For several years now, Apple has been offering a service to Mac users called “.Mac” (say dot-mac). The .Mac service ($99/year, but discounted with an Apple computer purchase or at online resellers like Amazon.com) provided at the outset an email address and a relatively small amount of secure online storage space (called an iDisk).

The response to the service has been (for Apple) lukewarm, due to the fact that similar services have been available for free from other sources. For example, if you must have an email address in addition to the one provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), you can go to Yahoo, Google, and MSN (to name but a few) and get as many free addresses as you like. Plus, in addition to using your web browser, you can now send and receive email from these services with your computer’s email application (like Outlook Express or Apple Mail). And, these services have powerful and customizable spam filters at the server level to isolate you from those opportunities to become financial liaisons for the wealthy children of former African leaders.

Besides email, some of these free services also offer online secure storage for data, as well as “Groups”. What is a Group? Let’s say you’re really interested in a certain kind of automobile, like the Yugo. Knowing that there have got to be a lot of Yugo enthusiasts out there in internet-land, you start a Yahoo Group called “Yugo Lovers”. You invite all the Yugo enthusiasts you know to join the Group, and encourage them to invite their fellow Yugo fanatics.

Groups offer online forums, which you can participate in through a web browser or email application. They also provide space to store images or other data pertinent to the Group. They’ve become popular ways to unite people with common interests.

However, as my grandfather (or maybe it was my grandmother) used to say, “there’s no free lunch”. All of these services require you to already be paying for an ISP to get onto the internet to access them. And, as “free” services like Yahoo, Google, and MSN are in reality big businesses, someone’s gotta pay for all the server space and bandwidth. That means advertising - lots of it, and mostly unavoidable. It’s not unusual to have to cycle through at least one page of advertising on the way to view a photo or download a file. Who’s really paying? You are - with your time.

In response to the features these services offer, this week Apple “beefed up” .Mac. Subscribers now get 1 GB of mail/data storage (2 GB if you order the “Family Pack”), and the ability to create .Mac Groups. Unlike Yahoo Groups, .Mac Groups have no advertising. Each Group contains a private web site with password-protected access for a Group image, message board, announcements, calendar, member list, and offsite links. Members can share photos and movies. Creating a .Mac Group is Apple-easy, as you can mass-mail email invitations to people already in your Address Book.

Now the catch. People who accept your invitation to join must sign up for a free six-month trial .Mac membership. This sounds onerous, but members deciding not to start paying for .Mac after six months can keep their .Mac IDs for free indefinitely. Got friends using Windows (or vice-versa)? No problem. .Mac plays well with both Macs and PCs.

So, if you’re not already a .Mac subscriber, should you be? If you’re still on dial-up, a definite no. If you’re on broadband, give it a try. It’s free (for awhile, anyway).

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski