I was thinking about buying a .mac membership as I wouldn't mind having a .mac email address. It is quite pricey so I'm wondering if anyone thinks its worth it or if any of the other features are worthwhile?
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.Mac worth it?
- Thread starter gadgetgirl85
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depends.
however, you'll find .mac at 30-50% discounts by looking around (or purchasing with a new Mac), and by referring other users.
however, you'll find .mac at 30-50% discounts by looking around (or purchasing with a new Mac), and by referring other users.
I've never used it but I'd say the best feature would be Back to My Mac which will be available once Leopard is out. Probably not worth it if it's just going to be for the email account.
I use it for the Backup, Syncing, iWeb, and email. It is rather expensive, but still worth it to me. I'd like it to be faster and offer more storage, which are things that I hope will be upgraded soon.
It seems like a waste of money, but it should be upgraded soon. I am waiting for that upgrade then I will take the plunge.
Unless something changes, no.
...I'm letting my account expire at the end of this month. I just can't justify the price.
...I'm letting my account expire at the end of this month. I just can't justify the price.
As I said earlier I think the biggest upgrade will be the Back to My Mac feature. This allows you to access files on your .Mac synched computers at home from a remote location via the internet.
I think you can get a free trial at the moment - I'm currently trialling it for 60 days. Give it a go and see.
I have to say, for all the criticism .mac gets, I'm very much liking having e-mail, contacts and calendar synched across three machines.
Plus, although I can produce a web page the long way if called upon, the ability to Bluetooth your mobile phone pictures into iPhoto and then publish them via iWeb is frighteningly painless.
(In fact, I've demoed the above to about half a dozen people, and it's thoroughly entertaining to watch their jaws just drop. "What?" they ask in tones of incredulity, "That's it? My photos are on the internet?" ... Apple should put me on commission.)
I have no doubt that someone will be along shortly to explain that x, y or z feature is available with more bells and whistles at a fraction of the price elsewhere, and I'm sure they're right.
.mac, however, appears to be agreeably idiot-proof and I'm not sure when my trial runs out that I'm going to want to surrender my .mac e-mail address!
Cheers
Jim
I've had the trial before and I liked it a lot. I might buy it in a couple of months. (I wish they'd sell just the .mac email addresses!)
You're not alone in that - I think a lot of people complained when the free email addresses became part of a paid service.
In addition to whats been said, Steve Jobs at the recent talk with Bill Gates, admitted that .Mac has hardly been Apples exciting product, but things would change in the future so in addition to whats already been previewed, hopefully more is on the way
i enjoy .mac
i have had the joy of free .mac for two years now, and find that it is an incredible way to sync my address book, safari, calendars, passwords, and etc. plus with the iDisk, i can save my documents on my mini @ home and access the files from my laptop @ school. (must have synced). so i would recommend .mac
plus. if they better the system and when back to my mac is up, it will seem cheap.
i have had the joy of free .mac for two years now, and find that it is an incredible way to sync my address book, safari, calendars, passwords, and etc. plus with the iDisk, i can save my documents on my mini @ home and access the files from my laptop @ school. (must have synced). so i would recommend .mac
plus. if they better the system and when back to my mac is up, it will seem cheap.
All of those services are available are lower or no cost. The reason you pay the high price is so you don't have to set stuff up yourself or shop around. .Mac is a great service for people who are either lazy or buzzy and would rather spend cash than time.
The biggest problem with .Mac is the small about of disk space they give you. For the price they should offer 100X more space. After all Google's gmail is free and offers unlimited space. Backup over ,mac sounds nice but the space is just not enough.
The biggest problem with .Mac is the small about of disk space they give you. For the price they should offer 100X more space. After all Google's gmail is free and offers unlimited space. Backup over ,mac sounds nice but the space is just not enough.
Since when does gmail offer unlimited space? They don't, I've halfway filled my quota.
I love .Mac! Are there things I wish it had- Yes! But I use my email account, have an alias for my wife's account, use iSync to sync 3 Macs worth of data including bookmarks, 9 iCal calendars, address books. I use Backup to back up all my data to a HD for two machines, I backup my basic info daily to .Mac server space for two machines as well. I use iWeb to post web pages including my professional portfolio, my children's pictures and movies too! About the only thing I don't use is iDisk really- I have no need to store data online to access other places.
But for the money- it is well worth it for me because of how much I use and how easy it is- I could do all that separately, but not worth it for me!
I only wish they would continue to do the free software and specials every so often like they used to.
But for the money- it is well worth it for me because of how much I use and how easy it is- I could do all that separately, but not worth it for me!
I only wish they would continue to do the free software and specials every so often like they used to.
There's webmail access, but otherwise it's a regular IMAP account that can easily be loaded into most email clients.
Yes, it is regular as well as web based. I use Mail application to check mine and it has worked very reliably for over a year now. They had some issues for a while, but have resolved all of them.
.mac is ok, but isn't the best. There is promise of some updates, and OSX 10.5 promises some new features. Yes it is very easy to get a discount. Its funny because now that I remember it, i got my first subscription for free, but I bought my computer from a store in person.
I think I will buy it after all 
Hopefully there will be some updates to make it more worthwhile too
Hopefully there will be some updates to make it more worthwhile too
Sorry to bump up my thread but with the .mac email. If you leave the webbased one upon does it automatically update if theres mail like gmail?
mine does in firefox. however it logs out after 30 minutes so you have to be around your computer anyway.
sometimes however (i'm on windows XP) something is different. my windows computer does not log out (at work after 30 min the screensaver with password kicks in) by itself and just sits there. in that case .mac webmail also stays open for several hours. i guess that is some windows bug that makes .mac webmail believe i'm still using it all the time.
on a different note: i frequently get mails from apple that advertizes .mac to me and has a link to a tutorial abiout how to use .mac (like syncing). those emails are so useless. since they go to a .mac mail adress we can assume i already have .mac
and the tutorials are trivial to pointless. they really need to fire somebody over there at .mac and put someone in charge who knows something about web based services.
Yeah, when I sign onto an iMac at school, no matter which I use, I open up mail, and all my mail, contacts, etc will all get loaded onto the maching. It really is a blessing sometimes.
HELL. NO.
You're basically paying $100 a year so you can have an e-mail address that ends in "@mac.com" which is just stupid.
Even Steve Jobs admits that they need to work on .Mac! It's a horrible value and needs some serious attention or a serious price cut.
You're basically paying $100 a year so you can have an e-mail address that ends in "@mac.com" which is just stupid.
Even Steve Jobs admits that they need to work on .Mac! It's a horrible value and needs some serious attention or a serious price cut.