.Mac Update on Jan 10th

[mad jew]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though.

 

[Lacero]

CABBAGE. In the spirit of one-word posts, I'd just like to say that I find the most alluring feature of .Mac is the integration with OSX coupled with the ability to sync my Macs. Of course, I'd love to see a price drop and a storage increase though. That may be, but the price is way too high for such "integration". There just isn't enough compelling features for me to want to pay $100 a year for .Mac. I find most utilities free on the .net, such as web design and blogging tools. Syncing is great for n00bs, but just with enough skill and knowing where to look, syncing is fairly easy enough to do. I sync my macs perhaps every other month, so it's not that hard at all!

 

[Applespider]

It's a long time to take it down but it could be a 'worst estimate' and they'll actually have it back up earlier but are covering themselves.

So far as business use goes, well, aside from Mac developers who use .Mac to distribute their apps, then I can't imagine many people who use it as their sold business email address. Don't most, even Mom and Pop, ones these days have their own domain and email hosting?

And I do use .Mac - less for the email and more for the backup of contacts/ical/bookmarks to the web so I can access that information from other places (and not have to remember to do it) and for the homepage features. It's the first time in about 9 years that I haven't bothered paying for my own domain. I used to build websites and update them but, now it's easier to have a blog for some stuff and use .Mac to stick any pictures/movies I want to share online. I know I could do it... but for £50 a year, it's not that bad (and hey, I've never paid full price for .Mac, there's usually a promotion at least once a year to buy it cheaply so I get the box and then use that code when my subscription runs out)

 

[Staffroomer]

I hope this isn't too painfully obvious, but one could ask the same questions about any product ever offered by anyone. Either a product offers something that is useful to you, or it doesn't. One may as well complain about the uselessness of Final Cut Pro if one isn't a film editor.

Well, I own three websites and use the Internet like a junkie uses heroin..... I still don't get .mac....

Don't attack me, just explain the purpose..

 

[MacsRgr8]

So no email during MWSF??

No iChat either??

I don't think those services will be affected.
I expect only the .Mac -web related services, and maybe the iDisk aswell.

But mail protocols and AIM will probably stay online.

 

[crazedbytheheat]

Well, I own three websites and use the Internet like a junkie uses heroin..... I still don't get .mac....

Don't attack me, just explain the purpose..

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

 

[MacsRgr8]

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

Excatly.
It is NOT for the internet junkies, but more for those who prefer using one-click from iPhoto, have just published a website.
Besides that, the sync feature, backup, etc. are usefull too.

... and having a <yourname>@mac.com email address is cool

 

[mac-er]

So no email during MWSF??




irmongoose

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[MacsRgr8]

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Damn...

No torrents then

 

[applemax]

I think Apple need to do a competition. The prize? An @apple.com address!!! I'd do anything for one of those

 

[animefan_1]

...PS Is this the most exciting rumor this close to MW? How dissapointing, I thought we would see more exciting stuff.
I do realise everything under the moon has been rumored, so I´m thinking more in the line of "confirmed". Then again, makes the Keynote more exciting (and hopefully less dissapointing)

I agree. I hope there aren't any confirmations so even if it is "disappointing", we won't be disappointed too much. Then again, if it's awesome, we can all be excited.

 

[highpass]

Unimportant i know, but whatever happened to the promised .Mac widgets?

 

[Detlev]

It's nice to see something is getting updated. I was getting worried that we haven't seen much come by way of Software Update recently. Usually we get a clue there. All I can imagine is that the Apple servers (including .Mac) will be too busy for most of you to be checking during work, school, vacation etc. So, just wait till the day after. I'll let you know if there is anything of importance.

For all the marketing managers out there who keep saying lower the price of .Mac. Can you explain why you would do that from the point of view of the Apple Corp? Then explain how you would do it. This is Marketing 101 stuff here folks.

 

[windowuser82]

I don't understand the allure of .Mac. I had the trial period when I first got my computer and didn't even notice when it expired. so it'll take a lot of updating to get me to pay for it.

At first I thought it was kinda dumb also, being from the "other side" of the fence... 99 bucks a year just for a .mac email addy.....

My aunt, however, uses the service and I quickly found out how handy it can be. We use iDisk (i think is the correct name) to share and trade family photos (we have a large family) and lil 30 second clips of whoevers new born. Just for that purpose it's sorta worth the money.

My ex partner (who tried to mac-vert me) and I also used the service a bit. He was always away on business and so was I, so to share images without having to email them or rough drafts of things we were working on, and being able to have easy access and communication came in very very handy.

Those who get it just for the .mac email addy tho are a bit nuts.

 

[emulator]

Excatly.
... and having a <yourname>@mac.com email address is cool

Or rather snobbery. To had a gmail account 1.5 years ago was being cool.

 

[Yvan256]

I hope this isn't too painfully obvious, but one could ask the same questions about any product ever offered by anyone. Either a product offers something that is useful to you, or it doesn't. One may as well complain about the uselessness of Final Cut Pro if one isn't a film editor.

Yeah! What's with this "Aperture" thingy?! It's useless!

... to me.

 

[Detlev]

Those who get it just for the .mac email addy tho are a bit nuts.

OK, what if I got it originally (when it came out) for the email addy but now use it for Backup, email addy, Groups, another email addy, sharing photos, yet another email addy, storage, did I mention the fourth email addy, Syncing, oh yeah a fifth email addy, iChat, and last but not least a sixth email addy? Do I still qualify as nuts?

 

[Yvan256]

We like it for the ease of posting pictures and video, the backup, and the synching across multiple machines. To each his/her own. I could probably find alternatives for each, but .mac makes it really easy.

That's one thing I hate about .Mac... Why can't two (or more) machines sync themselves together without some external help?

The entire Internet will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All Internet services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Oh, CRAP!

Funniest technical warning message I've read in a long time.

 

[windowuser82]

OK, what if I got it originally (when it came out) for the email addy but now use it for Backup, email addy, Groups, another email addy, shsring photos, yet another email addy, storage, did I mention the fourth email addy, Syncing, oh yeah a fifth email addy, iChat, and last but not least a sixth email addy? Do I still qualify as nuts?

Yes, yes you do. Just old-man-rocking-chair-shotgun nuts instead of eating-toilet-tissue-from-a-spoon nuts

Maybe I should have said "have it only for a .mac email addy"

 

[Stella]

If .Mac is going to be used for full length content then Apple had better increase the speed of iDisk, otherwise such content will be unplayable, or, wait a week and the content may just have downloaded to your local machine.

iDisk is so unbelievably slow, don't even think about the iDisk Sync feature - I gave up using that the day they announced it. Sad thing is, Apple have done nothing to improve performance.

 

[hob]

Whilst I think that Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, I find it useful enough to pay for it.

If I find myself on a friends Mac, I just make myself a new account on their computer, type in my .Mac username and password, and all of a sudden Mail has all my emails, Safari has all my Bookmarks, Address Book has all of my contacts and iCal has all of my entries. This information is also all available through the HTTP front-end at www.mac.com.

If you don't find it useful, no-one MAKES you pay for it...

 

[Yvan256]

For all the marketing managers out there who keep saying lower the price of .Mac. Can you explain why you would do that from the point of view of the Apple Corp? Then explain how you would do it. This is Marketing 101 stuff here folks.

I'd lower the price so even people like me (who already pay for hosting his personnal website) would get .Mac instead of something else. Yes, you make more profits if you sell something 100$, but you could be making even more money by selling it 50$ if more than twice as many people get it. That's Economics 101.

I'm currently using PowWeb. Look at those stats:
- 7.77$US/month
- 12GB storage
- 300GB monthly transfers
- Free setup and domain
- Near-unlimited email adresses (via aliases anyway)

I don't really need 12GB of storage, so I don't think 300GB of monthly transfers is that useful to me. But they offer me all this at a lower price than a .Mac address and with my own domain name (instead of www.mac.com/yournamehere/).

I know .Mac is more than a simple web hosting service, but still, I need .Mac to beat PowWeb to even consider switching. Can't even remember how far in advance I paid PowWeb, so even if .Mac was free maybe I couldn't switch anyway (not for years).

 

[hob]

Like a coupla other people here, one of my first reactions to the news of downtime was "oh, they're just trying to stop people getting news out of MWSF" - but I don't think even Apple are arrogant enough to think everyone at MWSF uses .Mac! Even I have a backup GMail account...

 

[Yvan256]

Whilst I think that Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, I find it useful enough to pay for it.

If I find myself on a friends Mac, I just make myself a new account on their computer, type in my .Mac username and password, and all of a sudden Mail has all my emails, Safari has all my Bookmarks, Address Book has all of my contacts and iCal has all of my entries. This information is also all available through the HTTP front-end at www.mac.com

Syncing should be a standard feature of OS X, but only from your local network. I do agree that it could be worth its price if a remote server is needed.

All I ask is to be able to sync my PowerBook from my Mac mini, go on vacation, work, get back home and sync my PowerBook back to my Mac mini. That's far less than what .Mac does.

 

[Applespider]

I'd lower the price so even people like me (who already pay for hosting his personnal website) would get .Mac instead of something else.

- 7.77$US/month

It's only about $5 a year cheaper...

Remember we're not typical Apple consumers. .Mac is designed to appeal to those who either don't have any time/inclination to design their own website or have no idea on how to go about it. There are far more of those people in the world than geeks who are comfortable building sites and enjoy doing it.