Apple updates .Mac with 1GB storage, Groups
updated 06:40 am EDT, Tue September 20, 2005
Apple updates .Mac
Apple today announced an , its membership-based online service designed to facilitate group communication and for sharing, storing and protecting digital photos and videos. New features include: .Mac Groups, a service that helps members communicate, coordinate schedules and stay in sync with private groups of friends or colleagues; an updated version of .Mac Backup software that makes it easy for members to archive their iLife and other important files; a four-fold increase in combined iDisk and email storage to 1GB for individuals and 2GB for families; and full French and German localization.
".Mac provides the simple and elegant online experience consumers expect from Apple," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Marketing. "By tapping into the power of the Internet from within the applications they use the most, .Mac members around the globe have discovered a better way to experience the Internet."
.Mac Groups allow users to easily create private, ad-free online communities that make it easy for family, friends and private groups to communicate, coordinate and share digital media. With .Mac Groups, members can send emails to the entire group using a single address; post files, pictures and movies with a common group iDisk; publish group web pages and post links to other sites; and keep up-to-date with the latest group events with a shared iCalŪ calendar.
.Mac members now have four times more online storage space than before to host their email messages, documents and digital media files. Storage for individual members has increased to 1GB of combined email and iDisk space, .Mac Family Pack customers now receive 2GB of combined storage. Members can utilize their storage any way they choose dedicating more or less storage space to email or their iDisk. Individuals or Family Pack members can optionally purchase an additional 1GB of storage for $50
In addition to these new features, other .Mac services include: HomePage for creating personal web sites with just a few clicks; iDisk for access to files from anywhere at any time; .Mac Sync for syncing Safari bookmarks, iCal calendars, Address Book information, keychains (passwords), and Mac OS X Mail preferences up-to-date across multiple Macs and available via web browser when users are away from their Mac; .Mac Mail for ad-free email service; and Learning Center, featuring tutorials for popular Apple software applications.
Enhancements to .Mac allow third-party access to HomePage, iDisk, Mail and iCal--using groups of friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Members are also given more online storage space to house their growing digital media assets.
.Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $100 per year for individuals and $180 for a Family Pack which includes one master account and five sub accounts. Customers save $30 (US) on either the individual subscription or the Family Pack when purchased with a new Mac and anyone can sign up for a free, 60-day .Mac trial.
h*** yeah
09/20, 08:53am reply
I haven't had a chance to fully explore all the changes, but so far I welcome them all. I've been a .Mac customer since it first switched over from the free iTools service. .Mac certainly isn't perfect, nor is it for everyone. But I've found it most of the time to be worth the cost of membership, and now it appears to be a lot better. Cool.
beverson
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Oct 1999
Sweet!
09/20, 09:30am reply
Not sure about the Groups side of things; there are tried and true solutions out there but ad-free is nice. The 1GB iDisk is certainly a nice shot in the arm and will hopefully stave off complaints from the whiners!
legacyb4
Mac Elite
Joined: May 2001
Groups suck!
09/20, 09:56am reply
Why do they require a .Mac membership for people to join a group? And even if people can let the free trial expire, you still have to get them to sign up for it in the first place. I'm not gonna ask my friends and family to sign up for a .Mac membership just to get them to use a group site. I'd feel like I'm shilling for Apple and I'm sure I'd hear it from them too.
Not only that, but it doesn't seem like you can add events to the calendar unless you're using iCal on a Mac. Not too useful for WEB-based groups.
cmoney
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Sep 2000
Full German Localization?
09/20, 09:57am reply
If this in only one of two localizations, can we safely assume that "Germans Love David Hasselhoff" *and* .Mac? (Apologies to Norm MacDonald)
jpellino
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
re: Groups suck!
09/20, 10:04am reply
Yeah, that doesn't seem too great. I haven't played with Groups yet, but both of those limitations seem pretty big. I still might use the shared calendars part (I have several friends on .Mac already), but this information makes me less excited about Groups.
On the other hand, Backup seems HUGELY improved. I've been waiting a while for this. I'll have to see how my 50-GB-home-folder-backup-to-FireWire-drive goes when I get home from work, but just playing with it now and testing a couple iDisk backups impressed me greatly.
Oh, and 1 GB. Killer.
beverson
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Oct 1999
Re: Sweet!
09/20, 02:26pm reply
"The 1GB iDisk is certainly a nice shot in the arm and will hopefully stave off complaints from the whiners!"
I always appreciate this kind of logic.
X has a complaint. The complaint is fixed. Y enjoys the benefits. Y calls X a whiner.
Groups doesn't sound too great, but if it's free and ad-less it might have its advantages. I don't know why Apple would encourage people to create hordes of expired accounts and use up the pool of available IDs that paying customers can use.
I have .Mac, Gmail, and I have Yahoo Mail, and I can honestly say my combined usage is nowhere near 1 GB. If Apple has the capacity to offer 1 GB, they should knock a couple bucks off the annual fee and offer lower-tier services.
lurkerdude
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Re: Sweet
09/21, 08:24am reply
I have .Mac, Gmail, and I have Yahoo Mail, and I can honestly say my combined usage is nowhere near 1 GB. If Apple has the capacity to offer 1 GB, they should knock a couple bucks off the annual fee and offer lower-tier services.
Bwahahahahahahahhahaha! Oh, that is funny. You do know you're talking about APPLE COMPUTER, right? The company that believes that their products are so good they can charge a premium price? The company that doesn't believe in offering 'low-end' on much of anything. [For example: Someone's bound to start going "Macs aren't overpriced! A SIMILARLY configured PC would cost the same or even more! So shut up you uneducated fool!" as they always do, not realizing the one important point. You can buy a PC at lower prices with less 'features', but Apple doesn't do that. The mini is the first 'cheap/low-end' computer they really offered in a long time, and its not really cheap when you look at what it lacks for $500 (no keyboard? you're kidding, right?)]
They're like the cable companies. They don't lower the prices of their crappy cable modem service, they raise the throughput, like most people care that they have 6Mbs vs 2 Mbs. They'd rather have $10 a month.
When I see apple offering a sub-1000 computer with expandability allow users more than swapping memory or a hard drive (you know, a couple of drive bays, swap the video card, etc), then I'll recant. But that day is most likely never to happen. Apple likes their image as an elite retailer, not just a computer company.
So, basically, Apple
LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2000