.Mac Update Coming at August 7th Media Event?

[arkmannj]

Because it can host a web site if you choose.

Perhaps they should offer free levels of service and pay-for levels
Example: If iChat is going to require .mac for parts of it to function properly
(Remote Desktop control/sharing. Keynote presentations, etc.)
then the iChat portion should be free. People can pay for web hosting and additional services

 

[AlexisV]

Forget Time Machine...it's utterly pointless... What if the Hard drive dies huh?? What we need is a remote storage like iDisk

Hard drive failures are very rare. And where do you think iDisk actually is? In the sky?

 

[Detlev]

Here's how it's gonna go down.

The new iMac is a full touchscreen interface, like the iPhone. It is an ultra-thin panel that pops off of its base and becomes a touch-interfaced tablet computer.

If you want a more conventional desktop Mac, then get the high end Mac Pro, or the new Mac mini, now with a Core 2 Duo. Plug either into the new Apple Display with iSight.

Concurrent with this, Apple is releasing iWork '08, which includes Charts for spreadsheets and a new fully Word-compatible version of Pages, making it a great MS-Office-killer.

They're also releasing iLife '08, which brings iChat into the iLife suite, because...

iLife will integrate into the new .Mac, which now has full VOIP telephony as part of its service. It also has a robust blog engine (tied to iWeb), plus a couple features you never really thought of before.

Oh, and the Apple TV will, of course, interact ingeniously with all of the above.

There. Now isn't that more interesting than some little .Mac upgrade?

Now I don't have to watch. Anything Steve announces short of this will be a let down.

 

[None Such]

I hope a .mac update is coming. I bought .mac with my Macbook pro(which hasn't arrived) and was looking at the booklet and kicking myself for buying it. I was thinking it did more, in the area of website development for one thing. Hopefully when my notebook arrives .mac will have been updated and worth the price.

 

[Taylor C]

I really hope this event doesn't turn out to be a .Mac update and nothing else. I've been looking forward to it all week.

 

[tuartboy]

You can do that now, for free. Do a Google on "VNC". It works well.
While VNC is free software Apple re-packages it and calls it "Apple Remote Desktop" so if you want the apple supported version you can have that too. The two inter-operate too, VNC and Remote Desktop use the same on-wire protocol.

VNC runs on Linux and Windows too both as client and server. This is a good way to "run Windows on a Mac" (sort of) by building a headless windows box and getting at it using VNC from you Mac desktop.

Yes, VNC works. But how useful is it for my mom? She doesn't know how to forward ports or check for WAN IPs (which are usually dynamic). You also can't use VNC into your corporate or university networks (unless you have ssh access to do tunneling).

The Back to My Mac features are supposed to offer NAT traversal and use Apple servers to handshake connections. This way you can get through most NAT routers without doing anything and you won't leave open ports behind you (always a security risk).

And VNC doesn't use native objects, so it is slow. I'm not sure about ARD, since I have never used it, but I would think apple would (eventually) try to take the Microsoft route and just send commands and render native UI objects on the client. Sure uses a lot less bandwidth and makes things a lot more responsive.

As for .mac, I am going to wait until my 60-day trial is up (reinstalled tiger on my powerbook), but then I will definitely purchase it no matter the status. The syncing between my laptop and desktop is invaluable.

 

[Scalfani]

dammit i JUST bought .mac 2 days ago. Do you think current users will get screwed????????

 

[megfilmworks]

No, current users will be the first to benefit.

 

[Scalfani]

No, current users will be the first to benefit.

That makes me feel a little better, but are you speculating or is that how it has been in the past?

 

[offwidafairies]

cool! im planning to subscribe to .mac in the near future
i have family members who swear by it. and have created some simple yet stylish websites easily with it

 

[kcroy]

I really enjoy my .Mac account: looking forward to an update

Also in the minority here...

I really like my .Mac account. Syncing is great. I really like the iDisk. I enjoy being able to access email and web favorites on ANY computer along with important files...

however, my favorite .Mac function is....

the combination with iWeb. What an easy way to make slick web pages. I love it. I create one for my classroom as a teacher, one for home, one for my art business, ect. I buy goDaddy.com domains and have them forwarded to my iWeb pages. Works great.

I wish there was a shopping cart on the iWeb, and a way to put Garageband loops on the page for some music, as well as easily including html and flash animations.

Those are my wishes. (More storage and cheaper fees would rock too.)

Looking forward to the update.

 

[mbpcron]

Hope .mac has an upgade

my free trial ends 8/28. I'd like to keep it but haven't been impressed. Sync is n/a for me. Everything else I use is PC.

But I'm open to new ideas.

 

[age234]

Back To My Mac will make .Mac worthwhile again. Of course, anything they add would be great. Gotta stay competitive.

 

[yoyo5280]

.Mac needs to be really feature full, fast, and have huge storage and be mac only. A huge reason to switch to mac. Macs should come with Limited .mac (email, some other features, 1-2gb storage) free and there is .Mac plus.

 

[Hopstretch]

Of course, anything they add would be great. Gotta stay competitive.

At least hire John Appleseed to do the new .Mac promo videos. Then we can fire (sorry, sack) the lisping Brit who currently tells you how "gweat" the service is for staying in touch with "fwiends and famiwy".

 

[heisetax]

Old News

I don't understand why they don't make .Mac free for anyone with a Mac. What better way to keep people locked into the Mac platform by having people be avid users of a new improved .Mac.

This was done when it was called iTools. The want to make the service an income source rather than a service to the Mac User was changed when the name was changed to .Mac.

I've probably kept mine because of my short simple email address.

Bill the TaxMan

 

[iW00t]

.mac Pro

I envision the launch of a .mac pro service that adds iPhone support and ups storage capacity to 2GB.

It will also come at a low price of $198 a year, so you basically get iPhone support for FREE!

 

[gonnabuyamac]

Please, Steve -- PLEASE make .Mac free!

Everything .Mac offers is free elsewhere on the internet, but I want to use .Mac because it integrates with my Mac nicer -- but it's just not worth $99 a year to me. Please make it free!

boxlight

It would suck for me if they made it free - I just subscribed to it a few months ago. I don't think they'll make it free - how would it work for subscribers who have paid? Seems like .Mac is supposed to be something more than you can just get from other free sites on the web (hopefully they'll update it to really set it apart.)

 

[JGF0x]

I don't see why people are complaining. My mother pays for Yahoo! Mail just so she can use Mail to check her email and it's like $20-$30. For $70 more you get storage, a website etc. I happily pay $99/year for .Mac just so I will never, ever have to switch all of my email accounts over from my ISP accounts. Gmail is an uber pain with all the advertising too. .Mac rules!

 

[Some_Big_Spoon]

My MacBook HD has died 3 times in 6 months. The genius bar knows me by name now. It happens more than you think.

Hard drive failures are very rare. And where do you think iDisk actually is? In the sky?

 

[mazola]

i was a .mac user back when it was free and called "itools"

iTools was the name of the service? I thought that's what they called the subscribers...

 

[shemp9999]

i find the syncing capabilities of .Mac to be well worth twice what i pay. i've been lucky enough to get .mac for 1/2 price for the past few years.

 

[Vaphoron]

Maybe this time around we could actually get those supposed .Mac exclusive Dashboard Widgets...

 

[IlluminatedSage]

i know what changes i would like to see to .mac

1- mailing lists for your web/homepage websites ( so you can update people when there are new pics or website updates.
2- ability to easily register domains and/or use other domains and have .mac/ilife publish to it
3- new themes
4- ability for people to be authorized to download or order prints of pics from website. this is vital for those of us who had a baby or other important events. why not let people buy pics? i know my mom would have loved to do so. i publish so many pics on my .mac, lets let others in on the fun.
5- allow friends to upload pics or files to website, then be appoved to be added.
6- allow friends to add comments and talkback on .mac website
7- add function that allows you to email or mms pics or video to your own website. ie for those on the go, you can send pics and video via email, and they would be automatically be added. a function on groover.com, pretty neat one.

 

[Evangelion]

Forget Time Machine...it's utterly pointless... What if the Hard drive dies huh?? What we need is a remote storage like iDisk

I bet that about 98% of all consumer/prosumer-level backups are done with hard-drives, so are all those backups "pointless"? How do YOU backup? Tapes?

And what are the odds of two separate hard-drives (the one in your computer and the external HD) breaking at the same time? If your Time Machine-HD dies, so what? Get a new HD, and re-do the backup to that one, problem solved.

EDIT: What would I do with .Mac? Well, I would make it a tiered service. Something lime this:

Free: 1GB of email/iDisk-space. .Mac-email/IM-account. Back to my Mac for Leopard-users. Syncing multiple Macs.

$69/year: 8GB of email/iDisk-space. .Mac-email/IM-account (push-email for iPhone-users). Back to my Mac for Leopard-users. Syncing multiple Macs. Photocasting. iWeb-hosting. backup to iDisk. Groups. Some new features we haven't seen yet .