MobileMe...kind of lame

[BacklitFirefly]

I've been using MobileMe for a couple of years now. The email has been nice, even though I wince when I look at the email address with @me.com -- because, that just sounds icky somehow. Still, the mail is clean and pretty.

Calendar syncing across multiple devices is luxuriously nice.

I've never done much with the Gallery or iDisk. Those two just sort of sit there in the cloud floating around underutilized.

Syncing contacts is super nice, again across multiple devices.

But worth the yearly cost? I don't know lately. And I only spend a fraction of the real cost, since I order mine from eBay usually. But when I think about it, sometimes even paying $10 for this seems a bit far fetched.

Can I make iCal work with my Google calendars and have it sync the way MobileMe does? And contacts, too, through Gmail perhaps?

As for email, I have my own domain name that sounds much more professional than @me.com. I also do all my file hosting (unlimited space) on my domain server. I like storing other things locally for the most part, so even the upcoming iCloud doesn't appeal to me very much.

Just wondering what other long time users are thinking about it lately. Have we passed the golden age where paying for this kind of stuff was viable?

 

[soloer]

It's definitely not worth it if you don't use many/most of what it offers. Not much use in talking about it now though.. wait until Monday afternoon and see what we find out about iCloud.

 

[benhollberg]

If you just use it for a couple features then it isn't worth it. I use it for mail, keeping everything in sync and find my iPhone. All you can get free. But I also use it for hosting and iDisk for 20 GB. You can't get that free anywhere else. I'm sure I use other features but just can't think of them now.

 

[BacklitFirefly]

Good points you both make. I'll just hang in there until Monday and see what news comes down. If I decide to stop using MobileMe, I'll need to read up on how to do the syncing elsewhere, because I don't currently have that information. Thanks dudes.

 

[benhollberg]

If I decide to stop using MobileMe, I'll need to read up on how to do the syncing elsewhere, because I don't currently have that information.

Google's Gmail does syncing with contacts, mail, calendar and all that for free and works basically the same way MobileMe does with your iOS device and Mac.

 

[Matthew9559]

Right, for your use of the services it seems like Google would be a great and free alternative.

I have used both. Google Calendar/Email/Contacts work pretty damn weel on iOS. However, not as flawlessly as MobileMe.

You can connect Calendar to your google account but it doesn't display all of your diff. calendars.

If you use Safari on the phone and access calendar.google.com it will all work perfectly. Just integrating Google into iOS apps isn't as smooth as I would like. I had duplicate contacts, contacts missing, etc.

Others I have heard have had no bad experiences.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Right, for your use of the services it seems like Google would be a great and free alternative.

I have used both. Google Calendar/Email/Contacts work pretty damn weel on iOS. However, not as flawlessly as MobileMe.

You can connect Calendar to your google account but it doesn't display all of your diff. calendars.

If you use Safari on the phone and access calendar.google.com it will all work perfectly. Just integrating Google into iOS apps isn't as smooth as I would like. I had duplicate contacts, contacts missing, etc.

Others I have heard have had no bad experiences.

This has been my experience with Google Calendar. It's simply no where near as easy to setup or use as MobileMe for Calendaring. Honestly, I was disappointed.

 

[maflynn]

I wince when I look at the email address with @me.com -- because, that just sounds icky somehow.

Agreed.

I have a .mac account and to be honest if they force me over to .me, I'll stop using it. I've had .mac since itools was offered and free, but .me just doesn't sound good.

Here's hoping that apple can mobileme right for once

 

[mactouros]

The value of MobileMe is relative to how much you think the features you use are worth.

I have a lot of custom ringtones, many of them that announce the caller's name or other designation. MobileMe preserves the ringtone when syncing, and Google doesn't (at least not when I switched). That and the seamless integration of the calendars were worth the eBay price of MobileMe. I loved my google calendars, but it was a little complicated to get it to sync with iCal, my iphone, ipad, and google. I still prefer the feel of google calendars and used them for a while even after getting MobileMe, but I'm happy with MobileMe. Now I heavily use and depend on iDisk, too, but the biggest selling point for me is still being able to preserve my custom ringtones as trivial as that may seem. Everything else is added value.