davidkin hollywood

Apple's .mac stuff is less than inspiring. I've had persistent problems with my iTools @mac.com account, and now they want to charge for it. Does anyone know if it will be more robust or reliable than the current service?

For instance, right now, the smtp.mac.com server swallows all my messages without actually sending them along. The result is that I think I've sent something, but noone ever gets messages from me. This was happening for several days before I figured it out.

Then there's Backup. It looks like it could be a good utility, but it requires a .mac subscription. Why? How hard would it have been to add the ability to backup to hard disk?

I'm intrigued by some of the other announcements/enhancements/features coming down the pipe -- iCal looks like it could be good for some online scheduling apps, but it's hard to tell right now.

All-in-all, the whole Macworld affair seems so typically Apple. Hype, hype, hype, disappoint, surprise -- here's a carrot, now just wait.

And all the while you never feel too bad because it's still better than the alternative, and nearly two years after it was new, people still stop to compliment your laptop.