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GuillaumeB · Jul 10, 2007, 01:40 PM

I tried to set up my Gmail account under Apple Mail but it completely messed up my gmail account and I have been receiving "old" email all days long. Fortunately I got a Yahoo account with is way much stronger when it comes to managing email.

I was think that things would probably goo a lot smoother if I opened a .mac account. So I just registered for the two month trial.

Do you use or would recommend .mac? it seems that the service has not been updated in a long time but we hear rumors of Google-partnership so...

I believe .mac would be perfect for synchronizing email, and contact. I did not see any calendar though. let me know what you think .

Big Mac · Jul 10, 2007, 02:00 PM

I just use it because i like my @mac.com email addresses. iDisk comes in handy at times, and the page creator is nice when you want to post a file for someone to access that is too big to email. However, you'd get the same or better mail features from any IMAP mailbox provider, and iCal synchronization is provided separately by iSynch so it's pretty easy to replicate most of the features available for free.

voodoo · Jul 10, 2007, 02:05 PM

I subscribed to .Mac for 2 years. It is:

* slow
* unreliable

Which make the mail and iDisk annoying if not unusable. The webspace offered is small and very slow, so hosting multimedia there is just frustrating. It does not support FTP and is generally annoying.

I'm such an Apple fan that I stuck through it for 2 years in the vain hope that things would improve. They did not. I advice everyone to seriously consider the 'hassle' of other alternatives, free or not.

.Mac is perhaps more simple to set up, but it is slow, unreliable and over-priced. Which amounts to annoying. And no one wants to be annoyed.

V

TETENAL · Jul 10, 2007, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB

I was think that things would probably goo a lot smoother if I opened a .mac account.

Yes, but for the record: it runs smoother with any IMAP-account. .Mac is just one example of an e-mail-service that allows IMAP-access.

MacosNerd · Jul 10, 2007, 04:01 PM

I still do,
I've not found it slow or unreliable, and right now I have too many things hooked into it, that its just easier to use it, instead of switching over. I may revisit my decision after leopard to see if 10.5 improves the interaction with .mac.

macintologist · Jul 10, 2007, 05:53 PM

.Mac user since the iTools days of 2002. It's amazingly simply and easy to use. When you're on another Mac all you have to do is login to .Mac through the system pref pane and then all your bookmarks, etc etc download and sync to the Mac you're currently using.

- - e r i k - - · Jul 10, 2007, 06:41 PM

If you have more than one mac, .Mac is worth it for sync alone. iDisk is my least favourite part of .Mac, as I've never found it particularly useful with too little space and too slow. .Mac now has the best webmail solution I've experienced too (nicer even than G-mail). With Leopard coming (access your home mac at the office and vice versa) and a promised revamp of .Mac things should be even better.

Appleman · Jul 10, 2007, 10:39 PM

Slooooooooooowwwww

ed phelan · Jul 11, 2007, 11:53 AM

I, too, like the .mac address and the iDisk that is always available. Storage of certain items is helpful and, in general, I am well pleased and have been a signatory since its inception.
All the best/æ

NobleMatt · Jul 11, 2007, 12:02 PM

dont know alot about .mac but cant see point in paying for it when all the services i know of you can get for free on various websites

siflippant · Jul 11, 2007, 12:33 PM

Not since 2004...

GuillaumeB · Jul 11, 2007, 01:27 PM

Well I have tried free alternatives.

i tried to set up my FTP access (of my domain) but the Finder would only retrieve it in read-only access: I can't upload anything. Also I dont want to have to use a FTP client.

Box.net gives me 1GB for free + webdav: however, once set up in the finder it takes like 10 minutes to upload a simple 25kb document... unconceivable...

I also tried Omnidrive which has a client for Mac user. When logged in it mounts a virtual disk in the Finder. Though it may be a clever product i often gets error messages when quitting the application

Mozy is quite good for free backup but I cannot access the files from the Finder. I dont want just backups, I want a place to store/share documents

idisk is really smooth from what I have experienced. I am a bit surprised that no one tried to develop a plugin for iSync that would work with a remote virtual storage (though i dunno if that's possible).

I honestly would not ind paying for iDisk if they provided more storage. Ipay for Yahoo! Mail Plus and 10 bucks per month for my hosting company.

Those partnerships rumors with Google make me hpe but but really should I ? Google mad a special version of Maps. Great. Now why not special version of Google Docs for example.iDisk needs to go Web2.0 in one way or another. Not that I am a big fan of Web2.0 but it would clearly add more value to the package. If anyone know where I can read about potential Google-Apple partnership then link me I'd appreciate.

voodoo · Jul 11, 2007, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB

Well I have tried free alternatives.

i tried to set up my FTP access (of my domain) but the Finder would only retrieve it in read-only access: I can't upload anything. Also I dont want to have to use a FTP client.

This has nothing to do with the service. The Finder only offers read-only FTP. The Finder sucks ass, what can I say?

There is of course no FTP support in dot-Mac.

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB

Box.net gives me 1GB for free + webdav: however, once set up in the finder it takes like 10 minutes to upload a simple 25kb document... unconceivable...

How do you do that? All I see is not-free things at box.net

Anyways, WebDAV is no faster on dot-Mac, it is basically takes literally hours to upload a few MBs and trying to navigate in the Finder is a test in patience.

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB

idisk is really smooth from what I have experienced. I am a bit surprised that no one tried to develop a plugin for iSync that would work with a remote virtual storage (though i dunno if that's possible).

Good for you, my rather long and extensive experience with iDisk is quite the opposite. Slow and unreliable.

V

GuillaumeB · Jul 11, 2007, 05:50 PM

That's weird,iDisk runs great over here. Go sign up for Box.net they give you 1 gig for free with no time limit
In the finder click on Go>Connect to server and enter http://www.box.net/dav then use you login and passw

jbleisure · Jul 11, 2007, 06:32 PM

I use it but it is overpriced. Interestingly idisk flies on my C2D iMac compared to the speed things are uploaded on my G4 PB. However I use it to sync across computers, that plus the general ease of use and integration makes it a worthwhile business expense for me. Oh also I like .mac mail.

jbleisure · Jul 11, 2007, 06:35 PM

In Jobs's podcasted joint interview with Bill Gates recently Jobs admitted that .Mac had been underdeveloped and that they had plans to rectify that.

I'm always hanging out for value for money via .mac service and that provided some hope....

mpancha · Jul 11, 2007, 06:53 PM

I've tried the trial over the years, signing up for the 30/60 day trial under different email addresses. I usually go back and try once or twice a year.

So far, I've never been compelled to pay for the "service".

I've recently started playing with Plaxo (v3.0 beta), it basically has all the sync features I'd want out of .mac (contacts, calendar). All are web accessible, and the free Plaxo account gives you all those features, plus it works on Windows and Mac, so I can sync across all my Macs, as well as PCs.

iDisk was never fast enough to be of any use to me. FTPing to my webspace satisfied the need to have an online backup of files, or to share files, and it was much cheaper.

THe new .mac feature where you can find your Macs across the internet wherever you are seems kind of neat, but again, I know enough about routers, port forwarding and basic FTP to where its not a useful feature to me.

that's my two cents.

GuillaumeB · Jul 11, 2007, 09:30 PM

Yeh I understand. well we'll see how it performs in the future . I'm looking for a very simple/smart solution. This year I took a personal server with a couple of friend and i'm tired of tweaking the SQL settings here and there to make it just work. I've had enough of tweaking and hacking in general . well tht's why I bought a Mac as well. It's been two weeks and I just dont need to do anything.

An all in one solution is good provided that it is worth the money.

What's gonna hapen to my .mac account after the 2 months period. Will I lose the addess? will I be able to sign up withthe same address in sy 6 months?

Gamoe · Jul 11, 2007, 10:21 PM

I just don't think there's a lot of value there for the price. You could get the same thing with a much cheaper webhost and some open-source/free/included software. But that's just my view, and maybe the situation will change significantly with Leopard.

JKT · Jul 12, 2007, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by GuillaumeB

What's gonna hapen to my .mac account after the 2 months period. Will I lose the addess? will I be able to sign up withthe same address in sy 6 months?

You get to keep the address indefinitely for use in e.g. iChat, but you obviously will not have the ability to use it for e-mail. You can sign up again with the same address at a later date.

- - e r i k - - · Jul 12, 2007, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by mpancha

I've recently started playing with Plaxo (v3.0 beta), it basically has all the sync features I'd want out of .mac (contacts, calendar). All are web accessible, and the free Plaxo account gives you all those features, plus it works on Windows and Mac, so I can sync across all my Macs, as well as PCs.

Can you tell me more about Plaxo? Is it as seamless as iSync? Can you set it to sync in the background everyday? Does it support Address Book and iCal? Safari bookmarks? Mail accounts? Application preferences?

GuillaumeB · Jul 25, 2007, 05:01 PM

I installed Plaxo for contact synchronization but I really don't use it. it's integrated in the address book and in Mail.app. It runs in the background and analyze contacts that have been synchronized and those who haven't. You can subscribe to your ical calendar as well.

Now the service is ubber slow and it's a pain to log in there when you use another network like Google or Yahoo!

Kenneth · Jul 25, 2007, 05:56 PM

Although I have my own web hosting/email, I still keep my .Mac + 1 extra email address.

moonmonkey · Jul 27, 2007, 06:26 AM

Back to my mac.

analogika · Jul 27, 2007, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by crazyreaper

dont know alot about .mac but cant see point in paying for it when all the services i know of you can get for free on various websites

It's the "various websites" bit, coupled with setting all that up, that makes .mac worth it for a number of people.

Krusty · Jul 30, 2007, 12:21 AM

I've been using it since the free iTools days. Have to admit, its not nearly as compelling for the price as it once was but it still comes in handy from time to time for low-hassle, you-can-almost-be-brain-dead-and-still-use-it synchronization, posting calendars, web pages, pictures, iDisk and the like. I've set myself an iCal reminder to text my phone in about a month so that this year I'm sure to remember to buy it from Amazon for $69 instead of getting caught at the last minute and paying $99+tax directly to Apple. At $70, its almost worth it for the .mac email address and the nice integration into OS X. At $100, its really stretching its worth.

Any of you guys remember the "good ole days" when the iTools/early .Mac suite actually offered what were pretty whiz-bang features for their time ? Methinks its finally time for a price cut a-la the cinema displays a couple of times. Apple cinema displays are always priced higher but there was a point where the price gap just became too ridiculous to maintain anymore so they had to make a cut. .Mac has entered that realm at this point. It should be MSRP $49-$59 IMHO

chris v · Jul 30, 2007, 11:26 AM

For those of you finding the Finder slow & unreliable with .mac, Transmit is a good solutuion. It doesn't seem to bog down & beachball retrieving a list of files, and it doesn't lie to you (upload complete, closing file -- for 10 minutes) like the Finder does about status.

I like .mac for the syncing. I have three macs that I keep bookmarks & address book synced on, and it's been mostly reliable. I've had to reset the whole schmeer a couple of times, though.

Thorzdad · Jul 30, 2007, 12:14 PM

I got a free year of .Mac when I bought my G5. Then I renewed the account for another year. After that, I determined that it just wasn't worth $100/yr.