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.Mac a success?

Re: Re: 45.00 fo first year is reasonable!

Originally posted by jayscheuerle


.Mac cannot be compared to .NET
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm tired of hearing the let-apple-charge-us-more-money ppl saying "use .NET if you don't like .mac"... Because that just shows how ignorant they are... .NET is not just Hotmail... .NET is not MSN. .NET is a collection of frameworks which allow companies to offer their own Web Services...

.NET is completely different to .Mac

The thing that they've got in common (besides the dot) is that they won't work. Period.

Needless to say I'm not a .Mac sucke.... er......subscriber. Apple comes out with some great products (Jaguar, iBook, eMac, xserve etc.) and they also come out with sh:eek:t products too (Cube, AppleWorks, MacOS 8&9 etc.)
 
Re: think about this

Originally posted by moomin
.MAC is expensive right....

what is it worth.... 20 50 bucks

Soon apple add a new feature, and another and another...


should they charge 20 now and raise it by 10 bucks every time they add a feature...

Of course not

It'll get better and the price will stay the same

If you don't want it thats your choice but I bet by this time next year it'll be a whole lot more enticing....
Click to expand...

ok let's remember this......the price will stay the same........remember.
 
Hmmmm....

Yes, that's what worries me: it's really a leap of faith, and I personally think it's a bit foolish to have faith in corporations. We shall see....
 
when i first heard the .mac announcment, i thought seems fair enough, not anything i will use but still not bad. so some people lost their email accounts, that sucks for them, but they can get an email only for $10 a year.

there is no other service like .mac. some places offer web space, but its not easy to use and integrated like the idisk is. and it is not as cheap.

no one has backup software like .mac. its really nice. it is the only reason i signed up early. i figured $50 for a nice backup app and a free year of .mac.

virus software ... well i dont care about that since im not paranoid, but im sure some people will sleep better at night with free virus protection.

streaming media from your website, and point and click ability to use it and share photos.

sure you can get a shared web host for ~8.30 a month (same as .mac) but all you get is some web space very little bandwidth and access via ftp. and you certainly couldnt stream media on it. you wouldnt get backup software. you wouldnt get virus software. you would have to know how to create a webpage and use ftp to make a website for yourself.

if you actually price it out .mac is an incredible deal even if it is not for you. so if you lost your email account and are angry, i understand. but dont try to pretend .mac isnt giving good services at a good price. and at the discounted first year price you couldnt even get web space for that cheap ($4.16/month).

i think when a lot of you get jaguar and wipe your drive to install it, you will find it sure would have been nice to have good backup software. having 100mb of disk space you can access from anywhere is also pretty nice. (jack you wouldnt have to keep putting stuff on ambitiouslemon.com ;) )

i think the only thing apple could have done is allow people to get email only for $10 without attaching it to someone else's .mac account. but i guess they thought a lot of people would sign up since they wanted to keep their email address and the money from that outweighed upsetting a few people. but i think having people who have .mac email addresses available to be tempted to buy .mac would have been pretty nice. only time will tell if it was a good move by apple, just like the $100 imac price hike which destroyed sales ruining what could have been apple's best selling product ever. many claimed it would benefit apple, but in the end it was a disaster. although i guessed the imac thing would be a disaster i think .mac wont be.
 
.mac Vs .NET

Did anyone read this article on SlashDot
i think i posted this before as well..

"Some columnist recently pointed out that Apple achieved in one stroke everything MS is trying to achieve with .NET, by announcing iCal [apple.com] and iSync [apple.com] last week at MacWorld. Those two programs allow users of Mac OS X Jaguar to connect their PDAs, cell phones and desktop PIM software to a single database and publish them on the Internet, connect with the calendars of others, and resolve conflicts between the two.

In other words, while Microsoft spent two years talking about Web services and technologies, Apple quietly went about actually building them into a program its users will want to use. MS has been announcing and releasing software for other people to build these Web applications, but Apple decided to lead by example instead.

No doubt the next release of Windows will include similar features, and of course they'll be more widely used than Apple's. But just think what might be happening right now if Microsoft had spent as much time creating Web applications for Windows XP as they did promoting them.

If a person could synchronize their PocketPC to their MSN account and Outlook at the same time, then reconcile with all their coworkers' calendars and documents, without having to do anything more than press a button, Microsoft wouldn't need subscriptions to sell the next version of Office or Windows. Instead they settled for getting halfway there so that they could sell more copies of Exchange Server and keep PocketPCs as expensive as humanly possible."
 
Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
sure you can get a shared web host for ~8.30 a month (same as .mac) but all you get is some web space very little bandwidth and access via ftp. and you certainly couldnt stream media on it. you wouldnt get backup software. you wouldnt get virus software. you would have to know how to create a webpage and use ftp to make a website for yourself.
Click to expand...

PowWeb gives you 250 MB Storage, 250 POP3 Email Accounts, 25 GB Transfer, SSL, PHP4, Web-Based E-mail all for $7.77/month

Any website can do http streaming. As far as I can tell, you can't do any different from mac.com.

Better iPhoto Templates and BetterHTMLExport can make websites for you from iPhoto.

Granted, you don't get antivirus, backup or webdav. Although, there are solutions for backup that you can find all over the web.

Actually, I agree with you. .Mac does bring it all together very nicely and it is much more convenient and certainly easier. I just wanted to point out that there are alternatives available to people who don't mind doing a little estra work.
 
like i said you can find web hosting for fairly cheap (although the one you found is by far the cheapest ive seen, and i have to wonder at the quality involved). but for $7 you found something that does only a tiny part of what .mac does.

but i see you arent really disagreeing. just pointing out that cheap web service is available elsewhere. but nothing like .mac really exists. and when compared to services such as you just mentioned it makes it even more amazing that apple is giving us all that and more for just $1 more a month.
 
What about forwarding?

Is there any way to have a mac.com address forwarded after September? Or at _least_ have an auto-reply message sent with a forwarding address??

This would cost Apple essentially nothing, and might mollify those of use that really never used iTools for anything more than email.
 
Someone may have already brought this up, but I think Apple has already offered an e-mail only .Mac account. From .Mac FAQ:

"Q: How do I convert an existing iTools or .Mac trial account into an email-only .Mac account?

With a full .Mac membership, you can purchase up to ten email-only accounts (with 5MB of storage each). You can then assign this email-only account to an existing iTools or .Mac trial account, or create a brand new address.

To purchase additional email-only accounts, go to http://www.mac.com and click Account in the .Mac menu bar. On the Account page, click the Buy Now button next to the available upgrade options. Select the number of additional email-only accounts you'd like to purchase, then click the Upgrade Now button, verify your billing information, and click Buy Now.

To assign the email-only account to an existing iTools or .Mac trial account, click the Email Account Management button. Enter the member name and password of the iTools or .Mac trial account you want to convert, then click Convert. Please note that once a trial account has been converted, all the account's data files (except for email messages) will be removed from Apple's servers. Other .Mac services, such as iDisk, HomePage, Backup, and Virex, are not accessible to email-only accounts."
 
That only applies to paying .Mac members with multiple accounts, unless I'm misunderstanding it.

I'm not going to join .Mac. I can't justify $100, or even $50/yr for a membership I'd only use for email. I'm resigned to losing the mail account, but I hate the thought of someone whom I forgot to give a new address to trying to get a hold of me in a month or two and just get a generic "account closed" reply, which is what I understand will happen.

It wouldn't take much to bounce back a "The new email address is...." note instead, or better yet automatically forward the message.
 
Originally posted by dr koop
That only applies to paying .Mac members with multiple accounts, unless I'm misunderstanding it.
Click to expand...

That's what I'd thought too until I read the last paragraph:

"To assign the email-only account to an existing iTools or .Mac trial account, click the Email Account Management button. Enter the member name and password of the iTools or .Mac trial account you want to convert, then click Convert. Please note that once a trial account has been converted, all the account's data files (except for email messages) will be removed from Apple's servers. Other .Mac services, such as iDisk, HomePage, Backup, and Virex, are not accessible to email-only accounts."

I'm going to try to sign up for an e-mail only account as a test.
 
Yeah, my bad. Now that I'm re-reading it (for the 10th time!) I think it does apply to only those who already have a .Mac account. :(
 
Free .Mac Accounts

They may be including the ton of free acounts they have given away, not sure. You are part of apple learn and earn (including myself) which you can only get if you are part of any authorized apple dealer you can get .mac free. all you have to do is complete the quiz about .mac and get it free for one year. consider that into the 45 percent but i am not really sure.
 
Re: Re: I would sign up but...

Originally posted by iwantanewmac


Don't count on it.
I have ADSL and my oh my it's sloooooooooooww. Did any1 say slow? :)
.slow was/is a good name. Who thought of that?
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adsl is a typical dsl connection is it not?? how can iit be THAT slow...while ill admit my dsl is slower than my parents cable, not by much and actually faster during peak hours (but im only on late at night/early morning or right after classes). please explain wtf adsl is...does it stand fo asymetric digital subscriber line?
 
Re: What about forwarding?

Originally posted by dr koop
Is there any way to have a mac.com address forwarded after September? Or at _least_ have an auto-reply message sent with a forwarding address??

This would cost Apple essentially nothing, and might mollify those of use that really never used iTools for anything more than email.
Click to expand...
while it may be technically feasible, i bet t would be a pain in the ass to collect every individuals mail address, organize them, and be responsble for any mishaps.
 
I know people have tried to clear up this confussion over .mac and .NET. I'd like to refer anyone who's confussed about this to an earlier post I made.

Post

Just to confirm that I should know what I'm on about I'm currently writing my own web service using .NET.

Unfortunately I think the confussion is caused by the term web service where "service" is suffering from homography and homophany (think the spellings right on that).

To make matters worse Microsoft has been naming lots of products blahblahblah.net even if the product has no barring to .NET. M$'s marketing dept has publicly admitted that they have caused lots of problems and confussion.

Anyway to the point, it is too early to say .mac is sucessful. We need to see over a period of time if it truely is hassle free and worth the money.

Anyway that's my 63 cents
 
Re: Re: Re: 45.00 fo first year is reasonable!

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule


the fact is, .mac is not for professionals or probably even prosumer types, which many of the people here are..

if you were to get your own domain, it'd be cheaper. and you'd get more space. and more email addresses..

but would you be able to load your latest vacation photos onto a web page with a few clicks?

now, these prefab web pages aren't great, they're cheesy and easy. that's all. but guess what, the regular consumer generally can't create a web page. so maybe throw a bit more money out as an expense to hire a web designer... then the 99/49 bucks makes more sense.

personally, i consider myself a prosumer type and wouldn't pay for it as of now. but for those who can't make their own pages, etc. it makes sense.

also, i am certain the bandwidth issue is not there when you pay for .mac. anyone confirm this?


i think there should be a free/cheap email only option. but oh well..
Click to expand...


This is the arguement I love to disprove. As a webmaster and web designer dealing in high volume and graphics you'd be hardpressed to find a better deal if you throw up a lot of pictures on your site and have a lot of people view them. Bandwidth is what hosting packages are based on. Sure you can get a site hosted for $5-$10 but you will not have but maybe 1-2gigs of bandwidth. Post one 150k photo on here claiming it to be the new G5 and you will find a bandwidth bill on your next invoice. Average prices per gig of bandwidth are around $8 a gig. So use 2-3 gigs a month and you're looking at close to $30 a month. Times that over 12 months and you'll see that what Apple offers is a pretty good deal.

For your mom or sister that just had a baby and puts her 60 pics on line after using iPhoto to grab and then use .mac emailing announcement out to 15+ family and friends you'll see why $100 a year just for the web site is a good deal. The other apps and features are just candy.

(fyi I do not need or use .mac, just defending those that believe it to be a good deal-like my wife who does have it)
 
Okay, I've read the .mac debate long enough over the past month or so to throw my two cents in.

I purchased the .mac service and I have to say its great! I backup more regularly than I did before. I use the virex program seamlessly in the b.g. I used the idisk to transfer some important files from my old man to my new mac, and have filled most of the 100mb up and am seriously looking at adding more storage.
I'm already using the ical and I enjoyed getting (and using) the game Apple recently surprised me with and I look forward to additional "surprises" coming throughout the year.

I'm really don't understand why people who have spent $1000+ on whatever mac they purchased would want to deny themselves the "expanded Mac experience" that .mac offers for only $49.

As far as itools being free before, well yes it was, but it wasn't near as good as the .mac is now and the old free itools won't be even worth comparing to what I believe .mac will be over the coming year.

There's a lot of extra freebies that mac has given --including itunes, idvd, imovie, iphoto as part of the mac computer system that could have easily been left out and almost all of us would have still bought a mac without them. So lighten up on the .mac thing for $49 - it's worth the money. I'll bet everyone here has blown $50 on much worse things!

For what it's worth.

carlmac
 
I'm in a pretty good position to comment on this, since I both subscribe to .mac and have an active account with PowWeb. They're both useful. They serve different purposes. Independent web hosting (e.g. PowWeb) is about the ability to provide my own services. A value-add service like .mac is about the services they can provide to me. For instance they (now) provide me with a nice WebObjects app for browsing vCal-format calendar files, which keeps me from having to hack one up myself in PHP (though I still have that option if I want).

Actually, the more time goes by, the less ambivalent I am about my decision to go ahead and pay for .mac. I'm actually glad I did, and a lot of that is that I feel like Apple is working really hard to make it worth my money. Admittedly the Bejeweled/Alchemy deal was a big part of making me feel that way. It was a nice little perk out of the blue. And it's probably the knowledge that I paid for it, but I've used the .mac services more than I ever did iTools. It's still early in the program, and they can still easily get lazy and screw it up, but if they can keep up the sense of added value over the long haul they might yet wring that $99 out of me next year.
 
I was just reading gelfin's and carlmac's posts - I'm glad you've got good experiences with .Mac - however, the services are currently only really useful to U.S. users.

Here in the U.K., we get NO telephone support, and disk access speeds are incredibly slow - even on ADSL lines. These problems are apparently to be rectified "sometime next year", according to an Apple spokesperson (MacUser Newsdesk, 06 Sep. 02). Meanwhile, to spend such an amount of money per year for just an email account - until they iron out the bugs for the rest of us - doesn't make sense at all...

...screw 'em.
 
Originally posted by carlmac
I used the idisk to transfer some important files from my old man to my new mac
Click to expand...

I was just wondering how you connected your old man to your idisk? :confused:

My Dad also knows loads of stuff that I'd like to archive on my Mac :D


Dobbin.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: 45.00 fo first year is reasonable!

Originally posted by Kid Red
This is the arguement I love to disprove. As a webmaster and web designer dealing in high volume and graphics you'd be hardpressed to find a better deal if you throw up a lot of pictures on your site and have a lot of people view them. Bandwidth is what hosting packages are based on. Sure you can get a site hosted for $5-$10 but you will not have but maybe 1-2gigs of bandwidth. Post one 150k photo on here claiming it to be the new G5 and you will find a bandwidth bill on your next invoice. Average prices per gig of bandwidth are around $8 a gig. So use 2-3 gigs a month and you're looking at close to $30 a month. Times that over 12 months and you'll see that what Apple offers is a pretty good deal.

For your mom or sister that just had a baby and puts her 60 pics on line after using iPhoto to grab and then use .mac emailing announcement out to 15+ family and friends you'll see why $100 a year just for the web site is a good deal. The other apps and features are just candy.

(fyi I do not need or use .mac, just defending those that believe it to be a good deal-like my wife who does have it)
Click to expand...

i meant less to imply that no pros would find it useful and more to say that for those many pros who need more control over their site design and whatnot, this might not be for them, and they probably have a provider with a domain name and whatnot

so for instance, my company called "My Great Company", if i do a lot of internet stuff, is more likely to have a site called "mygreatcompany.com" than "homepage.mac.com/mygreatcompany"... you know? that's the kind of thing that as far as i know you can't do with .mac



but again, it's useful for people of all levels, just not ALL people in each of those levels. plenty of consumers don't even need the features or they want to do other things.

i think it's a good deal and a great service. so we really agree. :)
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 45.00 fo first year is reasonable!

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule


i meant less to imply that no pros would find it useful and more to say that for those many pros who need more control over their site design and whatnot, this might not be for them, and they probably have a provider with a domain name and whatnot

so for instance, my company called "My Great Company", if i do a lot of internet stuff, is more likely to have a site called "mygreatcompany.com" than "homepage.mac.com/mygreatcompany"... you know? that's the kind of thing that as far as i know you can't do with .mac



but again, it's useful for people of all levels, just not ALL people in each of those levels. plenty of consumers don't even need the features or they want to do other things.

i think it's a good deal and a great service. so we really agree. :)
Click to expand...

Ah, agree on the pros thing, exactly why I don't habve nor need a .mac account. My wife however isn't a pro and does have a .mac account. I think it's obvious Apple is going after the non pro section. Pro or not, I do think they should have packages tho. I'd take the .mac thing with lots of apps and syncing, but don't need the email or necessarily the web space.
 
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