.Mac, My New 10GB Friend.

ByMike Moffit

I have a great time with my .Mac account~ we go everywhere together. Well, maybe not everywhere, but pretty close. Anyway, I’ve had my .Mac account for about 5+ years now, and among other things, I have really enjoyed having a nice, short email address that I can check anywhere, my own personal website to share with others, to be able to backup my bookmarks and emails to Apple’s server and sync my various bits of data. But alas, my needs have changed over the years, and I need my .Mac account to evolve and grow with me!

Well thankfully, Steve listened. A new .Mac account comes with 10GB of storage, which is used to store the contents of your inbox as well as your website data. (And it couldn’t have come at a better time, because I just got a pesky email today telling me to allot more space to my email because it was near capacity!)

So, speaking of my inbox, www.tuaw.com writes about a great new feature of Apple Mail: it now offers spam filtering using webmail. What this means is that if you check your email online, you may get spammed less often (or not at all!) because Apple’s server is doing the filtering. Or, if you are using a mail program (such as say, Mail), you will get multiple levels of filtration. (Good for water, good for spam.)

The website features are much improved as well—now, along with iWeb ‘08, I can incorporate Google Maps and Widgets right into my web pages. (As a side note, iWeb ‘08 is much improved in and of itself, so the two together will most likely make for a MUCH better web experience—see Ed’s blog about iLife ‘08!)

In addition, there’s a Web Gallery feature that you can use along with iPhoto to share your photos online, or with iMovie to share your movies the same way. Now, others can contribute to your photo albums as well. And, lest I forget, the Web Gallery works seamlessly with your iPhone. I think I’ll need to borrow Jimmy’s iPhone for a while just to make sure that’s working OK…

Of course, a .Mac account still includes Backup, a mainstay of the .mac subscription. Backup 3 provides a fantastically clean interface, and unparalleled ease-of-use. I currently use three backup plans to keep my data safe!

As always, we’ll keep you updated as we get more info. A .Mac subscription is $99.99 per year, with an additional $30 rebate when you buy with a new Mac… maybe a new iMac, anyone?

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