Is the iCloud going to make you switch email/calendar/contacts services?

[Yumunum]

I'm interested on what everyone else plans on doing when iCloud comes out... Will you switch over to use the iCloud for your contacts/emails/calendar? What service(s) do you use now?

Personally, I use Gmail right now. For everything. But I hate how it doesn't play nice with my Mac/iPhone.

-Events duplicate themselves
-contacts don't always show up on my iPhone
-email has some limits for features

It makes me think I'd do better to just use Apple's service, with Apple's products. But then I realize... I'd be fully trapped in Apple's ecosystem. What happens if I buy a Nexus Prime later? How would I get my email on that? I'd be stuck. It just seems dangerous leaving an open service (Google) for a closed service (Apple). Gmail is compatible with so much.

Unless I'm wrong though... Can you use MobileMe/iCloud on other services than your Apple products? Could you have Gmail automatically import emails from your iCloud account to Gmail, the same way you can do for other email services?

As you can tell, I don't know what to do so what are you doing?

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I use MobileMe now, but it is all running off of my Google Apps account. The mail forwards to my MobileMe inbox and any message I send (on the web, OSX Mail, iPhone, iPad) runs through Google's SMTP servers. I do this for a couple of reasons..

1. It lets me use my own personal domain for e-mail rather than me.com
2. It keeps me from completely sucked into the world of Apple. If I choose to switch to another platform down the road it won't be difficult.

I like having options and don't like to back myself into a corner relying on one company for everything.

But you're right about Google services and Apple devices not playing nice. If that were to ever be resolved I could completely cut out MobileMe/iCloud from my digital loop, but I doubt that will be happening anytime soon.

 

[steve knight]

I use mobleme for everything but the calender. I like getting emails or texts as alerts. they stay there till you do what needs doing.

 

[neko girl]

I was locked out of gmail due to Google+ until I submitted a copy of my ID (I used my real name which had been on my google account for years). I keep all my archives on gmail's servers but had no access until this was cleared up.

I'm not sure what that was all about, but it makes me really consider switching things over to iCloud. But, the reason I keep things on gmail is because my experience is things are pretty stable. I didn't have a good experience moving mails around in MobileMe using Mac Mail, so I don't know.

I would pay for Yahoo! premium, but Yahoo!'s spam filters are quite bad.

 

[Yumunum]

Annnnnd... I just ordered an HP Touchpad. I'll be installing Android on it once it's ported.

Looks like my best option is to stick with what I do now... I'm guessing it'll be nice to have my contacts with Google, when I get Google+ Isn't there integration of some sort?

 

[shandyman]

Annnnnd... I just ordered an HP Touchpad. I'll be installing Android on it once it's ported.

Looks like my best option is to stick with what I do now... I'm guessing it'll be nice to have my contacts with Google, when I get Google+ Isn't there integration of some sort?

well i have my calender, email, contacts all running thru iCloud, but syncing and running nicely on Outlook on Windows 7.

 

[Matthew9559]

I have been using MobileMe for about two years now. It works so perfectly with all of my apple devices (in sig). Google email/contacts/calendar work but like you said does not play as nice as MobileMe. I always go back and forth between these two services but my final decision, I think haha, is Google. For these reasons.

1. I don't want to be stuck with Apple for everything. I like the idea of platform independence.
2. I use bootcamp a lot. I have a windows 7 desktop and windows laptop for work.
3. Google does a great job with their services

The main reason I do not like Google calendar is because without an Internet connection you cannot access their services. I hate that.

Plus a few times my calendars failed to load. That screws me as a user.

 

[rowley]

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Most of my kit will not support Lion/iOS5 so I will stick with google for the time being.

 

[shandyman]

I have a windows 7 desktop and windows laptop for work.

I am using iCloud on Windows 7 on my desktop and my laptop with no problems, so you could still do that......

 

[paulsalter]

I use both of them

gMail for mail, I prefer the web interface over the MM one and with google I get 16GB of disc space for my mail

Contacts - These are synced to MM & Google

For Calendar I use BusyCal, my main calendar is on MM, but with using BusyCal I can sync my MM calendars direct to Google

I dont use all Apple products, so use both services

 

[iammike1]

with google I get 16GB of disc space for my mail

How?

 

[paulsalter]

How?

just signed up for it, thats what it gave me

unless I am reading wrong 15360 MB I have as storage (not quite 16 GB)

 

[iammike1]

just signed up for it, thats what it gave me

unless I am reading wrong 15360 MB I have as storage (not quite 16 GB)

WTF, I've been with Gmail since early beta and I have 7618 MB.

 

[thunderbunny]

WTF, I've been with Gmail since early beta and I have 7618 MB.

My paid-for Apps for business account has 25Gb mail. My free account gives the 7618Mb

 

[KsbjA]

Note that iCloud works on any device that supports IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV and (I think) CardDAV. No reason to worry, (future) Android users. I already set this all up on my iOS 4 iPod touch. Works fine.

 

[petvas]

I am not giving up my hosted Exchange account. It just works.

 

[kepardue]

I'm planning on moving over to iCloud/@me.com email once its live. I've had a Google Apps domain for years, but I have issues with Google. I'd much rather pay for a service and not have to deal with ads. At least I can pretend I'm a consumer and not a product that way. Plus, Apple's cost for extra iCloud storage is reasonable.

 

[angusslo]

I can't wait for iCloud so yeah, I'il be moving

 

[marc11]

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I'm planning on moving over to iCloud/@me.com email once its live. I've had a Google Apps domain for years, but I have issues with Google. I'd much rather pay for a service and not have to deal with ads. At least I can pretend I'm a consumer and not a product that way. Plus, Apple's cost for extra iCloud storage is reasonable.

Better be sure what that storage means....it is not available for everything. The nice thing about gmail is you can use your own mail client so there are no ads, storage space is huge and it's free.

 

[kepardue]

You're suggesting that I can't allocate as much space towards Mail as I choose is I purchase, say, a 50GB plan? Hmmm... that's a bit of a bummer if so.

I've used Google Apps for ages. Don't really like their IMAP implementation, either. It's like IMAP, but kinda quirky. Same with their CalDav.

 

[marc11]

You're suggesting that I can't allocate as much space towards Mail as I choose is I purchase, say, a 50GB plan? Hmmm... that's a bit of a bummer if so.

I've used Google Apps for ages. Don't really like their IMAP implementation, either. It's like IMAP, but kinda quirky. Same with their CalDav.

From what I have read no. It is part of your free 5gb, but that is assuming you keep all your mail in the cloud and not on your device. I am not clear on how the mail will work, will it live on your Mac and in the cloud? Or in the case of an idevice only, will your mail only live in the cloud? If so, then it counts against your free 5gb, which also is used for your back ups as one lump amount.

 

[DaffyDuck]

As for email, my service allows me to create a unique email address for each company, forum, etc. I interact with. So for amazon, I use something like amazon@myname.email (not real address)

So if I get spam addressed to amazon@myname.email I know who screwed me over and I can add a filter for that address. If iCloud doesn't allow me to do this I'm not interested.