[counterculture]

Just got a message today saying my .Mac membership is about to be renewed. Although I most likely will renew it, I still feel a bit, well, shortchanged, knowing that they only give us 100MB of iDisk space and 15MB of mail memory -- in an age when Google gives 1GB away for free. Sure, Homepage has made my photo-sharing life easy -- just a few clicks from iPhoto, amazing! -- and there are free games (which I don't need) and other stuff (which I don't use), but still, that's 100 dollarses!

Am I the only one who thinks this is overpriced?

What new .Mac features would you like to see?

[Brad]

Yeah, it's a bit expensive, but I'm renewing mine for ~$69 because I've had it for so long and it is really one of the easiest solutions. Yes, yes, you can get cheaper web space and free e-mail accounts elsewhere, but the .Mac package really does tie everything together very nicely.

If all you need is web hosting or e-mail, .Mac is *not* the best solution. If you use all of the other features like iCal publishing or bookmarks syncing, again yes there are other solutions, but .Mac ties them all together very easily.

[Wrao]

I was just talking to a friend about this. Personally, I think .mac used to be a pretty good value because it was generally a little bit more $ for the same amount of webspace you could get in other places, but you also got software, support, updates and lots of really well done "apple" things.

But then companies started getting really aggressive with the free space and the cheap space and all this. To the point where now you got places like iCompositions.com giving users 1GB of free STORAGE, not just email. granted it's designed to share songs and pictures only, it's still huge.

I came really close to getting a .mac account, but ultimately I don't think it's quite a good enough bang for the buck. Apple would do well to add a little bit more space for the email and iDisk, it wouldn't even have to be much. just like 250-500MB storage and 1GB email(hey everyone is doing it, why can't apple?).

[psmith2.0]

What Brad said.

Just got my renewal notice too, and will have no problem at all paying $99 come October 10. I've moved a bit the past three years, and so it's just nice to know that regardless of ISP or whatever, my e-mail that everyone knows me by isn't going to change.

And, to be honest, I dig having a .mac e-mail address on my resume, calling card, etc. It's been the source of more than one interesting, cool conversation when someone has seen it and commented on it ("oh, you're a Mac user too!" or "I've been thinking about maybe getting a Mac...can I ask you some stuff?".



Yeah, everything could be gotten from other companies, but it wouldn't all tie together and work so seamlessly and transparently.

[HHogan]

I got my notice just now, total comes up to $180.18 CDN ($139 plus $15 for extra email acct + tax) and I don't know if I'll renew. Granted its a pretty good service, but like others have said if you don't use all the features, its pretty pricey. I got until October 13th to decide...

[Barto]

I use .Mac so much, I don't know what I'd do without it. Syncing, web hosting, e-mail, free software. AUD100 to AUD200 a year seems like a small sum of money for what you get.

[Mac+]

What Barto said.

I use it for email (love the alias feature too, btw!) web hosting, sync for bookmarks and address book (iCal sync - not really). Haven't got around to trying the iBlog software - but will use that next year when we move to China.

Also, even though I don't use them often - it has been nice to download free games and audio sound FX as well as PhotoStudio - which to my understanding is *not that far different* from Photoshop Elements. I also opted for the special deal with Sticky Brain and F10 Launch Studio pack from Chronos - which have been well worth it for me!

Over the past year I have turned a few people onto .Mac, so this year I should have a reduction in my renewal fee. (Only thing is - since I'll be in China for the next three years - should I renew as .Au or pay the China pricing?)

My one major wish list "benefit" for .Mac subscribers is that Apple offer the loyal subscribers a discount voucher off new OS updates. That would actually entice me to update my OS more regularly - rather than waiting for a new hardware purchase.

[Wrao]

Ya know, when I get my digital camera I may feel inclined to invest in some .mac, though I would appreciate more space(especially with the email) The conveniences may become super awesome once I actually have more use for them.

[Ryan]

The only thing keeping me tied to .Mac is the email address. Who knows how many sites have that address on file. I have a Gmail address, but don't like webmail, so I'm thinking of switching to my ISP's email.

I don't use the storage, as I need PHP for most sites I do, and the 80 megs from my ISP is close enough to the 100 on iDIsk that I should be able to get by.

[cudaboy_71]

i only use .mac for iPhoto integration and syncing my bookmarks & addressbook.

i'd pay the $100 just for the iPhoto integration. but, the address book & bookmarks is handy for when i'm on the road (w/o my powerbook)

everything else is just gravy.

[zenarcade]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 What Brad said. Just got my renewal notice too, and will have no problem at all paying $99 come October 10. I've moved a bit the past three years, and so it's just nice to know that regardless of ISP or whatever, my e-mail that everyone knows me by isn't going to change. And, to be honest, I dig having a .mac e-mail address on my resume, calling card, etc. It's been the source of more than one interesting, cool conversation when someone has seen it and commented on it ("oh, you're a Mac user too!" or "I've been thinking about maybe getting a Mac...can I ask you some stuff?". Yeah, everything could be gotten from other companies, but it wouldn't all tie together and work so seamlessly and transparently.

Excactly !
Well said, pscates !

As with iLife, [.Mac] makes me do alot without actually doing code or interface with timewasting stuff.

Whether it is home or at friends places. My adressbook is always with me. My bookmarks is always with me. My email is always with me. It is there. I havent bothered to find out how, I do other stuff !

Zon

[Gizzer]

I'd say if you run a desktop and a notebook .Mac is invaluable. I regularly sync addresses, calendars, bookmarks etc. But most of all I find iDisk the most useful because I now save all my Word/Excel docs there instead of the Documents folder.

That way I work on a spreadsheet out on the road, go home and the same sheet is available on my desktop without me having to kick of any manual process to sync.

[torifile]

I love .mac for a number of reasons but the most important one is being able to sync all my computers' calendars and addressbooks. You never know how useful a feature like this is until you use it. It's like magic. The other stuff is great too but the syncing thing is the REASON I use .mac. And it's the reason I can't leave Safari as my primary browser (as much as I'd like some of the features of Firefox et al). At least Safari is a good option...

[Frank777]

The specs are fine. You can buy more space if you need it.
If Apple threw in a license to Quicktime Pro, .Mac would be a killer value.

[zenarcade]

Originally Posted by Mac+ What Barto said. My one major wish list "benefit" for .Mac subscribers is that Apple offer the loyal subscribers a discount voucher off new OS updates. That would actually entice me to update my OS more regularly - rather than waiting for a new hardware purchase.

Excellent !

Totally agree !

[thequicksilver]

I think it's frankly appalling value. Now I've had a trial of .mac, and appreciated the seamless nature of the service - esp. with iPhoto and iSync - but if I tell you what I get with my web hosting company for $35 per year including domain you'll see where I'm coming from.

• Unlimited email addresses, with my own domain.
• 500MB webspace/email capacity.
• Something like 15GB monthly bandwidth, my site barely touches 500MB transfer most months anyway.
• Unlimited MySQL databases.
• One click installation of things like phpBB/Invision/pMachine etc.

There's more features, but in my opinion, saving about $65pa getting all that extra stuff in exchange for a little less automation is worth it.

I can appreciate that if you've got used to .mac, it's difficult to let go of, but charging $99 annually for that is nothing short of a rip off from where I'm sitting. 15MB (the size of the email inbox with .mac) is soon going to be about 15 times smaller than Hotmail. That's appalling.

As much as I've developed a dislike for the site and the company, Spymac's Wheel is infinitely better value.

[dfiler]

I too am torn about whether or not to renew.

I don't use the email except as a backup.
I used to use iPhoto integration but that broke months ago and not even reinstalls will fix it.

Only thing left is picture hosting for stuff posted to various fora...

Hmmm. I think I just talked myself out of renewing. Be prepared for missing pics in all my old posts.

[Escher]

I'm going to renew, just because I like to drink the Apple KoolAid, don't want to loose my nice "Escher" e-mail address, and actually do use the Bookmark Sync feature regularly.

Following up on thequicksilver's comparison of .Mac with his Web/virtual domain host, I wholeheartedly agree. What bothers me is that I have to pay one company to host a virtual domain, and Apple twice as much for everything else. I don't want to give up my virtual domain, but I hate to pay for two overlapping services.

If Apple could add virtual domain hosting to .Mac at the same price (still a lot more expensive than other providers) I would have much less qualms about renewing. I don't even need multiple e-mail addresses. I just don't want my web content's URLs to advertize Apple (even though I pay them) and have a bazillion slashes.

Escher

[chromos]

I love .Mac, can't imagine life without it, but do find it on the expensive side at $100. On the other hand, if they were to up online storage to 200 MB, then I would find it reasonable.

Loves:
iPhoto/HomePage integration (timesaver)
Published Screensavers (nifty)
iSync syncing

Would like to see:
over-the-air cell phone syncing
web editing of published iCal calendars
flag column in Webmail

Amazon currently has boxed .Mac for $80 (e.g., see Macintouch). It's easy to renew (http://www.mac.com/activate) using the included code.

[Escher]

Originally Posted by chromos Amazon currently has boxed .Mac for $80 (e.g., see Macintouch). It's easy to renew (http://www.mac.com/activate) using the included code.

Thanks for that great tip, chromos. I had completely forgotten that you could do that. However, I'll hold off on my Amazon order until the very last minute to see whether Apple offers any incentives of its own.

Escher