Mac.com

[Charles Martin]

> From: Ally Maddox <almenter at madisontelco.com>
>
> Thank you, Charles, for all that info. Explain further about the 
> various
> points you listed. Free software, Kodak prints, free web space. Will
> this cost $99 when the second year renewal comes around? Is the first
> year still $49?

Answered in reverse order:

1. No, the $49/year deal expired already. It's $99 now. Worth it to 
some people, I'm sure, but not most people. Yet, and the key word is 
YET.

2. It's expected to cost $99 for the second year, but by then we should 
have some reason to justify that. Rumour has it that Apple will include 
FREE iApp upgrades in the cost of .Mac, along with other new features 
(like the one I just tried out tonight ... more on that in a sec).

IF they do that (roll iApp upgrades into the cost of .Mac) that would 
be a BRILLIANT move and would surely send thousands of people scurrying 
back to sign up. It would be WELL worth the $99 bucks at that point for 
many.

3. The benefits I got from signing up with .Mac included (but are not 
limited to):
a. A free copy of Alchemy Deluxe, a very nice game from Popcap.
b. A new Apple utility called Backup, which allows me to backup my user 
info (and other stuff) to my .Mac web space (EXTREMELY handy -- offsite 
backup is a very-overlooked feature), as well as do "normal" backups to 
CD-R or DVD-R. It's got a long way to go to beat Retrospect, but it's 
pretty good in and of itself.

I also got a "free" copy of Virex, which I consider practically useless 
as there ARE no known viruses for Mac OS X -- but hey that could change 
I suppose.

I can publish my iCal calendars to the web if I want to (and I do -- 
see my sig below). I can use iSync (another new Apple utility) to 
synchronise my iCal and Address Book to my cellphone (if it's the type 
that can do that), my PDA (if it's Palm-compatible) and my iPod (if I 
had one). As of today, I can also sync my Address Book (email) 
addresses with mac.com's online email client. IOW, when I log into to 
Apple's web page and check my mail using webmail (which I do anytime 
I'm away from my own computer), I can still have my "contacts" right 
there waiting for me. Cool.

I have 100 MB of web space to use as I choose (to some extent, anyway). 
iPhoto will easily publish a home page out of my (selected) photos with 
just the press of a button. And I get to keep my long-standing mac.com 
email address.

Oh yes, the free Kodak prints were nice too. Just select photos in 
iPhoto, order prints online and the charge is reversed up to the limit 
of your credit.

There are a couple of other (minor) "benefits" to .Mac (like publishing 
your slides as a slideshow online), but most people wouldn't even know 
about that. All in all, it's been well worth the $49 for me. If I had 
had to pony up $99, I would have thought long and hard about how much 
of the services I was going to use.

As I say, if Apple does do something brilliant like bundle the iApp 
upgrades (or even paid system upgrades) into the cost of .Mac, I am 
definitely there for Year Two.

_Chas_
Come to  ... The CHASbah!
http://thechasbah.blogspot.com
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