You misread me: There is no OS X version of Picasa.
I'll try phrase it differently: On the Mac Google instead offers a plugin for export from iPhoto libraries to Picasa web albums, Googles free online photo sharing service. I know that iPhoto and Picasa aren't identical in their feature sets, but at least iPhoto is bundled free with all new Macs.
Whether .mac is worth it or not depends on what you need. I use it and I find the mail service acceptable if not spectacular, iDisk is useful, Back Up has saved my ass, Home Page is useful, if a little confusing to work with. Groups makes it easy to share information with the rest of the family and more applications are being built to leverage .mac.
If you want a solution that does all those things along with searching the web, shopping, manipulating images, creating spreadsheets, balancing your checkbook, finding the love of your life, curing cancer and farting the star spangled banner, then go with something else. Or cobble all of those things together from myraid services from across the Internet.
Whether .mac is worth it or not depends on what you need. I use it and I find the mail service acceptable if not spectacular, iDisk is useful, Back Up has saved my ass, Home Page is useful, if a little confusing to work with. Groups makes it easy to share information with the rest of the family and more applications are being built to leverage .mac.
If you want a solution that does all those things along with searching the web, shopping, manipulating images, creating spreadsheets, balancing your checkbook, finding the love of your life, curing cancer and farting the star spangled banner, then go with something else. Or cobble all of those things together from myraid services from across the Internet.
I'm noticing a little bit of cognitive dissonance avoidance among those who say its worth it and currently subscribe. Let's get real, "cobbling" together a better e-mail solution (gmail, yahoo) free storage (ftp space comes free from many internet providers and is almost as easy, and much faster than iDisk), iWeb can be exported to a folder and dropped onto an FTP site... there's no problem here.
If money isn't an issue, .Mac away. Otherwise, save $100 or so.
Blogger: Share your life online with a blog -- it's fast, easy, and free
Calendar: Organize your schedule and share events with friends
Docs & Spreadsheets: Create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere. (apple hasen't had a spreadsheet program since the OS 9 days.)
Gmail: Fast, searchable email with less spam (Works better than .mac)
Picasa: Find, edit and share your photos
Google Talk: IM and call your friends through your computer. (works great in Friefox, iChat, Camino and Adium)
Google Earth: Explore the world from your Mac
SketchUp: Create 3D models for Google Earth
Personalized Homepage: anything a widgit can do...
Orkut: Online community (text me if you need an invitation )
Checkout: Complete online purchases more quickly and securely (like paypal but better)
Froogle shopping lists: Shop for items to buy online and at local stores
Personalized News: Search thousands of news stories (now with archive search, New!)
Book Search: Search the full text of books (this is really Brilliant!)
Google Video: now with the power of youTube!
Google Language Tools: Text or page translation, (I use this often)
Google Toolbar: for Firefox, Briliant!
and more with more coming...
I have loved Apple computers and the Mac OS from the begining but .mac is a waste of a good Ben Franklin.
If ya need an invitation drop me a line.
:-D Gmail is amazing.
But how much does it cost to get a book that teaches you how to use every Apple product on the market? Not only Mac OS X -- but iWork, iLife, iDVD. iMovie HD -- and you don't have to read -- it has videos! And, even more, if your have trouble you can always go to Apple's discussion boards and ask. I think the first year .mac users will enjoy the Learning Center -- I know I have. Without it. iWork would have been a waste of money -- with the Learning Center, I now can create beautiful documents in matter of minutes, whereas it would take hours to do that with MS Word/NeoOffice or anything else on the market (plus knowledge of photoshop to make the graphics).
So is it worth it? I think so. Don't just use it for your iDisk/Mail -- use it for the Learning Center, as well (and the back up will be useless with Leopard).
I use .Mac every day and think that some of its tools are quite handy. However I agree that the storage space is a fraction of what it should be and it's very over priced.
To me, it's absolutely incredible how Apple's attention is so easily diverted from pure income-driving services like .mac! Un-friggin-believable!
Steve should split the company into competing divisions with heads responsible for driving business, or the division gets shut down. There has been so little innovation in the desktop, online and apps recently (especially their iLife suite)! These were all great drivers of Apple's business at introduction and they have languished for no good reason.
Steve should focus on overall growth while delegating innovation and continuous improvement in existing lines at Apple. They are all over the map these days.
I have been thinking about changing from .mac for a while now. Yes, it was great when it started but with the wealth of web 2.0 applications available, I wonder if it really does make sense. I'm a teacher and use it to create my website and keep in touch with my students. I can now do this using free applications that may not have the polish of Apple (igoogle, pageflakes etc), but it gets the job done. Storage seems laughable when compared to the gspace extension or that British Telecom give away virtual storage (2GB). As my level of technical expertise increases and I become more aware of the free software that already exists and is not platform dependent, I am moving to the position that .mac may be a waste of money...
I'm hoping the upgrade is something really special.
I am a .Mac user since the free iTools day and going to renew my membership.
1. HomePage - I still have it but hardly done any update. iWeb 2.0 should give me back to the camp.
2. iDisk - I do use iDisk even though it's not the fastest thing out there for online storage, but it's easy to use.
3. mac.com email - that's my primary email address and I have an extra email-only account as well. There is SPAM, but SpamSieve does the job pretty well.
4. Backup.app - I use it once in a while, it's okay.
5. Address Book entries, iCal dates, Safari bookmarks, keychains, mail accounts syncing - since I have multiple Macs, this feature comes in handy.
Aside from .Mac, I also use GMail for email (obviously) and MediaTemple for web hosting. WordPress and Gallery are nice tho.
Comments
Flagstaff434: Picasa is also available for Linux. Mac users have iPhoto and Google supports that with an export plugin for Picasa webalbums.
Nowhere does the Picasa Linux site mention support for OS X. Are you sure this works with the Mac?
I'll try phrase it differently: On the Mac Google instead offers a plugin for export from iPhoto libraries to Picasa web albums, Googles free online photo sharing service. I know that iPhoto and Picasa aren't identical in their feature sets, but at least iPhoto is bundled free with all new Macs.
If you want a solution that does all those things along with searching the web, shopping, manipulating images, creating spreadsheets, balancing your checkbook, finding the love of your life, curing cancer and farting the star spangled banner, then go with something else. Or cobble all of those things together from myraid services from across the Internet.
Whether .mac is worth it or not depends on what you need. I use it and I find the mail service acceptable if not spectacular, iDisk is useful, Back Up has saved my ass, Home Page is useful, if a little confusing to work with. Groups makes it easy to share information with the rest of the family and more applications are being built to leverage .mac.
If you want a solution that does all those things along with searching the web, shopping, manipulating images, creating spreadsheets, balancing your checkbook, finding the love of your life, curing cancer and farting the star spangled banner, then go with something else. Or cobble all of those things together from myraid services from across the Internet.
I'm noticing a little bit of cognitive dissonance avoidance among those who say its worth it and currently subscribe. Let's get real, "cobbling" together a better e-mail solution (gmail, yahoo) free storage (ftp space comes free from many internet providers and is almost as easy, and much faster than iDisk), iWeb can be exported to a folder and dropped onto an FTP site... there's no problem here.
If money isn't an issue, .Mac away. Otherwise, save $100 or so.
NO! It's not worth it.
You can get Gmail for free!, plus
- Blogger: Share your life online with a blog -- it's fast, easy, and free
- Calendar: Organize your schedule and share events with friends
- Docs & Spreadsheets: Create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere. (apple hasen't had a spreadsheet program since the OS 9 days.)
- Gmail: Fast, searchable email with less spam (Works better than .mac)
- Picasa: Find, edit and share your photos
- Google Talk: IM and call your friends through your computer. (works great in Friefox, iChat, Camino and Adium)
- Google Earth: Explore the world from your Mac
- SketchUp: Create 3D models for Google Earth
- Personalized Homepage: anything a widgit can do...
- Orkut: Online community (text me if you need an invitation
)
- Checkout: Complete online purchases more quickly and securely (like paypal but better)
- Froogle shopping lists: Shop for items to buy online and at local stores
- Personalized News: Search thousands of news stories (now with archive search, New!)
- Book Search: Search the full text of books (this is really Brilliant!)
- Google Video: now with the power of youTube!
- Google Language Tools: Text or page translation, (I use this often)
- Google Toolbar: for Firefox, Briliant!
- and more with more coming...
I have loved Apple computers and the Mac OS from the begining but .mac is a waste of a good Ben Franklin.If ya need an invitation drop me a line.
:-D Gmail is amazing.
But how much does it cost to get a book that teaches you how to use every Apple product on the market? Not only Mac OS X -- but iWork, iLife, iDVD. iMovie HD -- and you don't have to read -- it has videos! And, even more, if your have trouble you can always go to Apple's discussion boards and ask. I think the first year .mac users will enjoy the Learning Center -- I know I have. Without it. iWork would have been a waste of money -- with the Learning Center, I now can create beautiful documents in matter of minutes, whereas it would take hours to do that with MS Word/NeoOffice or anything else on the market (plus knowledge of photoshop to make the graphics).
So is it worth it? I think so. Don't just use it for your iDisk/Mail -- use it for the Learning Center, as well (and the back up will be useless with Leopard).
I think .mac is very useful but the price maybe could be a little lower.
I would love to see a bit more of storage, 1GB may be enough for many people but .mac wih perhaps 5-10GB would be nice!
Steve should split the company into competing divisions with heads responsible for driving business, or the division gets shut down. There has been so little innovation in the desktop, online and apps recently (especially their iLife suite)! These were all great drivers of Apple's business at introduction and they have languished for no good reason.
Steve should focus on overall growth while delegating innovation and continuous improvement in existing lines at Apple. They are all over the map these days.
"is .Mac worth it?"
& yes, I am still a member
Hahah
Me too!
I'm hoping the upgrade is something really special.
1. HomePage - I still have it but hardly done any update. iWeb 2.0 should give me back to the camp.
2. iDisk - I do use iDisk even though it's not the fastest thing out there for online storage, but it's easy to use.
3. mac.com email - that's my primary email address and I have an extra email-only account as well. There is SPAM, but SpamSieve does the job pretty well.
4. Backup.app - I use it once in a while, it's okay.
5. Address Book entries, iCal dates, Safari bookmarks, keychains, mail accounts syncing - since I have multiple Macs, this feature comes in handy.
Aside from .Mac, I also use GMail for email (obviously) and MediaTemple for web hosting. WordPress and Gallery are nice tho.
You can always sign up for a 60-day free trial.
Am I a member? Yes.
Will I renew next year if the price stays the same? Likely, yes.
Does it piss me off that Steve is taking the piss out of us with this price? Yes!!
Should Apple offer the current model for a cheaper price. Not sure.
Should Apple offer a second version for $29 with a .Mac email and the same storage and monthly bandwidth as the old model? Now you're getting it.
Here's my thinking on .Mac:
.Mac = 2GB storage + 10GB monthly bandwidth = $29.95
.Mac Pro = 10GB storage + 100GB monthly bandwidth = $99.95 (current model)
Definitely worth it. It's so cute. And OSX is much more advanced than Windows
Let me guess, you are 17?
Is is worth it? No.
Am I a member? Yes.
Will I renew next year if the price stays the same? Likely, yes.
Does it piss me off that Steve is taking the piss out of us with this price? Yes!!
Should Apple offer the current model for a cheaper price. Not sure.
Should Apple offer a second version for $29 with a .Mac email and the same storage and monthly bandwidth as the old model? Now you're getting it.
Here's my thinking on .Mac:
.Mac = 2GB storage + 10GB monthly bandwidth = $29.95
.Mac Pro = 10GB storage + 100GB monthly bandwidth = $99.95 (current model)
I'm not gonna make any guess on your age but you definitely left out "a few" things
I agree with Skeletux.
It's not a just about storage and bandwidth. If you use it for that then you definitely need to think twice about your membership.
No other solution will give you .Mac features for free...Google services are far behind