More .Mac Exclusives - Free Web Designs and $20 off Contribute 2

[FriarTuck]

Sorry this stuff doesn't meet some of your needs.

In my case, .Mac is hitting my technology sweet spot again and again and again.

It is becoming a key weapon in my arsenal as I try to recruit other non-expert users to the Mac platform. Nothing like throwing a video of their kid on your .Mac homepage about 10 minutes after shooting it to convert a parent to the digital hub.

 

[Spidermanjohn]

.mac has been wondeful for us

Using our iDisk account: We host four different competitive soccer team sites, two family sites and use iDisk to move large files from work to home, or home to work. Free antivirus, huge assortment of freeplay music (Approx. $1,000.00 street price), been a year and have never experienced any down time. The ease of use for my wife is a wonderful thing. She just started designing websites last year with Go Live. Never have used the website templates, just make a new folder with and index page and you have a custom site. I share large files with my family by using the .Mac Windows utility. The up and down speeds have always been great! I can’t say enough good things about our iDisk account.

I received a free account with my educational purchase of a new dual 867 last year. Just paid for my iDisk account today after my wife insisted we get more space.

I love it!

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by lmalave

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by lmalave
Ok, well if you've already spent money elsewhere and are happy with it then what are you complaining about? The Yahoo! Geocities Plus that I was comparing it to I think would be the closest competitor, and it's $60/yr with no cgi-bin, SSI, PHP, or anything. Keep in mind Yahoo! and Apple are similar in that they are *profitable* and will definitely be around 10 years from now, unlike any number of hosting services that are hemorrhaging money and have no clue about how to run a solid business.


Domain name hosting would be a nice addon, though. But at any rate I'm already forwarding my .name domain to my .Mac web page. Yahoo! has domain name hosting available, which they basically just a rebranded service from another company. Apple could do the same.

Besides, by that same rationale you could build yourself a white-box PC for far cheaper than you could buy any Mac. But the point is: not everybody has the skill, and even if they did, maybe they just don't want to bother (I fall into the latter category, I'm a highly skilled programmer but I do all my work on my iBook, not on any hosting service's servers). I mean, dear Lord, what percentage of people need PHP? Even if it was just to install a 3rd party guestbook app or something, what percentage of people know how to do even that?

 

[lmalave]

Re: .Mac needs to improve reliability

Originally posted by digitalbiker
I can't believe that there are users here who don't acknowledge the poor service reliability of .Mac and the email service.

I for one would much rather see Apple spend time improving service reliability, uping the idsk space, etc. rather than providing freebees that most people don't need. That would provide far more value to me.

I have three different isps and I would say that they are up and functional 95% of the time. Apple's .Mac is probably completely functional 75 - 80 % of the time. My wife, son, & I all have .Mac subscriptions and we are astounded at the number of times that the email server is down. I don't think I have ever lost any messages but there have been many times when I need to get to my idisk or needed to get an email sent and .Mac was down.

I've never detected any problem. Have you used Yahoo? Yahoo mail is down on an almost daily basis. I was happy to replace Yahoo with .Mac, I think they are the most comparable services on the market right now. You really can't compare .Mac to an ISP that is also giving you dial-up or broadband access. They are *completely* different types of services.

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: .Mac needs to improve reliability

Originally posted by digitalbiker
I can't believe that there are users here who don't acknowledge the poor service reliability of .Mac and the email service.

I for one would much rather see Apple spend time improving service reliability, uping the idsk space, etc. rather than providing freebees that most people don't need. That would provide far more value to me.

I have three different isps and I would say that they are up and functional 95% of the time. Apple's .Mac is probably completely functional 75 - 80 % of the time. My wife, son, & I all have .Mac subscriptions and we are astounded at the number of times that the email server is down. I don't think I have ever lost any messages but there have been many times when I need to get to my idisk or needed to get an email sent and .Mac was down.

Why would I acknowledge reliability problems when I have had none? .Mac has never once been down for me and has been vastly more reliable than my school's email, AOL, and the one at home. I love it and still haven't seen any of these "reliability" problems crop up.

 

[bretm]

Re: Include MacOS and I'll join today

Originally posted by rohitp
At these prices, why can't it include Mac OS upgrades?

Because they cost more than .mac itself? Gosh, just a guess.

 

[bretm]

Re: Re: Re: Include MacOS and I'll join today

Originally posted by cnladd
Totally off-topic. I don't know what I dig more: your nickname or that pic that fits it perfectly.

Now, more to the point: is there a benefit to joining .Mac, over and above "rolling your own" service? I host my own servers, and am about to do the DNS magic that makes Mac OS X think that MY servers are really .Mac servers; that 100MB of space for iDisk is too limiting for me.

What other benefits do I get, besides bookmark syncing, with .Mac service that would be better than rolling my own? I don't mind paying $100, but I want to make sure that the services are worth it, and that I won't be too limited by what's offered that I'd wish I did it myself anyways...

Any advice, anybody?

It's all listed on their website. If you don't like it don't buy it. Just quit bragging about how good you are at webhositng and all. Isn't your time worth something? How liong did it take you to figure all that out? If you sold space on your servers, negotiated marketing deals with other companies for discounts, supplied the software to make it all connect (backup, virus software, safari bookmark syncing, ipod syncing, cell phone syncing, ical publishing/syncing, computers with an easy setup system in the system prefs, iDisk, etc.) how much would you charge?

 

[pbooker]

Re: .Mac needs to improve reliability

Originally posted by digitalbiker
I can't believe that there are users here who don't acknowledge the poor service reliability of .Mac and the email service.

Nothing to do with not acknowledgement.. but I've never experienced a problem with it.

It's been said over and over - if you know how to roll your own, then don't get .Mac. If you like having it done for you in a nice, neat package - pay the $99US for the .Mac account.

Back to the original article, can anyone tell me if I can get the Contribute templates "out of" Contribute and into the copy of Dreamweaver I own instead?

 

[JoeRadar]

Originally posted by OKComputer
come on apple, 49.99 and Im sold for another year

Buy a new Mac and then it is only $69

When I renewed, I also got a $20 discount (I think) from the Apple store. So yes, I renewed for $49

 

[beware_phog]

I wonder when people aren't going to start asking why computers aren't free with their .mac subscriptions. Do you free loaders think that software creations costs nothing? Are you the same people who think music costs nothing so sharing it is OK?

If you don't like what .mac has to offer, then don't buy it. I think it is great. Makes the basic tasks easy. Just like computing should be.

 

[Dahl]

Originally posted by FriarTuck
It is becoming a key weapon in my arsenal as I try to recruit other non-expert users to the Mac platform. Nothing like throwing a video of their kid on your .Mac homepage about 10 minutes after shooting it to convert a parent to the digital hub.

Good point. I expect my mom to change to Mac, when she soon sees her grandson in iChat AV. I think Mac users, who "nudge" friends and family to Macs are a great way to get new switchers.

About .Mac, I'm still thinking about it, but I really don't need another email address, even if it is short. My name is my email address, how can you beat that ? I also prefer a blog, photos etc on my own site, not mac/whatever.html or something. Can you choose your own url ?

I would like to see some homepages using .Mac templates, is there a list or directory ?

 

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by beware_phog
I wonder when people aren't going to start asking why computers aren't free with their .mac subscriptions. Do you free loaders think that software creations costs nothing? Are you the same people who think music costs nothing so sharing it is OK?

If you don't like what .mac has to offer, then don't buy it. I think it is great. Makes the basic tasks easy. Just like computing should be.

And if enough people thought like you, Apple wouldn't find it necessary to sweeten the re-subscription deal so often and so much.

Once you decide .Mac isn't worth the money for what it provides, it's great show to watch Apple's desperate attempts to keep their subscription base from falling further down, knowing full well that it's all a matter of price point, not features.

It's just not my cup of Kool-Aid...

 

[steveh]

Re: desperation

Originally posted by Blackcat
Make it $79/year and I think people might renew. Better still, $8.95/month is less painful.

Which would save them -$8.40 over the current $99/yr.

*Some* people would see that as a feature. Maybe.

 

[reyesmac]

Where is .mac 2.0???

I wish Apple updated .Mac itself for speed improvements and new features as much as it does its free iApps. What they do instead is update .Mac thru the Mac OS and you end up having to pay $129 to update your $99 .Mac services. Thats messed up.
Instead of giving away stuff, how about come up with new things to do with .mac? Use that $99 to pay for some research and development and not just to pay for bandwidth costs.
For some people .mac is worth the money, but when you compare how they update it to how they update their other programs, something doesn't add up here. Did they think they could just offer what they have now and thats it? No .mac 2.0 version?

 

[cnladd]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Include MacOS and I'll join today

Originally posted by bretm
It's all listed on their website. If you don't like it don't buy it. Just quit bragging about how good you are at webhositng and all. Isn't your time worth something? How liong did it take you to figure all that out? If you sold space on your servers, negotiated marketing deals with other companies for discounts, supplied the software to make it all connect (backup, virus software, safari bookmark syncing, ipod syncing, cell phone syncing, ical publishing/syncing, computers with an easy setup system in the system prefs, iDisk, etc.) how much would you charge?

Don't read more into my post than I had written, please. I wasn't bragging, I was asking a valid question. As I've stated before I would prefer the simplicity of .Mac over rolling my own.

And no, it isn't all on their site. Yes, the features listed are there (except for upgrade prices for more iDisk space -- nowhere to be found when I searched), but that's not what I was asking about. I want to know what others' experiences have been--especially the experience of other users who are capable of "rolling their own", yet still opted for .Mac service.

As for what I would charge if I were to have done all that Apple did with .Mac? Likely a bit more than $99/year, though on a monthly basis. I'm near certain that the service is costing them far more than what they're charging on a per-user basis. The .Mac service isn't a profit center for them, it's likely a cost center (i.e.: partly or mostly subsidized) and is used as a means to attract more users and retain mindhare with existing users.

 

[ddbean]

Can't wait to use mine...

I got my .mac subscription for low $35 through my local ind. Apple reseller when I ordered my Dual G5, so I can't wait to start using it... All I need now is APPLE to come through and build/ship my order.

It's great to see how most of you are using it and like it. It did seem like a lot of money (full price) when I first read about it, but now I read what all you can do with it, doesn't seem that bad of a deal at full price, just glad I can have my first year at much lower price.

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: Can't wait to use mine...

Originally posted by ddbean
I got my .mac subscription for low $35 through my local ind. Apple reseller when I ordered my Dual G5, so I can't wait to start using it... All I need now is APPLE to come through and build/ship my order.

It's great to see how most of you are using it and like it. It did seem like a lot of money (full price) when I first read about it, but now I read what all you can do with it, doesn't seem that bad of a deal at full price, just glad I can have my first year at much lower price.

Enjoy your new G5, and yes, I find it to be a great service that does nothing but add that much more functionality to OS X and your user experience in general. I hope you find it to be just as beneficial as well.

 

[jaw04005]

My Account Does.

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Does it really go down that often? I've heard quite a few people complain about the reliability, but it's been pretty bulletproof as far as I've seen so far.

I'm a .Mac renewal, and my particular email account goes down a few times a month at least for hours at a time. Just yesterday, it was down for the majority of the morning. Now, I don't know if that is because I was an early iTools user and my name resides on an "older server" or what, but that aspect could certainly be improved. If they are doing "routine maintenance" then they need to due that maintenance at times other than premium times. On the other hand, my Earthlink Mail account has only went down twice since I subscribed 3 years ago to their service.

 

[hayesk]

Re: Still not worth it

Originally posted by jocknerd
I let my account expire. $99 was too much for me. A lot of others say its worth it with incentives like $30 off of this product, $20 off of that product. But you've got to spend another $300 or so to get that $50 savings. Sorry. I don't subscribe to that thinking.

.Mac also gives a lot of stuff for free. I believe there is more free stuff than there are discounts.

I still think that the .mac subscription base will fall significantly this year.

I think a lot won't renew, but they'll get a lot of new subscriptions too. I believe it will be somewhat constant. Maybe a slight rise or fall, but nothing earth-shattering.

Of course some of you think that anything Apple does or says is the gospel so you'll be glad to plunk down your $99. You'd probably plunk down $199 if Apple told you to.

Or perhaps other people's needs aren't exactly the same as yours. Can you not comprehend that?

Me? I like Apple products. I've got an iBook, an iPod. I just bought Panther. But I bought a Linksys wireless router instead of the AirPort. I don't buy something just because it has the Apple logo on it. It has to be a better value. The Linksys was far and away the better value over the $100 more AirPort.

Does the linksys have a Rendezvous print server built-in? That's why I bought the Airport. Otherwise, I would have gotten a cheaper router too, but Apple provided better value - for me.

The same goes with .mac. $99 exceeds what I consider to be a good value for the product.

Sure, if you don't like it. But you seem to think that other people shouldn't think it is good value. Those people (including myself) have different needs than you do.

 

[LimeiBook86]

I have been with this since iTools. I love it! The e-mail is great, the bookmark feature I love. The address book is great. I don't care much for iCal but that's just me. The free stuff is what i go for, the games are great. I don't think $30 off a $300 product is good though. Dot Mac should have Apple Software discounts, like Panther! I know I can't afford .Mac and Panther in one year. I am just a high school student. I love .Mac and as long as it keeps getting better I'll still be here. Apple is good at this but they need to listen to thier subscribers a little more. Actually I saw the iBlog request in Apple's Dot Mac forums and then a week later it was avaliable. This is a good sign. Keep it up Apple.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Re: Yeah.. with the price per gigabyte falling

Originally posted by tacomancini
How bout more than 100MB standard. I mean a year ago storage was more expensive... shouldn't .mac up the amount of storage in relation to the lowering costs of drives. I am sure near the limit. I love all the perks... but c'mon more storage please... and a year of only the same 7 web page themes for movies.
that said I love my .mac account.... but I too have access to more server space elsewhere...It's just not as brainless.

OK you are thinking on a really basic level here. Hard drive storage size has increased in the last year but also consider the cost of SCSI drives, that are most likely being used. They aren't cheap. Consider how much it costs to backup all this info on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Consider the costs of cooling the room that is housing the servers that hold all your data. What about the cost of the actual site where the servers are located? DU think that's free?
There is a lot more going on behind the scenes then how many MB's you are getting.
While I agree that 100MB is a tad small the price is pretty good. Personally I think they should give everyone a CD-R's worth of storage. (e.g. 700MB) But in such an instance the price would go up, and rightly so.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Multiple e-mail accounts?

Quick question guys. I've been going over the www.mac.com site with a fine toothed comb and can't find any info on this. Can you get more then one e-mail account? I see that you can upgrade the amount of storage you can have for an e-mail account but no mention of purchasing a second e-mail account.

[Edit: Never mind. I'm blind. Found it in the FAQ as a * 10 bucks is a dang good price ]

 

[SiliconAddict]

Small nitpick about .Mac

One final note about .Mac. I have to ask. What the **** was Apple thinking with the utility that you can install on Windows to access some of the features of .Mac

The software only works on Windows XP. While there are some cool features on XP there really isn't anything all that different between XP and 2K. It’s as if Apple is actively promoting the use of XP which IMHO blows like hurricane Isabel. If nothing else they should have made it compatible with Windows 2000. Really bad decision on Apple’s part.

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: Small nitpick about .Mac

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
One final note about .Mac. I have to ask. What the **** was Apple thinking with the utility that you can install on Windows to access some of the features of .Mac

The software only works on Windows XP. While there are some cool features on XP there really isn't anything all that different between XP and 2K. It’s as if Apple is actively promoting the use of XP which IMHO blows like hurricane Isabel. If nothing else they should have made it compatible with Windows 2000. Really bad decision on Apple’s part.

Have you tried it on Win 2k to see if it might work? From my understanding, the two are virtually identical besides the addition of extra multimedia enhancements to XP. If this is the case, there shouldn't be much of a reason why 2k wouldn't work with .Mac, either.