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.Mac is supposed to be your digital life on the web
I think many people buy a .Mac subscription for the wrong reason and then they feel ripped off. It shouldn't be seen as an email service with so many space for so much money and that's bad. It is more like the digital hub on the web for creative professionals that use apple computers. As this product has been matured over the time, I still think it lacks just a little bit to actually be the hub for your digital life on the internet. Let's see what it actually offers:
a) Email
It offers a basic email account, accessible through POP3 and IMAP4 standards, offers 250-1GB of space, a neat web interface to access it when not at home, forwarding, email aliasing, no advertising, junkmail filter, spellchecker, and neat integration into the Mac OS X mail application.
How does it measure up: Competitors do offer more space, and larger attachments, but that's not all that is to email. Unparalleled is the integration between desktop email and web based email and the fact that you can assign email aliases, that virtually represent identities. I have not seen that anywhere else.
Room for Improvement: No WAP service. There is a workaround to forward to something to like yahoo.com and then use their WAP service, however this is not satisfying.
b) Addressbook
.Mac features a web based addressbook that syncs with your desktop computer. Through iSync, it even sync's to you cellphone. It is probably one of the strongest features in .Mac, as it provides true multiple device syncronisation to the point that you don't have think about whether you have an addressbook entry available and uptodate or not.
How does it measure up: There is not many other services that integrate an addressbook to as many platforms and devices as .Mac does. Yahoo and MSN are in my opinion the runner-up's as they provide the branded intellisync application that allows you to sync with outlook. However the intellisync app does not sync to as many devices as iSync does.
Room for improvement: The address book should have a windows counterpart. There should be the opportunity to sync from .Mac into outlook. A lot of people have Mac's at home and PC's at work.
c) Bookmarks
The .Mac bookmarks feature lets you synchronize your browser bookmarks to your .Mac account, where it becomes accessible through a web interface. Also, if you have a 2nd mac computer, you can synchronize the bookmarks from .Mac to it. It delivers true bookmark synchronization between multiple computers (Macs) and a web interface.
How does it measure up: No other service as a service that lives up to the one that .Mac provides. Other contenders, such as MSN or Yahoo, have bookmarks stored on the web, however, you have to import/export your computers bookmarks in a separate step everytime you want to update it. There is no synchronization possible. MSN has a bookmark synchronization service that is close to the .Mac implementation, however, it works only with the MSN browser and has no web interface for access to it when no MSN browser is present.
Room for improvement: Interesting to see here is, again, the windows counterpart for the sync. If you were able to sync your bookmarks from .Mac into your PC web browser that would be tremendous.
d) Homepage
Homepage is a service that provides an easy way for the creative professional to publish a neat looking website and maintain it without using any 3rd party design software. Due to the template driven approach, people can rapidly create professional looking pages. Also, .Mac provides webspace from 100MB up to close to 1GB to place your files into.
How does it measure up: I haven't seen anything coming close to this service out there, in terms of ease of use, integration to the OS, and professional appearance. Geocities, tripod, etc. do offer similar services, however they are not as template driven as Homepage is, and they need far more technical knowledge in order to achieve results.
Room for improvements: As this product recently has been made "windows" compatible, my improvement request for this would be to add more backend and script based pages. It would be nice to have templates with certain logic behind them such as a guest book, a forum, and custom asp or php or even webobjects scripting.
e) iCal
Nice calendaring application that allows you to create multiple calendars and share them across the web. .Mac also offers a web based viewer application to display your calendars, however does not provide edit functionality.
How does it measure up:: It is not as powerful as e.g. outlook or yahoo calendars, however, provides the step into the right direction of future calendaring. Yahoo calendars have the ability to be edited when synchronized through yahoo's branded intellisync application, which poses an advantage over the iCal solution. MSN has a similar solution to integrate with outlook and their msn browser.
Room for improvements: The application iCal has some flaws in terms of usability, often times cumbersome to operate, and lacks true group calendaring functionality. There is no application on the windows side that is truly compatible. The closesed app to iCal that also provides (limited) access to iCal calendar files, is Mozilla Thunderbird.
f) Miscellaneous Apps
iDisk is a great utility to store files for transfer between physically distributed locations. Note here that there is a windows version of this available, and it is based on the WebDAV standart.
iCards doesn't quite live up to what hallmark or yahoo greetings bring, but it is a nice addition to the package and well appreciated.
Backup is very nice, however, shouldn't be a .Mac only option. I use it to backup files and folders and app data to my .Mac account as a 3rd failover option. I also use backup to use my ipod as an external media. Leaving out e.g. the itunes library can shrink the amount of data being backed up to the size that may fit on a .Mac idisk account.
Virex does its job when it comes to virus scanning on the mac platform. However, there is no eMail virus scan features implemented, yet.
Summary:
.Mac is a suite worthwhile of Internet/Desktop apps that make your transition to a "digital Life" possible. It lacks in a few points here and there, but if used appropriatly, it can even be used as a PDA replacement. I wish Apple would put more effort into platform integration, possible introduce windows counterparts of their apps, or maybe partner with yahoo or google to integrate more web based information services and evolve to the true personal web portal that you live your iLife in...
I think many people buy a .Mac subscription for the wrong reason and then they feel ripped off. It shouldn't be seen as an email service with so many space for so much money and that's bad. It is more like the digital hub on the web for creative professionals that use apple computers. As this product has been matured over the time, I still think it lacks just a little bit to actually be the hub for your digital life on the internet. Let's see what it actually offers:
a) Email
It offers a basic email account, accessible through POP3 and IMAP4 standards, offers 250-1GB of space, a neat web interface to access it when not at home, forwarding, email aliasing, no advertising, junkmail filter, spellchecker, and neat integration into the Mac OS X mail application.
How does it measure up: Competitors do offer more space, and larger attachments, but that's not all that is to email. Unparalleled is the integration between desktop email and web based email and the fact that you can assign email aliases, that virtually represent identities. I have not seen that anywhere else.
Room for Improvement: No WAP service. There is a workaround to forward to something to like yahoo.com and then use their WAP service, however this is not satisfying.
b) Addressbook
.Mac features a web based addressbook that syncs with your desktop computer. Through iSync, it even sync's to you cellphone. It is probably one of the strongest features in .Mac, as it provides true multiple device syncronisation to the point that you don't have think about whether you have an addressbook entry available and uptodate or not.
How does it measure up: There is not many other services that integrate an addressbook to as many platforms and devices as .Mac does. Yahoo and MSN are in my opinion the runner-up's as they provide the branded intellisync application that allows you to sync with outlook. However the intellisync app does not sync to as many devices as iSync does.
Room for improvement: The address book should have a windows counterpart. There should be the opportunity to sync from .Mac into outlook. A lot of people have Mac's at home and PC's at work.
c) Bookmarks
The .Mac bookmarks feature lets you synchronize your browser bookmarks to your .Mac account, where it becomes accessible through a web interface. Also, if you have a 2nd mac computer, you can synchronize the bookmarks from .Mac to it. It delivers true bookmark synchronization between multiple computers (Macs) and a web interface.
How does it measure up: No other service as a service that lives up to the one that .Mac provides. Other contenders, such as MSN or Yahoo, have bookmarks stored on the web, however, you have to import/export your computers bookmarks in a separate step everytime you want to update it. There is no synchronization possible. MSN has a bookmark synchronization service that is close to the .Mac implementation, however, it works only with the MSN browser and has no web interface for access to it when no MSN browser is present.
Room for improvement: Interesting to see here is, again, the windows counterpart for the sync. If you were able to sync your bookmarks from .Mac into your PC web browser that would be tremendous.
d) Homepage
Homepage is a service that provides an easy way for the creative professional to publish a neat looking website and maintain it without using any 3rd party design software. Due to the template driven approach, people can rapidly create professional looking pages. Also, .Mac provides webspace from 100MB up to close to 1GB to place your files into.
How does it measure up: I haven't seen anything coming close to this service out there, in terms of ease of use, integration to the OS, and professional appearance. Geocities, tripod, etc. do offer similar services, however they are not as template driven as Homepage is, and they need far more technical knowledge in order to achieve results.
Room for improvements: As this product recently has been made "windows" compatible, my improvement request for this would be to add more backend and script based pages. It would be nice to have templates with certain logic behind them such as a guest book, a forum, and custom asp or php or even webobjects scripting.
e) iCal
Nice calendaring application that allows you to create multiple calendars and share them across the web. .Mac also offers a web based viewer application to display your calendars, however does not provide edit functionality.
How does it measure up:: It is not as powerful as e.g. outlook or yahoo calendars, however, provides the step into the right direction of future calendaring. Yahoo calendars have the ability to be edited when synchronized through yahoo's branded intellisync application, which poses an advantage over the iCal solution. MSN has a similar solution to integrate with outlook and their msn browser.
Room for improvements: The application iCal has some flaws in terms of usability, often times cumbersome to operate, and lacks true group calendaring functionality. There is no application on the windows side that is truly compatible. The closesed app to iCal that also provides (limited) access to iCal calendar files, is Mozilla Thunderbird.
f) Miscellaneous Apps
iDisk is a great utility to store files for transfer between physically distributed locations. Note here that there is a windows version of this available, and it is based on the WebDAV standart.
iCards doesn't quite live up to what hallmark or yahoo greetings bring, but it is a nice addition to the package and well appreciated.
Backup is very nice, however, shouldn't be a .Mac only option. I use it to backup files and folders and app data to my .Mac account as a 3rd failover option. I also use backup to use my ipod as an external media. Leaving out e.g. the itunes library can shrink the amount of data being backed up to the size that may fit on a .Mac idisk account.
Virex does its job when it comes to virus scanning on the mac platform. However, there is no eMail virus scan features implemented, yet.
Summary:
.Mac is a suite worthwhile of Internet/Desktop apps that make your transition to a "digital Life" possible. It lacks in a few points here and there, but if used appropriatly, it can even be used as a PDA replacement. I wish Apple would put more effort into platform integration, possible introduce windows counterparts of their apps, or maybe partner with yahoo or google to integrate more web based information services and evolve to the true personal web portal that you live your iLife in...