.Mac Storage Now 250MB

Lycestra writes "Apple today announced .Mac users now have 'More room for everything you do online' with an increase from 100MB iDisk and 15MB Mail to 250MB total. The space is shared between iDisk and Mail, but users of .Mac have control over how it is shared. A long overdue change, in my opinion. It's still not 1GB, and Apple openly states that for those who want it, 1GB would cost another $50 a year. I guess the Apple cup-of-tea just got a little bigger, but it still feels like it's at room temperature."

Re:Bad thing?

[Yaztromo]

Besides, an external hard disk works out to peanuts now and that's a lot quicker for regular backups.

Quicker -- but is it better?

My iDisk has become my off-site backup system of choice over here (albeit not the only offsite backup I'm using). I have data that I simply cannot afford to lose. .Mac's Backup program puts this data onto my iDisk daily.

I got bit once by not having offsite backup due to environmental damage. Several hard drives died and were unrecoverable, and my backup CDs sitting in the same room likewise were unusuable. I lost a lot of unrecoverable data that day, and I won't risk that again.

I've become a huge fan of my iDisk. I recently started doing some contract work for a company that just recently starting moving from Windows to Mac OS X, and put up the results of my work as a disk image on my public (but password protected) iDisk. Sent them they password, and they simply selected from the Finder "iDisk -> Other Users Public Folder", and voila -- they had direct access to mount the disk image.

My iDisk has been getting quite full as of recent, so I was happy to see this announcement. I don't store any e-mail on .Mac, so I put the Mail storage at its minimum (15MB), and cranked my iDisk up to 235MB. Sweet :).

Yaz.

Re:spymac

[gdbjr]

Too bad spymac has a slow interface and last time I used it, it was down more them it was up. I paid the extra $$$ to get the 3GB version which includes IMAP. When I tried to use IMAP the amateurs at Spymac create a Inbox with the Sent, Drafts and Spam folder in the Inbox. How stupid is that?

iDisk to web

[Twirlip of the Mists]

The most convenient part of .Mac for me is the ability to drop a file onto my iDisk on one of my Macs and then be able to view or download it on any Internet-connected computer via an http: URL. Very handy, very easy, very convenient.

Re:Bad thing?

[Rauser]

My issue with .Mac Backup is that the Backup app itself seems to be pretty fragile. I've had a lot of trouble in the past with interrupted backups because the program choked on some obscure Safari preference file and aborted the rest of the backup session. To me, Backup should keep on truckin' and finish its work rather than just quitting in the middle of the job--log problems, not quit!

Because of this behavior, I've had to modify the backup item selection and keep a pretty close eye on things since the files that cause problems seem to pop up randomly. Still, I've continued to use Backup since the convience factor is pretty high. It's a nice supplement to Retrospect.

Here is how you do iDisk allocation

[DebianDog]

This is how [mac.com] you alter your iDisk allocation

--
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ [danslagle.com]

Re:Bandwith or storage?

[rainer3]

Don't forget about the iPhoto integration for creating photo albums. This is an incredibly easy to use feature that makes owning a Mac very attractive. I'm a web designer and could create just as nice an online photo album myself, but why bother when Apple makes it this easy?

Re:spymac

[rsax]

When I tried to use IMAP the amateurs at Spymac create a Inbox with the Sent, Drafts and Spam folder in the Inbox. How stupid is that?

They might be using Cyrus IMAPD [cmu.edu] as their IMAP server. It uses that notation for personal folders for each user like INBOX.Sent INBOX.Trash and so on. Search through their mailing lists - it has been discussed there.

Re:You can all thank me...

[DebianDog]

Actually you can create unlimited e-mail aliases [mac.com] now and "preserve" your real email address. Another new feature.

Re:Bandwith or storage?

[FredFnord]

Apple operates the biggest movie trailer website on the internet and the most popular legal music download service. I don't think that Apple is hurting for bandwidth.

Actually, you'll find that Akamai hosts both the biggest movie trailer web site on the internet AND the most popular legal music download service.

Whereas Apple actually hosts their own .Mac service. It's a lot more complex than a simple download service.

So no, there is really no crossover at all. And ability to do one does not imply in any way the ability to do the other.

-fred

No, can't be SSL

[FredFnord]

Why can't it be SSL? Because the Apple WebDAV client DOESN'T WORK OVER SSL.

Interestingly, this means it's easy to set up Apple's WebDAV server on MacOS X Server such that Apple's WebDAV client can't connect to it, but the Windows WebDAV client(s) can.

Paaaa-THETIC.

-fred