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Utilities (Apple) Businesses Software Apple

.Mac adds VersionTracker and iBlog to the benefits 72

Posted by pudge from the all-this-and-email-too dept.
MacMerc.com writes "Today, .Mac users will see that a free VersionTracker Plus subscription, a discount of half off VersionTracker Pro subscription and software, free iBlog Blogging Software, and a discount on SmartDisk FireWire Drives have been added to their Member Benefits."
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.Mac adds VersionTracker and iBlog to the benefits More

.Mac adds VersionTracker and iBlog to the benefits

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  • The deal with VT first positive thought (Score:5, Insightful)

    by danigiri ( 310827 ) on Saturday September 27, 2003 @02:25PM (#7073423)
    My first impression on the news is that the new advantatges look fairly good and are a welcome deviation of the NIH (not invented here) syndrome that plagued Apple in the past.

    Apple has looked for -and seemingly found- which websites, tools and goodies its users actually use, even if they do not come from Apple, a big-name VAR or software company.

    Then, if the deals themselves are good or not is a matter of debate. I am a .Mac subscriber and I am right now debating wheter to renew my subscription, as thousands of Mac users are doing as well. These benefits might tip the balance... Paid web services are still on shaky ground, I think Apple any many others are still getting the hang of it (users too).

    My two eurocents...

    dani++

  • I'm a .mac user and I think it is great for auto-backup and email in general. I very like the iSync feature when I can add things in my address book anywhere and sync it with my home computer. Bookmark syncing is great also. But I have to admit that free software available for mac user is uselly fraud. Sticky Brain 2 is awful and puts stuff everywhere. Each time you start it, it ask for buying stupid software. This is nothing more than a sharewhere. I won't even install iBlog because I think it is just th
    • VT Plus isn't useless. VT is the premier source of Mac software. Basically everything that is released goes through there. VT is the place where other sites get information about new software. The VT Plus subscription lets you get ridd of the advertisements that cover the whole site, as well as get access to other online features. The advertisement is the big thing for me, since it lets me click the download link without having to wait for an ad page to load. I used to subscribe to both VT Plus and .Mac, n
    • " I won't even install iBlog because I think it is just the same and I don't wan't it to install stupid services in safari or other OS X apps. "

      This shows that you don't know what iBlog actually is...

      iBlog doesn't change Safari or any other app. It is an application all to itself that just lets you manage you own blog and subscribe to other people's blogs. It doesn't change my defaults around or screw with the system, its like a lot of journal keeping software, actually (such as MacJournal), it just le
    • I have to agree on that sticky brain issue. What a mess, good grief charlie brown I didn't want to read another UNIX manual to figure out how to use some software. I'm 'sticking' to the good ole fashion 'stickies' that come with OS X. I really like how simple stickies are to use and close them out it automatically saves what you have on your sticky. Ah sure you windows or linux peeps have had them before but not installed default with your OS like your Solitaire so go back and flip your cards.

  • .Mac is awesome (Score:5, Interesting)

    by solistus ( 556078 ) on Saturday September 27, 2003 @05:46PM (#7074396) Homepage

    I, like virtually every Mac user, was shocked and disappointed to hear that iTools was making the move to .Mac and coming with a nice hefty fee. I figured I'd use it for a year, and in that time start using my alternate email account for everything.

    After having used .Mac for this long, I have to say I don't know that I could do without it. Having 100mb of webspace is a nice feature- it's a great fileserver for images and text and the like, although the lack of server-side support for things like PHP makes it somewhat less useful for actual site hosting. iSync is wonderful, and saved me just today when I had to format my System partition due to some strange and unfixable corruption. The email is great as well, giving you plenty of space and access to your email from any computer running a modern OS via webmail. That alone may be worth the $100 a year; however, that fails to account for many other oft-overlooked features of .Mac.

    The freebies, while put down frequently by .Mac subscribers and non-subscribers alike, are a nice way of showing that Apple cares- think of them as gifts. You don't expect them, you don't buy .Mac for them, but they come to you anyway, and if even one is useful a single time, you've gained something extra from them. The VT+ subscription is very cool; any Mac user should know that VT is an extremely useful tool even without +/Pro access. Also, the $20 off coupon for resubscribing, while not as nice as the $50 off for iTools members the first year, is certainly nice. If you want The Sims or Everquest for some odd reason, you can get those instead.

    .Mac is great, and these new offers make me even more glad I shelled out the $8.33 a month for it.

  • What's next? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fingers1122 ( 636011 )
    It looks as if Apple is trying its hardest to sell some .Mac memberships. My guess is that these types of benefits will extend themselves to future Apple software releases and OS updates. I wonder if Apple will eventually start charging non-.Mac users for future software releases along the lines of iPhoto and iCal. I am not a .Mac member but am considering purchasing a membership.
  • These new extras seem a little pointless, I think. The rest of .Mac, the mail, webspace, online volume and backup are useful and if someone is willing to pay $100 per year for that, all the power to them. But I think that as soon as one moves into a slightly more astute level, where one can implement many of those features oneself on a normal hosting service, the appeal of .Mac goes away.

    Added to this, it seemed on the Mac forums that the service is often down, which would be irritating if one depends on i
  • Apple's long time "OS foe", Microsoft, has meanwhile announced plans of its own to enter the Blog hosting market. "Hey, it's all in that book that I had those guys write for me" said Microsoft founder Bill Gates. "Ya'know, it's not just about 'where do you want to go today?' anymore" he continued, "but 'what do you want to remember tomorrow?', too. Steve--what? uh no, Balmer, not Jobs--has been doing a really good job--what? NO! I said Balmer--on this one." Mr Gates showed a demo of i've-Been-Online-Recor
  • IINM, free versiontracker subscription is for new members, or for members who renew, not for current members.

    This is relevant to me, because my subscription expires in a few days and I do not intend to renew, and so the offer does not apply to me - even though I am still a member.

    The iBlog offer applies to me, so I have that, but not the versiontracker one...that is purely an incentive, not a benefit.

    Anyway...small point, but worth making.

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