Preface

If you're like me, your Mac is like the Sun at the center of the solar system. It's the hub of all your activity. You use your Mac for work and play, and more importantly, to keep in contact with the outside world. In today's connected, Internet world, your Mac plays a vital role in how you communicate and share information with others, whether they're friends or cohorts at work.

When Steve Jobs revealed Apple's Digital Hub strategy (see Preface), the thought was that your Mac would be the center of everything you do digitally. Whether that meant creating and playing music, editing and producing digital video, or how you connected with the outside world, your Mac would be the center of it all.

To help make your Mac the center of the Digital Hub, Apple produced some truly innovative applications, including the iLife suite (consisting of iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and now GarageBand), as well as a group of iApps for your Mac, including iCal, iSync, iChat, and others like Address Book, Mail, and Safari.

Figure P-1. The Digital Hub.

With your Mac at the center of all you do, there was one missing connection: a way to extend your digital lifestyle. In July 2002, Apple took its iTools services to the next level, expanded its capabilities and integrated those services with the various iApps for Mac OS X Jaguar, and relaunched the service as .Mac (pronounced "dot-Mac"). By integrating .Mac services into each of the iApps, your Mac became a greater part of the Digital Hub, and Apple made it easier for you to share your digital life, as well as to make your Mac safer.