Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
.Mac's dramatic resurrection
Yesterday, we outlined just a few of the reasons we've become disenchanted with .Mac, focusing on mail, storage space, calendaring and synchronization. Today, we're going to look at what could be .Mac's dramatic resurrection. Like a Phoenix from the ashes, we all know that .Mac will rise again, better than ever before (because Steve and Co. just can't let it stagnate forever, right?). We're going to avoid the usual and more obvious .Mac wish-list items in this post, like increased storage space, a speedier iDisk, reliable synchronization and so on, and focus on all new, would-be features that could really knock our geeky socks off. Read on, after the jump.
Exhibit A: Hosted applications
Who needs the desktop anymore? Let's all use web-based, hosted applications! Ok, so that thought might be just a little premature, but these webapps are getting better all the time. When I think "Apple," I think "cutting edge" and "innovation," and web applications fit the bill.
Homepage
With the introduction of iWeb, poor Homepage has been all but forgotten. When it was first introduced many years ago, I was thrilled with the idea. I could easily make a nice looking web page for friends and family with minimal fuss and no coding. Images and files lived on my iDisk and hosting was built-in. iWeb really blows it away, and now Homepage is a loaner (unless you've opted not to buy iLife '06). I say, let's integrate the two.
Homepage is already online, so we've got a bit of a head start. Other services like Vox, Typepad and many others let you update your site via a browser. Imagine! Live, web-based blogging from Apple! These other services also allow for complete customization and html editing via a browser. Or, you can simply pick and choose your layout and design options without having to place a single tag. How about a web-based interface for updating .Mac-hosted iWeb blogs and galleries? Perhaps the ability to move between one iWeb template and another with a single click? Vox does this beautifully, by the way. Just find the template you like and click "Apply to blog." No need to wait while your site rebuilds or anything. Or, .Mac subscribers could have access to exclusive templates and other such goodies. If there is one company that can make the above experience pleasant and beautiful, it's Apple.
Now, I know that some of you are going to call iWeb "web building for soccer moms," but I like web building for soccer moms. Sometimes I don't want to get all fancy with a hand-coded site, total customization and so on. Sometimes all I want is a simple site that I can use to keep friends and family updated with photos and videos of the kids. If that site can be edited online and integrated with my iLife data, then terrific.
Appleworks goes live
Remember Appleworks? Or for you older geeks (like me), Clarisworks? For the uninitiated, Appleworks is a long-ignored productivity suite by Apple that includes a word processor, spreadsheet app and database application (kind of like "Filemaker Lite."). It has sat in Apple Limbo for a number of years, and .Mac 2.0 (or are we at 3.0?) is the perfect time to roll out the all new, fully integrated, web-based Appleworks.
Consider Writely and Google Spreadsheets. Both are web-based applications by (who else) Google. They're quite basic at this point but pretty much allow you to do what you'd want to do. Now imagine each done with Apple's style, functionality and integration with the revamped Homepage mentioned above, or even the OS itself. Create multi-author, collaborative, password-protected documents and spreadsheets. Keep previous versions accessible via the web, so if Johnny from the office comes in and really hoses your document, you can go back to the day before he went hog-wild and restore that version. Easily post files to your Homepage site(s), access them from the Finder and so on. Web publishing in Filemaker (meaning making your database available online) has gotten easier with each new release. I imagine a trimmed down version as being the successor to Appleworks' database app. Now a little league coach can easily keep track of his players, games, practices, equipment etc. online with the web-based database, spreadsheet and word processing of .Mac's live successor to Appleworks.
Exhibit B: Enhancements to iLife
I love Apple's digital hub concept, as that's precisely what my computers are. I used them to work with my photos, create movies...you know the drill. As an added incentive, why not let .Mac subscribers do some cool stuff with the iLife apps? For example, Snipshot lets you edit photos online. Imagine doing the same with your iPhoto snaps. Did you upload that photo before you remembered to crop it or remove the red eye? No problem, do it in your browser.
Or, say you subscribe to your cousin's photocast. You decide to be a wise guy and add a mustache and funny hat to his face in each picture. You then bing his copy of iPhoto and update the same photos in his photocast.
Or, perhaps a "share" link could appear next to your .Mac-hosted movies, YouTube-style. Of course, the idea of subscriber-exclusive iDVD templates and the like spring to mind.
So there's a brief look at just a few of the things we think would be cool as a part of the next major update to .Mac. Whenever that may be. Or not.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jason Brennan said 12:18PM on 8-24-2006
I love how the link to www.writely.com doesn't work in Safari.
Well, I shouldn't say the link, but writely.com just plain does not work in Safari at all. Writely still doesn't appear to be google branded yet...no reason why it wouldn't work in safari IMO =P
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Bruce Anderson said 12:18PM on 8-24-2006
How about a limited, free version? Just a basic email account and, say, 50mb online storage, nothing fancy. that'd get me back.
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Renzo said 12:21PM on 8-24-2006
Not as many points as yesterday :(
the death of .mac is looking more and more
likely :(
and this just proves it, in my mind...
And i do love .mac but...it does need an update
badly.
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SubGenius said 12:23PM on 8-24-2006
Apple should buy 37signals before somebody else does.
These guys are making amazing web based tools using ruby on rails.
Check out their web based implementation of iCal
http://www.backpackit.com/calendar
or their wonderful project management software basecamp
While it doesn't do everything that MS Project does it is a lot smarter than Project.
http://www.basecamphq.com/
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Nicolas said 12:25PM on 8-24-2006
Well, nice summary. For the video , it made me think of podcast and then bittorrent . So, why not a bittorrent tracker integrated in your iDisk ?
Then you could share your podcast/vidcast/homevideo/garageband compositions/keynote holiday summaries with the world, not using too much of your bandwidth quota (or apple's).
Cheers
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tk2k said 12:26PM on 8-24-2006
Bruce thats kinda never going to happen
This artica is about stuff that could happen, a free .mac really isnt going to until a new higher end version is set up.
Its tine for .mac to get overhalled, but i think the reason its suffered is because with the tiger intel transition, apple has had to squish two new OS releases into the amount of time it takes them to do 1. (tiger, tiger intel, leopard)
So they had to chose, whats making us money, what is not. Ilife and iwork do, .mac, as it is right now, will NOT draw techies like us, however it still has a GREAT amount of use for the casual consumer, or a familly. now you can sync everyones calendars automatically and easily. yes, you CAN do it with other programs/services, but its not as easy.
that is apple's claim to fame, it just freekin works
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Josh said 12:30PM on 8-24-2006
I agree with Bruce. There should be a free version that would attract more people to the "Pro" version. For me, I would just want an @mac.com email.
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Daniel D said 12:42PM on 8-24-2006
If Josh agrees with Bruce then thats good enough for me. I am with Bruce too.
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Zach Everson said 12:49PM on 8-24-2006
Those suggestions are ok, but I just want reliable synchronization.
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tr said 12:51PM on 8-24-2006
"Remember Appleworks? Or for you older geeks (like me), Clarisworks?"
or, for geeks who are older than you (like me!), it's AppleWorks, since AppleWorks started on the Apple II, then turned into ClarisWorks on the Mac, then turned back to AppleWorks on the Mac.
i like the idea of the web-based Homepage/iWeb thing. i know my sister had to get her head around using iWeb, when she was used to creating photo albums in Homepage. if i could create a new blog post by using a web interface, instead of having to open iWeb, create a new post, then update, it would be much easier.
personally, i'm still with .Mac. i have all the resources available to do all the stuff you mentioned in the other post, and i could totally ween myself off the .Mac, but it's more than just features. it's ease of use. just give me more storage, and i'll be happy.
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SubGenius said 12:59PM on 8-24-2006
One of the problems with iTools was that people were signing up for multiple accounts.
One possible solution might be to include a single .Mac account with each Mac purchased. The account would be tied to the serial #of the Mac you purchased. The account would be free for 3 years from the purchase date. You could also buy additional sub accounts for a nominal amount.
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Gerald Buckley said 1:04PM on 8-24-2006
What makes you think Apple won't just kill .mac?
Newton died. PPC died. eWorld died. The digital camera thing died.
The road behind is littered with the carci (plural of carcus? I dunno) of abondoned projects. The wildly successful iPod is going to wind up on that heap some far away day in the future.
Dot Mac's days are done (and yes, I'm a paid member and remember when I signed on as a freebie back in the first months). I don't think Apple's inclined to turn .Mac into what it could be. I think they'll do what they always do and "do it their way" which has been to the detriment of many a fine product line (I'm specifically thinking of iChat as I write that... their video ought to have been compatible with every other standard out there from the get go but still isn't).
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Fornya said 1:06PM on 8-24-2006
Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? How to make .Mac better? Increased storage, reduced cost.
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matthew said 1:10PM on 8-24-2006
> I don't think Apple's inclined to turn .Mac into what it could be.
That's an interesting view. Given that Apple has never improved their .Mac Support beyond it's pathetic cut-and-paste-one-size-fits-all-answers (see my .Mac rant in the original thread), your statement is an interesting one.
If Apple was serious about .Mac they'd add .Mac support to their general technical support line, don't you think?
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Derek said 1:19PM on 8-24-2006
The problem with just the @mac e-mail address is that it was originally used by a lot of people to send illegal files to each other, like MP3s, SNES and N64 roms. That was one reason why iTools changed to a fee-based .Mac.
One thing I wished would come with .Mac is a database file of every iTunes file you've ever downloaded, so if your backup or original fails, you can just re-download your music file provided you're paying a .Mac subscription.
Another thing that would make .Mac useful is unlimited online game characters or something, provided you have enough .Mac space. Users could only see and edit their character files using a special .Mac feature within their game. I could see a lot of WoW players using this feature in the next upcoming expansion.
I think it would be neat as well if Apple allowed some sort of .Mac-based subscription to programs. Developers could put their software on the system, and get a piece of the subscription costs. Maybe limit one or two programs a month. This way people could try out new software and indie developers have a new potential for income and a reason to integrate .Mac.
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Joshua Monroe said 1:24PM on 8-24-2006
You missed what is quite possibly the biggest one...
Time Machine!!
For 99 bucks a year, Apple could provide a network backup volume for you that would work with Time Machine and would be Collocated to ensure a good backup. Now, that is .Mac I would pay for.
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XiozTzu said 1:30PM on 8-24-2006
Wasn't it announced a few months ago that Apple was building a huge data center? Whouldn't this lead us to belive that, among other things, Apple would be improving .Mac using this data center?
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Robin O'Neil said 1:32PM on 8-24-2006
AppleWorks first came out on the Apple II/III before Claris and ClarisWorks
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WineGeek said 10:44AM on 8-26-2006
I have to agree that .mac is dying on the vine. I've decided I will let my membership lapse in October. It just doesn't do much that I can't do elsewhere, better.
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tofu said 2:10PM on 8-24-2006
Radical .mac ideas:
- $20/year for new users and a coupon for Mac OS X 10.5 for old users and grandfather them in.
- a .mac social network like myspace but not crappy.
- more tools for .mac integration with Windows & Linux... and other browsers like Firefox, Opera and Camino. (Think sync bookmarks and keychain entries on your Windows PC at work.)
- mobile .mac for your cell phone/pda... not just isync, but like bookmarks, idisk, etc. Kinda like YahooGo.
- Sticky sync... tho there are 3rd party apps that do that.
- Maybe even a mobile .mac blog utility like Nokia LifeBlog
- free domainnames :P
- free ProCare cards for all .mac members!
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