Matthew Russell at macdevcenter.com wonders why in this day and age there is no server-side spam-filtering. “My $100 a year per account should at least buy me that ability,” he says. Without it, he is open to every spammer’s email fishing attempt.

Retrophisch has decided not to renew his .Mac account. It’s not worth it. Apple no longer offers any virus protection package with its .Mac account, and Gmail offers him more space and a faster user interface at a much cheaper price.

In a post titled, “Why isn’t Apple jumping in?”, the author at atasuki.co.uk is bewildered by .Mac’s lag in picking up the new features offered by Web 2.0 services.

He lists a number of things that would make .Mac much better—tagging, deals with Web 2.0 sites like flickr, delicio.us and Last.fm to bring greater integration, making FileVault work with iDisk, and more. Lastly, he suggests, “integrate iChat with a VOIP provider like Wengo. The AIM deal was great for its time, but the world has moved on and frankly so should you.”

Finally, Steven Frank, co-founder of Panic, Inc. (Transmit, Unison, Stattoo, etc) believes that:

For the pro Mac user, the .Mac service has always been a bit of a hard sell. It’s great for the more consumer level user, but for the geeks it’s getting harder to justify by the day.

He lists cheaper, often free alternatives to many .Mac features in a useful post.

He is going to renew though. It’s syncing that has him by the short and curlies:

So, having said all that, when my .Mac renewal comes up in three days, I’m probably going to renew. Even though it sometimes acts strangely, I’ve become dependent on syncing, and I think that’s really the only reason I’m renewing at this time.

.Mac, dotmac, value for money, mail.app, apple mail, syncing, idisk, gmail, web 2.0, appleSimilar Posts:

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• Slim down your Gmail Inbox

Despite rave reviews like this recent one in the Times Record (“The best $8.25 you’ll spend this month”), I wonder if .Mac is still good value for money.

For less than half the price, USD 40, I can get a 2GB IMAP account and 1GB of WebDAV file space at Fastmail. Other providers no doubt provide deals that are just as good.

A number of apps provide synching abilities for iCal and Address Book (you can find some in the iCal and Address Book sections of the Hawk Wings plug-in and add-on list).

iWeb, Groups and other features are things my wife and I never use.

The only reason I can see for renewing her subscription is to show support for a great company.

Perhaps “value for money” is not the right way to think about it. It’s about belonging. It’s a tribal thing, not a financial decision..Mac, dotmac, value for money, iDisk, iSync, ical, address bookSimilar Posts:

• More 10.4.3 goodness for Apple Mail users
• Mail/Blackberry/iCal/Address Book/Yojimbo
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• Export Address Book 1.3: vCards, Groups support