Apple’s iCEO Steve Jobs recently met with a group of financial analysts to report on different things about the company. In this report on c|net, Jobs stated that Mac OS X could be ported to run on Intel chips (now let’s not start the rumors of Marklar again), and also about iPods and the iTunes Music Store.
Another interesting bit is this blurb about the number of people who’ve initially renewed their .Mac memberships:
The company is also making money in new areas, such as its .Mac Internet service, which just went through its first renewal period, in which customers had to pay the full $99 price. Jobs pointed out that critics said Apple would never get customers to pay $99 after selling the first year at $49.
“Our renewal rate was 86 (percent) to 87 percent,” Jobs said, adding that that is “unheard of, higher than almost anybody’s. We’ve built ourselves the beginnings of a pretty good Internet services business.”
Back in January at Macworld San Francisco, Jobs reported that ~240,000 people had subscribed to .Mac by the end of October 2002. Depending on how you look at it, of those 240,000 people who initially subscribed to .Mac:
- 206,400 subscribers renewed
- Apple lost 33,600 .Mac subscribers from the initial brood
I’ve renewed two .Mac subscriptions (one for myself and one for my wife), and I know plenty of others out there who’ve re-upped for another year. The real tipping point, IMHO, will be to see how many of us hang on for another round. Apple’s .Mac services are nice, but they still have a long way to go.
While I think it’s great that many people are renewing, I think the bigger question will be how many of those 86-87% who renewed this year will renew next year if the support and services aren’t beefed up.
So, my question to you all is:
- After a year with .Mac, what are your likes and dislikes of the service?
- What would you like to see Apple improve upon over the next year?
- If you’ve been to .Mac’s Support forums, what has your experience been like? Did you get a quick response, or are there issues still floating in Limbo?
- Do you have any hints, tips, or tricks you’d like to pass along to other .Mac members?
Let me hear your thoughts…I know Apple listens here, too.
Did or will you renew your .Mac membership? Do you have any comments or feedback about the .Mac services? Let ‘em fly….
Think Different terms
It would be really nice to be able to pay monthly instead of yearly.
.Mac
* iDisk synching needs to be integrated into the OS so I can sync ANY folder onto my iDisk.
* Syncing in general rules.
* Calendars rule.
* Would be awesome if homepage allowed a scripting language or had more interactive components. Would be cool for third parties to be able to provide plugins that worked with homepage.
* Syncing of application preferences. I can see being able to echo my work environment on my home machine. When I set up toolbars in mail, I want that toolbar everywhere I have an account.
* File fetch. I want to be able to fetch any file on any of the machines I have registered with iSync. With the proper security, of course.
What matters to me, what needs to change, what's pretty useless.
What matters to me: I use .mac mail, I have my website there, Virex, iBlog. Loading pages is easy. IBlog is fun and free. Mail is reliable. Virex I comment on below. Though I haven't taken advantage of them often, the hardware/software discounts are a nice feature.
What needs to change: Backup is horrendously slow and unreliable. I would use it otherwise. The templates for the web sites are quirky especially with regard to linking. They should have an advanced user option for some templates that could allow for html or other features (Contribute is not it - see below). Need more templates too. Virex does NOT automatically update at all. This must be downloaded elsewhere. There are numerous posts on how to bypass .mac once the program has been downloaded as a result of this frustration. Most of the games are pretty lame, though some are well-thought out. For the current price of a new computer, to charge an extra 99 USD for a year of what amounts to just a few useful features - nice and somewhat endearing, but maybe it should come free for say - 6 months - and then you could do a 'limited subscription' for just those features you want. The you could add on for a fee for anything you want to try. This would - with hope - inspire .mac to come up with a wider array of services and products than the same things that have been there for a long time now.
What's pretty useless: The way Contribute is set up. It's not terribly mac friendly, it costs almost as much as the subscription to .mac and the interface is so slow! The so-called training sessions on-line are at such a low-level that very little of substance is available after many long minutes sitting through vague promises of more. Courses in use of advanced features would be much better in my opinion - or perhaps both.
re: .Mac
Yep, iSync rocks, but you're right, it doesn't let you sync files or folders from one Mac to another. But there is a workaround to this. If you have two Macs, you can use Backup as a kludge to get the work done.
Since I use my PowerBook as my main system, I use Backup to back up the Preferences folder (~/Library/Preferences) to my iDisk. Then I go to the PowerMac G4 and use Backup's Restore option as a way of "syncing" my preferences between the two machines.
You can also do this with files and folders, but if the two Macs are networked together, you should take a look at using rsync from the command-line, or download and use RsyncX from macosxlabs out of the University of Michigan. (Go Blue!)
To learn more about rsync, enter man rsync in the Terminal.
I know that's not the solution you're looking for (i.e., a fully-featured iSync), but it'll get you going.
Chuck
Auto Renewal
I know that a lot of people in my office renewed simply because Apple did it automatically. Luckily, my credit card had expired, so they couldn't keep me on as a member for another year.
re: What matters to me, what needs to change, what's pretty useless.
Great response.
I'll agree that Virex and Backup (even the latest rev) could use some work. Apple controls Backup, so there's hope, but Virex is an add-on from McAffee, so we're pretty much stranded with the hope that they'll lend more resources to supporting it.
I haven't tried Contribute for the same reason you give: It's an extra $70 for an unproven app (IMHO). For me, I either use the .Mac HomePage tools or my standby editor, BBEdit for hand-coding pages. (Yep, I'm old-school for the most part.)
For me, and for my wife, the big draw to the .Mac membership is the Mac.com email. I've had my Mac.com email since .Mac was iTools, and that's how 99% of my friends and family communicate with me. (The other 1% being my dad, who still refuses to join the electronic age.)
As for the .Mac screensavers, I wish there was something built into the Desktop & Screen Savers panel in Panther that slurped information from your Address Book. If someone in your AB has a Mac.com email address, it would be nice to have those automatically pulled into the preference panel so you could check to see if they had a screensaver you could use. Of course, another option is to go to DotMac.info to see what other people are posting.
Better integration all around would be mighty sweet.
Chuck
Integration is key
While thinking about why I re-upped .mac, I realized how important integration is to this service. Mail is nice because Mail.app is easy to set up and a web front-end is available that has an up-to-date copy of my address book. I have never created a web page on .mac using the web-based tool, but I love the integration with iPhoto and publish photo albums all the time. Similarly, iDisk is nice because I can easily mount it on other systems including Windows boxes.
Backup hasn't been suitable for my needs, but I need to take a look at version 2 that was just released. Virex seems silly. Does it protect my system at all from the types of viruses that would go after a mac?
I would probably start looking for alternatives if .mac goes above $99/year. And what I really worry about is that Apple will again try to charge for iPhoto - software I feel that I have paid for with yearly OS upgrades and the .mac subscription.
re: Auto Renewal
Yeah, this is a little-known Gotcha.
To disable autorenewal, do the following:
Go to the Mac.com site.
Click on the Accounts button
Enter your Member Name and Password to login
Click on the Credit Card Info button
At the bottom of the next screen, uncheck the checkbox next to Auto-Renew, and then click on the Submit button to save the change to your account.
Chuck
re: .Mac
Thanks for this tip - I have 2 .mac accounts - one for my 12" Powerbook - one for at home - When I take the one to school I've been short all the bookmarks I need to show students - I'll run this tonight - well not tonight - grades are due tomorrow...
iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
Is there a way to publish iCal pages as if they were linked indexed html pages - and NOT have other the viewers be subscribers? I want to publish school calendars - but the whole school is non-mac. Using iCal would be so easy but I don't know if there is way to do this. Sure would be a nice feature. Then just link it to a web page.
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
Yes, you can publish your iCal calendar and make them viewable to the world.
Say I have a calendar called MacStuff that I publish to my iDisk. I can direct my friends to it using the following URL:
http://ical.mac.com/chuckdude/MacStuff
To break the URL down:
chuckdude is my .Mac member name
MacStuff is the name of the calendar I set up in iCal that got published to my iDisk using iSync
So, if you have a calendar called SchoolCalendar, you could point your friends to:
http://ical.mac.com/your_.Mac_name/SchoolCalendar
Chuck
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
Thanks for another helpful tip - I've been trying to create a clunky calendar that needs updating when ever there's a school assembly, etc. This makes life easier. Take a tax deduction for education - er... I don't teach accounting.
re: Bookmark syncing
Remember, if you're using iSync to synchronize Safari's bookmarks, you can view them online, from any machine (Windoze, Mac, Linux, whatever) with a browser that supports current web standards.
To do this, to go the Mac.com web site, click on the Bookmarks icon, login, sync your bookmarks for use online, and then a window will open giving you access to your bookmarks. The beauty of this is that you can manage your bookmarks this way as well -- add and delete bookmarks, organize them into folders, etc. -- and the next time you use iSync, the changes will get sucked down to your Mac.
Very nice. ;^)
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
You're welcome.
One more thing. When you publish a calendar, I think there's an option for you to let others know via email that you've added a calendar. The message has a link that the recipient can click on to take them right to the calendar.
This is similar to the email you can send from iPhoto after publishing a PhotoAlbum to your iDisk.
Chuck
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
Thanks, Chuck. I hadn't even noticed that option. We've been using phpicalendar to publish calendars to a webserver. For anyone looking for a password-protected solution (if you don't want outsiders seeing your calendars), phpicalendar is still a good solution, but .Mac is much easier if you don't need the security.
Now, are aces high or low? ; )
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
Sounds like you've played poker with me in the past (maybe at the Mac OS X Conference?).
To me, aces are high.
It mostly works for me
I publish my teaching schedule with iCal and provide a link to it on my .Mac hosted home page. In addition, with Panther, I keep a copy of my iDisk on my laptop, point Dreamweaver at it and keep my site up to date extremely easily.
iSync is great for keeping my bookmarks, contacts and calendars synced between my laptop, desktop and iPod.
Backup I don't use much but I looked at the latest version and I may reconsider as it would make part of my data backup duties a bit easier.
Virex - haven't had to use it, but I agree that no auto-update is a bit of a pain.
I like the freebies and online training, even though I only take advantage of a few of them. The fact that they were offered was nice.
All in all, .Mac is worth the price for me.
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
That's the euchre player in you. : )
It was good to meet you at the Mac OS X Conference. You folks at O'Reilly put on a great show. Anyone who has the opportunity to attend next year should--the informal conversations (and the poker) are worth almost as much as the sessions.
locking in
One you give you an "@mac.com" e-mail address to your friends, it's kind of a pain to switch. That plus the iDisk are the two main reasons I renewed. I also like Backup, as it allows me to create a quick offsite backup of any critical files I happen to be working on with my Windows machine, along with offsite backup of my most important Mac stuff.
I do publish an iCal calendar, which is nice except that the Web version of the calendar pages doesn't pick up some crucial fields that were added to the new version of iCal, such as "URL' and "Location." So I end up having to add that information in the "Notes" section, effectively entering it twice. That's a pain. Otherwise I'm happy with the service and plan to continue renewing indefinitely.
Auto Renewal
Several weeks prior to auto-renewing my .Mac account, Apple sent me an email notice saying the renewal was coming up (thereby giving me ample time to opt out should I wish). I re-upped thanks to all the great tools such as iDisk, publishing iCal, Backup, etc. -- but mostly because a world without Apple hardware and software just seems too bleak. Supporting them in exchange for some excellent virutal office features seems well worth it.
Not for me
I just switched to Mac a month or so ago. I had the choice of adding .mac to my computer. I decided not to because I couldn't justify the price.
For
.mac
iSync is simply awesome - I work in the environment with great number of Macs and thanks to iSync any desktop in the building feels abs identical.
iBlog is very attractive but should be an integral part of .Mac and not a third party product - recent iBlog issues in Panther clearly demonstrate shortcomings of such an arrangement.
Backup is OK, but has trouble with file names - try to back up prefences folder with CCcloner or ICQ...
someone mentioned it already - next year's renewal rate will be the real test of .Mac - I believe many of us believe that Apple can learn from mistakes of the past and improve .Mac over time but we will be very critical nest year.
.mac
iSync is simply awesome - I work in the environment with great number of Macs and thanks to iSync any desktop in the building feels abs identical.
iBlog is very attractive but should be an integral part of .Mac and not a third party product - recent iBlog issues in Panther clearly demonstrate shortcomings of such an arrangement.
Backup is OK, but has trouble with file names - try to back up prefences folder with CCcloner or ICQ...
someone mentioned it already - next year's renewal rate will be the real test of .Mac - I believe many of us believe that Apple can learn from mistakes of the past and improve .Mac over time but we will be very critical next year.
What would be nice
For those of us renewing it would be very nice if Apple gave us an extra 50 or 100MB of iDisk space and an extra 5MB e-mail storage space per year. That would make it a very attractive proposition to remain "loyal to the cause", for want of a better way of putting it.
I renewed my account but, again, it is going to require some decent additional features/improvements to be made for it to be something that continues year in year out. The freebies are on the whole OK, but a lot of them have turned out to be either useless or totally unusable (e.g. the FireWire drive discount only applied to the US... gee, thanks Apple)
.Mac is an integral part of the Mac experience now.
A couple of suggestions for the marketing of .Mac:
1) For new Mac purchases, a discount if you buy BOTH .Mac and AppleCare or include .Mac in AppleCare.
2) Profiling users when they register with .Mac, so that software freebies/discounts can be geared to the user. For example, the bonus games for renewal were NO attraction for me.
3) The file transfer protocol for the iDisk is still S-L-O-W. I have a very fast cable modem setup at home and T1 at work, so it has to be the software.
4) If Apple could pull off a package marketing deal of .Mac & an isp package, I'd sign up tomorrow. With equal access, many companies are reselling access on my local SBC DSL service, TW Cable Service, etc. Apple should work with Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, SBC, BellSouth and Qwest to see if they can't offer a package of .Mac and access. At the same time another package with AT&T wireless, T-Mobile, etc could be offered for wireless users.
Some Gripes
1) Backup does not remember your keychain. It shouldn't be a default, but should be available for disk backup.
2) Bookmarks is a cool idea that's still a little rough around the edges out on the Windows end. When bookmarks are activated on XP, could Apple include a script to resize the browser window to accomodate the bookmarks page. Also, posting new links from a PC to bookmarks is a little clumsy. Having used iTunes for Windows at work, I know someone at Apple nows how to program for XP.
3) Virex is a dog. We all know that anti-virus is to protect windows users downstream form us, but as the Mac OS grows it's going to become more of an issue. The idea of an anti-virus package is great, Virex 7 is just not up to the Apple level of quality.
.mac and yearly os upgrade
I like .Mac, love the email address, Virex is nice, and the storage is fine. I do feel, though, that since Apple is seemingly turning out yearly upgrades of OS X for $100+, and since .Mac users are already shelling out $100+ a year, it would be nice to incorporate these two. Pay your yearly subscription fee to .Mac, get a hefty discount on any OS releases in the same year.
re: What matters to me, what needs to change, what's pretty useless.
I'm in pretty much the same boat with my .mac email. I have other email, including one from work and one at Yahoo, but my .mac email is what everyone uses.
But that's not the only reason I renewed. The integration is key for me. The easy with which I can download images from my digitl camera into iPhoto, select a few for a new album and create a web page on .mac for my mother to see pictures of her grandkids is a major advantage to me. The time savings from that integration probably makes up for the price.
However, there is plenty I wish they would change. 100 MB seems too small for today's web sites, but I'm not currently willing to pay for more. An easy to use WYSIWYG HTML editor would be welcome (Contribute is not the answer given it's price). RapidWeaver seems like it might be a good choice, especially if it could easily upload a site to the .mac account (maybe it already can). iBlog was nice, but a more complete blogging solution with the ability for readers to post comments and search capabilities would be better.
The free software has also probably tipped the scales a little bit for me. I've become a big fan of StickyBrain, iBlog is nice, but Backup is still too limited to become my primary backup solution.
The more integration they do, providing services that make it easy for me to use .mac with local data, the more valuable it becomes. But this will be a decision I make every year, sizing up the value against the cost.
Chuck
Re:Integration is key
You have hit an issue dead-on. .Mac really is going to become an essential part of the Macintosh if Apple keeps going with it. Where it can really shine is with people who work/play a very mobile lifestyle.
A suggestion for Apple (if you are out there). How about a Palm OS software pakage for .Mac? That way a folder on your iDisk can be accessed from your Palm at the click of a button. Likewise, a file can be dropped from your Palm straight to your .Mac account and computer by extension.
.Mac has TONS of potential if only Apple will "Think Different" and put the resources in place to make it shine.
.mac and yearly os upgrade
YES!
Against my better judgement
I renewed. I wasn't happy about it. But since I earn my living as a computer consultant supporting Macs, I wanted to be able to simulate anything my customers might do; and it would be awkward to explain why I no longer had a .mac address.
That said, I think .mac is a very poor value for any reasonably savvy user. After all, who doesn't already have an email address, backup solution, virus utility, web hosting, etc? Further, one of the most compelling uses for iDisk (accessing some of your files from anywhere) will be ruined in January when OS 9 users are virtually shut off.
Imagine that; access from Windows, but not OS 9!
Some Gripes
Huh? I've been using Backup to back up my keychain since the first version of Backup was released. It was one of the default quick picks.
Totally agree about Virex, though -- what's the use of a passive anti-virus program that just tells you if you've been infected? I'd prefer something that actively scans my incoming mail.
.mac and yearly os upgrade
TOO RIGHT! I can't believe panther isn't included in .mac, I'd rather have the new OS than the latest copy of "The Sims" (One of the free gifts with renewal).
.Mac
iSyncing between computers is one of the main features I like. iDisk is nice, and backing up to it regularly is wonderful, but 100Mb is way too small today. What can you really do with 100Mb? My home directory with music and all is around 30Gb!!! You should get .Mac for a year for free with the purchase of a new Mac, and they should give some discount on new OS versions (such as Panther) to paying .Mac users. iCards I couldn't really care less about. The homepage feature is nice but I don't use it much. The .Mac adress is cool to have but the storage space is again way too limited. The free software you get with it haven't really tickled me much so far, neither has any of the other promotions.
It's a bit costly at $100 a year, but the integration of it is what attracts me to it primarily. They should give more financial incentives (free with new Mac, discounts on OS upgrades etc) to users. I have a feeling they could get way more users if they either made it cheaper up front, or gave more financial incentives.
a summary of this thread must be forwarded to Apple
I have seen many great ideas about further improvements of .Mac posted in this thread - can we ask Chuck to summarize these and forward them to Apple team?
Then we'll move beyond simply clogging the bandwidth.
a summary of this thread must be forwarded to Apple
I have seen many great ideas about further improvements of .Mac posted in this thread - can we ask Chuck to summarize these and forward them to Apple team?
Then we'll move beyond simply clogging the bandwidth.
Services do not need a 3rd party server
Why should we need a 3rd party server to backup and synchronize our computers? It's against common sense and our company policies. It's a security flaw, and a huge one. In addition, it's completely artificial approach designed so that we subscribe for .Mac. I used to have the free .Mac for e-mail and web only, but would never use it for backup or synchronizing. For e-mail and web hosting, .Mac is too expensive.
I would pay for software allowing me to synchronize two computer similarly as .Mac does, but directly machine-to-machine. Like machine-to-cell-phone syncing is done. I am actually mad at Apple that they don't provide that functionality just to promote the .Mac syncing nonsense. It would be easy for Apple to implement this direct kind of syncing.
Rudy Blazek
.mac wish list
I really like the ease of posting images to homepage. I do wish there were more choice in presentation though. You're basically limited to a single format with multiple skins to change the look. A homepageHTMLEditor tool would be a great Christmas present.
Against my better judgement
Yeahh, but you didn't mention the unice feature to sync email, bookmarks and calendars!
And who uses OS9 anyway?
As a consultant you should now that there is freeware available to access WebDAV from OS9.
Dynamic DNS
My wish for .Mac is some sort of dynamic DNS sysytem so that my machine could be something.mac.com and .mac would point that name to whatever IP address my ISP has given me (like www.dyndns.org). Apple could integrate this into OS X and it could make it super easy to use. Then I could publish web pages for the world... or just be able to connect to my home computer from work or while traveling.
The .Mac Fax Server
Now that Apple has integrated faxing capabilities into Panther I think the next logical move is to offer .mac subscribers the ability to SEND faxes through .mac on DSL. If that has a positive response, like eFax Apple could offer INCOMING faxes as well for an additional (but minimal)additional cost each year. More and more people are getting and growing accustom to DSL, and lord knows I'm hooked on Wi-Fi. Allowing.mac customers to SEND faxes from there computers without having to disconect from DSL I believe would motivate more people (especially those still faxing resumes in this downward economy) to take the .mac plunge. Apple already has the capabilities, why not go the extra yard.
John B.
re: Dynamic DNS
Yeah, that would be really cool. They could work it the same way they do with the .Mac HomePages, but instead of having your web site be http://homepage.mac.com/username, it could be http://username.mac.com.
I'd buy that for a dollar. ;^)
Chuck
re: The .Mac Fax Server
Good thoughts there.
One thing that I don't like about the Fax integration with Panther is that while it keeps track of incoming faxes, it does nothing to record outgoing faxes.
For example, back when I used a 56K modem, Teleport's software used to keep a copy of the outgoing fax along with a log of the faxes that were sent. In that log, you could see the number dialed, number of pages sent, the transmission speed, and how long the fax call was. Oh, and you could also double-click on an icon that would bring up a copy of the fax you sent, just in case one or more of the pages didn't go through. That was very nice to have. Sure would be nice to see that as an upgrade to Panther's fax service (I don't think we should have to wait until 10.4 to see something like that added).
Chuck
re: .mac wish list
Ah, but you already have two great HTML editing tools with Mac OS X. Of course that means using the Terminal to use vi or Emacs, but that means you're editing raw HTML files without a WYSIWYG interface, but you don't have to run out and buy more software. If you mount your iDisk, you can use the Terminal to go to /Volumes/iDiskName/Sites to see all of the pages you have on your .Mac site. Then you can use vi or Emacs to edit the pages.
And if you want to buy software, I'd recommend using BBEdit, or Adobe GoLive. Personally, I prefer to code by hand, so I tend to use BBEdit, but to each his own.
I know what you're looking for is some sort of packaged HTML editing tool, but the HomePage tools are pretty good for getting basic sites in place.
Chuck
re: a summary of this thread must be forwarded to Apple
Sure, I can cull the information from here and send it along to Apple. I'm quite sure that they're reading this, but I'll do this just to make sure.
Chuck
.mac
I'm loving .mac. web=mail is handy at times, .mac account virtually spam free, added 2 extra e-mail accounts for only $20. Mostly though, I love iSync. I'm an attorney that sometimes works at home. It is so handy to have my office iCal syncing every hour, so I have a current calendar, which I can edit from home. Lke most thing Apple, it just works!
Kent Laugen
kdlmac@mac.com
Red Wing, MN
Domain hosting
I would pay an additional $50-$75 per year on top of my $100 .Mac subscription if Apple would host my domain. Right now I pay about $180/year to a hosting service for my domain, plus $100/year for .Mac. Add to that the $400 or so I spend per year to my Internet provider for DSL, and the total is embarrassingly high. I would love to consolidate.
Services do not need a 3rd party server
here here
Services do not need a 3rd party server
ditto.
What would be nice
i'll agree to that. cause the longer you use the service, the more storage space you'd need, right?
Add services to .Mac
I reluctantly renewed .Mac, mostly to aviod the hassle of changing e-mail addresses. $99 is too much for what is offered. Enticements like free photos and gift certificates helped soften the blow, but won't keep me long term. Now if Apple would add ISP services: e.g. include dial-up service in the $99, or partner and package a high speed service, that would be great!
Mail in html a href form?
Can Mail be configured so that a live link is sent in html form instead of having to leave it out there ugly? I have friends send me stuff on their non-mac systems with 'pretty' e-mails that people don't have to wade through the 'naked' links. I don't know if this is available in Panther - I haven't made the switch yet.
Against my better judgement
>>Yeahh, but you didn't mention the unice feature to sync >>email, bookmarks and calendars!
Yes, that's nice. I don't care for the fact that I MUST use .mac for that, though. Why not (except to make money) let me use my existing network to do that.
>>And who uses OS9 anyway?
95% of K-12 schools that use Macintosh (my customers)
>>As a consultant you should now that there is freeware >>available to access WebDAV from OS9.
I'm aware of Goliath. It's not very pretty; and I'd never recommend my customers depend on a one-man product for an important function.
wharehouse club firewire drive
I was an iDisk user who gladly gave up the .mac address when it became .Mac, for reasons which most of you you have mentioned. The half price offer for the first year couldn't bring me back, and now the full price certainly won't. I don't know how many people felt like me, that they had been bait and switched with shoddy, crudely implemented products of little or no use, but less then 50% of the original iTools users actually signed up for .Mac. I took the moeny i saved from not getting two years of service to the local wharehouse club last week for a nice firewire drive for real storage, and I've learned to use the freeware and open source applications that really do the jobs the .Mac integrated apps try to do.
re: iCal Publish for the "Masses"?
I'm curious if an ical calendar can be placed within an existing web page (e.g., as a table) as opposed to just onto its own web page?
I'd like to be able to insert an updatable calendar that looks like it belongs on the page, rather than having to provide a link to another page.
Can iCal do this, and if not, are there ways to do it? (from a Mac only)
Sean Walmsley