.Mac vs. Backpack
A bit expensive for what you actually get but 37signals Backpack looks to be a much more useful application than the shamefully outdated .Mac stuff. That said…
It works but like Basecamp it doesn’t work like i do. Lots of nice features but not much flexibility. Todo lists can’t be categorized except by page, but you have a limited set of pages to work with. I can subscribe to changes but not to ToDo lists like with their tadalist product. The page idea is interesting but like most of the people who will be using this (early adopters) i already have a homepage/weblog.
The wiki like editing possibility of your public pages is rather interesting. And the ability to subscribe to your reminders with iCal is cool. But i can’t sync reminders with iCal. Since there is no actual calendar in BackPack i still have to update my iCal and my changes won’t be synced with backpack. I’m not so sure i want to keep up two calender like apps.
In short… the interface is cool, as usual. The idea is cool, as usual. But i won’t actually be using it for anything since it’s just a web based interface for stuff i already have a better version of on my Mac (or my PC for that matter). If Apple would update their .Mac offering to allow the sort of clean online editing seen here and make it integrate well with iCal, Addressbook & Mail (& iPhoto?), now that would be something i’d be willing to spend some dough on.