Today Apple is expected to preview “Panther,” it’s new OS release. They’ve already previewed one part of it – an “upgrade” to the iDisk service of .Mac.
People have long complained that this remote disk service is too slow. What’s Apple’s fix to this? The new Panther version will store your iDisk files on your Mac. That’s right, they’re now going to charge you $99.95 annually to store your own files on your own hard disk, synchronizing them every so often.
Let me get this straight. I never really understood the point to iDisk to begin with, but now it will be even more pointless. Your files will be saved on your hard disk. Of course this is faster. Duh.
Someone mentioned that it’s kind of a back up service. Problem is, you only get 100MB, which is 1/7th of what you can store on a ubiquitous CD-ROM for 25¢. And Apple does not guarantee that your data will be safe, negating use as backup.
OK, sharing. You can use your iDisk as a way of sharing files. Well, this may have some merit, but I think that you could also just turn on File Sharing on your Mac, for free.
So, in the end, is .Mac still just a loose collection of pointless little utilities that are not worth paying for? Do they really fulfill any need?
