Amazon.com Product Description

Join .Mac and get a suite of software and services designed to extend your digital life beyond the desktop. The .Mac retail boxed version includes a one-year membership to .Mac and a CD containing Virex antivirus software, Apple backup software, iDisk Utility, and iPhoto. With .Mac, you have access to HomePage Web page design and publishing tools, world-class Mac.com e-mail, 100 MB of iDisk online storage space, and more.

Each annual .Mac membership includes your own home page for sharing photos, premium e-mail, and the latest security software to protect your Macintosh. To keep your Mac safe from destructive worms and viruses, .Mac includes Virexvirus-protection software from McAfee Security, with regular updates. You also get software for backing up your most important files to iDisk, CD, or DVD. You can even schedule automatic backups to your iDisk and store files on Apple's online servers. Enjoy access to members-only Web-based support, where you can check your account status, learn tips and tricks, and share experiences with other members on .Mac discussion boards.

HomePage Web design and publishing tools let you create your own Web pages simply and easily without HTML knowledge. Publish photos directly from iPhoto in just three clicks. You can even password-protect your Web sites to keep your private pages private. With Mac.com, you can access your e-mail from Mac OS X Mail, a Web browser, and most e-mail programs. You get premium features like mail forwarding, auto reply, POP, or IMAP functionality, with no annoying ads to distract you. You'll also get 100 MB of iDisk storage on Apple's servers, plus the option to purchase more space if you need it. Thanks to built-in WebDAV support, you can access your iDisk from Windows computers as well as Macs, so sharing large files with anyone is easy. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Necessary accessory to your OS X Mac
If you run OS X on your Mac, .Mac is recommended to enhance the functionality of your machine. In order to use Apple's Backup and iSync utilities you need a subscription to .Mac. The .Mac mail service is not as user friendly or powerful as other services such as Yahoo mail, but the Apple Mail program makes it easy to get your .Mac mail. The value of the free games that you get throughout the year is negligible, but if Apple continues to add features and software available through .Mac it will be hard to make a case against subscribing.

.Mac is Fantastic!
Apple's suite of online tools is an incredible way to extend your digital hub, and as Apple keeps adding features and services, the value keeps going up!

If you'd like to see examples of what others are doing with their .Mac accounts, check out [the website].

Check it out, then buy a .Mac subscription! You won't be disappointed!

It Might Work for Newbies and the Ignorant
If you shop around you'll find that online storage is considerably cheaper than what Apple is selling it for. The utilities they include are not worth much to anyone that knows what they're doing. I'm very unimpressed.

All-In-One Online Support
This software package gives you an account with .Mac for one year. What that really means is that you'll have an @apple.com email address, 100MB of storage space on Apple's servers and a few other services. Those services are:

Webmail - Access to your mail from any computer with internet access.

Homepage - An insanely easy to use program for posting your own webpages (only the people you give the address to can access them).

iDisk - Your personal hard disk on the internet. Perfect for sharing files and archiving.

Backup - A very easy to use program for backig up your important files to iDisk, CD & DVD

Anti-Virus - A continually updated (by Apple) program to keep your Mac virus free.

Support - Online support in the form of FAQ's, Discussin Boards, hlepful links, Tips and the AppleCare Knowledge Base.

This is the perfect solution for people (like me) who don't want to be bothered with finding multiple other companies to preform these same tasks. It's also good to know that someone's watching your back. Apple does this by continually updating the support pages and anti-virus software as well as offering many free programs and demos through iDisk. For me though, the best feature (besides email) is homepage. It allows me to eaisly keep family and friends up to date with my life. I post a quartly newsleter as well as photos from special occations. And speaking of email it's terrific. It's not the most feature laden account out there, but it's more than enough for the average user.

For keeping family up to date, an internet based hard drive with 100MB of space AND anti-virus protection as well as backup software you could hardly do better than a .mac account.

Gunsmoke Review
While this product is not yet released, it is interesting to note that Apple is offering the same services/software (it's called .mac) for [price] to folks who already have an iTools account. If you do not have an exisitng iTools account, then the discount offered here is excellent (if you need the services). For me, the extra iDisk space makes this a worthwhile expense. ... Read more

Features

• Comprehensive set of music creation tools
• Combines composition, notation, and audio production facilities
• Total-recall mixing and automation; plug-in processing
• Hundreds of customizable key commands
• Ideal for film, TV, and video post-production facilities

Features

• Soundtrack brings the art of music composing to everyone
• Produce royalty-free custom music for video and audio projects
• Easily find sound loops and organize extensive loop libraries
• Extensive tempo, key, and resolution scaling abilities
• Synchronize music with video using Final Cut Pro's scoring markers

Reviews (4)

Awesome
I was able to make a 2 killer songs in 3 hours! This program kicks major ass!

SOUNDTRACK PUT TO REAL WORLD USE.
Soundtrack is a great fun program don't get me wrong and upon first buying it I would have given it five stars but once I began to use it in the real world I came to find out that the loops are too modern and can get cheesy after a while. Some loops are just too short and not much can be done with them. I use soundtrack to make an background scores on many different kinds of projects. on some i get lucky and find great loops. i think a new search is needed so that you can narrow down what you are looking for rather than searching through hundreds of loop which causes them all to sound the same after a while. i think thier should be a larger range in category for the loops and make each genre very distinct since most can fit under a contemporary grouping. Basically soundtrack is a great program with lots of potential but it is version 1 so I'm looking foward to seeing all the improvments in versions to come. i would recommend buying this program because it is really great at just makeing music for fun or for small video's and it is easy to use.

Simple and Easy to use
My wife, who is in film school, can not afford to pay anyone to write music for the films that she makes. That is why I bought Soundtrack. There are thousands of free loops and sounds to pick from. And if that is not enough you can import other sounds and loops from other web sites or music that I have recorded, i'm an even poorer musician. Now she makes the films and I score them, when she does not have time to.
The learning curve is small. I was using Soundtrack in no time. i'm now scoreing films for my friends and other fellow film students. You have to try to mess up. Just put the loop where you want it and Soundtrack will do the rest. Even change the key, or tempo so you don't have to.
This is just an amazing program. I would say this is prefect for anyone.

Amazing
This is truly an amazing program. I first tried it in a Mac store, on a Powermac G4. I was attracted to it because of other ratings I had seen on it. Well, at first glance I could immediatly figure out how to use it. It's very clearly laid out. I created a 2 minute long song with drums, bass, synths, and asome tomba drums. It sounded great great, Soundtrack automatically syncs all your tracks. The songs are royalty free too! So you can pay back the bill for the program.
Bottom Line: Get it! ... Read more

Features

• 15 MB IMAP email account (with a mac.com email address)
• Easy-to-use Web page builder for easy Web publishing and hosting
• 100 MB of online server space to store and transfer files
• Backup software--archive important files to iDisk, CD, or DVD
• Virus protection via McAfee's Virex software for all .Mac users

Reviews (3)

.Mac for Mac
I have been a .Mac member since its inception. To fully appreciate the benefits, you really need a high-speed internet connection (DSL or Cable.)
Benefit: An email account with a 15 MB storage limit. (with a mac.com domain name.) You can access mail by using either a web browser (at any location with Internet access) or through any POP-3 mail application (such as Apple's own mail application, Eudora or Entourage.) You can purchase additional email storage space and additional email accounts for other members of your family.
Benefit: Your own private iDisk. iDisk is an online disk drive. Initially, you start with 100 MB of iDisk storage. (If 100 MB is not enough, you can purchase additional space.) iDisk will allow you to backup your important data or share photos or other legally obtained data. You decide what data is public and what remains private. You can build web pages and publish them, because .Mac also acts as a web hosting service.
Benefit: Software downloads; some full applications, some demos - all conveniently accessed from your iDisk (or conventional download, if you prefer.)
Benefit: .Mac also offers a number of discounts.
Other bebefits include an online calendar, data synchronization among multiple computers, online technical support, online tutorials, in the Learning Center and Virex antivirus software and its frequently updated virus definitions.
.Mac is definitely worthwhile. The only thing you really need to decide for yourself, "is it worth the price of admission?" My answer is a hearty "YES!"

.Mac Keeps Getting Better
As an early adopter to Apple's new .Mac service, I was mildly impressed. Certainly, the e-mail service had some issues in 2003, but overall, things were good.

Today, however, in 2004, .Mac has become much more useful, stable, and fast. The new design of www.mac.com is both speedy and efficient; my e-mail works flawlessly. There are also more tools to use, such as Homepage and iCard additions. More importantly, being a .Mac subscriber now pays dividends in the form of free software, discounts, and more. I've received at least 2 programs free from .Mac that I use daily.

All around, a great choice!

Great, but apple should make it cheaper outside the US.
Wonderful service and software. I think I costs around $ 120~130 in Japan and that should be made cheaper as well. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

released too early
All great ideas, but way too many glitches in simple situations. THe new variable speed option is a wonderful concept... but a simple slow motion effect is difficult to achieve now. There are lots of things that do not make sense. I hope there is an upgrade soon.

Upgrade worth it
I received FCP4 before it was released, and I've just used it enough to feel that I can give a review of it. And I do like the new program. And it is worth the upgrade. But you might want to wait to upgrade until they release a fix for a few bugs. I can't think of a single program that when first released was bug free. Apple will fix the bugs, but they haven't yet.

What do I like about the program? The features are amazing! I was pleased with FCP3, but I thought there was a lot they could do to make it better. And they did, in FCP4. Editing is basically the same as in FCP3, but you have much more control over everything you do. This includes making a custom keyboard (You decide which keys preform which actions).
But... FCP4 alone hasn't changed a great deal since FCP3, and if it were just that program alone, I don't know if it would be worth it.

However, not only do you get FCP4... You get Compressor, LiveType, Soundtrack, Cinema Tools, and Peak Express 3.3

Compressor, I like this feature a lot. It allows you to control what you export. I mean if you want to make a DVD, and want it formatted for a DVD, you have control over that, more so than in any previous version of FCP. Not only that, but it takes any guess work out of the equation. It allows you to preview the setting you're about to export. Which is good, so you hopefully won't end up spending 3 hours exporting something only to find it wasn't what you wanted. There are bugs in Compressor, something with being connected to a network won't allow it to work. I had this problem, but I unplugged my ethernet cord, and it worked like it should. Apple will likely make a fix for this soon.

LiveType. One of the things I didn't like about FCP3 was you didn't really have a great title maker. But that's all changed with LiveType. Now you have the most control I've ever seen out of a title program. If you want one letter to do something different (I can't think of why), well, you can.

Soundtrack. How great is it that they include tons (And I'm not kidding about the tons part) of loops that are royalty free? Unlike other looping programs, the loops in Soundtrack actually sound good. Sure it isn't going to give everyone what they want, but I've already used it for a few effects in this project I'm working on

Cinema Tools. Well I can't review this really, I haven't worked with film before. But what I do like is that it's now included with FCP, where as before, it was it's own program (Which would cost you [a lot more money] alone).

Peak Express 3.3. It isn't the best audio editor I've used, but it's still good. I believe this program costs [money] if you buy it individually, but it comes with FCP4, which is a nice thing. I've used this only a little, it can't really do what I want it to do, but I use it as a backup audio editor.

So in conclusion, FCP4 is packed with features. It does take a lot of space (About 15GB for everything), so if you're low on space, you've been warned. And it requires a DVD drive. Most of you probably have one, but if you don't, you're not going to be able to use this. I was concerned about the ...price tag on the upgrade, and I didn't think it was going to be able to deliver. But it did, and I'm glad I now have this great program. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Mac OS 9.0.4 provides additional FireWire and USB support, enhancesnetworking and power management, and improves audio, video, and graphicsfunctionality. This version also includes all of the features new to version9.0.

Sherlock 2 keeps your channels up-to-date automatically, adding search sites and e-commerce sites as they come online, to help you get the latest news and information. Mac OS 9.0.4 also performs voice analysis, so you can log in without using your keyboard. With its voiceprint password feature, your voice is your password. The personal Keychain built into Mac OS 9.0.4 stores all your passwords and user IDs securely and lets you unlock them all with a single password. And the OS uses the Internet to download (and install) the latest updates, drivers, and other system enhancements from Apple automatically. You can also set Mac OS 9.0.4 to check Apple's server periodically and automatically download and install updated software for yourself.

File sharing works over the TCP/IP protocol, so you can share your files, folders, and disks with other Macintosh users at home, school, or work. The network browser feature lets you see servers on TCP/IP networks the way you're able to see AppleShare servers on AppleTalk networks listed in the chooser. The Mac OS 9.0.4 network browser supports SLP--the industry-standard protocol for "ad hoc" networks--so you can find other computers on your local area network. ... Read more

Product Description

Final Cut Pro 1.2. Transform your Power Macintosh G3 or G4 into a powerful personal video workstation. With Apple's award-winning Final Cut Pro software, you can create broadcast quality video easily and affordably. Final Cut Pro delivers professional video editing, compositing and effects in one flexible highly productive program. It's ideal for professionals in traditional broadcasting, video production, marketing communications, graphic design and web creation studios. Is also well suited for converting those home videos to something with some real impact. And you don't need a fancy new Mac. Your older Mac runinng Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS 9.2.2 will run this version of Final Cut Pro just fine. ... Read more

Features

• Capture video fram DV or analog video sources.
• Professional Editing Software, used by the studios!
• Mix & Sync up to 99 audio tracks.
• Combine up to 99 video tracks with text, graphics, photoshop files and more.
• Output to VHS, Quicktime, web streaming & more