MobileMe Email Vs. Google

[TheGrudge]

I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts were on the new MobileMe email. I'm not debating the value of MobileMe as a package. I'm just curious to see how you think the email portion of MobileMe stacks up against the email portion of GMail.

I ask because I've been switching back and fourth for the past couple of weeks and I can't seem to make up my mind. I'm using my GMail address the entire time but I've been switching back and fourth between forwarding all my Gmail to my MobileMe account and using Gmail itself. I also have an iPhone so I've been toggling back and fourth.

I like the MobileMe interface much better. It's just smoother and easier to navigate. I've never been a big fan of the conversation view in Google and I don't really like their "labels" either. I know it's old fashioned but I'm a folder guy through and through. The only downfall to MM is that it requires a little more effort to make sure I'm always sending from my GMail account both on my phone and via the MM website. It's also a bit slower when compared to Gmail just in terms of reading/clicking through messages.

So are there any features that, to you, make Gmail or the MM mail an absolute must-use? What are your likes and dislikes with each?

Just curious.

 

[d21mike]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

I tried gmail but I am also a folders guy. Did not like Labels when using other mail clients. MM is faster now then in the prior release but could be faster.

 

[TheGrudge]

I'm testing today to see how the battery life on my iPhone compares between the two services. It stands to reason that there would be no effect but I'm curious to see if Google Sync (setup as Exchange account) will require more juice than my MobileMe email.

 

[wakka092]

I'm not totally sold on MobileMe yet. I only bought it because it was cheap on eBay. I do like the interface. However, I think the killer feature is the ease of setting up aliases: have an extra MobileMe email address that funnels into your main MobileMe address.

I have a big problem though, the unread count doesn't sync across devices! It drives me nuts compared to Google's Exchange sync. They need to fix that - it's such an obvious flaw.

 

[wakka092]

Oh, and I haven't noticed any difference in battery life. In theory, it should be more power efficient since it's not traditional "push" per se, since it's not using IMAP IDLE (probably causing the unread count issue.)

 

[MotionxxUSxx]

I'm in the same boat as you. I have two macs, iphone and ipad and I like the syncing between all devices. I'm currently testing out both and have found a few small problems with mobileme, but overall I'm liking it. I purchased a cheap subscription on ebay.

 

[d21mike]

I still use Google Sync for Calendar Sharing on my iPhone (with other co-workers). MM Calendar Sharing is stilling having problems (testing the Beta). So I now have both MobileMe and Google Sync Running. Not sure about battery life. If I remember correctly when I was testing the Google Sync Mail I believe you could set which folders (in their case labels) that would be Synced to the iPhone (without having to go into the folder). With MM you have to actually go into the folder to see if there is mail. I.E. MM only Pushes (and updates the count) for the Inbox. This is a real problem for me. Windows Live has announced they will offer ActiveSync for Windows Live Mail, Contacts and Calendar (like Google). It is not fully released yet but I will test it when it becomes available. If they support Multiple Folder Push I may switch to them. However, my understanding they only support top level folders. Seems like no 1 company can get it all done.

 

[Macmaniac411]

Honestly, i like gmail better, the only thing MobileMe has on gmail is the awesome web interface and at least to me is not that special because i use the native apps for email. When i bought MobileMe though i thought it would be better than it is. Gmail offers much more features also, but what the hell, as i see it i pay for idisk and find my iphone, mail calendar and gallery are extras.

 

[i-John]

I rarely use MobileMe for mail. I have my contact and calendar sync, as well as Find my iPhone. I do use iDisk occasionally. It's not worth the money if it's mail that you want. Gmail is faster, and it has push now via ActiveSync.

 

[TheGrudge]

I use MobileMe for contacts, bookmarks, find my phone, and I keep trying to switch my calendars and mail over too. I would love nothing more than to have all of my services under once company but to date, the mail and calendars aren't quite living up to Gmail's offerings IMO.

Maybe soon I will be able to become 100% MobileMe...

 

[JamesM]

Can I use my personal domain with Google Sync?

 

[d21mike]

Can I use my personal domain with Google Sync?

Yes. I assume you mean the Google Apps. The URL and setup is different. Just read the instructions.