It’s not like we don’t mind criticizing Apple or the Mac when needed, it’s just that it isn’t necessary too often. We’re not religious zealots at Mac360, and we don’t think you are, either.

So why do we (including you) have this passion for Apple and Macs? Why do we buy the products and follow every move the company makes?

It isn’t just that the Mac has made Apple what it is. It’s a part, but not the whole story. In fact, it may be a ”story” that brings together all the pieces that make up Apple to a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Historically, Apple looks at products differently than mainstream tech companies. They’re always looking for a better way to do the obvious while hiding the technical complexity required to get there.

That alone attracts plenty of followers, hence the Think Different advertising campaign back in the last century. But it’s the ”story” of Steve Jobs fall and resurrection that may weave all the pieces into a fabric which makes Apple different in many respects, and better in other respects.

Hey, Steve Jobs was iconic, demanding, visionary (pirates can be visionary), and fell from grace. Though nearly losing is fortune on NeXT and Pixar he toughed it out, took advantage of opportunities, was raised back to a position of glory and influence and wealth.

In the meantime, Apple survived, began to prosper, took advantage of opportunities (the iPod, iTunes, now iPhone) in the technogadget marketplace. Whether it is software or hardware, Apple makes a lot of products that over 100-million customers truly love. How many technogadget companies stir that much positive passion?

OK, why? The Steve Jobs and Apple story is interesting, intriguing even. Is that it? Not quite. Products. Apple dares to be a little different. I say ”little” because I don’t think the company is daring to be different as much as it could because it needs to deal with cell phone companies and movie companies and cannot fully dictate all the details.

Products. Apple makes slickly designed, attractive, highly functional products-- hardware and software-- that users really love to use. And it isn’t just the techno geeks like us who love their products. Average, everyday people from all walks of life make a choice to use Apple-- Macs, iPods, now iPhone. The numbers are staggering. Even more so is the passion customers have for their Macs and iPods.

Name another computer or consumer product that elicits that much unreserved passion as a Mac user or iPod user.

There’s another ”key” element. We, the customers, the users, the fan boys, love to use the products. We enjoy it. Mac customer satisfaction has nearly always been higher than competitors. iPod customer satisfaction borders on fanatical. The iPhone? Even with some obvious faults, it’s being hailed as the most satisfying new product ever in electronics.

Why? Why do other companies not have that same panache? Maybe Sony had it at one time, but certainly no more. Creative people were honored by Apple in the Think Different advertising campaign for a reason. Base customer. We’re willing to make a choice because we think Apple provides a better solution for our needs.

Microsoft and Windows own the desktop not because they provided a better solution. They applied market muscle to a mediocre product and dismissed all competitors. Except Apple. But Apple owns the portable music market because it does have a better solution.

Do you have a Mac or an iPod? Do you follow Apple happenings regularly? Why?

Most Mac pundits expect Apple to introduce an ultra thing MacBook Pro without a hard drive or a SuperDrive. Could that machine also double as a Mac tablet with touch screen technology built in? See how much fun speculation is?

We’ll do our part to fan the flames of expectation between now and Macworld in mid January. In the meantime, consider Apple’s legendary design prowess. What additional products would you like to see come from Apple’s award-winning design team?

I’m inspired by visits to two web pages this past week. The first is from our friends at MacLife, and an article entitled Apple Hardware Prototypes: Four Radical New Concepts Revealed.

What caught my eye was the graphic of the great looking wheels with the Apple logo at the center. Sweet. I’d consider getting a different car just for a set of wheels like that.

Apple’s designs carry similar elements. Elegant look. Simple feel. High usability. Low learning curve. That “sweet spot” in design shows up in nearly every product in Apple’s line, whether hardware or software.

The MacLife article discussed Apple’s obvious plight-- the requirement continually to top itself-- and offered an imaginary look at four different directions that Apple could take. Science fiction, meet Jonathan Ive. There’s the Squidget, some sort of portable communication device ala iChat gone WiFi and Fisher-Price.

As if there’s not enough iLife, iMac, iPod, iPhone, how about iEye, the ultimate pocket camera. iProtection is the portable, mobile security system, a personal safety device stungun. Point, click, zap to high heaven. And back.

I’d pay the cost of a Macworld keynote to see Steve Jobs demonstrate that one on stage.

Finally, the iCar. Think Audi TT with touches from Apple’s design team. Wheels. Cockpit. Dashboard.

The second site was a page on the Apple Collection site which displayed various Apple inspired products, some of which are remarkably close to the real thing. I chuckled at the PowerMac G6. Did Apple TV share roots from the Mini AV Station? You be the judge.

Apple’s design capability, whether hardware or software, inspires us to want products we don’t even know about yet. That said, what product would you like to see Apple design?

Notice that the MacBook Pro has heritage dating back many decades, at least in computer years. After all, the aluminum PowerBook, from which the MacBook Pro is derived, began life barely five years ago. Some Apple designs stand the test of time. Others are discarded quickly as newer designs take their place. Goodbye, iPod mini, hello iPod nano. Goodbye, sunflower iMac, hello aluminum iMac.

It could be argued that Apple will not launch a fully new product any time soon. The market is still digesting the iPhone. In the meantime, we may only see revised products with evolutionary changes, not the birth of a whole new line of products.

Without a new product on the horizon, it’s time to dream, speculate, pontificate, and lust after what could be but isn’t. What do you lust for that Apple hasn’t designed but should?

Don’t misunderstand my intent. This isn’t a hit piece designed to rake Apple across the digital coals just to get a few extra hits on a lazy Friday afternoon.

The truth is obvious. Apple makes what is normally complex, much easier to use, and that design philosophy shows up in the Mac with OS X Leopard, the iPhone, the iPod, even within Apple’s professional media software.

Apple should be applauded for bringing the complexities of high technology to levels that mere mortals can use and enjoy, even if we don’t understand or care about what goes on behind the scenes.

It’s hard to argue with that, right? Conversely, it’s hard to argue with this: to broaden mass market appeal-- for Macs, iPods, iPhones, iLife-- Apple has begun a quiet dumbing down of some products and features.

That simplifying of Apple’s products makes them less complex to new customers, and arguably easier to use, but makes them somewhat dumber to the rest of us.

I have a few examples that have raised their ugly collective feature-decreased heads in recent weeks. First, iMovie. The iMovie of yesteryear was an attractive, easy to use, non-lineor video editor which could let iLife users slap together a video production with a minimum of bother and expense.

Apple dumbed down the iMovie in iLife ‘08, the latest version, in an effort to broaden appeal. Apparently, the old iMovie was too difficult for the millions of Windows PC users switching to the Mac, and had to be fixed. Apple made iMovie easier to use by removing many of the features that made it such a value in previous versions. Isn’t that dumbing down?

In Mac OS X Leopard, Apple modified the Firewall. Instead of protecting your Mac by monitoring and controlling traffic to the 65,000 plus ports on your Mac, Apple really dumbed down access to the Firewall in Leopard. It’s now called an “application firewall” (Apple’s term) which opens access to the Mac on a per application basis.

That dumbing down process is perfect for the millions and millions of newbies coming to the Mac from Windows, but is a step or two backwards for the rest of us. Apple seems so much to want to control the interface experience for the masses, that some loyal Apple product users sense a dumbing down of features.

Other examples of Apple’s new found love affair with the mass market show up in the new iPod touch, an iPod version of the iPhone. Where’s Mail? There’s WiFi. There’s Safari to browse the web. Where’s Mail? Apparently, high end iPod users need WiFi, need a browser to surf the web, but don’t use Mail?

Apple, with OS X Leopard, has allowed more of a gaudy, colorful, non-functional look to appear here and there, perhaps designed to give the Mac a more familiar look to Windows users who switch to a Mac. Apple, what’s with the translucent Menu Bar in Leopard (only in Macs with a graphics card sufficient to display the Menu Bar’s bleed-through look to the desktop)? It serves no purpose other than to look colorful. Otherwise, it’s a dumbed down menu bar that appeals only to those in need of a Fisher-Price interface.

Again, Apple needs to be applauded for a track record that does a wonderful job of diluting complexity, making that which is difficult, simple and enjoyable. The buying public is showing their approval by purchasing Apple’s products-- Macs, iPhones, iPods, Leopard, iLife, etc.-- in record numbers. In return, Apple is working diligently to create products that are even easier to use than anything offered by competitors. Many customers obviously love that approach.

However, some long time Apple customers are grumbling that the recent dumb down efforts are too obviously smacking of a company increasingly becoming more interested in promoting themselves as a mass market maker of cool and stylish gadgets, even if some features of said products take backward steps in usability.

Kate’s basic premise is not to be argued with. She insists, and I agree, that Apple will hit a wall in a few years, the stock price will stumble, revenue and profit growth will slow dramatically.

In the meantime, The New Golden Age of Apple™ is upon us, and is likely to last longer than many nay sayers may think, not as long as Apple Fan Boys and Girls may want.

I read a report today from Daedalus Capital which said Apple’s stock price ”is going to $600.” A couple of years ago I would have laughed. I laughed when Google’s stock topped $300 a share. Look at it now. I don’t laugh at such things anymore. Those are the same folks who said AAPL would hit $200 per share in 2007. Close enough, and the year is yet young.

Why? What happened to take Apple from beleaguered to darling? Steve Jobs? OS X? iPod? Intel chips? iLife ‘08? iPhone? Microsoft’s Windows Woes™? Yes. All the above and more have combined, converged to deliver a unique setting in the universe-- Apple’s Golden Age.

Of course, Golden Ages don’t last forever, so expect the bubble to burst on this one down the road a few years. When? Who knows and who cares? Barring an unexpected death of Steve Jobs and a California earthquake or wildfire that swallows Cupertino whole, t won’t be soon.

Arguably, the Mac provides the best personal computing experience available these days and more and more former Windows users will attest to the truth of that statement. Mac OS X becomes officially mature with the release of Leopard, so the future will only be better for Mac users.

The Mac represents an important component of Apple’s past, present, and future, but there’s more. The iPod helped resurrect the company’s fortunes, and the iPhone will carry that banner of chic for many years into the future. Seriously, the iPhone is nothing more than a Mac Experience in a handheld device, and an evolutionary revolution spawned by the ubiquitous iPod.

Remember, there’s a lot of market share ahead for the Mac, and a lot of the rest of the world to conquer for the iPod, and the iPhone is just getting started. Apple is executing so well on so many marketing fronts that competition doesn’t have time to catch a collective breath, let alone gain some tiny advantage. Even Microsoft’s billions of dollars have done nothing to slow down Apple’s gravy train.

All of this is good news for everyone. Competition is good. Customers love what they get from Apple. The company is prospering as never before. Steve Jobs is living his own Shawshank Redemption.

To be fair, there are some bumps ahead. Apple has not and may not have the same success with the movie industry as it did with the music industry, and there are some cracks in the latter already. The former has yet to become Apple’s playground because the movie industry does not want to deal with what the music industry helped to create-- the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, in the form of the iTunes Store and iPod hegemony. Apple will do well, but not dominate as they did with music.

Another bump will be in the form of backlash. Just as a large number of the populace hates dealing with anything Microsoft, we’ll see, and are seeing, the same thing happen with Apple. Backlash isn’t pleasant for a company, but it’s better than beleaguered, right?

Because the Mac has so much headroom for market share growth, because the iPod has the rest of the world to conquer, and because the iPhone could be bigger than the other two put together, Apple has a long, straight, fast track ahead. It’s possible the stock could hit that aforementioned $600 figure. It seems crazy, but crazier things have happened.

Look at the recent headlines concerning Apple. Top computer reliability. Again. OS X Leopard polished, secure, fun, excellent. iPhone has highest customer satisfaction rating of any new product. Record sales, record profits, record cash on hand, record numbers of customers. While I do not expect The New Golden Age of Apple™ to last forever, such ages never do, I see a number of very good years in Apple’s future.

Enjoy the ride.

What brought this to mind was the release of Final Cut Express, the junior version of the award winning Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Studio, Apple’s professional video and audio production packages.

The Express version is, as it is with Logic Express, a great value for the $199 price. The capabilities of both far outweigh those of iMovie or Garageband. So, if you bought a Mac and fell in love with iLife’s applications, then even more professional versions are available for a couple of hundred dollars.

That’s known as a product migration plan-- products with features that are separated from one another in price, but close enough to get many customers to migrate to the next higher, as in ‘more expensive’, level. Think of it as Apple’s version of McDonald’s upsell process at the counter. ”Do you want fries with that?”

Apple’s entire line of products comes together in a similar kind of migration. Look at the iPod. Apple’s iPods are not the least expensive portable music player. The iPod shuffle is still $79, perhaps $25 more expensive than a cheap imitation no name knock off.

The iPod nano starts at $149 and $50 increments takes the buyer from the basic video and audio player with limited memory to the iPod classic with a huge hard drive, the ultra chic iPod touch for a mere $299, or the iPhone for only $100 more. It’s a series of little steps from the low end to the high end.

It’s the Gotcha Effect™ which dictates that if you’re looking at an Apple product, you’re likely to find one with features and prices that match your budget.

Look at the Mac line. Yes, the Mac mini is only $599, but add a few things that everyone likes on their Macs, and you might as well swing for an MacBook starting at just $1,099, or the iMac junior for only $1,199. Apple makes it difficult not to afford one of their products.

It’s almost as if Apple has become the digital drug dealer in a nice car. For newbies to Apple’s candy, iLife is free with every Mac. Users get hooked on the simplicity of OS X and iLife and want more. Upgrade time: Aperture is just $299. Final Cut Express or Logic Express are just $199 each.

Software is what makes the Mac work, and everyone knows that Microsoft Office is needed for compatibility to the rest of the business world. Or is it? iWork ‘08 is a mere $79 and does much of what Office does. It’s only $79. Even upgrading from an old Mac with iLife ‘06 to the latest, iLife ‘08, was a mere $79.

How many of us felt we had a new Mac when we installed Mac OS X Leopard? It was only $129 (or, less if you purchased Leopard from The Mac360 Store, and yes, it’s really Amazon, and yes with get a few dollars whenever you buy something). Didn’t you feel as if you had a whole new machine?

Apple’s product line is broad and deep with software and hardware. The migration plan for pricing and features is in the Mac line, the iPod/iPhone line, and in the software Apple sells. The Mac maker makes it very easy to get into using a Mac (or iPod or iPhone), but difficult to leave the Apple for Windows or Linux or SanDisk or whomever.

Why? In addition to the Gotcha Effect™ Apple makes products that we, the customers and users, actually want to use. We WANT to use what Apple sells. That’s why Apple’s customers give the company such high product satisfaction ratings. It’s all done by design, top to bottom, software, hardware, iPods/iPhones, Macs.

Apple has become the benevolent digital drug dealer. Somewhat pricey, always classy, always around to take care of our “digital needs.”

It was so bad that I had to stop using my .Mac account. Spam was so bad that I had to think different.

Actually, it was my .Mac account that was the proverbial last straw, the extra spam that broke the email camel’s back. Yes, I’ve had a .Mac account from the beginning. Yes, it gets got plenty of email spam.

A few weeks ago my .Mac account email showed up as the return address on a huge spam outfit sending thousands of billions of junk mail messages to users in Germany. My .Mac email address was listed as the return address.

What I got from their effort was all the bounced email. Hundreds and hundreds of messages a day bounced back to my .Mac account.

Adding injury to insult, three of my other email accounts began receiving a barrage of unwanted junk mail. It’s as if I’d awakened into the Bizzaro Spam world. Everything was spam.

Enough is enough. I have Spam Assassin on my mail servers. I have Spam Sieve of my Mac. I have a bunch of filters in Apple’s Mail application. But still, previous time each day was spent sorting through the spam that made it through.

”It’s time to think different, Ron,” I thought. It was easy enough to dump the .Mac account. It was about to expire anyway. That took care of a few hundred bounced spam message each day, but less than half of what I receive.

I have lots of email accounts. There’s personal email, business email, Yahoo and Google email, and a few others. The three biggest spam offenders were also the three email accounts I’ve used for over a decade, including Yahoo.

So, I set up new email accounts for personal and business, then added an alias for each. Then I ditched all three email accounts which brought in most of the spam.

Some internet service providers allow for email aliases. That means you can set up an email account such as “myrealname@mydomain.com” but create an email alias such as “myfakename@mydomain.com”. Any email to the latter name automatically shows up in the former name’s account.

Give the “myfakename” email address to friends, family, and co-workers as your new email address. That alone will cut down spam dramatically, but once the new email alias address is in circulation spam harvesters may find it on unprotected PCs, and spam shows up again.

That’s especially true when you use an email address to register for various sites on the web. That was one reason why my Yahoo email account, which I had from Yahoo’s original free email accounts, suffered so much spam abuse.

Aliases to the rescue. Now, when I register information of a web site, I quickly set up another alias. For example, I set up an alias called “apple_1@mydomain.com” when I registered at Apple. If I get spam at that email address I know from whence it came.

I did the same for Yahoo by setting up an email alias such as “yahoo_1@mydomain.com.” Amazon? Same thing. “Amazon_1@mydomain.com.” All those email alias addresses forward mail to my regular account name, which no one knows but me. If spam shows up, I know where it came from and I can quickly change the email alias to something like “amazon_2@mydomain.com.”

There’s a little extra effort in notifying everyone of a new email address. There’s also extra effort to set up email aliases, though it takes barely a minute for each.

The end result? No more spam shows up in my Mail inbox. It’s easier to manage a few aliases than it is to manage spam that gets through the filters.

I’m tempted to extend that process an extra step and create an email alias for each of my friends and family members. For example, the email address I give my brother, whose email address is on every spam list in the world, who runs a PC that probably sends out spam, too, would be “rons_brother@mydomain.com.”

That’s the email address he’d use to send mail to me. That’s probably overkill. For now, no more spam.

Do you have spam problems? What do you do to keep them out of your inbox?

Mac developers have reported to Mac360 that Apple’s upcoming update, Mac OS X 10.5.2, probably due in January, is a whopper sufficient to make Burger King proud.

Whopper? The latest software update for Mac developers is reported to weigh a hefty 350 megabytes with more bug fixes than any previous version of OS X.

Why? Bugs. Lots of bugs. In fact, there are so many changes coming in the next version of Leopard that Apple highlighted over three dozen Leopard components for developers to check, ranging from Time Machine, Safari, iCal, Mail, and many, many more?

Bugs? Yes. All it takes is a quick look at Apple’s support discussion message boards to get an idea of the troubles that Leopard has wrought on Mac users. Take your pick. If it has to do with Leopard, then Mac users have found something wrong with it.

Our experiences with the Mac360 crew are mixed. Alex has indicated few problems using Leopard on her Macs. Kate’s been traveling and hasn’t weighed in on the recent big bug fix update, Leopard 10.5.1, which, for me fixed a few issues, though nothing serious.

In fact, my experience has been mixed, but in nearly every issue of Leopard coughing, kerneling, sputtering, or spitting out a bug, I could always trace the problem to some 3rd party software that needed to be updated.

Not so for many Mac users; far more than is normal for Apple’s recent updates, including Jaguar, Panther (possibly the most stable version of OS X ever), and Tiger. That makes me wonder. What did Apple and Mac developers do over the past two and a half years that was different?

Mac software developers get the latest versions of Mac OS X so they can develop their applications and utilities and have them ready for market when Apple launches an update. That didn’t work too well with Leopard, delayed up to six months from an earlier expected launch.

Even then, Leopard’s launch seemed to catch many Mac software developers by surprise. Some popular software utilities have yet to be updated for Leopard users. What’s going on?

Growth pains. Resource constraints. Think about it. Apple is shoving OS X into anything that uses electricity. Macs. iPhone. iPod. Moving OS X around to various devices isn’t just a matter of copy or cut and paste. It takes time, people, effort. My guess is that Apple is struggling to find the programmers and resources to keep up the quality we’ve known from past years.

Maybe Apple realizes they can get away with more problems than ever because Microsoft has more problems than ever. After all, quality control and expectations are relative in nature. ”OS X Leopard: At Least It’s Not Vista.”

It may well be that former Windows users who experience the Mac, even with a boat load of problems that would cause most Mac users to scream to high heaven, find that it’s still not as bad as their experience with a variety of Windows versions on a variety of PC hardware. It’s all relative.

This is anecdotal, and not a scientific survey, but it seems to me that over the past couple of years, everything Apple has shoved out the door has been a little buggier than previous products, both hardware and software.

Yes, Apple scurries to find and fix bugs, and hardware and software updates are frequent.

But it doesn’t take much of that methodology to get a reputation for selling half-baked Apple pies.

I’m a frequent reader of Apple’s Discussions, Macintouch, and other Mac-oriented sites which highlight OS X’s problem areas. It’s a good place to lurk around to find out what problems other Mac users are having. Sometimes, I read their problems and feel good that I don’t have that many bugs on my Macs.

Other times, I read and search to find someone else with a similar issue. I’m usually not alone. Something else is happening, too. My Macs have more 3rd party software, applications and utilities and tools, than ever before. My Macs have more Apple software than ever. Possibly double the number of running applications as I had on Panther. Maybe more.

All that extra software means extra problems, more frequent updates, more opportunities for bugs to crop up. Like it or not, Leopard, for all the shiny goodness and feel good features, is a very, very complicated beast. Is it any wonder that Apple’s next version of Leopard features more bug fixes and updates than any version of OS X ever? Leopard needs it.

If you’re a Mac user dating back to at least Panther, how would you compare your ‘problem’ experiences between Panther, Tiger, and Leopard?

One of those areas in OS X Leopard that needed attention right away was the Dock. Apple screwed it up, then repaired it, while Mac software developers improved it.

Leopard gave us Stacks in the Dock, which, in general, I like, especially the grid display. Adding folders to the Dock these days gives Mac users plenty of choices and opportunities for improvement and customization.
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What Apple gave us back in later versions of Leopard is the hierarchical menus. That’s a good thing, a nice touch, handy and easy for Mac users of any experience level.

If you’re just a little geeky and always looking for something extra that makes your Mac work better, more efficient, and matches your way of working, try Quay.

Why? More information, better Dock functions, improved access, more capability, more menu selections.

Quay isn’t the only Dock star that is worth consideration. I like WeatherDock, too. It’s another quick way to see the current weather conditions, and a click gets you even more detail and long range forecasts.

Interestingly, the Dock itself can be customized, either using a Mac customizing tool such as Panic’s CandyBar, which I love, or little utilities such as SuperDocker.

SuperDocker gives you a 2D or 3D Dock and modifies the display features of the Dock, including a separation bar. I’m an iTunes kinda guy so I’ve got music playing all the time. DockArt pops up the album cover art for the currently playing iTunes song-- right inside the Dock.

Quite a few Mac users didn’t like the Leopard implementation of the Dock. The little aluminum shelf is reflective, a bit gaudy, and cluttered.

There are many ways to customize your Mac, though the Dock is rather plain and uninviting, it can be prettied up and made more useful at the same time. Dock Doctor lets you get funky with your Dock. Change the background, go 2D then 3D then back again. Subtle, visual only, not an improvement to you work day.

Dock usability and visual cues are important to me. I added Ecamm’s DockStar because it tells me what’s in my Mail inboxes without me opening Mail.

What I like about CandyBar is that it customizes not only the Dock, but the icon sets that show up in the Dock, and it does it only a couple of clicks. Don’t like it? Click and everything goes back to normal.

Other than desktop photos and screen savers, it’s unlikely that most Mac users actually customize their Macs to any notable degree. What about you? Do you have a special utility for the Dock? What have you added to your Mac to customize, make it yours, and reflect your special tastes?

First, we started with an external hard drive. Then, we added wireless back up to an external hard drive. What’s next? Backing up our Mac’s files on the internet.

There are many ways to back up and secure our valuable files, whether they’re photos, or music, or movies, or documents. Some use CDs and back up the files away from the office or home.

Some use multiple hard drives and a convoluted back up scheme which involves extra utilities, Apple’s Time Machine, and yet more hard drives.

What about backing up files online, over the internet? Is that data protection whose time has come?

There are many ways to back up files online, including Mac mini Colocation and the value of Apple’s Time Capsule which can be secured in a remote data center. That’s an attractive online back up scheme, but still requires effort and management.

Drobo is another home, small office solution which simply adds more and more hard drives to the back up equation, still suffering from a single catastrophic failure opportunity.

There are a number of internet-based, online back up schemes available for Mac users. These include, but are not limited to, Mozy, BackJack, and Amazon.

All three back up files from your computer, across the internet, and into a data center. All three are Mac friendly.

MozyHome is for Mac users to take their home files and move them to a secure, remote location. MozyHome is free and gives users up to 2 gigabytes of storage. Mozy provides software to make your Mac file back ups.

BackJack is also Mac friendly, comes with 5 gigabytes of storage capacity for $15 a month. More storage can be added.

Amazon’s Simple Storage Service is a pay-as-you-go service. 15-cents per gigabyte per month, but you pay for upload and download, and need a special utility to transfer files.

Generally speaking, these online services offer secure data center storage of your files, and they can be accessed from anywhere on the internet.

Is that the future of Mac back ups for home and small business users? Prices for online back up have come down in recent years.

Still, affordability not withstanding, questions arise. How secure are the files? How quickly can back ups be made? How quickly can files be restored? What happens to your files if you miss a monthly payment?

Some technology pundits predict that in coming years we’ll store all our valuable files online. Does that concern you? Are you willing to have valuable files out of your home?

Is it time for Mac users to take their files and shove them-- out on the internet?

The answer, of course, is an unqualified yes, there is always a danger that putting new software on your Mac will cause some kind of malfunction and fry all the rest of the files on your Mac.

That doesn’t happen often, but, as with any new release of software, whether Mac OS X Leopard, subsequent upgrades, or even polished applications and utilities from Microsoft, Adobe, and Bob’s Fly-By-Night Mac Software House, there’s always a risk.

Nearly one in four Mac users has upgraded from previous versions of OS X to Leopard since the launch in 2007. For those of us who took the plunge right away, how many of us had no issues whatsoever? How many of us had a few niggling problems here and there?

How many Mac users had a small catastrophe with data loss and hours of rebuilding a Mac system from scratch? It happens.

Overall, Mac OS X Leopard seemed more buggy at first than preceding versions of Tiger, then Panther. And, overall, it wasn’t a horrible experience, just one that was more memorable on the ugly side, though somewhat mitigated by the juicy new features and functions.

My Mac notebook has never had a problem with Leopard. None. Zero. It just worked. My main Mac, a honking hulk of G5 power with a gazillion cores and more RAM than Dodge has trucks, faltered badly with kernel panics and freezes until 10.5.2.

That particular Mac is loaded with every USB and FireWire device known to man, or nearly so, forcing me to cut loose the old, embrace the new. The Mac returned to a more stable state once the old devices were purged.

My day-to-day Mac, the one I use to browse and handle email and iTunes and iPhoto, chugged along with a few problems here and there, but, again, became more stable after 10.5.2. Thanks, Apple.

I have a Mac mini running Leopard which I use to test and try out new software, rather than endanger my pampered suite of Macs. Yesterday, Kate sent me a link to a new graphics application for creating resolution independent graphics. It’s called Opacity.

It’s a version 1.0, and has a few capabilities not found on the recent spat of Mac graphics applications such as Pixelmator, Acorn, and others. About 10 minutes into my initial round of dinking with Opacity it crashed my Mac. Hard. Froze solid. Twice.

I don’t remember the last time my Mac just froze and refused to do anything, even Force Quit. But it did. I was manipulating a graphic, and expanding the resolution to see how independent it could become, and got the spinning beach ball of death. I waited. Then Opacity wouldn’t let me in. Then Leopard kicked me out. Time stood still. The Dock wouldn’t move. No other application or utility would open. I waited. I waited.

Gulp. Hard stop, reboot. Fortunately, nothing was lost, and normality returned quickly, but without further dinking in Opacity. Yes, some new utilities will crash from time to time. Even Safari and Mail go wonky from time to time, though not on a regular schedule. Seldom does software these days take down a whole machine, but it happens.

I’m not one to collect Mac horror stories. I’ve shared mine latest. What’s yours?