Dot Mac - Some Questions

[Ellen]

Hi, after loving my iMac for a few months I've decided to buy a Macbook and rid myself of my Dell laptop. I will probably buy Dot Mac in any event, but am trying to figure out the extent of some of the features and would appreciate any feedback:

-- Am I right that the synchronization feature won't require that both of my computers be turned on my local network - it's the Internet connection not my network that matters?

-- Will it synchronize:

iTunes library?
Bento database? (I'm buying Bento)
Photos?
Keychain if I use a third party product - 1Password?

-- Can I synchronize other data folders, that store files I create from other applications? (I design patterns for a beading hobby using a third party design program.) I suspect not and suppose I could use the online storage to essentially back up these files, but just wanted to check.

-- I don't need another email address, but is the .mac email just accessible via a Mac as opposed to any Internet connection? I already have a Gmail account and it's convenient to access the mail off my Blackberry and at work where we still (unfortunately) have Dell computers.

Thanks for your patience in reading this post!

 

[Ellen]

Hi, in addition to my questions above, I was also wondering - if I use the 60 day trial that came with my iMac, can I then buy a subscription from Amazon (which is about $70 now) to renew rather than from Apple?

 

[tyr2]

-- Am I right that the synchronization feature won't require that both of my computers be turned on my local network - it's the Internet connection not my network that matters?

Yes correct the synchronization is over the internet.

-- Will it synchronize:

iTunes library?
Bento database? (I'm buying Bento)
Photos?
Keychain if I use a third party product - 1Password?

iTunes - No
Bento - Not sure, check the Bento product documentation
Photos - Not synchronization as such but you can publish to a .Mac web gallery. Or as a 'photocast'.
Keychain with 1Password. Only if 1Password actually stores your passwords in KeyChain. Doesn't 1Password offer some sort of synchronization itself?

-- Can I synchronize other data folders, that store files I create from other applications? (I design patterns for a beading hobby using a third party design program.) I suspect not and suppose I could use the online storage to essentially back up these files, but just wanted to check.

Nope, but as you said you can use iDisk to achieve something similar.

-- I don't need another email address, but is the .mac email just accessible via a Mac as opposed to any Internet connection? I already have a Gmail account and it's convenient to access the mail off my Blackberry and at work where we still (unfortunately) have Dell computers.

IIRC the .Mac account is just an IMAP account so you can access it from whatever client you like. There's a webmail interaface as well.

Hi, in addition to my questions above, I was also wondering - if I use the 60 day trial that came with my iMac, can I then buy a subscription from Amazon (which is about $70 now) to renew rather than from Apple?

Yes that's fine you can always by renewals from wherever you like, you just need the activation code. I got my last one from ebay.