Apple's MobileMe

[Andrew Clark]

Is anyone using this for their hosting their videos, website stuff, etc...?

[Craig Seeman]

Not for hosting videos but to send clients links for download. Also they can upload to my PublicDisk. For my clients it's a lot easier than dealing with FTP. There are file send services but they have size limits, additional expenses incurred otherwise, outside advertising, etc.

I know some folks who use the .me accounts to host their web pages though if that's what you mean but I don't. I post videos to my own site.

[Charles Papert]

My site, linked below, is hosted by MobileMe and created in iWeb. It's simple but it serves my needs and easy to update. I do have plans to get more complex and I'm not crazy about the way the pages load but it's been fine in the meantime.

[Jim Andrada]

Charles - as always, great work.

I noticed that on the West Wing shot the text only said Steadicam Phot Must be a typo.

[Matthew Craggs]

I recently signed up for the 60 day trial and love iDisk. When I edit for others I send draft versions using it and everything is quick and simple. It's also great for client proofing.

Everything else? Don't particularly care for it, and don't know if I would spend the money simply for the iDisk. I have hosting, I have e-mail, and when it comes to syncing, Mobile Me wiped out my contacts! (Google it, many others have had this problem. Luckily I backed up beforehand.).

If I wasn't already hosted, didn't already have e-mail, and was looking for a simple webpage (no Wordpress installed, for example), I would subscribe in a second. As it stands, I don't want to pay that much for the iDisk.

[Craig Seeman]

Originally Posted by Matthew Craggs

I recently signed up for the 60 day trial and love iDisk. When I edit for others I send draft versions using it and everything is quick and simple. It's also great for client proofing....

It's also an easy place for clients to drop files in for delivery to you. There are drawbacks though. 1GB file size is limited (even though there's space for several files of that size depending how you config). While you can password protect the public iDisk you can create separate password protected folders for each client. If you're dealing with multiple clients the stuff may be available to all of them.

Of course if the above is your primary purpose you can get a DropBox account and there's a free basic account.

MobileMe is a good add on for my iPhone and wouldn't have got it otherwise. Admittedly the features are not compelling.

I could see a startup business have a good use for it since they can get up and running with an iWeb page and file transfer service and it can sync to iPhone if they have one (this includes file access don't forget, not just contacts).

[Richard Gooderick]

Originally I subscribed in order to use it for backup (when it was called .Mac).
But it simply didn't work. Apple should have been ashamed of themselves.
Currently I use it for hosting my website.
But not for videos. I use Vimeo for that and embed them in the website.
My website is created with Rapidweaver. A website creation tool based on templates (which can be modified - hugely). It is very quick and easy to update.
There may be more cost-effective ways. I haven't checked.

[Andrew Clark]

Charles - Nice website; but I see what you mean about the way the web pages are loaded ... or shown once a link is clicked on.

Richard - Nice site as well; so am I to understand that you are currently using MM to host your site? I checked the RapidWeaver site and it looks like a cool piece of software; may have to give it try.

Craig - Agree with you about the Dropbox service; there's a great article about it on Studio Daily's website Studio Daily Blog Useful Service for Editors: Dropbox.

Thank you all for the generous and informative replies!!

[Richard Gooderick]

Hi Andrew
Yes. The site is hosted with Mobile Me.
The video is embedded from Vimeo (Vimeo Plus allows more control over the look).
My domain name is registered through UK2.net. So when you click on gooderick.com it goes via UK2.net and which calls the site up in frame so that it looks like it's gooderick.com
I think I've got that right but I'm not very technical so it may be an inaccurate description of what's happening. Hopefully it gives you the idea.
If you do go down the Rapidweaver route please check out the Blocks plug-in from YourHead software. This gives you a huge amount of freedom to design what you want. Almost a blank page. Message me if you want more info.

[Andrew Clark]

Thanks Richard...and yes, in regards to RW, will it let you post / embed a WMV file?

Just FYI....the only web design software I've used is iWeb (from Apple of course) but haven't built anything worth posting to a host....yet.

[Richard Gooderick]

I did try hosting video on Mobile Me but my impression was that it was not a robust solution. I may be wrong. I went down the Vimeo route because it seems to be bombproof compared to trying to host your own video.
I also looked at an Amazon service called S3, and other similar services, but these were very expensive.
BTW I believe that Vimeo is supplied via Amazon.
I'm sure that YouTube and Exposure Room, for instance, would work OK too and may be better in some instances eg I understand that Exposure Room offers higher resolution.
I don't know if you can embed Windows Media in RapidWeaver. I think not. It's a Mac-only package so I suspect that it will only handle Quicktime.