I only want to use the email address, so do I have to still fork out for the whole membership?
and is it worth it?
and is it worth it? 
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.mac membership, is it worth it?
- Thread starter shakerbaby
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It's not worth it for the mail address only.
I have a family membership because other family members aren't too tech-savvy, and I really like the synching functionality, but, for the price, you can get your own domain name and web space.
I have a family membership because other family members aren't too tech-savvy, and I really like the synching functionality, but, for the price, you can get your own domain name and web space.
If you're syncing across a few machines it might be useful, but even then it's a pricey way to do things.
It's also worth noting that if you sign up for the free trial you can continue to use the .mac address in iChat, even though there's no email address associated with it.
It's also worth noting that if you sign up for the free trial you can continue to use the .mac address in iChat, even though there's no email address associated with it.
Is it possible to use the 'Mail' program to collect my mail from a different email account then instead of .mac?
shakerbaby said:Is it possible to use the 'Mail' program to collect my mail from a different email account then instead of .mac?
Of course not. And also, Safari can only browse Apple-owned web-sites
.But seriously, POP, IMAP, exchange accounts work fine.
nsbio said:Of course not. And also, Safari can only browse Apple-owned web-sites
But seriously, POP, IMAP, exchange accounts work fine.
Got it sorted now thanks.
I suppose nobody does a programme that can sync machines over a simple BT connection, do they? Or can it be done with a script?
I'd think it would need to be an application, not a simple script, unless you wanted to designate a "master" system and then copy the configuration info from it to the other systems, in which case a pretty simple script would do. It's the synchronizing part that's hard - and even .Mac/Sync don't get it right 100% of the time.skunk said:
I just realized that one way to do so - very indirect - is to sync to a phone from one system, then sync that phone to the other. That will at least keep address books up to date.
Well, having done that, I guess you could set up SuperDuper to clone the Macs onto each other daily. The sequencing might be tricky, but it should work. I think.
Again, the issue is one of syncing as opposed to overwriting. As long as you're fine with one system being the master and others using its info, that'd work fine. Copying over, from your user Library folder, the "Application Support", "Mail", and "Preferences" folders will bring over almost all of the info you'd want to sync (excluding biggies like iTunes, of course).skunk said:
The real problem is that things like, say, the Address Book data (~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook.data) aren't text files, which means syncing them isn't in any way trivial unless you know the data format - and that's true of many of the things you'd want to sync.
Silly Apple....
However, if you have a network drive, I suppose the whole thing becomes infinitely easier, since you can simply park your settings, music and photos on the NAS and access it all on that. Cloning will sort out the Address Book and iCal issues anyway..
Sort of...skunk said:
I keep my iTunes folder on an external drive which is mounted on all of my Macs. That works very well, and saves lots of disk space. It's also RAIDed, so it's relatively safe against disk failure (and I have a backup of purchased music on optical media).
However, if you were to use the NAS to store your user folder (or at least its Library), which is possible, you have to be very careful about not running the same apps at the same time on different systems, as I'm pretty sure things like Address Book aren't sophisticated enough to handle multiple versions accessing the same data files.
As a backup mechanism, though, it'd work fine.
Sort of, if you are only going to use it for e-mails why not spend half that and have yourname@whateverdomainyouwant.com. surely that looks better!
Its slow, the online e-mail client is rubbish! no spam filter etc, even though that is soon to change.
Its slow, the online e-mail client is rubbish! no spam filter etc, even though that is soon to change.
No, it's not worth it. I used it primarily for spare email addresses, but now with gmail and practically unlimited storage and free POP3 forwarding, it's not worth paying for. The Backup program was useful, but I've heard a lot of horror stories about people whose computer died and then were completely unsuccessful retrieving their info from Backup. Plus, you only get like 1 gig of storage, so even if you backed up to 2 CDs once a week, at an average cost of 10 cents a CD, you'd be looking at 2*$.10*52 = $10, a whole lot cheaper than $99. The web publishing and extra gizmos aren't worth it. When I see someone with a @mac.com address it shows me they overpayed, similar to seeing an @aol.com address.
It's not worth it, the web site of it is extremely slow I've found. I'd still buy it again though, just for 'completeness'.
for email alone, it is not worth.
for everything else, it is worth it.
with some updates hopefully give the usual Apple attention to detail, it will be very worth it.
that said. go to ebay to get it. you can get it for under $50 very often.
for everything else, it is worth it.
with some updates hopefully give the usual Apple attention to detail, it will be very worth it.
that said. go to ebay to get it. you can get it for under $50 very often.
No, for the price, definitely not.
...With that said I will probably be renewing my membership when my year is up.
...With that said I will probably be renewing my membership when my year is up.
shakerbaby said:I only want to use the email address, so do I have to still fork out for the whole membership?
Is having yourname@mac.com worth $99? I have .Mac but don't use the email; I have it of course, but don't use the address. But for iWeb with .Mac it's really nice to make simple sites for sharing photos with family and friends. Is that worth $99/year? Ehh, it's a little on the expensive side I suppose, but I like the simplicity and convenience of iWeb and .Mac....
....but that's just me
telecomm said:Except with respect to cost.
External hard drives are cheap, and are not a repeating cost. You buy it and that's it. You don't need to buy another one each year. Unlike .Mac.
iWeb works fine without .mac
All you do is publish to a folder then FTP it to your host. Yes it's an extra step.
I couldn't justify it for email so I recently got a 1and1.com IMAP account which has cost me £9 for a year with 1gb mail limit. Works a treat for keeping mail in sync accross my iMac and MacBook. Just wish I had done it sooner.