The Mac Observer

Apple to End .Mac HomePage July 7th

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6:56 PM, Apr. 9th ET, 2009
TMO Talk (12)
Articles by Author Bryan Chaffin on Twitter Contact Author
Comments (12)

Apple will be discontinuing its .Mac HomePage feature on July 7th, 2009, according to notification the company began sending out to MobileMe/.Mac customers.

"As of this date, you will no longer be able to create new pages or edit existing pages using HomePage," the company said in an e-mail. "Any pages you've already published will remain live at their current web address for as long as you like. If you need to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7th."

HomePage was one of the flagship features of .Mac, allowing customers to create Web pages online through a series of templates. Customers could publish photo galleries, information, and links to files that were saved to iDisk. HomePage was one of the features not moved to Me.com when Apple rebranded the service as MobileMe.

In the e-mail, Apple is instead steering customers towards MobileMe Gallery for photo-sharing, and the use of iWeb to create Web sites that can then be published to Me.com.

To emphasize, page created through July 7th will remain available, but users will not be able to edit them or create new pages through HomePage after that date. As pointed out in the comments below, you will be able to edit them by directly manipulating the HTML files hosted in your "Sites" directory on your iDisk.

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12 Observer Comments

   Actions PoPBunka ??? ?? said on April 9th, 2009 at 6:16 PM:

Hmm… So I wonder if Apple will be giving refunds to those who have paid already for services that are suddenly going to be discontinued. Methinks not…

   Actions popbunka said on April 9th, 2009 at 6:23 PM (Edited: 06/18/2010 7:23 PM):

Does anyone know if this affects page hosting in general? Will one be able to host webpages on their server?

Hosting still works.  It’s easiest to use iWeb, but you can post a site made with other software.  Current sites made in Homepage will continue to work, too, but won’t be updatable.

   Actions popbunka said on April 9th, 2009 at 10:38 PM (Edited: 06/18/2010 7:23 PM):

So its only the web based page creation app that is going out the door then… Cool.

The lack of being able to edit them is really bad.  Webpages that become stale can really make someone look like a baffoon.  A lot of popular Mac shareware authors will probably have to increase their rates to upkeep their websites when moving to a new host.

   Actions popbunka said on April 10th, 2009 at 9:15 AM (Edited: 06/18/2010 7:23 PM):

I think you will be able to edit them using iWeb or any other software app…

Popbunka,
As I’m not a Mobileme member I missed that fact.  Macobserver’s statement is INACCURATE! Someone who got the e-mail sent this particular statement:

>And using iWeb on your Mac, you can create custom websites and blogs and publish them to MobileMe.

If you can do that, then the statement above from Macobserver, is inaccurate:

>To emphasize, page created through July 7th will remain available, but users will not be able to edit them or create new pages after that date.

The word not in the above quote from Macobserver suggests NO editing will be possible.  It IS possible from Apple’s own admonition in its e-mail.

Don’t get me wrong, I love using a Mac, but Apple is again displaying their corporate arrogance.

They didn’t bother to even make an announcement when they pulled the subscription to anti-virus (Norton?) from the then .Mac customers. The virus sig updates just stopped.

I won’t be renewing my Mobile/Dot/whatever they try to re-brand this ever changing (and not for the good) service. I’m tired of not being able to count on Apple to deliver what they’ve promised.

Dear MobileMe member:

On July 7, 2009, the .Mac HomePage web application will be discontinued. As of this date, you will no longer be able to create new pages or edit existing pages using HomePage. Any pages you’ve already published will remain live at their current web address for as long as you like. If you need to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Instead of HomePage, we recommend the other sharing features of your MobileMe membership. With MobileMe Gallery, you can share photos online directly from iPhoto or the web application at www.me.com. And using iWeb on your Mac, you can create custom websites and blogs and publish them to MobileMe.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause. For more information, please read this FAQ. And thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,
The MobileMe Team

   Actions popbunka said on April 10th, 2009 at 6:51 PM (Edited: 06/18/2010 7:23 PM):

Anyways, its not good that they are just pulling a feature that people have already paid for… makes me wonder if any small business out there has been using Homepage for their site. They would have to switch over.

The features of Homepage were extremely limited (photo gallery, iDisk access, basic web pages, not much else). All have been supplanted by other features of MobileMe. They are not saying that you will not have any internet presence with your own site. They are saying that the Homepage method of creating said site is going away in favor of other methods (those existing in MobileMe, iWeb or whatever webpage creation tool you wish to use).

Gopher: Their statement is correct. As Homepage is going away, you will not be able to edit them through the Homepage interface after July 7. I suppose you could hand-code them, but the easier interface in Homepage is going away.

Popbunka: I doubt that there are many small businesses that rely on Homepage for their web pages. And if there are, they could easily recreate them in iWeb.

I don’t know why Apple is doing this (I suspect cost savings for something that probably isn’t used that much), and I think it is unfortunate, but it is not like they aren’t suggesting (or providing) alternatives. iWeb has been available for quite some time now.

It would appear they finally did edit it to address our comments.

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