MobileMe Alternatives

[philiporeilly]

I am just finishing up my 60 day trial of MobileMe and haven't been impressed enough to fork out for the annual subscription. I want to be able to sync files, bookmarks, contacts, calendars, etc but I have found using certain alternatives better to use. Obviously this may not be as good as an all in one package some users might like but I like the alternatives below.

if anyone has better suggestions please leave them here..

My suggestions

Bookmark Syncing
Foxmarks for Firefox is a free plugin to enable you to sync bookmarks and passwords between various PCs/Macs. Easy to use

File Syncing
Dropbox is an excellent file syncing utility for PCs and Macs. They offer 2Gb storage for free but 50Gb is available for a monthly subscription.

Calendars & Email
The killer app for me is having Google Apps for my domain. I prefer this than to an Apple domain name. MobileMe would attract more users if you could use your own domain name like Google. It seamlessly syncs mail and calendars between my Macs, PCs and iPhone.

Contacts
I haven't found a contact Sync that i am 100% happy with but Nuevasync does a good job of syncing between my iPhone and Google Mail accounts for free. If there was a better over the air alternative for syncing macs, iphone and Google Mail I'd love to know!!!!

Back to My Mac
I paid about 20 bucks for the Sharetool app but at least it is not a subscription service. It allows bonjour connections between macs so you can screen share, file share, iTunes share etc... For dynamic IPs I use the DynDns free app for updating IPs. Works well

Task Management
I use OmniFocus for task management and syncing between iPhone/Mac. This is a paid app but is highly powerfull. Miscit.com gives you a free LDAP account to sync tasks for the app if you do not have a MobileMe account


PLEASE LEAVE YOUR SUGGESTIONS HERE...

 

[McGiord]

I am also very interested to know about alternatives to MobileMe.
Especially those that sync with iPhone over the air.

 

[mikeyur]

Uhmm. You could purchase a hosted exchange account... you can have push email/contacts/calendars. A hosted exchange account costs about $10/month roughly (my account is with a company called sherweb - you can google them, I'm not going to throw their link in here)

You use your own domain (just change your mx records) and it works pretty well. The only thing that sucks though is that Outlook Web Access is pretty weak on anything except for IE since you have to use the 'light' version - and mail.app has crappy exchange support and the best is outlook/entourage. one of which doesn't run natively on os x and the other is a big steaming crap of code.

If you're cool with basic web access, but push everything, then you may want to look into getting a hosted exchange account somewhere.

 

[thechidz]

for syncing calanders and mail I use thunderbird on pc and sunbrid syncing with google cals which also syncs with ical now, so that works pretty well for me. the only thing I need now on my pc is good video editing software. Im looking into adobe products

 

[freeweel]

A very good alternative to mobile me I am currently using for my small business is interways.net
They offer shared calendars, contacts and such, we have our own domain there for email, too.
Calendars, contacts, tasks, mail push immediately to our iPhones and Macs.
Got the tip here in the forums and never regretted it...

Thom O.

 

[wilderness1957]

Try looking at http://www.getsyncd.com I singed up and have had amazing service works great. They will get you a trial service and let you see for yourself

 

[shelt]

Fruux! Works great on Safari bookmarks, calendars, contacts, and notes.

 

[CalMin]

Uhmm. You could purchase a hosted exchange account... you can have push email/contacts/calendars. A hosted exchange account costs about $10/month roughly (my account is with a company called sherweb - you can google them, I'm not going to throw their link in here)

I used to do that with 1&1 for about $7/month. Then I realized MobileMe is about the same price. Watch dealmac.com for specials or buy from eBay.

For me, Mobile Me is a good value proposition because everything integrates and sync's without drama (mostly). As compared to hosted exchange, it's a pretty good deal.

 

[dmk1974]

I'm looking for something too, mostly for use on the two iPhones in my household. If I stick with MobileMe, the cheapest I can figure for the family is about $116 for another year ($66 for a single from Amazon plus the $50 family add-on).

Can Google's syncing be sufficient? Key features I like on MobileMe that sync from my PC/Cloud to the iPhone are:

* Push E-mail/Calendar/Contacts/Bookmarks
* Gallery so I can share photos AND videos (can Picasa do this on the iPhone?)

 

[ItsAllLuck]

is back to my mac worth it?

 

[BroadcastDoc]

IIf I stick with MobileMe, the cheapest I can figure for the family is about $116 for another year ($66 for a single from Amazon plus the $50 family add-on).

I found a Family Pack at an online retailer for $79.99 a while back.

 

[sprale]

My SO and I use Gmail, just got MobileMe. Gmail is free, the big selling point. MobileMe offers up the iDisk, which is really the only part Gmail doesn't compare to. There are some other features that only MobileMe offers, but I really wouldn't need them.

I actually had a haphazard sync system in place with Google, Apple's apps and Entourage. So far, I don't have any issues with MobileMe thrown into the mix, but I'm keeping a close eye on it for a while.

 

[chosenwolf]

You listed about 6 different sites/services/applications that are needed in order to do what you can with 1 MobileMe subscription. Some are free, but others do cost money.

For me, the entire subscription is worth one specific feature: "Remote Wipe." We keep so much important data on our phones nowadays that if it were to get lost and be put into the wrong hands, it could be very disastrous. I've found the "Find my iPhone" feature and "Remote Lock" to work very reliably from testing.

 

[SchneiderMan]

mozy?

 

[sprale]

You listed about 6 different sites/services/applications that are needed in order to do what you can with 1 MobileMe subscription. Some are free, but others do cost money.

I was able to get by with Google services syncing to various apps on my Macs, substituting DropBox for iDisk. It works, but does not have the simple, built-in functionality that MobileMe offers. But the price is right.

For me, the entire subscription is worth one specific feature: "Remote Wipe." We keep so much important data on our phones nowadays that if it were to get lost and be put into the wrong hands, it could be very disastrous. I've found the "Find my iPhone" feature and "Remote Lock" to work very reliably from testing.

Many businesses which support company-owned iPhones utilize a remote wipe feature. Some which allow access via personal iPhones require MobileMe for this very reason.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Fruux! Works great on Safari bookmarks, calendars, contacts, and notes.

Safari has Calendars, Contacts and Notes built-in?? Since when, and are these a Mac Safari only feature? I don't see it on WinXP's Safari version.

I'm considering trying my Nokia Ovi services account. Currently Free and it worked well with my E71 (nokia) smartphone. Calendar, Notes, AddressBook has settings I could possibly use but don't know where manually to input them on the iPhone. Ovi is not the prefered solution but its the only solution S60 users have at best for something like this. Photos also sync to the device.

Still I thought the best reason for MobileMe is because of both the sync (photos too), and find my iPhone/remote wipe my iPhone functions. Remote wipe, something that only Exchange bound devices (other than MM) can utilize. Should I find a working and great solution I'd want this control as well.

I was able to get by with Google services syncing to various apps on my Macs, substituting DropBox for iDisk. It works, but does not have the simple, built-in functionality that MobileMe offers. But the price is right.

Many businesses which support company-owned iPhones utilize a remote wipe feature. Some which allow access via personal iPhones require MobileMe for this very reason.

DropBox or Box.net is still suited best for the Mac/PC for file sharing since both are free. But on the iPhone to load a 6MB PDF takes forever - even over a solid 3.5G/WLAN connection. I'd rather use File Aid over USB/WLAN to the host machine for file transfer and use because it KEEPS the files on the app's database to be quickly loaded for use later. Am I missing something DropBox features?

Also can you name the "Many" businesses that support company-owned iPhones that utilize remote wipe feature? Are these company's only graphic design houses or under 100 employee base, or are we talking about 500+ iPhones deployed. If it's the latter then Apple should definately advertise this more and I'd love to see it as well - especially how they access corporate intranets, databases, in-house email/calendaring/notes/meeting requests, and also intranet web-based application deployments. I'd LOVE to see RemedyAR featured over web to be used on the iPhone's Safari app.

 

[sprale]

Am I missing something DropBox features?

Not really much, but I have a corporate BB currently, no iPhone joy for me.

Also can you name the "Many" businesses that support company-owned iPhones that utilize remote wipe feature? Are these company's only graphic design houses or under 100 employee base, or are we talking about 500+ iPhones deployed. If it's the latter then Apple should definately advertise this more and I'd love to see it as well - especially how they access corporate intranets, databases, in-house email/calendaring/notes/meeting requests, and also intranet web-based application deployments. I'd LOVE to see RemedyAR featured over web to be used on the iPhone's Safari app.

I work for a large publisher (30k employees) and it supports the iPhone on an exchange system. I hope to join those iPhone users soon. It seems to work well for those who are using it. I've heard of a few more implementing it this year, so it is new to most large corporations.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Definately great to hear.

Lets hope more users leaving the proprietary NOC and get to real & direct synchronization and administration. This is why I loved S60/Symbian up until I touched the iPod Touch. You can see why I bought the iPhone 3GS.

 

[Marquito]

This is spam.
Please could someone delete this thread and block this poster - thanks.

 

[BroadcastDoc]

It may not be spam, but it's certainly not necessary to start a new topic. If you scroll down a little bit on this page, you'll find a thread titled "MobileMe alternatives".

I think it wold have been more appropriate there.

 

[mkrishnan]

It may not be spam, but it's certainly not necessary to start a new topic. If you scroll down a little bit on this page, you'll find a thread titled "MobileMe alternatives".

I think it wold have been more appropriate there.

And now it is. Although, it seems, it already was before as well...

freeweel, official request: No more new threads about this topic.

 

[MistaBungle]

Digging this up...

I have just signed up for DropBox and will be switching over to Gmail once my MM expires in January. It's been nice but I just can't justify spending $90 (believe, it's tough to get it cheaper, I'm in CAN) every year for e-mail/iDisk when I can get it for free.

For those that sync Gmail on the iPhone, what is that experience like?

 

[Dwanep]

File sharing

My question will any of these programs let you share a file from pages, while someone you are sharing with has windows and does not have pages. Will it convert it to a pdf or word document? I am not happy with Mobile me either but that is a big plus.

 

[sprale]

Dropbox sharing works great, recipients just log in to the Web page and download the file, or can set up their computer as well.

Dropbox also just released an iPhone app...

 

[steve knight]

Dropbox sharing works great, recipients just log in to the Web page and download the file, or can set up their computer as well.

Dropbox also just released an iPhone app...

even easier put the file in the public folder right click and choose copy link and email the link.