Alternatives to MM--what works BETTER?

[SpiceGrrl]

Hi All,

I have heard and read many comments that this or that other service actually works better than Mobile Me. Google has been mentioned as has Dropbox, Go Daddy and others. I am a Mac newbie (just went Mac a month ago) and I got Mobile Me because I believed that since it is an Apple product, it would obviously work better and sync better across Mac devices. Now I am not so sure. I am having major doubts now about MobileMe because (a) it's a lot slower than Dropbox was on my old PC and (b) this morning I was unable to locate some of my files which I KNOW were successfully uploaded last week. Very scary. Here's what I need from Mobile Me.

* Document storage in the cloud
* Email storage in the cloud (I have *thousands* of important emails from two different email accounts)
* Syncing contacts across devices (iMac, iPad and possibly iPhone)

Is there some other service out there that would do these things BETTER?

Note: I don't care whether a service is free or not--what I want is what WORKS BEST. Detailed comments appreciated.

If I changed to some non-Apple product, would I encounter difficulties or is that just what Apple wants me to believe?

 

[Macsterguy]

I sync 3 Macs, iPhone, iPad with MM. I run my business with it. You are correct, dropbox is faster and I use that too. MobileMe continues to improve so if you are just now using you missed all the fun

For total and tight integration I think I would stay with MobileMe for a while. I feel confident it will continue to improve and have added functionality.

 

[SpiceGrrl]

Thank you Macsterguy. How do you use Dropbox in addition to MobileMe? I mean, what do you use it for, as distinct from how you use MobileMe? (Dropbox is only for documents, right? So do you store your less-frequently-used documents there?)

 

[gks]

Thank you Macsterguy. How do you use Dropbox in addition to MobileMe? I mean, what do you use it for, as distinct from how you use MobileMe? (Dropbox is only for documents, right? So do you store your less-frequently-used documents there?)

I use MobileMe for Calendars and Bookmark syncing. Expensive, but it works great.

For documents, I use Dropbox and Strongspace.com

For email, I have my own domain through gandi.net hosted at fastmail.fm

No single service is going to provide a great experience for everything. It's sort of like a Swiss Army Knife but it fails at doing specific things that a job specific knife might do, or screw driver for that matter.

Dropbox is free to use. See if it does what you want.

The other stuff is something you'd have to research. I just feel that for email surfdude@gmail.com is a lame way to market yourself and even first.last@gmail.com is worthless and isn't very professional. I have a gmail account that I use for websites and junk. But all business related stuff goes through first@firstlast.com.

You can also use Google Apps for My Domain if you want your own domain name. Which is free to use, or paid if you want more features/services.

 

[317342]

Gmail - Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Syncing to iPhone/iPad
Dropbox - Cloud storage, I use it daily.

The only real thing MobileMe has that is of any use is "Find My iPhone". My subscription doesn't expire until early next year so I left it turned on for all my devices until then. It's basically withering on the vine, so to speak.

One of the leading reasons I gave up on MobileMe was e-mail reliability and (to a lesser extent) support. This was a common error message was getting (not had it once with Gmail)...

Dropbox is a lot more secure, reliable, and best of all it's free (2GB). If you'd like a referral (includes 250MB extra space), PM me. One of the nicest things about it is it keeps a running 30-day backup of your files (unlimited if you have a paid account) so you can restore a file you accidentally delete.

(PS: anyone remember July/August '08? That was a great time to be a .Mac/MobileMe subscriber /sarcasm)