I have a .Mac account. I’ve had it for almost two years now and I think it’s money well spent.
Before you accuse me of being a sucker, take a moment to look at .Mac and what it has to offer. (Go to www.mac.com.) Sure, you can use it to send postcards via e-mail (that’s called iCard) or store the contact information for your friends, family, and work associates online (that’s called Address Book). You can also use it to build simple Web sites (that’s called Home Page). And the .Mac user name sure comes in handy when you want to use iChat. But I don’t use any of those features. I use the ones that add convenience and security to my life.
iDisk is 100 MB of disk space on a secure Apple server that I can use any way I like. Because it’s on a computer outside my office, it’s a great place to back up important files. .Mac includes Backup, just for that purpose, and I have it set up to back up certain files on a daily basis. Because of my relatively slow connection to the Internet (256 Kbps cable modem), I don’t use iDisk space for storing files I need to access regularly — as Apple seems to expect by including an iDisk icon in Panther’s Sidebar. But I do use it to store files that others may need to access via the Internet, including some of the photo albums I throw together with iPhoto. (No need to use up my bandwidth serving images, is there?) I also publish one of my iCal calendars to my iDisk space, making it accessible from any computer. A link on the related Web site sends visitors to my iDisk Web content without them having to type in long, complex URLs that don’t start with one of my domain names. Frankly, the way I use iDisk is enough to justify the cost of my annual .Mac membership.
.Mac Mail is a lifesaver for me. It provides me with an e-mail address that never changes and never moves. The server doesn’t go down (or, if it does, I haven’t noticed it). This is a big difference from my own mail server, which resides at the end of that — you guessed it — cable modem connection. Not necessarily reliable, especially given all the problems I’ve been having with WebSTAR lately. (Let’s not go there, okay?) Best of all, I can use my .Mac account from any computer connected to the Internet for both sending and receiving mail. So I don’t have to lug my laptop around (okay, so it’s only a 12-inch PowerBook so it isn’t much to “lug”) and find an Internet connection for it when I travel.
iSync is also pretty helpful. I use it to synchronize my Address Book and iCal calendar data files on my main production Mac (a dual G5 these days) to my PowerBook. It does this via my iDisk disk space, where all the data is stored. iSync also copies my contacts and calendars to my iPod, so I have them with me when I fly.
.Mac also comes with free software, like Virex, which can keep your computer virus-free. And there are always special offers for free or discounted products. I picked up iBlog (mentioned in another blog here) on .Mac and am very pleased with it and the ease at which it enables me to publish my blogs to my iDisk Web space. Offers change all the time. For example, today they’re offering free puzzle games, access to Panther training videos, a 10% discount on camcorders purchased at the Apple Store, and discounts on Keynote.
Membership is $99 per year (plus tax), but when I renewed, they offered me a $30 discount, bringing the total down to $69 plus tax. They threw in a copy of The Simms software (which I tried and found uniquely disturbing). And I just noticed that they’ve begun a referral offer that gets you 20% off for each person you refer. Refer five new members and your next year is free. (Believe me, I didn’t know about the offer when I started writing this blog — this is not an attempt to get you to sign up with me as a referrer. In fact, to prove it, I won’t even give you my .Mac member name.)
That’s how I see .Mac. I’m glad I signed up. If you have your doubts, check it out and imagine how it could benefit you.
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