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Apple to Discontinue .Mac HomePage and Groups
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The best way to kill any computer service is to keep changing it
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.
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.
i got an email about both. i did used to use the groups. i liked it. i wish they would replace them with something
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.
My distain for the ME generation.....
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
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
+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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
There's absolutely nothing in there that can't be had for free elsewhere, even worse, some of the free apps are better!
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 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.
I would still be nice to have an official response from Apple, perhaps by updating the FAQ or creating a new one.
Calm Down
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 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*.
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.
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.
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.
have you considered that they got rid of those parts because few folks are using them compared to the whole of the members.
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.
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.
iphoto.
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.
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.)