Apple Enhances .Mac, Introduces Web Gallery

Apple’s launched a lot of goodies today and its .Mac service gets some enhancements too.

Apple has debuted .Mac Web Gallery, a new feature for sharing photos and movies on the Internet. .Mac Web Gallery lets members share photos and movies directly from iLife ‘08 with anyone on a Mac, PC or iPhone. In addition, visitors to .Mac Web Gallery can download high quality images for printing and contribute photos using a standard web browser or email. Other new .Mac features include a tenfold increase in .Mac storage to 10GB, support for personal domains for iWeb websites and enhancements to .Mac Mail.

“.Mac Web Gallery is an awesome way to share photos and movies on the Internet with friends and family,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “You can share your favorite photos and movies with anyone on a Mac, PC or iPhone, and they can turn them into high-quality prints as well as contribute photos to your site using a web browser or email.”

With iPhoto ‘08, .Mac members can create a .Mac Web Gallery and choose whether they want to make their albums available to everyone or limit access to specific people, allow visitors to download high-quality images suitable for making up to 16x20-inch prints, and even allow friends and family to contribute photos.

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.Mac Web Gallery is designed to work with the iPhone, enabling users to view albums or simply snap a picture, choose an album and post it to their .Mac Web Gallery.

With iMovie ‘08, .Mac members can encode and upload their movies to their .Mac Web Gallery for viewing in several sizes, with the largest size offering higher-than-DVD resolution. Visitors can view .Mac Web Gallery movies on a Mac, PC or iPhone. .Mac members can also choose to make their movies available for download, so that friends and family can play them back on their computer, iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

.Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $99.95 per year for individuals and $179.95 for a Family Pack which includes one master account and four sub accounts. Customers save $30 on either the individual subscription or the Family Pack when purchased with a new Macintosh and anyone can sign up for a free, 60-day .Mac trial at www.mac.com. Individuals can optionally purchase an additional 10GB of storage for $49.95 annually.