16 Aug Mac users can save twenty bucks
Here’s a tip for all you Mac users with .Mac accounts. Apple charges $99 per year for the service, but you can get it at Amazon.com
Not a .Mac user? You might want to consider it. .Mac (pronounced “dot-mac”) is 10GB of storage on Apple’s servers that you can use in a wide variety of ways with simple Apple software that you probably already have on your Mac. It’s great for backing up data, publishing online (i.e. a website or your vacation photos), or syncing data on computers, for example.
I have a desktop mac and a laptop, and .Mac allows me to sync both computers so that iCal, Safari, and Address Book are the same on both machines (you can also sync Mail and Keychains if you want).
The service is not always stellar. I have my computers set to sync with each other every day automatically, but on my MacBook Pro there’s a glitch. I have to sync it manually. Apparantly this is a common problem. But at least I know my info is the same on both computers, especially iCal, which I use to manage all my projects and deadlines.
.Mac is also good for backup, storage, and sharing media. Each customer now gets 10GB of storage space online. Way more than I need for syncing, but great if you are publishing your own website through Apple, share photos and movies online, or want to back up a decent amount of data. (10GB isn’t even close to enough for me to back up all my computer graphics work, so I use external hard drives for that which I keep in rotation at a safe deposit box). But I do backup my Quicken files to .Mac, in an effort to help keep my business and personal life separate.