I’m so tempted to buy….

Hi guys,

Just want to write about one of the things that I’m going through. Recently I’ve been tempted to upgrade my .Mac account (it is pronounced dot Mac). It would be $49 USD for a a single year subscription (that is about $75 CDN).

This is what I would get:

• Mac.com IMAP email with 15 MB of storage space
• HomePage, a web-page builder for easy web publishing and hosting
• 100 MB of online storage (shared with webspace for homepage)
• Backup Software for archiving files to iDisk, CD, or DVD (that requires an Internet connection for you to sign into .Mac first before it will work—that’s just stupid, if you ask me—it should be part of the OS)
• Virex® – Industry-leading Virus Protection from McAfee®
• Web-Based Address Book, iCal calendar integration (publish my calendar online), iPhoto integration (publish photos directly to the web) and iSync integration (synch my contacts and schedules across different appliances (PDA, computer, cellphone) and use .Mac as a central repository — computer to computer synching needs .Mac, as it cannot do this via LAN (which is stupid, IMHO)).

As a bonus, I get 100 Free Kodak digital picture prints (a Retail value of $49.99 USD). Not to mention that the Virex® Software is worth $50 already (not that it matters any, Macs don’t really get viruses). So in other words, I would come out as a winner in this deal, right?

I’ve been holding off .mac services for several reasons. I won’t go into details, but I will say this: I already pay for most of the functionality of .Mac through other people (email, Webspace, FTP, etc.). $75 CDN a year is a great deal for all the .mac services if you don’t have any of these services already. I would jump all over this if it were not redundant. Hell, I already spend $150+ CDN for my domain and webspace from BlackSun Inc. I just can’t justify it. Did I mention that the $49 USD membership is for the first year only? It’s $100 the 2nd year onwards (or for any new subscriber for that matter).

The thing that irks me though, is the tight integration between certain iApps (iCal, iSync, iPhoto, AddressBook, Backup etc.) and .Mac. Does that mean I’m not getting the 100% of the experience that I spent $230 CDN for with my purchase of OS 10.2 Jaguar? Should I be required to spend another $75 CDN for .mac? Is the operating system crippled without a .Mac account? It’s a point of contention that has gripped a lot of the mac community of late.

I know I don’t need .Mac to enjoy my iBook, but I guess, in the end it’s about my faith in Apple. Can Apple make .Mac into a viable, “cannot-live-without” service? What other features will they add over the next year?

Be strong Tai. Be strong.

Cheers,

Tai