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.Mac...is it the best option for me?

question fear

question fear

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 10, 2003
2,277
84
The "Garden" state
I am getting tired of gmail...I like it a lot as a web interface, but the organizational system (or lack thereof) is driving me nuts. I am looking into imap-based email as an alternative since it will allow me to create folders on my iphone, where I tend to respond to most of my personal email, plus I can use folders either on the web interface or in mail app, which I abandoned because I was never quite thrilled with how it played with gmail.

I signed up for a free 60 day trial of .Mac, which appealed to me for 3 reasons:
1) Plenty of storage.
2) Ease of use with iphone and my mac.
3) Integration with iweb and the ease of being able to make a simple blog for myself. I know I can do this on other blog sites for free, but I like iweb.

Is this worth 99.95, or would I be better off buying a domain name and imap email from somewhere else? If so, who is a good alternative?
 
I can't stand GMail. It has no lay out and just sucks (online). I set it up through Mail and I have no problems now. On the other hand, .Mac is great. Yeah it is $100, but you can get it on eBay for $50. Its great stuff, the iDisk is great and I store tons of stuff.
 
For me, I like .mac because it is transparent to my daily interactions with email, web, and computer and iPod syncing. I have a MacBook, iMac, my iPod, my wife's iPod as well as my office Mac all synced so no matter where I go I have my calendar, email (obviously not on the iPod) and bookmarks from safari. For me .mac works :)

I also have gmail and a yahoo account and use them for signing up for junk. I have never liked either of their online "interfaces" .mac's online email is also very nice, feels like my desktop.

So that is my take... :)
 
How do you go about getting it on eBay? I thought it would just be a registration number or something. Can you buy those $50 ones for subsequent years? How can you tell if it's been used or not?

As for IMAP, I'm using FuseMail and love it. It has gone up in price, and they've told me that I'm locked in at my current rate until I cancel. I hear FastMail is pretty good too, but when I was picking a provider, I decided to go with FuseMail.

I never really visit the site, and frankly, Gmail's is nicer, but using Mail/Thunderbird to access it works out great. I'd drop it though, if Gmail or .mac was IMAP.
 
zim said:
.mac is IMAP

Also, I just got my .mac renewal for $20 off at Amazon :)
Click to expand...

Just looked that up! Looks like a great deal. Is that the newest version or does it not matter? I am giving it two weeks of playing around, running gmail and forwarding it all to .mac to decide which implementation I like better. Already .mac is winning since the gmail POP implementation was so painful...i'd get home from work having replied to a dozen email and read another 5 or 6, only to have to go into gmail and re-read them or archive them all...it was a pain but i did not want everything hitting my phone to get archived since that made even less sense than the system i had going.

So right now I am leaning heavily towards .mac...especially since i am awaiting a gift card from my credit card points for amazon...:) Everyone has been so helpful in providing their thoughts, thank you!
 
question fear said:
Just looked that up! Looks like a great deal. Is that the newest version or does it not matter?
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter. My purchased .mac box is from before the upgrade to 10GBs and the code inside the box worked fine. I went with Amazon vs. EBay out of trust issues. Amazon also offered free shipping :)

question fear said:
I am giving it two weeks of playing around, running gmail and forwarding it all to .mac to decide which implementation I like better. Already .mac is winning since the gmail POP implementation was so painful...i'd get home from work having replied to a dozen email and read another 5 or 6, only to have to go into gmail and re-read them or archive them all...it was a pain but i did not want everything hitting my phone to get archived since that made even less sense than the system i had going.

So right now I am leaning heavily towards .mac...especially since i am awaiting a gift card from my credit card points for amazon...:) Everyone has been so helpful in providing their thoughts, thank you!
Click to expand...

I think that it is still helpful to have the GMail accounts for when you want to give out your email address to questionable services or take part in polls etc.. but there is an alternative—which I do use—with .mac and that is aliases. Aliases enable you to add names to your account without any extra fees. The email to the alias is directed to your .mac account but can be easily filtered. This prevents you from having to use your main email address all the time.
 
zim said:
Doesn't matter. My purchased .mac box is from before the upgrade to 10GBs and the code inside the box worked fine. I went with Amazon vs. EBay out of trust issues. Amazon also offered free shipping :)



I think that it is still helpful to have the GMail accounts for when you want to give out your email address to questionable services or take part in polls etc.. but there is an alternative—which I do use—with .mac and that is aliases. Aliases enable you to add names to your account without any extra fees. The email to the alias is directed to your .mac account but can be easily filtered. This prevents you from having to use your main email address all the time.
Click to expand...

Excellent! thanks for all your help! I am probably going to keep the gmail and just not check it as often if i stick with .mac, because as long as everything remains as instantenous as it has been today it makes sense to have everything archivable on gmail and managed/replied to on .mac. The aliases do look like a good idea for some random spam issues though...
 
davidg4781 said:
How do you go about getting it on eBay? I thought it would just be a registration number or something. Can you buy those $50 ones for subsequent years? How can you tell if it's been used or not?

As for IMAP, I'm using FuseMail and love it. It has gone up in price, and they've told me that I'm locked in at my current rate until I cancel. I hear FastMail is pretty good too, but when I was picking a provider, I decided to go with FuseMail.

I never really visit the site, and frankly, Gmail's is nicer, but using Mail/Thunderbird to access it works out great. I'd drop it though, if Gmail or .mac was IMAP.
Click to expand...

I have bought now 2 years worth of .Mac on eBay. All the subscriptions have never been used and usually they send you an email with all the info and numbers in about 5-10 minutes. I have had no problems with this and its all good. And if anything does happen, contact eBay and you will get your money back.

Infact I just bought my next subscription about 1 hour ago.
 
i'm a recent subscriber to .mac and find the features excellent for my use.. although i may not go down using iWeb sites with it tho ;)

one question i have is with the iCal sync..

my main calendar is on my desktop, and i sync it fine with .mac and also with my macbook.. but i can't seem to actually "see" the calendar entries on the .mac website.. i can't find a way to browse my own calendar online..
which i find strange..

a i missing something?

thanks
 
dalvin200 said:
i'm a recent subscriber to .mac and find the features excellent for my use.. although i may not go down using iWeb sites with it tho ;)

one question i have is with the iCal sync..

my main calendar is on my desktop, and i sync it fine with .mac and also with my macbook.. but i can't seem to actually "see" the calendar entries on the .mac website.. i can't find a way to browse my own calendar online..
which i find strange..

a i missing something?

thanks
Click to expand...

To see it online you have to Publish it, it's an option within iCal. Syncing alone does not allow you to view it online.
 
davidg4781 said:
Wow, I do apologize. I thought .mac was POP. Has it always been IMAP?? Maybe I was thinking of something else.
Click to expand...

Yup, has been IMAP since day one. It was my first IMAP experience and I remember it being a debate as I was so use to POP and couldn't imagine everything being managed online and not downloaded to my computer... I couldn't even function without IMAP now :)
 
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