Apple prepares .Mac improvements
Apple Computer this week is expected to quietly surprise members of its .Mac internet services with several new features.
According to reports, the company will be increasing email and iDisk storage space to a combined 250MB, up from 115MB. User's of the service will also be given an option to upgrade their .Mac account to 1 GB for US$49.95 per year.
In addition to the storage enhancements, Apple is also expected to introduce e-mail aliases and an e-mail spell checker.
No further details were available.
According to reports, the company will be increasing email and iDisk storage space to a combined 250MB, up from 115MB. User's of the service will also be given an option to upgrade their .Mac account to 1 GB for US$49.95 per year.
In addition to the storage enhancements, Apple is also expected to introduce e-mail aliases and an e-mail spell checker.
No further details were available.
Comments
This shouldn't be insider-info. It should be a report.
Apple is also expected to introduce e-mail aliases and an e-mail spell checker.
These features have been in .Mac web mail for some time now. ;-)
Dave.
Originally posted by AppleInsider
[B]Apple Computer this week is expected to quietly surprise members of its .Mac internet services with several new features.
I got this message. Twice.
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:52:51 PDT
To: .Mac user <[email protected]>
From: "Apple Computer" <[email protected]>
Subject: Enhancements to your .Mac account
X-ref: account upgrade
X-Mailer: Apple .Mac Mailer
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. If you see this message, then you aren't using a MIME compliant mail reader.
--mime-part-separator Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Dear .Mac member,
We're excited to announce that your .Mac membership now comes with 250 MB of combined .Mac Mail and iDisk storage. And, in another move designed to make life easier as traffic grows heavier and files grow larger, we've increased the maximum email message size to 10 MB.
If you haven't tried them yet, be sure to check out two additional enhancements recently added to .Mac Mail. There's a new online spell checker with a customizable dictionary available when you use your .Mac Mail account through a browser. And you can now use aliases as email addresses either for fun or as protection when you need to provide an email address but aren't entirely comfortable with the requester. If your concerns turn out to be justified, you can then simply remove the alias and create a new one the next time you face a similar situation.
We value your membership and hope you enjoy these enhancements to your .Mac service.
Sincerely,
The .Mac Team
Apple respects your privacy. Information regarding your personal information can be viewed at http://www.apple.com/legal/privacy
Copyright 2004 Apple Computer. All rights reserved
http://www.apple.com/legal
--mime-part-separator Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
(chopped out the rest -- Eudora is set in text-only mode)
I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong, but it is always very slow for me -- not just u/l, but it seems to slow down the computer as well.
Originally posted by Dogcow
Blah. they got me excited for a second. It's 125 megs each for iDisk and email. I was really hopping that it was going to be 250 megs that you could use however you wanted across email and iDisk. I really don't need 125 megs of email. I would much rather have that all put towards my iDisk, which only saw a 25 MB bump. I really don't want to spend $50 for a gig for storage either. The iDisk should really be at least 500 MB and email should be unlimited... especially when we are paying $100 a year for this.
Dogcow,
As Dave noted above, you can adjust the amount of each. I just changed mine to 50 email, 200 iDisk.
The aquafied bar graph that shows how much storage is used in each department is also pretty cool (.Mac members will have to log in and go to Account > Storage Settings to see it.).
Originally posted by wilco
Is anyone's iDisk quick enough to actually use it?
I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong, but it is always very slow for me -- not just u/l, but it seems to slow down the computer as well.
No, I found it painfully slow as well . The web page is slow, the mail is slow, to put it very simply, if youre paying 100 dollars for it, youre getting ripped off.
Originally posted by reykjavik
No, I found it painfully slow as well . The web page is slow, the mail is slow, to put it very simply, if youre paying 100 dollarsfor it, youre getting ripped off.
I also get significant discounts on software and freebie games once a while with my .Mac account. Virex comes bundled with it as well.
.Mac is not just storage space and unlike gmail, Apple doesn't snoop on your privacy. There is no comparision between gmail and .Mac.
Originally posted by Buran
I agree that the price isn't worth it. I'm the tech support for desktops in my department and one of the office staff wanted a virus scanner for her new G5. Despite my assurances that it wasn't necessary, she said she felt more comfortable with one. Since Virex is free with .Mac, I had Purchasing order a .Mac box, set it up, and put the Virex install on her G5. I really don't use it for much, but I have Eudora check it once every so often. My regular email needs are met by friends with servers who have given me space, and of course by my work email account.
Agreed, I guess its pretty good if youre wealthy and a 100 bucks a year is nothing to you and you just want everything to work nicely and smoothly. But it is truly just that, a luxury and totally unnecessary. I've been using gmail for a while and like it a lot. Plus I know someone that works there who said they plan on offering pop3 accounts for a very cheap monthly cost (I think he said something around 3-4 dollars, or 20 bucks a year or something miniscule). The only problem i have found with gmail is false positives. Many emails I have sent, and received have not gotten to me or to other people. (ok, not many, but easily 2-5%). Hopefully this is a beta issue, if not, Im not exactly the president, if I miss an email I think the world will move on.
Originally posted by talksense101
I also get significant discounts on software and freebie games once a while with my .Mac account. Virex comes bundled with it as well.
.Mac is not just storage space and unlike gmail, Apple doesn't snoop on your privacy. There is no comparision between gmail and .Mac.
As a mattter of fact....they do! The gmail "snoop" that you refer to is merely a text search feature that matches up key phrases. In fact, that is EXACTLY what spam filters do. .Mac has spam filters, thus .Mac is doing the same "snooping" that gmail does. Except gmail uses that to give away a service, whereas .Mac uses that AND charges you for that service.
Originally posted by reykjavik
As a mattter of fact....they do! The gmail "snoop" that you refer to is merely a text search feature that matches up key phrases. In fact, that is EXACTLY what spam filters do. .Mac has spam filters, thus .Mac is doing the same "snooping" that gmail does. Except gmail uses that to give away a service, whereas .Mac uses that AND charges you for that service.
It is true that my message gets scanned by both parties. My understanding is that GMail does a text search of your message and provides targetted advertising based on the contents of your email. This helps them build a database on interests of people and improve marketing. The line is blurred on where this analysis stops. With the patriot act running amuck in the US, 2GB of my private information being analyzed makes me uncomfortable.
Spam filters use a number of different algorithms to mark a message as junk. This includes a spam list based on the message header. It stops there (at least in theory...)
Originally posted by talksense101
It is true that my message gets scanned by both parties. My understanding is that GMail does a text search of your message and provides targetted advertising based on the contents of your email. This helps them build a database on interests of people and improve marketing. The line is blurred on where this analysis stops. With the patriot act running amuck in the US, 2GB of my private information being analyzed makes me uncomfortable.
ok, thats true. I guess its just a personal choice at that point.
Quote:
Spam filters use a number of different algorithms to mark a message as junk. This includes a spam list based on the message header. It stops there (at least in theory...)
Actually that isn't true, at least I dont believe it is. Which is why spam messages now spell words in the body of the message differently (like with 3's instead of E's, or just plain out spelling them wrong, or sometimes theyll end a spam with a famouse quote or someting just to throw the filters off). Spam checking has definitely gone to the body of the message. If not, then most spam would go undetected by simply just leaving the subject blank. If the body of the email is scanned, then this way spam can be stopped even when sent out from hi-jacked accounts. I mean, i have never done any research on this so i may be wrong, But i have always just assumed that within at least the past 3 years, message bodies have been checked by spam filters.
250 (possible) for email is plenty, people should not really want more? if you have hundreds of gigabytes of email then you've probably got loads of those silly movies and pictures people send around. Things like that should not be kept on an email server. It's not a file system!?
I saw a news article about some company offering 100 Gigabytes of email space!? it's a bit like the dot com boom free webspace for nothing situation. Most of those freeweb space provider are not long gone...
Why offer so much if it does not make business sense?
Originally posted by reykjavik
.Mac has spam filters, thus .Mac is doing the same "snooping" that gmail does. Except gmail uses that to give away a service, whereas .Mac uses that AND charges you for that service.
I think some people are a bit paranoid about GMail scanning the contents of their messages. Having said that, the difference between GMails's content scrubbing and Mail.app's spam filtering is that your .Mac/Mail.app spam filter doesn't send any info to Apple or any third parties -- the info is only on your computer, only in your account. only for Mail.app. I actually wish I could upload it to webmail so it can work when I check my mail away from home too. So the point about content searching being the same is sort of moot because the results go to different parties.