Based on a subset of the ridiculous amounts of mail we get about all kinds of subjects, we've concluded that there are precisely two species of .Mac subscribers currently populating the habitat. One pays $99 per year mostly for the @mac.com email address, and sees all the other features as a nice bonus. The other shells out the ducats for iLife web integration, the info-anywhere magic of iSync, the convenience of iDisk, etc. and considers .Mac email a freebie add-on. And given how much trouble Apple's had with the .Mac email servers (especially lately), which type of subscriber you are almost entirely determines whether or not you think the service is worth the price.

Well, we're still hearing pretty constant fuming from viewers reliant upon .Mac email, but faithful viewer Josh Lockie informs us that while Apple can't seem to get its mail servers running stably, at least it's pumping up the non-mail aspects of the .Mac service. If you haven't checked it out lately, take a gander: there's a dozen or so new HomePage templates for photos, movies, and file sharing; there are new iCards with new fonts and auto-resizing text (and the service is now integrated with your iSynced Address Book); HomePage now allows you to integrate external web pages for added flexibility; and now you can actually edit all this stuff in Internet Explorer under Windows XP, assuming you're connecting from work or you've totally lost all sense of taste or whatever.

Meanwhile, as an added bonus, one of the new member benefits is a free copy of Norton Parental Control-- whose title, frankly, makes it sound way better than it really is. While it does indeed block access to verboten web sites, that's about the limit of the parental control it offers. It will not, for example, make your two-year-old actually listen to you when you tell her not to try to see how much hummus she can force into both ear canals. Trust us on this one. (And to answer before you ask: about four ounces total.)

Now, members of the subscriber species who view .Mac primarily as an email service will likely not be mollified by discovering that, while they still can't receive their mail on a consistent basis, at least they can send spiffy new iCards to all their correspondents informing them that .Mac still blows chunks. Subscribers like us, however, who really don't bother using the email aspect of .Mac in the first place, are always pleased for new ways to format uploaded iPhotos and send goofy iCards. That said, we really hope that Apple eventually gets its mail service together, in part because we're sure it must be losing renewals and referrals due to frustrated customers and bad word-of-mouth, but mostly because when people can't get their mail they apparently spend all their downtime complaining to us about it instead...