Anyone switching from Google services to iCloud?

[i0Nic]

Google for years has provided most of the features you previously had to pay for with MobileMe. I use Gmail, Calendar and Contacts through Exchange sync on my iPhone, iPad and Macs and it's a solution that works.

However, I've also been using iCloud through iOS 5 GM. It's nice - it works and it's free.

I really like a clean solution and a fresh start. Because of this I'm tempted to simply use iCloud for everything including my primary email, switching off Google Exchange sync and keeping everything within Apple's ecosystem. Moving all my contacts and calendars over to iCloud as well.

Has anyone thought the same at all? Weighed up the pros and cons?

 

[thelookingglass]

Google for years has provided most of the features you previously had to pay for with MobileMe. I use Gmail, Calendar and Contacts through Exchange sync on my iPhone, iPad and Macs and it's a solution that works.

However, I've also been using iCloud through iOS 5 GM. It's nice - it works and it's free.

I really like a clean solution and a fresh start. Because of this I'm tempted to simply use iCloud for everything including my primary email, switching off Google Exchange sync and keeping everything within Apple's ecosystem. Moving all my contacts and calendars over to iCloud as well.

Has anyone thought the same at all? Weighed up the pros and cons?

Yep, I plan on doing the same thing. A lot easier since my primary devices are an iPhone, iPad and iMac. I even plan on forwarding my Gmail to my new me.com email and using that as my primary email.

I don't really see any cons aside from the risk that Apple is a little bit newer at this cloud-based services stuff than Google so there may be some growing pains.

 

[Mowgli21]

I am planning on this too but my one problem is can you add other email addresses to it. E.g. In my google account i have my work email, gmail and a live mail address accessible through the same interface.

Can you do this with iCloud?

Cheers

 

[Cyacene]

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I think I would move over, but if I can't have multiple emails coming in with the ability to "send as", I'll have to stick with google for now.

 

[Cyacene]

After thinking about this for a while. If I just stop checking other emails from my gmail account, and add them as separate mail accounts on my Mac/iPhone/iPad, then that solves my problem.

 

[aziatiklover]

Been using both cuz I have Android as well, but I like MobileMe/iCloud better.

 

[Yumunum]

I'm hoping to do the same. It annoys me how Google's services don't fully play nice with my Apple products (aka, all of my products) With the iCloud I'd know everything will work together, I can change things (like smart labels) on all devices, and I'll know exactly what's going on behind the scenes. No longer will I have weird surprises, like finding out I have to go to the Google Sync website to make my calendars start syncing. There's just too much weirdness when you're making two services work together

 

[androiphone]

I'm going to stick with gmail, but I am going to get the me.com email and use it if I need to.

After thinking about this for a while. If I just stop checking other emails from my gmail account, and add them as separate mail accounts on my Mac/iPhone/iPad, then that solves my problem.

this is what I do now just have all my emails added separately, it works best and means I get push with all my gmail and hotmail accounts, without having to wait for one gmail account to collect the mail.

 

[quique123]

Sync iCloud Gmail iPhone

Great discussion, but does anyone know how to do this exactly?

I would either like to move completely to iCloud, but I need to transfer my contacts and calendar;

or Id like to use both for some time so Id like to have everything updated in all 3 places at once. At this moment I have everything on my iPhone but on gmail only gmail stuff and on iCloud only iCloud stuff.

How do i get all 3 to work together? Or worst case scenario, move my contacts and calendars from gmail to iCloud?

 

[ugahairydawgs]

You can either export/import from Google to iCloud or copy over manually from iCal and sync Address Book.

Backup your data before you do anything...just in case.

 

[bgro]

I'm already switched over..exported all my mailboxes and have my Gmail forwarded to my iCloud mail. it's a pain in the ass trying to tell everyone new email so i'll just reply with the iCloud one and hopefully people can figure it out.

 

[TheOriginalKi]

I'm waiting until iCloud push starts working on the iPhone as it's not yet. I.e it wont push when the mail app is not running.

 

[Tom8]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

How do I set up gMail to forward to iCloud mail?

I too am dropping the google services for iCloud, as others have pointed out, the integration of iCloud on my two main platforms (iOS & OS X) is the most compelling reason for the switch, plus I feel safer with my data in Apple's hands, rather than Google's

 

[Ponderous]

I too am trying to decide what to do.

At present, I have google for everything, as does my wife. We have our calendars shared and therefore can see each others events on our calendars. I certainly want to keep this functionality. I'm assuming we will both need a @me.com name. I will continue to use one iTunes account though as I like all our apps, songs, and books in one place.

I have some concerns about space. Right now I have 80 GB of space on Google's servers for email, picasa web albums, and google docs for $20.00 Does anyone know how much similar storage will be with icloud?

Also, how can I get my @me addresses now? Do I have to wait to install the iOs5 on my iphones and ipad tomorrow?

Thanks for the info!

 

[shurcooL]

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Yep. Been using Google Sync for last 2 years, but considering switching to Apple's new offering to keep everything under the same umbrella.

 

[wetrix]

I'm switching too. Was using Google Sync for mail, contacts, cals but I like the idea of having everything in one place. Hopefully iCloud will evolve into what google id is for chrome OS.

Pros:
-no ads (for now)
-should work more consistently
-@me.com is fewer characters than @gmail.com
-can make @me.com address a google id, but can't make gmail.com a fully working iCloud id (no mail or notes if not using @me.com)

Cons:
-inconsistent delete behaviour (on iOS, you can archive on delete but not in Lion Mail or using the HTML interface)
-no send as
-less storage and have to share that with backups
-need HTML5 to check email
-not too sure how compatible calendar invites will be with exchange

 

[PR.]

I've switched over, got my domain mail forwarding to both gmail and iCloud. Not sure about mail, as has been said no "send as" is irritating, and I can't help feeling the iCloud mail is too simplistic compared to the Gmail I've been using for years.

The only reason I'm looking at changing from Gmail is the incredibly annoying Delete=Archive on the ActiveSync setup, it means I end up reading/replying in the Mail app then having to go to Safari and the webpage to delete anything it's so inefficient and it makes me rage every time I have to do it.

Switched Calendar and Contacts over with no issues exported from Google imported to iCal/AddressBook on the Mac and they synced over within a couple of minutes. Chrome > Xmarks > Safari > Bookmark sync seems to be working fine which I love.

 

[wetrix]

The only reason I'm looking at changing from Gmail is the incredibly annoying Delete=Archive on the ActiveSync setup, it means I end up reading/replying in the Mail app then having to go to Safari and the webpage to delete anything it's so inefficient and it makes me rage every time I have to do it.

Lol, this is my favourite feature of gmail and I miss it already. You can archive instead of delete in IO5, but not in Lion Mail and it's killing me!

 

[Poob Bubes]

I'm thinking about switching my Calendar and Contacts over from Google, but I am leaning towards leaving my Gmail. The main reason is because of spam filtering. It seems Gmail does a pretty good job at this and I don't really think Apple's spam filtering would compare. Any thoughts?

 

[Karenl39]

I'm thinking about switching my Calendar and Contacts over from Google, but I am leaning towards leaving my Gmail. The main reason is because of spam filtering. It seems Gmail does a pretty good job at this and I don't really think Apple's spam filtering would compare. Any thoughts?

I have to keep my gmail email addresses because one of them is for my business with it's own domain name and it uses google apps. But, I would prefer to use icloud for everything. I wonder if I can keep my gmail email addresses and use icloud? I have an iphone, ipad, macbook pro and Imac.

Right now, I have google exchange set up and every time I get an email, I receive 3 emails from people on my phone and 3 calendar entries and it drives me crazy. I've never gotten the calendar to sync right with my iphone and macs.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Google for years has provided most of the features you previously had to pay for with MobileMe. I use Gmail, Calendar and Contacts through Exchange sync on my iPhone, iPad and Macs and it's a solution that works.

However, I've also been using iCloud through iOS 5 GM. It's nice - it works and it's free.

I really like a clean solution and a fresh start. Because of this I'm tempted to simply use iCloud for everything including my primary email, switching off Google Exchange sync and keeping everything within Apple's ecosystem. Moving all my contacts and calendars over to iCloud as well.

Has anyone thought the same at all? Weighed up the pros and cons?

Not until they fix all the bugs. I just don't trust iCloud right now.

 

[FloridaMac]

I'm not until they fix the sync issue with deleted emails not syncing with other devices. I can delete an email on say, my ipad and it will still show I have a message on my iphone. I have to go into the mail app and allow it to update for it to delete the email. MobileMe did this and now iCloud is doing it. Don't understand why this continues to be a problem.

 

[johnnyboyvzw]

Google for years has provided most of the features you previously had to pay for with MobileMe. I use Gmail, Calendar and Contacts through Exchange sync on my iPhone, iPad and Macs and it's a solution that works.

However, I've also been using iCloud through iOS 5 GM. It's nice - it works and it's free.

I really like a clean solution and a fresh start. Because of this I'm tempted to simply use iCloud for everything including my primary email, switching off Google Exchange sync and keeping everything within Apple's ecosystem. Moving all my contacts and calendars over to iCloud as well.

Has anyone thought the same at all? Weighed up the pros and cons?

Do you have a Mac or are you running Windows?

Gmail is still the standard for robust and reliable email, I would not give that up. I do prefer Address Book and iCal though on my Mac. I felt stuck with using gmail for contacts and calendars until now (iCloud). The web interface for Contacts and Calendars for iCloud is great. I would recommend the same if you have a Mac. If you're on a windows computer, sticking with gmail would be the way to go.

 

[rufhausen]

I took a leap of faith today and moved over my contacts and calendars (and wife’s) to iCloud from a Google Apps account. I also forwarded all mail from a secondary @gmail.com account to the iCloud email. I’m leaving the Google Apps email intact for now because I don’t want to mess with changing my primary email account.
Migrating the Calendars was really easy using the Google Calendar export function.
For Contacts, I just synced with Google one last time using Address book, then turned on Contacts in iCloud.
For both contacts and calendars, you don’t really see a difference if these are coming from iCloud or Google when using an iPhone or iPad while still using gmail for email. The only issue now is if I’m forced to use the browser for my Google Apps email, my contacts there won’t be up to date.

 

[DougFNJ]

I have moved my contacts, notes, and calendars over to iCloud, I am waiting a bit before I make it my primary email address from here on out just to confirm all bugs are out and reliability is there.

Reason I am doing this is I do not like the fact that every bit of my data is being scanned and this information being sold so companies can better market to me. With Google, we are the product, with Apple, iCloud is the feature.