Dave Marsh's Profile

  • Aug 16, 2008
  • 44
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Latest comments made by: Dave Marsh

  • Ummm... MobileMe worked fine for me from the start. Then, last week I found that about 40% of the content on my iDisk was missing. Fortunately, I had a recent copy not in the cloud and was able to update the iDisk content to get everything back online. Since then, it's properly synced with all my Macs and everything is once again back to normal and working fine for me. So, yes, there have been some bumps, but I think it's a bit of an overstatement to say the catastrophe continues. I'm now wary enough to expect an occasional hiccup from here on out, but truly believe the worst is behind us. We'll see.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Aug 12, 2008 Posts: 44
    MobileMe Pushes Back Everything
  • Edit: "There's nothing wrong with others using..." vice "avoiding using..."
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 31, 2008 Posts: 44
    Goodbye to .Mac
  • I'm just making the point that it's unfair to point out that .Mac is useless, or a poor value, just because you can find alternatives on the Internet for no cash outlay. Value is more than just the cash you fork out for something. I value my personal time quite highly and the things .Mac offers work well for me, so I don't feel the need, or interest, to search for alternatives. It's also a bonus that I can rely upon Apple to assure the pieces work well together, to fix them when they don't, and to transparently upgrade them over time, all without my overt intervention. There's nothing wrong with others avoiding using those alternatives, or taking the time to find them and keep them up to date. What bothered me about this article was the underlying premise trashing the .Mac experience. It works, it's reasonably priced for me, and I don't have to think about it. I think it's a great service. If you don't want to use it, and prefer to use alternatives, go ahead. But I certainly don't want Apple to even entertain ending the .Mac offering. I depend on it, and for me it's an outstanding value.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 31, 2008 Posts: 44
    Goodbye to .Mac
  • If you want to view your iCal calendar from anywhere using your .Mac account, just publish it. Click on the calendar you want to publish in iCal, then go to the menu bar and select Calendar/Publish. This will open a slip that will give the confirmation of its being published, then two viewing options. One is: webcal://ical.mac.com/your.Macname/calendarname for giving to others to view in their iCal as a subscribed-to calendar (great for keeping up on family member calendar events) and the other for general viewing is: http:/ical.mac.com/your.Macname/calendarname which can be viewed by anyone from a browser, so just email it to them if they don't have access to iCal (e.g., Windows users). The great thing about the .Mac package is all the tight integration. I don't use anywhere near the total services available, and find its convenience quite worth the ~$8/month fee. And my .Mac weblog is just as responsive as my old "free" weblog, and much easier to edit, so if you find .Mac services sluggish, I'd dig a bit deeper to find out why.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 31, 2008 Posts: 44
    Goodbye to .Mac
  • SuperDuper! (when it's available for Leopard) will provide a bootable backup of your drive, and can be easily scheduled to run on a daily schedule, so it's a great solution for catastrophic failure, with quick (within minutes) recovery to your last backup state (in my case, nightly). Time Machine is a great solution for instant recovery of deleted files that are over an hour old, and backs up automatically in the background, also great for users who don't want to be bothered with the mechanics of backing up. You can also do a full, bootable restore to a replacement drive following a catastrophic failure, but that process will take many hours. These two products serve very different needs. I've never used Apple's .Mac backup application.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 30, 2008 Posts: 44
    Goodbye to .Mac
  • While you can certainly find comparable services for much of .Mac's stuff, I like having it all from one site. But, the key reason I keep .Mac is for the syncing among my multiple Macs. I routinely add a calendar item at work, and within the hour it's on all my Macs, and vice versa. Today, I added a Contact record on my iPhone, and when I next sync it, it will also populate the Address Book on all my Macs. Syncing has been a MAJOR convenience for me, and is the primary reason I keep my .Mac account operational. It alone is well worth the annual subscription fee to me (~$8/month). Additionally, I keep my .Mac iDisk mounted on each of my Macs, and it syncs in the background hourly, so key files/data saved there are available, again, on all my other Macs when I next use them, and since they're also saved on an Apple server, they're backed up off site automatically. This is also an incredibly useful and valuable service. Time Machine is great for local use, but having the automatic backup of key files/documents to a professional server farm is quite a comfort to me. While I've also played around with the online blog capability, and occasionally with other portions of the .Mac package, the above are the compelling services for me. Of course, the mutltimedia features are what Apple touts to entice new customers, but the above are the reasons I continue to use .Mac, and I would be quite distraught should Apple discontinue it.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 30, 2008 Posts: 44
    Goodbye to .Mac
  • My iPhone contract is for two years, not three here in the US.
  • Of course I meant the 24 hour clock begins when you start the movie, not that you have to start viewing the movie in the first 24 hours.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 28, 2008 Posts: 44
    Sorry Apple, Netflix Is Just Too Good
  • I read in another forum that even though you only have 24 hours to start an iTunes movie rental, you can delay finishing the movie as long as you don't quit it. Just pause it the first evening after you've only viewed the first hour, then return the second evening to finish it. If you left the movie paused, the delete clock can't act.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Jan 28, 2008 Posts: 44
    Sorry Apple, Netflix Is Just Too Good
  • I think one reason we legacy Mac users used to push back so hard when attacked by Windows users was that we felt we had to. The survival of the Mac was seriously in jeopardy and that was unacceptable to those of us who simply refused to move to Windows, so we felt compelled to share the Mac's strengths with any Windows user we came upon. Today, the Mac's survival is no longer in question. We're using a world-class operating system with a world-class user interface, and more and more people are beginning to notice and test the waters. So, I agree with your premise. I'm no longer concerned that Macs will continue to be available for the foreseeable future, and so I no longer care if Windows users are willing to deal with their day-to-day issues that I would find unacceptable. It's their choice. I still have my own occasional Mac issues to deal with, and I don't have to call upon IT geeks to resolve them.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Dec 17, 2007 Posts: 44
    I've Given Up Arguing with Windows Users
  • and why Apple TV hasn't...
  • Insightful, and explains why iTunes and the iPod took off.
  • RE: Chris Howard's Time Machine comment: Leopard on my G5 Tower is backing up multiple partitions. In fact, I had to identify partitions I didn't want it to back up. It only ignores the Time Machine partition itself.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Nov 02, 2007 Posts: 44
    Mac OS X Leopard: Just a Pretty Vista Knockoff
  • I suspect the rapid rise in the number of Apple customers recently is playing a role here. Apple has had a reputation for high quality and customer service for many years, so any new customer having a problem of any kind will probably be sorely disappointed. Expectations matter in how people rate a product or the company that produces it. An issue that probably wouldn't wouldn't raise an eyebrow with a run-of-the-mill company jumps up and bites the company whose customers expect a much better experience. So, while I agree that the slippage noted in the survey is worth watching, I suspect that Apple's recently increased customer base and their disappointment with unexpected issues is also having an impact.
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Oct 20, 2007 Posts: 44
    No Rotten Apples Here?
  • I can't find the link at the moment, but I read recently that Jobs admitted that updating calendar events on the iPod touch would be fixed in the near future. It's omission was a "bug."
    Dave Marsh had this to say on Oct 12, 2007 Posts: 44
    Why The Zune Will Outdo The iPod