.Mac Webmail Sneak Peak

[Mac Fly (film)]

.Mac is a load of old BALLS!!! It's absolutely ridiculously. We're paying €99 in Europe really for Mail, iWeb was only added recently, but you have to buy iLife '06 to use it. iChat is free? No it's not! Guess what? You have to pay €99, cause you need .Mac to use iChat. The whole thing is a joke! Way to respect your loyal fans Apple.
/joke..

First thing apple could do is simple!! Bar this new, rarely useable addition (by me) every single thing about .Mac should stay the same!! Except one thing, PRICE, .Mac should be $29 in the US, and €29 in Europe. Then add more feature later next year.

 

[zelet]

Maybe it's time I start to get a .mac account

If you don't have it now - don't bother getting it. There are free services that do everything that .Mac does. However, since I am so dependent on the email address - I'm stuck paying the $99 a year.

 

[joeboy_45101]

I think .Mac is great, and this sneak peek gets me a somewhat excited. Having said that, I thing the .Mac service needs a LOT of work. I mean let's really look at what it offers: a cool email ADDRESS "somebody@mac.com", full usage of the Backup app., secure iChats, groups, and iWeb publishing, and this for $99 a year. WOW!

Ok, listen! .Mac gets me about as hot and bothered as an egg salad sangwich, I got suckered into it about 2 years ago when Apple was offering subscriptions for a discounted price on the day after Thanksgiving. I remain subscribed and probably will as long as the service is offered but it is practically featureless in it's current form. You know what I really want to see first off .Mac apps like a .Mac iCal or maybe a .Mac TextEdit, how about new Fonts available only to .Mac members, and .Mac Widgets (like once promised). And then the price, the price needs to come down a bit maybe $59 a year.

 

[syklee26]

.Mac is a load of old BALLS!!! It's absolutely ridiculously. We're paying €99 in Europe really for Mail, iWeb was only added recently, but you have to buy iLife '06 to use it. iChat is free? No it's not! Guess what? You have to pay €99, cause you need .Mac to use iChat. The whole thing is a joke! Way to respect your loyal fans Apple.
/joke..

u don't need .Mac to use iChat. you can use iChat with AIM account. and I keep hearing this rumor that MSN and Yahoo account might be added.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

u don't need .Mac to use iChat. you can use iChat with AIM account. and I keep hearing this rumor that MSN and Yahoo account might be added.

Just Great! More rumors. rofl..tut, tut, and I don't know anyone using AIM.

 

[applerocks]

Just Great! More rumors. rofl..tut, tut, and I don't know anyone using AIM.

I use AIM and Gmail with iChat. It works fine. I never chat with my .mac account.


What if the rumored mapping or phone stuff that might be part of Leopard is only for .Mac users?

.Mac users can call people from their computers or get .Mac Earth or something similar.

Also, iCal needs to go online (add, edit, etc. from the Internet), storage needs to go way up, etc.

Give me something AOL and Google don't.

AOL just announced something that allows you to back up 5GB of data. .Mac gives you 1 GB. AOL is free, .Mac costs $99. I understand there are other features, but AOL has most of them too. It's not worth the $$ until some major improvements happen.

applerocks

 

[zelet]

What if the rumored mapping or phone stuff that might be part of Leopard is only for .Mac users?

.Mac users can call people from their computers or get .Mac Earth or something similar.

Also, iCal needs to go online (add, edit, etc. from the Internet), storage needs to go way up, etc.

Give me something AOL and Google don't.

AOL just announced something that allows you to back up 5GB of data. .Mac gives you 1 GB. AOL is free, .Mac costs $99. I understand there are other features, but AOL has most of them too. It's not worth the $$ until some major improvements happen.

applerocks

Yeah, AOL has a better free IMAP mail solution than Apple and a free 5GB storage solution. I think it is freezing in hell right now... AOL has a better offering than Apple... and the AOL solution is FREE!

 

[pengu]

u don't need .Mac to use iChat. you can use iChat with AIM account. and I keep hearing this rumor that MSN and Yahoo account might be added.

so sign up for a jabber account, and then use Transports to connect to MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, etc etc.

A lot of other services offer "simmilar" features, but none that i have seen/used/heard of offer the same integration that .Mac does.

 

[EricNau]

...
Give me something AOL and Google don't.

AOL just announced something that allows you to back up 5GB of data. .Mac gives you 1 GB. AOL is free, .Mac costs $99. I understand there are other features, but AOL has most of them too. It's not worth the $$ until some major improvements happen.

applerocks

Plus, I believe AOL offers unlimited email storage (in addition to the 5GB of backup space).

...I'm starting to forget why I ever gave Apple that $100.

 

[MattyMac]

Just in time for my renewal

 

[swingerofbirch]

My dotmac is set to expire.

I will renew if Apple foots the bill again.

A couple of years ago they inadvertently deleted all my webpages and so when they were writing to goad me into renewing I said why should I? You deleted my webpages. So they gave me a complimentary year.

Then last year I paid for it again but they deleted a lot of my messages with an overly aggressive server-side spam filter. Plus they've been plagued with e-mail outages this last year.

I will call customer service. If they pay for it, I'll continue. If not, then I'll have a hard time justifying the expense.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

My dotmac is set to expire.

I will renew if Apple foots the bill again.

A couple of years ago they inadvertently deleted all my webpages and so when they were writing to goad me into renewing I said why should I? You deleted my webpages. So they gave me a complimentary year.

Then last year I paid for it again but they deleted a lot of my messages with an overly aggressive server-side spam filter. Plus they've been plagued with e-mail outages this last year.

I will call customer service. If they pay for it, I'll continue. If not, then I'll have a hard time justifying the expense.

Everyone's been plagued by the same email outages...why should you expect special treatment?

 

[Draelius]

Everyone's been plagued by the same email outages...why should you expect special treatment?

For the same reason everyone else tolerates inferior service.

 

[eyehop]

gramarama

Thanksyou for thea informatiiive artical, but I'd lik to no mor aboud thise 'smart refrehes' and 'bulit-in address book'

 

[edcrosay]

I would have no problem paying $50 for .Mac, but $99 is ridiculous.
They need at least 5 gigs of storage and domain name registration. I get 20 gigs of storage and 100gigs of bandwidth from my hosting company for 5 bucks a month. Surely Apple could do better.
Anyone remember that huge data center they bought last year? Hopefully at least part of it goes to .Mac use.

 

[Silencio]

I would have no problem paying $50 for .Mac, but $99 is ridiculous.
They need at least 5 gigs of storage and domain name registration. I get 20 gigs of storage and 100gigs of bandwidth from my hosting company for 5 bucks a month. Surely Apple could do better.
Anyone remember that huge data center they bought last year? Hopefully at least part of it goes to .Mac use.

Then go buy .Mac on eBay. You'll probably pay less than $50.

Most of the cut-rate hosting companies I've dealt with are actually less reliable than .Mac has been for me over the years (uh, Dreamhost, anyone?).

Sync services make .Mac worth it for me. That, and I've been using my .Mac email address since the first days of iTools, and the IMAP mail functionality has always worked very well between my main desktop, my laptop, and viewing from the web despite the highly dated current interface which looks like it's finally getting a modern, AJAX-y makeover itself.

Presumably the other web interfaces into .Mac are getting an equally complete (and equally overdue) makeover, as Peace hinted at. If there's new services being added, all the better.

Naturally, more storage would be welcomed and ought to be expected, given the competition out there. WebDAV / Finder file transfer speeds really need to be fixed, but I just access my iDisk via an FTP program if I want to transfer any big files back and forth. It's also dead simple to use iDisk to transfer files to my less than tech-savvy friends.

And you still get a free VersionTracker Plus account for being a .Mac member, which saves you $25 right there.

 

[Lincoln]

As the saying goes, if you don't think its worth it then don't buy it.

Me, my .mac account is up for renewal and this makes me glad to pay for another year. I like my .mac email address, I like the seamless synchronisation between my two macs and don't have a problem (yet) with the current size.

That said, I welcome any improvements to the service.

 

[OdduWon]

w00t!

I see bigger (more space) updates in the future.

as do i. with the new quad xserve and xraid on it's way we are sure to see improvements in storage and a shrinking of the accurence of server downages. this looks great hope there ilife integration.

 

[syklee26]

Then go buy .Mac on eBay. You'll probably pay less than $50.

Most of the cut-rate hosting companies I've dealt with are actually less reliable than .Mac has been for me over the years (uh, Dreamhost, anyone?).

Sync services make .Mac worth it for me. That, and I've been using my .Mac email address since the first days of iTools, and the IMAP mail functionality has always worked very well between my main desktop, my laptop, and viewing from the web despite the highly dated current interface which looks like it's finally getting a modern, AJAX-y makeover itself.

Presumably the other web interfaces into .Mac are getting an equally complete (and equally overdue) makeover, as Peace hinted at. If there's new services being added, all the better.

Naturally, more storage would be welcomed and ought to be expected, given the competition out there. WebDAV / Finder file transfer speeds really need to be fixed, but I just access my iDisk via an FTP program if I want to transfer any big files back and forth. It's also dead simple to use iDisk to transfer files to my less than tech-savvy friends.

And you still get a free VersionTracker Plus account for being a .Mac member, which saves you $25 right there.

i don't think getting a free versiontracker is enough. I never understood why versiontracker is such a big deal because most of softwares get automatic updates anyway. unless i am missing something, i never use versiontracker.

 

[Some_Big_Spoon]

VersionTracker.com is indispensable for, personally.. With most software phoning for updates though, it's a bit overkill for VTP, so you're right on that one.

The "member" "freebies" on .Mac are the toaster over give away of the intarweb land. Lame x 3

i don't think getting a free versiontracker is enough. I never understood why versiontracker is such a big deal because most of softwares get automatic updates anyway. unless i am missing something, i never use versiontracker.

 

[cupique]

Well, I'm paying 20€ a year for a service in which I have unlimited e-mail addresses, unlimited bandwidth, .net -domain, unlimited subdomains, SQL, php + cgi and 1 GB of storage etc. That 99€ for .Mac doesn't cut it.. Of course I don't have .Mac synchronisation, but I've been doing fine with my bluetooth enabled phone.

 

[Cybix]

I dont have .mac, but I do run my own mail server from home, and use squirrelmail... i like the look of the new .mac webmail....

all i need now is for someone to release a simular setup, opensource for me to d/l and install... mmmmm

 

[DJRizzo]

Virus protection? Useful perhaps, what with all the viruses on Macs now-a-days.

I'm sure a lot (if not most) users of the .mac webmail interface are accessing it from a Windows PC. So yes, virus protection makes a lot of sense here.

 

[Silencio]

VersionTracker.com is indispensable for, personally.. With most software phoning for updates though, it's a bit overkill for VTP, so you're right on that one.

The "member" "freebies" on .Mac are the toaster over give away of the intarweb land. Lame x 3

.Mac used to (still does?) have a pretty nice discount on VersionTracker Pro/MacFixIt Pro. I sprung for it one year; didn't use the extras nearly enough to justify it, and even the paid version of MacFixIt is way too ponderous and difficult to search to have much worth. I do use VersionTracker Plus' features pretty heavily, so I would have paid for it anyway.

But .Mac did offer up a few nice discounts on shareware over the years that I put to good use. (And no, Virex doesn't count!) Nothing that would make you pay full price for the service, but enough to ease the pain noticeably.

 

[irun5k]

compare to web hosting

My $10 a month ($120 a year) web hosting account has 170 (thats right, 170!) gig of storage, something like hundreds of email accounts, php, ssh access, mysql, more, more and more.

True, it doesn't do all the fancy stuff that .mac does with sync'ing and so forth. But that isn't my point. My point is that we should expect more, much more for $100 a year because web hosting providers are able to make a profit by offering much more. If the users demand it Apple will come around. But not if people keep paying for the service as-is. So they upgraded the webmail client- great. The eagle really took a sh*t today didn't it?