“For consumers who open their laptop on the road only to find that a critical file is back at home – or who are frustrated by having different sets of contacts and browser bookmarks on every computer they use – there are some simple alternatives. They take somewhat different approaches to the job, but all use the Internet to some degree, and are best put to use with a high-speed connection,” Ian Austen writes for The New York Times.
Austen looks at FolderShare, BeInSync, and Apple’s .Mac Sync. Of Apple’s .Mac Sync, Austen writes, “focuses on personal data like contact lists, Web browser bookmarks and digital calendar entries. It also borrows from the corporate world by relying on data stored on a centralized server to make everything happen. The .Mac Sync is included in the Macintosh operating system. But making it work involves subscribing to the Apple .Mac service (mac.com), which includes features like e-mail, Web site host operations, online data storage and a file backup system. The service costs $100 a year for one user with one gigabyte of storage or $180 a year for a family pack that adds four additional users, each with 256 megabytes of storage.”
Austen writes, “While .Mac Sync is not billed as a backup system, it did come in handy when one of my computers irreparably failed. I was able to restore all of the data and e-mail settings on its successor immediately and easily by synchronizing… For now, .Mac Sync has the smallest potential audience of the three systems. Its software is supplied only with, and can be used only on, the current 10.4 version of the Macintosh operating system, Mac OS X 10.4. (Owners of older versions of OS X 10, however, can use a simpler version called iSync, which also requires a .Mac subscription. Somewhat confusingly, the new operating system has a different program with the iSync name; it is for transferring data into iPods, cellphones and hand-held computers.) Of these three programs, .Mac Sync may have the narrowest scope, but that is probably why it is the easiest to set up and use.”
Full article here.
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Sicne OS X is ACTUALLY a UNIX box, you can also use rsync. Go to: http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/
Of course, this is a UNIX command line tool so you hav eto be a big boy to use it. But you can make an Apple Script to execute this as needed.
MDN magic word “nearly” as in ,
that was nearly an ok article
Unfortunately .Mac as a web portal is weak.
It feels like their most neglected product. For the most part, it’s still just advertisements even after you log in….
The integration with the apps on the computer is rather nice though. (e.g. iPhoto->web pages)
dot Mac is not a web portal … it’s a suite of network services for the end user. Drop-dead-simple web publishing, easy backups, syncornization between multiple Macs, Learning tools for those new to the platform, etc. It was never marketed as a web portal.. and why would you want a web portal??
dotmac is OFFLINE right now. How ironic is that?
Sure, .Mac is easy to use and set up, but I still don’t think it’s worth $99 to me.
Hey..I got news!
.mac is a great app..that is great on Jaguar and Panther! (Where I use it)
the 10.4 baloney in this article should be addressed by our friends at MDN, cuz they’ll do a better job than me.
You can get .Mac on Amazon for $79.
Just shows..Macs last longer:
http://www.creditandcollectionnews.com/email-frameset-conference.php
Early Powerbook?
Macaday:
FYI, that’s a G3 PowerBook. Late 90’s era. An early<i> PowerBook would be a 500 series (the origianl black laptops) or earlier!
And of course there is the infamous updside-down Apple!
It is a piece of stock photography. In this case, the website needed a picture of professional looking folks gathered around a computer. They are models, and the laptop a mere prop. The photographer wasn’t going to trust them with his <i>working PowerBook!
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I once worked for a computer consulting company that had a similar shot in their promotional material. Only it featured a grossly outdated (close to 10 year old?) PC desktop in the picture. More than five years later they were still using the same picture! I guess that’s part of why i lost respect for them. Of course the executive types they were selling to wouldn’t know that!
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MW = almost – this is almost a good plug for Apple!
Most ISP packages come with multiple email and web space accounts, and you need a backup hard drive anyway. But what I really want to know is why most sci-fi movies use Apple II level graphics.