I don't' get all the .Mac bashing. Name another competing way to sync all the info on your macs together (address book, Safari links, iCal, mail accounts). This makes it so easy to set up an account on a new mac. Plus, we all know syncing is coming to the iPhone which will be just fantastic!
Photocasting with iPhoto is another great .Mac service. Again, name another way that's as easy to "send" a whole bunch of full-quality photos to someone else.
I still prefer iWeb and .Mac to anything else for making a basic web page that looks good. I wouldn't even have a webpage without iWeb and .Mac.
There's also the programs that use .Mac. Like iSale auction software that's got ebay photo publishing. Again, it just works and it's easy to do.
I also like the .Mac mail. They need to add better junk mail and sure, up the size limits, but it works well for me. I also like the web interface. It seems a lot better than gmail's to me.
Apple can't provide free email - Google supports its "free" services with the assumption of greater ad revenue (i.e., use their gmail and you're going to use their search and their ads get more views and click-throughs).
I think it would have to be a pretty popular site to eat through that with just web pages. With my own host, I only go through 2-3GB/mo for four different domains, and that's including video files.
Well it wasn't big enough for me, and that's without running an iWeb site.
Thank God, My .mac account was going to expire tomorrow. Hopefully they make it free or add enough goodies for me to re-up... that would have to be a lot of goodies. I'm betting on a reduction of fees and some new features.
Unlike many on this board, my renewal is up in 347 days...yes, I just ordered .Mac along with my brand new MBP to see what it's all about. So far, I've been pretty disappointed...1GB of storage for the price is pretty weak and the interface is not on par with what I've come to expect during my brief time as an Apple convert.
I would hope that Apple adds more functionality for my $99 rip-off and lowers the price ( I think free is a bit unrealistic, and from a marketing standpoint not a good idea) for others who come along. It would be nice to return the favor to those of us who have already paid into the .Mac scheme also...
.Mac Mobile for all carriers (not just AT&T for the few lucky iPhone users)?
I could get my own domain that will give me 300 GBs storage, 2,500 e-mails, 100 sub domains, and on and on and on for the same price of .Mac! Pathetic! All of that plus a proper control panel.
.Mac is by far the worst Apple product existing right now.
Well, I think AppleWorks takes that honor (not sure why it hasn't it been discontinued yet). But yeah, .Mac is among the worst and quite possibly the most useless product/service Apple currently offers (since most of what .Mac can do should be done by hooking up with other hosting services).
But I would like to see photo syncing from iPhoto... and maybe it's a .Mac thing... Though Flickr or others could easily do so as well. I would like to be able to sync my photo albums. If I create a 2007 folder, and inside that is a family vacation folder, and inside that is 20 pictures... I want my online album to reflect that... after all it's a computer, it should be good at stuff like that. So either some iphoto syncing from .Mac, or someone else would be cool... sorry this is slightly off topic... unless DON DON DOOOON!!! Apple fixes this problem!! :-)
I really have a hard time imagining .mac being compelling. Half of the appeal to a lot of the cutting edge web 2.0 technologies is that they're accessible to anyone on any platform and promote interaction. Sites like Facebook, Picasa and Panoramio are cool because they allow users to tag eachothers files with people and location tags - you can't have that level of interactivity with a product available only to Apple users.
The same problem extends to blogging in Apple's closed sandbox - it makes a lot more sense to do on a comprehensive social networking site where people go to interact with friends and contacts.
So in order to be even mildly competitive, .mac needs to be free, available to all, and boast a radically improved interface. Steve Jobs has pulled rabbits out of hats before, but that's a tall order - the coolest thing I can reasonably imagine is some kind of Google partnership with really nice perks for mac owners (perhaps more storage space and iCal/Google Calendar syncing).
That would be very nice. I've been looking for a very simple, elegant way to keep my iCal events synced up between my iMac and MacBook, giving .Mac a nice overhaul with Google Calander would certainly be a nice step forward.
Apple will NEVER give .Mac for free. they might add some features but never for free.
.Mac is by far the worst Apple product existing right now. they better make some serious upgrade or I am not going to renew. My renewal comes up in 40 days.
Apple DID give .Mac (or was it iTools?) free until about 4 or 5 years ago. When I bought my G4 five years ago, it was part of the deal.
Johnnyboy san, Anata wa Nihonjin desu ka? On 60 Minutes, a British actress said that in Nihon, the word for bull shit is 'boorshitsu' or 'burshitsu'. Is that correct?
Isn't it odd that Apple and Yahoo teamed up to do push e-mail for the iPhone, but that Apple's own dot-Mac doesn't even do push for iPhone?
I think you'll see this and a whole lot more syncing ability from .Mac, where .Mac will truly serve as the internet backend to your mac/ipod/iphone/appletv/ (Apple ecosystem).
I'd use .Mac if Apple made it free. And Apple would get advertising every time I sent an e-mail with the mac.com suffix. Otherwise I expect to stick with Google.
I don't' get all the .Mac bashing. Name another competing way to sync all the info on your macs together (address book, Safari links, iCal, mail accounts). This makes it so easy to set up an account on a new mac. Plus, we all know syncing is coming to the iPhone which will be just fantastic!
It's all about bashing Apple at every turn. Nothing's good enough for some unless it matches EXACTLY their alleged requirements. Everybody's a marketing and design genius who fancies themselves superior to Jobs and Ives. "What everyone wants..." is their mantra. No matter what happens today it won't be good enough because it doesn't conform to their brilliant ideas.
Bottom line. It doesn't matter what they think. The iPod still doesn't have a FM tuner, doesn't support Ogg Vorbis. Macs still don't have BluRay drives or enough USB ports. The iPhone doesn't have (insert deal killing requirement here). And .Mac still isn't free with unlimited storage and bandwidth. And guess what? Apple is doing fantastically well without all these deal killing, absolutely MUST have features and products that "everybody wants."
For the record, I'm fine with .Mac. It does what it does elegantly and at a fair price. I've been a subscriber since day one and will renew without hesitation. Any improvements or price reductions will be icing on the cake for me.
Comments
Photocasting with iPhoto is another great .Mac service. Again, name another way that's as easy to "send" a whole bunch of full-quality photos to someone else.
I still prefer iWeb and .Mac to anything else for making a basic web page that looks good. I wouldn't even have a webpage without iWeb and .Mac.
There's also the programs that use .Mac. Like iSale auction software that's got ebay photo publishing. Again, it just works and it's easy to do.
I also like the .Mac mail. They need to add better junk mail and sure, up the size limits, but it works well for me. I also like the web interface. It seems a lot better than gmail's to me.
Apple can't provide free email - Google supports its "free" services with the assumption of greater ad revenue (i.e., use their gmail and you're going to use their search and their ads get more views and click-throughs).
I think it would have to be a pretty popular site to eat through that with just web pages. With my own host, I only go through 2-3GB/mo for four different domains, and that's including video files.
Well it wasn't big enough for me, and that's without running an iWeb site.
Give .Mac customers some really powerful easy to use web based services and .Mac would be worth it.
I would hope that Apple adds more functionality for my $99 rip-off and lowers the price ( I think free is a bit unrealistic, and from a marketing standpoint not a good idea) for others who come along. It would be nice to return the favor to those of us who have already paid into the .Mac scheme also...
.Mac Mobile for all carriers (not just AT&T for the few lucky iPhone users)?
Apple can't provide free email - Google supports its "free" services with the assumption of greater ad revenue .....
Excellent observation!
Why have:
http://homepage.mac./mydotmacname/
when we could have something like:
www.mydotmacname.mac
Imagine how cool that would be?!
I could get my own domain that will give me 300 GBs storage, 2,500 e-mails, 100 sub domains, and on and on and on for the same price of .Mac! Pathetic! All of that plus a proper control panel.
.Mac is by far the worst Apple product existing right now.
Well, I think AppleWorks takes that honor (not sure why it hasn't it been discontinued yet). But yeah, .Mac is among the worst and quite possibly the most useless product/service Apple currently offers (since most of what .Mac can do should be done by hooking up with other hosting services).
Push (IMAP or POP also) capable .mac email address = free
That + 2GB iDisk (incl all sync services), 50GB Web bandwidth = $39
That + 10GB iDisk (incl all sync services), 100GB Web bandwidth + 5 emails = $59
That + 50GB iDisk (incl all sync services), 100GB Web bandwidth + 10 emails = $89
Backup, AntiVirus & a few goodies (widgets we were promised FOREVER AGO would be nice) included with any pay package.
Option to add up to 500GB space and 1TB bandwidth for monthly fees.
I would also like to see some iPhone integration.
Incredible that this is not possible yet.
free if new mac purchased
free with new leopard
free with apple care
make it a valued "portal" using google. then i'd switch from yahoo.
I really have a hard time imagining .mac being compelling. Half of the appeal to a lot of the cutting edge web 2.0 technologies is that they're accessible to anyone on any platform and promote interaction. Sites like Facebook, Picasa and Panoramio are cool because they allow users to tag eachothers files with people and location tags - you can't have that level of interactivity with a product available only to Apple users.
The same problem extends to blogging in Apple's closed sandbox - it makes a lot more sense to do on a comprehensive social networking site where people go to interact with friends and contacts.
So in order to be even mildly competitive, .mac needs to be free, available to all, and boast a radically improved interface. Steve Jobs has pulled rabbits out of hats before, but that's a tall order - the coolest thing I can reasonably imagine is some kind of Google partnership with really nice perks for mac owners (perhaps more storage space and iCal/Google Calendar syncing).
That would be very nice. I've been looking for a very simple, elegant way to keep my iCal events synced up between my iMac and MacBook, giving .Mac a nice overhaul with Google Calander would certainly be a nice step forward.
Apple will NEVER give .Mac for free. they might add some features but never for free.
.Mac is by far the worst Apple product existing right now. they better make some serious upgrade or I am not going to renew. My renewal comes up in 40 days.
Apple DID give .Mac (or was it iTools?) free until about 4 or 5 years ago. When I bought my G4 five years ago, it was part of the deal.
With new services for .Mac being added into Leopard, such as "Back to My Mac," it certainly would make sense to provide a free version to users.
this!
this!
Johnnyboy san, Anata wa Nihonjin desu ka? On 60 Minutes, a British actress said that in Nihon, the word for bull shit is 'boorshitsu' or 'burshitsu'. Is that correct?
I think you'll see this and a whole lot more syncing ability from .Mac, where .Mac will truly serve as the internet backend to your mac/ipod/iphone/appletv/ (Apple ecosystem).
Toodles, NFTB
I don't' get all the .Mac bashing. Name another competing way to sync all the info on your macs together (address book, Safari links, iCal, mail accounts). This makes it so easy to set up an account on a new mac. Plus, we all know syncing is coming to the iPhone which will be just fantastic!
It's all about bashing Apple at every turn. Nothing's good enough for some unless it matches EXACTLY their alleged requirements. Everybody's a marketing and design genius who fancies themselves superior to Jobs and Ives. "What everyone wants..." is their mantra. No matter what happens today it won't be good enough because it doesn't conform to their brilliant ideas.
Bottom line. It doesn't matter what they think. The iPod still doesn't have a FM tuner, doesn't support Ogg Vorbis. Macs still don't have BluRay drives or enough USB ports. The iPhone doesn't have (insert deal killing requirement here). And .Mac still isn't free with unlimited storage and bandwidth. And guess what? Apple is doing fantastically well without all these deal killing, absolutely MUST have features and products that "everybody wants."
For the record, I'm fine with .Mac. It does what it does elegantly and at a fair price. I've been a subscriber since day one and will renew without hesitation. Any improvements or price reductions will be icing on the cake for me.
It's all about bashing Apple at every turn. Nothing's good enough for some unless it matches EXACTLY their alleged requirements.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz