The Enigma That Is .Mac

Completing the Tiger Internet access suite is .Mac—Apple's $100 subscription-based Mac add on. Apple has had a reasonably difficult time selling .Mac as being a necessary part of Mac OS X. Apple has integrated the operating system with some of its features (as we'll see shortly) but hasn't done a good job of convincing users that they need it. In Tiger, the integration is tighter than before, but its still debatable as to whether it is a must-have product for Mac users.

Defining .Mac

Part of Apple's problem is that .Mac is not well defined. If you don't subscribe to the service, yet use a Mac on a daily basis, you're probably not feeling like there's anything missing from your operating system (except perhaps Windowshades, ...

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