best iCloud alternative

[hehe299792458]

I'm looking for something that's similar to iCloud - most notably, contacts and calendar sync. I cannot use iCloud because I simply cannot upgrade to Lion at this moment.

Google Sync doesn't work very well because multiple calendars and contact groups are essential.

I tried Exchange 2007 and Office 365. It's contact sync is very limiting (no custom labels).

 

[marcusj0015]

Box.net 50Gb free for life. for iOS users. *shrugs*

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_...b-of-free-cloud-storage-with-box.net-for-ios/

 

[Vegerot]

...MobileMe?

 

[kas23]

Google. You can sync your notes, mail, and calendar events. Works much better than iCloud too. For storage of data online, Dropbox.

 

[kappaknight]

Google does multiple calendar and calendar sharing way better than Apple.

Check out this link to set it up.

http://comefortheride.com/how-to-setup-share-and-sync-multiple-calendars-in-ical/

 

[S1njin]

Box.net

Can somebody tell me what they used their Box.net 50GB of space for? As I understand it, it has a 100mb upload limit - at first I was psyched b/c I could periodically copy my iPhoto library out there for backup purposes, but I can't even do that.

Does anybody have any real world use for Box.net in a Apple ecosystem?

 

[TBR]

Box.net 50Gb free for life. for iOS users. *shrugs*

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_...b-of-free-cloud-storage-with-box.net-for-ios/

FYI you have to pay for desktop sync which is a deal breaker for me.

 

[Zcott]

+1 for Google; works great for my multiple calendars.

 

[hehe299792458]

Thanks for all your replies!

Does anyone know if there a way to also sync CONTACTS groups from the Address Book with Gmail Contacts?

 

[darster]

The cloud is BS. My cloud is a time machine, macbook and iMac. It's a scam.

 

[haruhiko]

For calendar Google is the best
but Google's Exchange contact sync is very limited. So contacts should be sync'ed with iCloud.

 

[ipoddin]

Thanks for all your replies!

Does anyone know if there a way to also sync CONTACTS groups from the Address Book with Gmail Contacts?

yes, by setting up Gmail as an exchange account on your phone. Mail, calendar and contacts will stay in sync. Google it and you'll find out the steps to set this up on your phone. That's what I do and it works great.

 

[hehe299792458]

yes, by setting up Gmail as an exchange account on your phone. Mail, calendar and contacts will stay in sync. Google it and you'll find out the steps to set this up on your phone. That's what I do and it works great.

Unfortunately, it syncs all the contacts from"my contact" group and nothing else. And it doesn't sync the group themselves - e.g. I can have a group named X on my Gmail Account, and while that group's contacts will sync to the iPhone, the group itself will be left out

 

[TLewis]

I hate to say this but, unless you're willing to pay for an exchange account (or are insane enough to roll your own email server), you're probably not going to find a better contacts solution than iCloud/Mobileme. Everything else (free) seems to only support a single, flat list of contacts -- no contact groups.

 

[hehe299792458]

I hate to say this but, unless you're willing to pay for an exchange account (or are insane enough to roll your own email server), you're probably not going to find a better contacts solution than iCloud/Mobileme. Everything else (free) seems to only support a single, flat list of contacts -- no contact groups.

Actually, I'm willing to pay. I'm willing to pay about $10-12 per month depend on the features. However, exchange doesn't get me what I want either since it has a limited set of contact labels (no custom labels).

If there were a reliable, large, and stable provider of CardDav hosting, I'd the first one to hand over my money. But so far, the ones I've found that provide this service are smallish companies that could go kaput any day or decide to cash out by selling my data to advertisers or something. I want something sustainable.

 

[TLewis]

Actually, I'm willing to pay. I'm willing to pay about $10-12 per month depend on the features. However, exchange doesn't get me what I want either since it has a limited set of contact labels (no custom labels).

I haven't tried it, but I thought full exchange hosting (activesync) supports full contact groups (folders) on iOS? Anyway, when I was looking for exchange hosting, I was thinking about Rackspace, as they're a non-small operation:

http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/exchange_hosting/
​

It's something like $13/month for iPhone and 2GB.

 

[hehe299792458]

I haven't tried it, but I thought full exchange hosting (activesync) supports full contact groups (folders) on iOS? Anyway, when I was looking for exchange hosting, I was thinking about Rackspace, as they're a non-small operation:

http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/exchange_hosting/
​

It's something like $13/month for iPhone and 2GB.

Actually, by Labels, I meant I can't label the individual phone numbers. e.g.
abc: 000-000-0001 xyz: 000-000-0002.

With exchange, I have to do this: work 1: 000-000-000-1; work 2: 000-000-0002

 

[gentlefury]

Google, I use it and iCloud.

 

[PNutts]

Box.net 50Gb free for life. for iOS users. *shrugs*

That would be true if Box did what iCloud does.

The cloud is BS. My cloud is a time machine, macbook and iMac. It's a scam.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who is one fire, flood, burglary, etc., away from having nothing.

 

[verwon]

That would be true if Box did what iCloud does.



And this, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who is one fire, flood, burglary, etc., away from having nothing.

^^^True!