Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure I-2
iTools offered new features such as the @mac.com e-mail address
The Year of .Mac
It's fair to say that the lure of Apple's iTools and its replacement, .Mac, was chiefly the cachet of
an @mac.com e-mail address, more advanced features were in the pipeline, however, as the service
began to take the shape of the tools we know today. As Apple's fortunes began to turn in the early
2000s, with consumers looking for an alternative to Windows and the idea of being a Mac user be-
coming cool again, iTools was renamed .Mac and several new features were introduced, including
backup and a virus scanner provided by McAfee. In late 2002, over one hundred thousand users had
subscribed to .Mac at the lofty cost of $99.99 per year with a free transition period for iTools users
and a discounted rate. Additional features were added during the six-year run of .Mac, including an
online photo and video sharing tool, up to 30GB storage (at additional cost), and enhanced e-mail
service. During this period, in June 2004, Apple also announced the new AirPort Express base sta-
tion featuring a protocol called AirTunes for streaming audio across a network. This would, of course,
eventually become AirPlay. But now back to the online stuff. …
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