free VersionTracker Plus account is a nice little icing on the cake.
It might be hard to find a bargain .Mac renewal on eBay right now: the vast majority of .Mac users' accounts come up for renewal in the September/October timeframe, so the bargains have largely disappeared. Any other time of year you can buy it for fairly cheap.
I made a quick webpage with iWeb last night, and it was rediculously easy. The way it and other programs interact with .Mac might make it worth while for me.
A side note about smtp - I have another thread about this, but I was having problems using smtp.mac.com from home. Turns out my ISP (SBC/AT&T) blocks port 25. Luckily smtp.mac.com also works on port 587, so all you have to do is change the port in Mail preferences.
A side note about smtp - I have another thread about this, but I was having problems using smtp.mac.com from home. Turns out my ISP (SBC/AT&T) blocks port 25. Luckily smtp.mac.com also works on port 587, so all you have to do is change the port in Mail preferences.
I like my @mac.com email, isync integration is very helpful, its nice tobe able create a quick webpage from iphoto, backup software is very nice and robust enough for most people, i like the free garageband jampacks to play with because i have no musical talents, if you are new they have a bunch of online tutorial to all sort of things mac related
also with email i have created a bunch of email aliases that i will use selectively and if junk mail start coming to those aliases i just delete it. I think the aliases are a godsend
also with email i have created a bunch of email aliases that i will use selectively and if junk mail start coming to those aliases i just delete it. I think the aliases are a godsend
