Finally, A Reason to Buy .Mac

I hear you on this, however, BookIt does this already, and does it across ALL your browsers (IE, Camino, Mozilla, OmniWeb, Opera, etc.). And it was only $12. Still a cheaper alternative, albeit without the comfort of auto-syncing and the niceness of having every Apple-based.

(I swear I don't work for them...)

I have been waiting for this feature for years.

There was (maybe still is) a free Windows untility called Fusion One that did bookmark syncing but it wasn't quite as solid.

Bookit looks great if you only need to sync bookmarks between browsers on one machine. But if you have more than one, the iSync / .Mac route is the only way to go.

aren't you at all paranoid about having so much personal info online and so easily accessible? i'm looking for the same bookmark syncing between computers but i think one of those usb keychains would be ideal for storing browser settings. is there an elegant (nearly invisible) way to do this? bookit is nice, but it feels klunky to me...

Why can't microsoft create some great apps and utilities like this for us Windows users? I totally need a better way to sync my bookmarks from work / school / home.

iSync may be a great idea and feature, but a subscription service for this kind of thing absolutely blows...

Todd,
I got tired of trying to sort my bookmarks between 4 computers and three OS's, so I made a Movable Type blog and use it to store my bookmarks. I use the little bookmarklet in every browser I use, and can access it from computers I don't even own. It's at bookmarks.mkelley.net. I already know how to use MT, so it's cost $0 and was easy to learn

I don't see any justification for a $100 fee to sync bookmarks - especially a monthly fee. Small features like this should be part of the OS on both OSX and XP.

Like Mike said, I found it easier to just make a page that is my own personal portal. I've added my favorite search engines and some nice RSS feeds (as well as an XML weather feed). It makes life a lot easier. I guess I've never been a big fan of the bookmark, ever since I could make a webpage I've been doing it that way.

Constantly updating bookmarks in a blog is no answer, especially for people that use bookmarklets. Any solution for propagating bookmarks that requires more work than using the browsers' built in ADD/EDIT interface is not good enough.

What does AOL do for bookmarks I wonder? AOL Instant Message's change to server side friends list storage was a great usability stride for anyone who uses multiple computers.

"The trouble with customizing your environment is that it just doesn't propagate, so it's not even worth the trouble" -- joel on software

As said above, I've found it easiest to just make a blind page a personal portal. I can update it from anywhere I can see the Internet, it takes one minute to add/update/delete, and it's the startup page for each of the machines I run from home and work (a total of six.) I've tried to justify the costs of .Mac, but I still can't do it.

Todd,
You can have Bookit sync between machines as long as one of the bookmark files is a shared Bookit file on a server you can mount in the Finder. I personally kept this on an iDisk, but it could be any AFP or WebDAV server. This doesn't keep the *order* of bookmarks right (since the local browser is considered the Master), but it does let you move over new or missing bookmarks.

Nathan,
It takes me just as long to save a bookmark on my browser as it does via that bookmarklet. And my setup is a little more different than just setting up a default blog, I have categories and the page is just CSS-based lists, nothing fancy. I'd bet that it's better organized than a lot of bookmarks, in the favorites lists.

I can export to a text file, through MT's export or setup another template to spit out the entire list of links as one page.

Mike, quit being a cheap bastard and start paying for your MT installations.

You can download iSync for free. I use it to sync with my T68i--I don't have .Mac. It's a good deal, especially now that 1.1 supports a lot more phones.

Who the hell uses 4 macs anyway... that's insane!

Mike,

I should have been more clear: I was talking about developer bookmarklets like these, which aren't useful unless you run them from the browser bookmarks interface (or paste them into the URL bar).

Anyway, your method of bookmark propagation is cool, but it's no way to solve the problem for the average person who would like the bookmarks they collect all day at work to be seamlessly available when they get home.

Todd,

Admit it, you paid $100.00 to Apple for a feature that should be STANDARD. When AOL added *free* syncing(buddy list) to its messaging client it was a stroke of genius that helped it gain even more ground in the messaging world, but Apple wouldn't need to do that now would it?

Greg, I did donate. Click on "man/myth/geek" and that's my site. :)

Mike, good form. Carry on.

Huh. And why would I need to susbscribe to a 100 USD service to sync my bookmarks? Why can't I sync them on my existing server (the one that also hosts my website)? I'd rather pay 30 USD for iSync to use in total liberty than 100 USD for an *annual* subscription which includes stuff I don't need.

Even my *dad* (a new Mac user) already has plenty of e-mail storage and personal Web space from his ISP-- and he even knows how to use it. Features aren't the issue here-- it's the price of .Mac. The additional features beyond mere storage aren't worth $100 a year.

What's more, switchers with long-running histories of running Windows aren't going to abandon their old e-mail addresses for a ".Mac" account. It's a huge hassle and .Mac doesn't have the cachet that Apple believes it has.

Maybe this has been true for a while, but one of the examples that Apple put on its iSync page caught my eye: If you sync your Address book with .Mac, you can access your address book from a Windows machine at work if you need to. I tried it and it works. Whenever I used to try to log onto .Mac with a Windows machine I got a message saying that .Mac (or ITools previoulsy) is available only if you use a Macintosh. Not any more. I've been using my Windows machine with my iDisk for a year or more, but didn't know it could also access my .Mac account. That's a nice feature for those of us who use one kind of computer at home and another at work.

.Mac is a little light, but it will only get better. Everything mentioned in this article works if you know what you're doing, but so does linux ;)

iSync sits in my menu bar and does everything for me without any effort. Add that to my storage space, spam free web address, my integration with Mail from any machine, and you're talking about a nice set-up.

OK, so .Mac and iSync is really cool. Only one problem - for those of us who use a mac at work behind a strong firewall, it is impossible to utilize the service to it's full capacity. Actually, it's pretty damn annoying! I can't figure out why they refuse to use a standard port so EVERYONE can use the service!

The .Mac is OK, but isync 1.1 added compatibility to my siemens s55 phone.

Syncing all your meetings and contact with your mobile is a fantastic feature especially when palms has the weight of 160g and this mobile is around 80g and very small.

Also when I receive calls they appear on the screen of the powerbook, I can decline or answer them, this can be good when you are using handsfree. The incoming SMS messages appear on your screen and you can reply to them directly on the computer...

And all this is being done via bluetooth, so I can keep the phone in my pocket....

I feel high-tech

Um, there's a difference between being a donor and getting a paid installations for MT. I can install MT myself and I'm a donor. Sure MT is great and deserves funding but you're a litle out of line Greg.

I'm not against .Mac. But I have a dedicated server, I can have all the IMAP and WebDAV accounts I'll ever want. I'm not asking Apple to release their Syncing server software (although I wouldn't complain if they did). I just wish there was a discounted rate for just this.

Jason:
You can try Authroxy to use more services through a strong firewall. I can now access CDDB in iTunes and 'see' the iTunes Music Store. But https sites are still unavailable. I cannot log in to .Mac. So, even though I bought songs at the Music Store, I can only listen to them on my ibook which was "authorized" back in the states... (grumble - But, that is another story.)

http://www.blinkpro.com/

Web-based, cross-platform. Done

Do you not worry about the security issues of all of your Macs perminently being connected to the .Mac network?

Couldn't Apple spy on evey single thing you do? Every keystroke? Every single download or even upload?

Do you not worry about the security issues of all of your Macs perminently being connected to the .Mac network?

I don't think anyone is "permanently connected" to .Mac -- you generally log in and save stuff to your iDisk, or get your mail and then log out. .Mac is not like a VPN, it's more like logging in to your bank's or credit card company's web site for online banking.

The synchronization that happens wth iSync is client-driven: your other Macs won't be synced until you instruct them to, it doesn't happen automatically or in real time.

...however, when you sync your address book, your bookmarks, and your schedule with .mac, you're clearly giving plenty of personal information up to prying eyes. i may be a little paranoid, but the patriot act smells of big brother and this sort of thing falls right in line.

you’re clearly giving plenty of personal information up to prying eyes.

I assumed that .Mac is pretty secure, and that all the information I transfer to it is done through a secure connection. At least I sure hope that's the case, as I use Apple's Backup program to backup a lot of crucial files, including my keychain, to .Mac so I have a convenient offsite backup.

I suppose if I had anything to hide from the Feds, though, I wouldn't want to keep info like my address book or calendar on .Mac. But I don't have anything to hide so it's really not an issue for me. If they really wanted that information they'd find a way to get it no matter where I store it.