.Mac worth it?

[SeanEE89]

I just bought a MacBook on the 13th. I was offered .Mac Service when I bought it but I turned it down. I was wondering what exactly are the benefits of the .Mac service and is it worth the yearly fee?

I bought my MacBook for school work mostly with Office. I also use it to surf the web, chat with friends, download torrents, listen to music and watch movies.

I do plan on getting Logic and a midi keyboard when I find one that is good for beginners, because I have wanted to toy with music production.

 

[gazfocus]

I just bought a MacBook on the 13th. I was offered .Mac Service when I bought it but I turned it down. I was wondering what exactly are the benefits of the .Mac service and is it worth the yearly fee?

I bought my MacBook for school work mostly with Office. I also use it to surf the web, chat with friends, download torrents, listen to music and watch movies.

I do plan on getting Logic and a midi keyboard when I find one that is good for beginners, because I have wanted to toy with music production.

The main advantage for you would be the 10GB online iDrive. This can be accessed from any computer thats connected to the internet.

Other than that, I don't think you'll get much use out of any of the other features.

 

[Mac In School]

It's worth it to me.

I think the .Mac Web galleries are the best looking ones out there.

Off-site back-up is a must for critical data files.

Being able to access my contacts and calendars on the road has saved my butt a few times.

The iDisk has also saved my butt a few times.

Of course, if you have more than one machine, Back to My Mac is great.

iChat is a cool app. I wish I knew more Mac users, though.

 

[SeanEE89]

I would be able to access it from any computer regardless of the OS that the system uses?

 

[Italchef]

Yes , you can access your iDisk from any computer. You can also use .mac to publish your iCal on the web, but its a read only calendar that you have access to online. You can add files to your iDisk as well. I use a pc at work and any relevant files that I want on my home machine I just upload to my iDisk.
You can also use .mac to publish web galleries and blogs. I do this for pictures of family and kids, then send around invites to the new pages. People can also subscribe to your photo blog and be notified anytime that you make changes.
The synching thing doesn't work really well; at least I've had a few problems with it. My address book synchs properly but my calendars don't.
All in all I like it but I would like to see some improvement.

Mick

 

[ucfgrad93]

Another benefit is that it allows you to sync information (iCal, Address Book, etc) between two computers.

 

[joefrank64k]

I picked up .mac for about $70 from Amazon.com to see if I would get any use out of it.

While I agree that the 10 GB of on-line storage is cool, what I've found is that I just end up e-mailing any files that I need to have access to at work/school/home to myself at Gmail...and Gmail gives you 6.5 (and counting) GB of space for free and Google calendar syncs right up with iCal (you just subscribe to your Google calendar in iCal) so that stays current, too.

Not to sound like a Google FanBoy, but they just came out with a cool web page creator and you can publish your photo albums on Picassa, again for free.

So my 2 cents is it's really not worth it and I don't plan on renewing when my year is up.

Take it easy and enjoy your new MB!

 

[icoffee]

Another benefit is that it allows you to sync information (iCal, Address Book, etc) between two computers.

.Mac functionality is also built into a lot of programs. For example in Quicken and MacJournal, I use .Mac to quickly backup my databases. I also use .Mac for web hosting, email, online storage, syncing contacts and mail between my desktop and laptop. Definitely worth the $10 a month IMO.

 

[pazreal]

I like it a lot for synching my macs in Netnewswire, Yojimbo, etc. I also use the web galleries and what not. Def worth it.

 

[theLimit]

I snatch up .Mac deals on Amazon and eBay, usually paying less than $70 per year. The code I used for this year cost me $51.99 from an Amazon Marketplace seller.

I think it's worth the price considering all the features you get. Backup, sync, storage, email, web hosting, integration with Mac OS and iLife. I use it constantly.