Bites

Being a fairly recent Mac convert (5 months now?), the polish has come off the Apple to some degree with yesterday's announcement that Apple is discontinuing their free iTools section on their web site, and replacing it with the pay service called Apple .Mac.

iTools had offered free remote storage with iDisk, web page hosting and the fairly new webmail service with mac.com addresses, which I was in the process of ramping up with after Hotmail dropped their POP mail feature as a free service (you can get it with their premium pay service, of course). I used Hotmail mostly so I could access my home sympatico account while at work (don't want to use my work email for personal email). With Hotmail's POP mail service now gone, I was expecting to switch over to the Mac.com free webmail, and had set up an account a month or more ago, which is accessed through the iTools page, and allows the retrieval of mail from outside accounts (i.e., my sympatico account). There's even an option to go completely web-based, consolidating all your email accounts onto Apple's servers. And, of course, that, with iDisk, etc, was avaliable under the free iTools service.

Now, if I want to continue to access my mac.mail under the new .Mac service, I would have to pay $49.95 (US$) for the first year (that's a cut rate because I'm already an iTools member; non-members would pay $99.95 a year!). I have until Sept. 30 to join, but in the meantime I can still use my mac.mail account.

The new .Mac service includes "brand new features, like Backup and Virex anti-virus software, and improved versions of the iTools services, like additional email and iDisk storage." Here's the list of new features from their FAQ:

* HomePage with new visitor feedback features
* Mac.com Email with IMAP and 15MB of storage that can be upgraded for more
* Ability to purchase up to 10 additional email accounts
* iDisk with 100MB of storage that can be upgraded for more
* iDisk utility software for group sharing of files

* Backup software to back up your files to iDisk, CD, or DVD
* Virex anti-virus software to keep your system protected
* Continuous anti-virus updates to protect from the latest threats
* Members-only support with private discussion boards moderated by Apple technical support representatives

And i'm supposed to pay fifty bucks (for the first year, $100 bucks thereafter) for this stuff that I either already have, or don't really need?! I know they're trying to offer a more complete internet package, but all I want is a good old free web-based email account. I guess those have gone the way of the Dodo.

But the thing that really pisses me off is that it's the old bait-and-switch ploy. They get people using their mac.com email and iDisk for free (I was close to notifying people of my new mac.com email address as my primary alternate address, and I know people who have gone ahead and done just that), and encourage them to go completely web-based with Apple, even pushing mac.com electronic business cards, and then they suddenly discontinue iTools and change it to a pay service.

Apple's in the midst of a big drive to attract PC users, but this just makes them look like all the other e-business sharks out there. I always kind of felt that Apple had a bit more class than that. I'm very disappointed.

Meanwhile, I'll be using Lycos to access my personal email at work... until they start charging.