Introduction to Apple's .Mac Services

.Mac is a package of web-based services that will greatly enhance your overall Mac experience.  It is typically Apple –incredibly easy to use and infuriatingly over priced – but while you can find equivalent products that will cater for each of its features (some of which I will tell you about below), none will provide you with such an elegant and fully integrated solution as “dot Mac”.

So let’s take a look at what .Mac provides you with, and what some of the alternatives might be:

10 GB of online storage – This is the backbone of the .Mac service, with your allocated 10 GB being distributed across all of the following online capabilities:

Web hosting – Your web site can be published with one click from within Apple’s iWeb application.  Your site will then be available at http://web.mac.com/username or at your own domain name (registered elsewhere).  Alternative: Go Daddy provides a superb web hosting service that is far more flexible than .Mac’s, albeit without iWeb integration and requiring more technical know-how.

Web Gallery – Your photos can be published on the Internet with one click from within iPhoto, and your movies can be published with one click from within iMovie.  A ‘Web Gallery’ page is created for you automatically at http://gallery.mac.com/username and you can also use embed your creations in your iWeb site. Alternative: Flickr will host your photos for free and can also be accessed from within iPhoto.  YouTube is the place to publish your movies for free and can also be accessed directly from iMovie.

E-mail account – You will receive your own e-mail address that can be accessed via your preferred e-mail application or through the web from anywhere in the world.  Alternative: Google Mail is a free service with a very similar set of features.

Backup – This application will backup your essential documents, photos, music etc. to a secure area of your online storage space, and can be scheduled to occur at regular intervals.  Alternative: Jungle Disk is an extremely good value service that can provide equivalent functionality without the 10 GB limit of .Mac.

iDisk – An online area of storage that you can access from anywhere in the world, including the ability to share files with others via a public folder. Alternative: Jungle Disk also provides this functionality.

Tools for managing multiple Macs – Besides the 10 GB storage features above, .Mac also provides a couple of services to assist people with multiple Mac computers:

Back to My Mac – This tool allows you to connect to one Mac from another (both running Mac OS X Leopard) e.g. back to your home Mac from your work Mac.  The remote Mac works exactly as if you were using its own keyboard and mouse, giving you full access to all of its files and applications.  Alternative: The free version of LogMeIn  provides most of the functionality you are likely to need.

Sync – This service can synchronise your bookmarks, calendars, contacts, dashboard widgets, dock items, keychains, mail accounts, mail rules, mail signatures, smart mailboxes, notes, and preferences across multiple Macs.  Alternative: Most of these items can be backed up manually, but I have yet to find an alternative that will synchronise them automatically across multiple Macs.

A misfit feature of .Mac – .Mac has one more feature which doesn’t fit into either of the categories above:

.Mac Groups – As a paid-up .Mac member you are allowed to setup .Mac groups.  These are online communities with group e-mail, shared calendars, and group web sites.  Members of your groups do not have to be full members of .Mac, but must sign up for a free .Mac ID.  Alternative: Yahoo Groups provides all of these features, and so much more, completely free.  

So what will all of this .Mac goodness actually cost you?  Initially you can sign up for a free 60-day trial to test out all of the features (see links in the Dig Deeper section).  Afterwards, Apple will charge you $100 (£70 in the UK) for an individual 12 month subscription, or $180 (£120 in the UK) for a 12 month family pack including one 10 GB master account and four 2.5 GB sub-accounts.  The 10 GB storage can be upgrade to 20 GB for $50/£35 or 30 GB for $100/£70.  One hot tip is to shop for your .Mac subscription on eBay where individual membership can be found as low as $70 and family packs for as little as $90.

But is .Mac actually worth the price when free solutions are available for most of its features?  Well, if you only really want one or two of the features of .Mac then you will certainly save money by looking at the alternatives.  Also, if your needs are rather advanced – e.g. you want complex HTML editing capabilities for your website, or you want to backup your entire 60 GB music collection – then .Mac will probably come up short and you should again look elsewhere.  But if you think that several of the .Mac features will be essential to you, and if ease of use is of prime importance, then .Mac simply becomes a must-have package.  Once you’ve had .Mac you’ll never go back.

What are your thoughts on .Mac? Are you getting your money's worth? Have you found better alternatives? Let us know in the MFM Forum thread linked below!

Craig Alan Williamson wrote his first novel on a PC, but you shouldn’t hold that against him.  You can download an exclusive free preview of the rather funny ‘A Foreign Education’ from CraigAlanWilliamson.com.

Click here to go to the forum discussion of this article!
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.Mac overview

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