On October 10th, Apple will discontinue a part of its former .Mac service that some users will miss. iCards let .Mac users create and send personalized ecards. Unfortunately, with the switchover to MobileMe, Apple decided to completely eliminate iCards. There are, however, alternatives available for iCards and, in this article, I describe some of those alternatives.
Mail Stationery
Apple, realizing that some users were unhappy with the loss of iCards, posted a solution for users of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The latest version of Apple's Mail program has an often forgotten new feature. You can now use stationery templates to create colorful, personalized email messages. You can even create your own templates and save them for use at a later time. Although Mail stationery can be used to send ecards, it is not a complete replacement for iCards. Mail stationery can only be used on a Mac computer that is running Mac OS X 10.5 and Mail. On the other hand, iCards was available to .Mac users on any computer with an Internet connection and a web browser.
Third-Party Applications
There are some free or low-cost third-party applications that let you create personalized postcards that you can send as emails using your favorite email application. These programs, like Mail stationery, need to be used on a Mac computer, but some of them are not limited to Mac OS X 10.5 or Mail so they can be useful for a greater number of Mac users than Mail stationery.
PDF Attachments
A third alternative to .Mac iCards is available to most users. You can use many graphics programs, including iPhoto, to create a card and then save or export the card as a PDF file. The PDF file can then be emailed using most email clients, including some web-based ones. This option is available to anyone with a computer and a graphics application.
Online eCard Services
A fourth alternative, available to anyone with an Internet account and a web browser, is to use an online ecard service, such as Hallmark eCards. Although this option does not allow as much personalization as the other alternatives or iCards, the services are usually free and easily accessible and they often provide many more choices for templates than were available with iCards.
Conclusion
Although iCards will be missed by some .Mac users, there are free alternatives available. Some of these alternatives are Mail stationery for Leopard users, third-party postcard applications, PDF attachments, and online ecard services.
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