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About .Mac
.Mac (pronounced and sometimes written as "Dot Mac")
is a group of online services offered by Apple Inc. mainly for its
Mac OS X users, although a limited subset of features are available
for other platforms. Originally a free service exclusively to Mac OS
users, .Mac now works on an annual subscription service. Despite the
name, .Mac is not a top level domain.
History of .Mac
.Mac is based on iTools (not to be confused with Tenon's web
application with the same name), which were Internet tools available
free of charge for Mac users. .Mac is a suite of Internet services
and software launched at Macworld Expo, New York on July 17,
2002, and initially offered several tools to subscribers:
Homepage - a personal web hosting service
iDisk - an online disk storage service
@mac.com - e-mail service provider
Backup - a personal back-up solution that allows users to archive
data to their iDisk, CD or DVD.
iCards - an online greeting card service
iReview - a website review service
As iDisk made use of WebDAV technology and mac.com was an IMAP
service, these services could be accessed from any other computer
platform (although a Mac was needed to establish an account).
On September 17, 2002 Apple announced that more than 100,000 .Mac
users had subscribed to the company’s .Mac suite of Internet
services and software since its launch in July.
On September 30, 2002, the iTools service was discontinued, though
.Mac continued as a subscription service. This move generated a
mixed reaction among the Macintosh community, with some believing
that .Mac was overpriced.[3] Advocates, however, cited improved
services and perks such as free software. Up to June 15, 2005, this
included McAfee's Virex virus scanner (which was exclusive to
subscribers), though some noted the irony and questioned the value
for the virtually virus-free Mac.
In October 2006, Apple launched an update to its .Mac Mail service
that now resembles closely the experience of the Mac OS X Mail
application. The new functionality is built on top of AJAX and
provides rich user experience such as drag-and-drop, a live-updating
three-way split view, and ability to resize panels.
In a special event in August 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced
the following changes to .mac:
A new Web Gallery feature, similar to Flickr and YouTube combined
10 Gigabytes of total storage for all standard customers (meaning
that 1GB customers now have 10GB) for no additional charge; 2GB/5GB
users now have 20GB/30GB respectively
100/200/300 GB transfer at no additional charge
Pricing
.Mac is a subscription-based service priced at $99.95 USD per year.
Existing iTools accounts were transitioned to .Mac accounts during a
free trial period ending September 30, 2002. Each account comes with
one mac.com email address with 10GB space (As of August 7, 2007).
Users who want larger iDisks can pay for more space, for up to 30GB
total (before August 7, 2007 it was 4GB). The space on an iDisk can
be used in any manner (subject to the terms of the .Mac license
agreement), and the amount of space dedicated to mac.com email is
only limited by the size of the iDisk. The iDisk can be mounted as a
normal volume on any Mac OS desktop.
The annual fee for .Mac can be reduced either through Apple's
referral program, which offers a 20% discount for the following year
for each referral or by purchasing a subscription with a new Mac,
which gives one a 30% discount.
On August 7, 2007 the .Mac subscription service was expanded to 10GB
of storage whilst keeping the same annual price point.
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