Apple's iCard service says its goodbyes (with an iCard)
One of the unfortunate casualties of the .Mac to MobileMe transition will be Apple's iCards greeting service, which will be discontinued on Wednesday evening alongside .Mac.
A final iCard issued Tuesday evening by Apple bid farewell to all iCard users:
A final iCard issued Tuesday evening by Apple bid farewell to all iCard users:
Comments
Didn't use that often, but you have to pay to do this any other way, although you can use email to do this...
*sniff* I didn't get my farewell iCard. I must have been a bad boy and Santa will be spanking me this Xmas.
Good God please no... this is too corny.
*sniff* I didn't get my farewell iCard. I must have been a bad boy and Santa will be spanking me this Xmas.
I guess you weren't on Steve's A-List.
I guess you weren't on Steve's A-List.
Frankly, am I the only one who misses KidSafe, the real killer app of the old iTools?
I wasn't aware that anyone actually even used iCards.
Frankly, am I the only one who misses KidSafe, the real killer app of the old iTools?
No, that was one thing I liked as well. Apple has this tendency to implement things that could be very good with a little work and then kill them with nearly no explanation.
No, that was one thing I liked as well. Apple has this tendency to implement things that could be very good with a little work and then kill them with nearly no explanation.
... then do their best to squash any discussion about it in its forums, where there is no such thing as free speech. The .Mac feedback form was removed, understandably, from the Apple Feedback page, but Apple did not replace it with a MobileMe feedback form.
Apple doesn't even have the decency to post an announcement on the old iCards website. All that lies in wait for unsuspecting, less informed users is a generic MobileMe error page. They're left hanging. Some of them find their way to my Flickr image of my iCard to Steve Jobs with Google searches like "what happened to Apple iCards"
As a dotMac subscriber for 6 years, I am very upset with Apple for nixing the .Mac services... especially iCards.
iCards were simple, they were elegant, and they didn't plaster recipients with advertisements, HTML, and flashing GIFS.
I got responses from sending iCards I never got from sending emails... not even emails with pictures. The combination of whimsical images and text in one small, savable JPEG in the iCard message was hard to resist.
Despite a couple of decent homemade alternatives, iWant Apple iCards Back!!
There are two petitions clamoring for Apple to bring back iCards. Feel free to join the chorus!
http://www.petitiononline.com/ic110608/petition.html
and
http://www.petitiononline.com/06291970/petition.html
"Everyone, call Apple Customer Relations at this number to complain (I found it was the best # to call after trying several). They say number of complaints matters.:
800-767-2775 "
— k2graphics
Apple's Discussion moderators deleted this comment from an iCards thread
"Everyone, call Apple Customer Relations at this number to complain (I found it was the best # to call after trying several). They say number of complaints matters.:
800-767-2775 "
? k2graphics
There's a new website just launched that looks like it might be an iCards replacement:
http://popcard.me/
The collection of card images is a bit small at the moment but it looks promising and it's free...
There's a new website just launched that looks like it might be an iCards replacement:
http://popcard.me/
The collection of card images is a bit small at the moment but it looks promising and it's free...
And it's your site? Die spammer, die.
http://www.4icards.com/
http://www.someecards.com/
Hey don't have a go at me... I just thought it was worth linking to. There are some other ones I've found here:
http://www.4icards.com/
http://www.someecards.com/
seems cool, I tried www.4icards.com and it works fine, they only have some google ads which is ok for me as far as the service is working. What I liked about 4icards.com is the engine to send your own images and photos which is very cool.
Click for full size
As far as I know, sanctions are still in effect, and I don't plan on inviting trouble by breaking the law of the land I live in.
Additionally,
4iCARDS COLLECTS ALL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION!!
I do not consider that to be very "cool" at all!
That said, the quality of the 4iCards product leaves much to be desired when compared to Apple iCards. Since I've already expressed my opinions about the cards and the email format, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. Here are the links where I've discussed the poor quality issues with this site's cards:
Get Satisfaction: Who misses Apple iCards?
iWant Apple iCards Back, Too!! on Flickr
and
PLEASE don't kill Apple iCards! on Flickr
I strongly recommend POPCARD.ME over 4iCards.com
http://popcard.me
The site is run by Jamie Longstaff, author of the pro photography photo gallery software, Pixaria.
NO PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED BY POPCARD.ME!
and there are no advertisements in the email with the JPEG card. My review of PopCard.me is found here:
A good online alternative to Apple iCards (R.I.P)
PopCard.me is a work in progress, and Jamie does respond well to communication with users. I am glad PopCard.me is there for those who are shackled to Windows or Linux PCs (like Mac users stuck at work).
At the same time, I have been happily using Steve Dekorte's PostCard application.
http://www.dekorte.com/projects/shareware/Postcard/
Sending my own home made cards using Apple Mail means no one is collecting my personal information or that of my friends and loved ones. And it's a cinch to send group emails with hidden addresses... just drag a group from your Address Book right into the BCC field in Apple Mail!!
In addition, PostCard enables you to use TextEdit capabilities in the message area, including the ability to insert images (think smileys) within the message area and to drop shadow your text. The added flexibility and creativity is refreshing. I've combed the Internet for old Apple iCard images, and have posted several hundred to my iDisk for download and recycling for PERSONAL use with apps like PostCard.
http://homepage.mac.com/mac.zooks/FileSharing42.html
In fact, I have posted a review of PostCard on my Flickr account,
Make your own iCards with PostCard
and in the comments, I review several other software solutions, including free Keynote templates which duplicate exactly what an iCard looks like, down to the Hello from Cupertino postmark.
Hey don't have a go at me... I just thought it was worth linking to. There are some other ones I've found here:
http://www.4icards.com/
http://www.someecards.com/
See my previous comment above about 4iCards.
Just in case queen55 thinks I'm picking on her/him, I have little good to say about Someecards, either. It's a foul-mouthed place I would never send anyone I care about.
Besides, it's a Go-and-fetch-it ecard site anyway.