Apple to charge for iTools (or .mac)?

D

d8n_two

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Slaptech is reporting that Apple will announce that it will begin charging for iTools use soon. It cliams it will come with the ".mac" changeover. If this is true, I hope it is limited to "premium" services and doesn't include mac.com e-mail or HomePage. I think Apple will see a wave of wrath from Mac users if they try to charge for the simple stuff we've all been using for free all this time.

d8n_two
 
NO WAY!!! If they start charging then I'm moving out of my mac.com-stuff...
They are welcome to charge for any space on iDisk over 50 Mb, I'd understand that, but having homepage.mac.com and @mac.com for free is just natural for me, if they start charging I'll stop promoting.
 
Here's another idea that I've heard: Apple will keep basic iTools free, but charge $100/year for new advanced ".mac" services. These services might include top level domain name registration with .mac, i.e. www.yourdomain.mac, as well as advanced hosting and iDisk features.

I don't know if this is anywhere near likely, but I could live with it if my free stuff stays the same.

d8n_two
 
OK, if that is the case(and the offers I already have stand firm) then I have no problems with it
 
At the bottom of the ThinkSecret article it still says they are unsure whether Apple will charge for existing services or not. Hopefully they don't.
 
I still think (hope) that Apple wouldn't turn around and try to charge for basic services. If they at least keep the e-mail free, I can probably find alternatives to HomePage and iDisk. I know a lot of people who are very proud of their mac.com e-mail. It's really the only iTool some Mac users that I know use, so they'd probably just grudgingly switch e-mail accounts since $100 a year is a little high for e-mail. Is there anything that could possibly make e-mail worth paying that much? I don't Steve might just have us all pulling out our credit cards come Monday.

d8n_two
 
If Apple were to charge $100 a year for .mac services then so be it.

So long as they offer *FREE* basic service to those people who buy new machines or an OS Upgrade each year. In otherwards. Buy a new mac, get .mac for free for 12 months. But OS 10.5, get .mac for free for the next year. Buy

If you don't buy those things, then pay $100 to get the premium .mac service which bumps disk space to 50 MBytes, email to 20 mbytes and gives you a few other bells an whistles
 
I’m okay with it as long as i don’t need a credit card to buy it.. since i have none.. and my parents also not - what makes online living much harder :rolleyes:
 
First of all, I'll continue to call them iTools for a long time to come even if Apple does officially endorse the loathsome and tasteless .Mac name.

Second, I'd gladly pay $100 / year if it came with free OS upgrades. If what they want is more predictable cash, fine. If what they want is more cash, not so fine. I spend my cash on stuff, them asking for more cash just means I get less stuff. It doesn't get them any more of my cash.
 
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