MobileMe to see Basic Email Features?

[Maxamillious]

There's been a lot of speculation over MobileMe vs. Gmail, and it's undeniable that Gmail has features that MobileMe does not, such as filtering, and that MobileMe has features that Gmail does not, such as push (however, the "true push" aspect is still debated). MobileMe is wonderful, but when can we anticipate on seeing basic features such as filtering? Apple has acknowledged that there are still many strides to be made but has given it's customers no time line.

I am not saying that Gmail is better, but I have reverted back to Gmail from MobileMe due to a lack of basic email management features. Speaking strictly email (and disregarding Calendar, iDisk, ect.), I do not believe that MobileMe's current suit of features equates to a $100/yr service.

What's your take on the matter and when do you anticipate a roll-out of new email management features?

 

[bilboa]

I am not saying that Gmail is better

Well, I would say that, without any reservations. The only ways I can see that me.com/mail is any better are:

1. The web interface lets you use drag-n-drop to move messages from folder to folder. The gmail equivalent would be to click the checkbox next to a message and then select a label name from a drop down list.
2. Push new email notifications to your iPhone. With GMail you don't see if you have new messages on the iPhone until you open the Mail app.

That's it! That's the only extra things you get as far as the mail goes. Two rather trivial extra features. On the downside, compared to GMail MobileMe has the following shortcomings:

1. No ability to search whole messages, including the body of the message, not just the headers. Trying to find that email you received two years ago that was something to do with a helicopter? If you're using MobileMe's web interface, unless "helicopter" is mentioned in the subject line, you're out of luck unless you want to manually search through your messages one at a time. This shortcoming alone keeps me from moving my mail over to MobileMe. I really can't accept that when I'm on a trip without my computer, I have no way to search through my emails to find information in them.
2. Even the search capability that does exist is limited to one folder at a time.
3. No filter rules.
4. The contacts list in the Compose window rarely works, so you have to go lookup contacts in a separate browser window and copy-paste them into your mail message.
5. Very poor performance, etc.

Even if MobileMe mail was free I'd be critical of it, but when it's $100/year, and it sucks this much compared to free offerings like GMail or Yahoo Mail, then you can bet I'll say GMail's better.

I'm hopeful though that Apple is planning to fix these problems, and that that's why they've given out a free extra 90 days to MobileMe subscribers. I'm currently using the free evaluation of MobileMe. If Apple fixes these shortcomings before my free trial is up I will subscribe. The tight integration with the Mac Desktop is worth paying for, if they can make the web mail client at least decent.

 

[AlanShutko]

If you're just using the email, it's not worth it. Here's why I pay the money:

• I use it to sync contacts, calendars, and OmniFocus ToDo items across a laptop, desktop, and iPhone
• I sync dashboard, mail accounts, rules, keychain items, etc across two Macs
• It gives me a really easy way to publish pics tied in with Aperture
• 20GB hosted space
• Back To My Mac, handy when I need it.

Really, I'd pay for it just to sync the PIM info over the network for everything. Push email is just a bonus for me.

 

[bilboa]

If you're just using the email, it's not worth it.

Sure. The topic of this post was about the email part of MobileMe though, specifically web based email reader part of MobileMe. For people who don't use the webmail feature very much anyway then I would agree it's a non-issue if the other features of MobileMe are useful to you. In that case this forum topic isn't for you.

For me, the webmail part is important. It's certainly not the only thing I'm interested in, otherwise I'd just stick with gmail. I'm interested in MobileMe for a lot of the same reasons you listed. However I also have years worth of email stored in my gmail account. I travel enough without my computer with me that I actually access my email through a web interface perhaps more often than the average mac user. So I actually care if the web interface to MobileMe's email is deficient, and doesn't provide a good search feature, or allow me to setup rules to put different emails into different folders.

Basically, MobileMe's current webmail interface looks slick enough to fool someone who's just taking a casual look at it into thinking it's on par with other webmail offerings except for perhaps some minor details. In fact though, other than its slick look, it's pretty much the worst webmail interface available in terms of functionality.

 

[benfischer]

There's been a lot of speculation over MobileMe vs. Gmail, and it's undeniable that Gmail has features that MobileMe does not, such as filtering, and that MobileMe has features that Gmail does not, such as push (however, the "true push" aspect is still debated). MobileMe is wonderful, but when can we anticipate on seeing basic features such as filtering? Apple has acknowledged that there are still many strides to be made but has given it's customers no time line.

I am not saying that Gmail is better, but I have reverted back to Gmail from MobileMe due to a lack of basic email management features. Speaking strictly email (and disregarding Calendar, iDisk, ect.), I do not believe that MobileMe's current suit of features equates to a $100/yr service.

What's your take on the matter and when do you anticipate a roll-out of new email management features?

I'm moving all my email over to gmail. I do like MobileMe's folder system better than gmail's label system. It may be a paradigm thing. I'm used to folders after using Outlook/Exchange so long. Also, if you have a bunch of labels, they get all cluttered. However, I do like gmail's search capabilities better and I also like how it stacks conversations (emails in the same thread). I use Firefox and there are various add-ons to fix most of Gmail's shortcomings.

I don't anticipate any new email features with MobileMe. Apple will likely get PUSH working, though I don't know if it will be before 10.6 comes out. MobileMe mail is basically the same as .Mac mail and that's been the same for years. Apple's been promising new features for years and all they've come up with is adding iDisk space, Back to my Mac (which doesn't work for a lot of people due to their router setup) and MobileMe (enough said).

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

If you are going to focus on one part of the MobileMe service which doesn't have the features you need and ignore the rest of it, you can't really argue that it isn't worth $100/year, since that price gets you much more than just web-based email.

I agree that the web email isn't all that great, but when used in concert with Mail, it's every bit as good as Gmail. Still, if it was email only it wouldn't be worth $100 (or the $70 I paid from Amazon), but the subscription fee gets you the push service (which to the iPhone, at least, works very well now), the invaluable syncing of contacts and calendars, and--most important for me--the iDisk.

So, I agree that Memail isn't worth $100, but I think the whole MobileMe package--despite the web email's limitations--is absolutely worth it.

 

[TLewis]

What's your take on the matter and when do you anticipate a roll-out of new email management features?

Why not use both? Gmail for real email, and MM mail only for push email (just as an "alarm" to tell you that you have new gmail)? If you write your gmail filters correctly, you could just autoforward important/urgent gmail to MM. To repeat: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5985838#post5985838

Alternatively, if you're brave and want to try a "free/cheap" alternative, you can use one of these (I don't know how well these work, so use them at your own risk):

http://beaugiles.net/blog/2008/07/u...leme-alternative-with-push-contacts-calendar/
http://lifehacker.com/398526/set-up-push-email-contacts-and-calendar-on-your-iphone-for-free
​

One gives you push email, contacts, and calendar, but the contacts and calendar are somewhat hard to import/export. The other gives you push google contacts and google calendar, but no push gmail. You'll have to decide which to use.

 

[macwall]

it took me 2 years to get used to gmail threading... now i have to switch back to folders and message lists???

 

[JackMccurdy]

The Best Reason for Mobileme

The synch feature alone makes it worth it. I was recently on a business trip without my computer, but with my iPhone. The iPhone crashed due to a third party app, wiping out all 1400 of my contacts. I simply deleted my mobileme account in the iPHone and reinstalled it and it synched all of my contacts back within minutes!

 

[Tullio]

What about Yahoo! Mail?

 

[Swright]

What about Yahoo! Mail?

I have ATT/Yahoo mail through my DSL connection. It's the equivalent of Yahoo Plus, which includes POP3. It's been pretty reliable. The web app (new version) is feature-rich but is kinda jumpy. The scrolling lags, for example. And the design is ugly, with lots of gross ATT orange.

I've used different mail clients and Yahoo mail functions well with each I've tried. I have an ipod touch, and ATT/Yahoo mail works great. It pushes to the ipod faster than MobileMe. Changes made in the web app push to the phone. The trash folder behaves like MobileMe, in that when I throw mail into the trash on the ipod, it does not move it to the trash on the server. But unlike MobileMe, it does not put a copy in the trash.

With mail clients I see standard POP behavior. I set the clients to leave mail on the server after being downloaded, and that works well. Storage is unlimited, I can drag & drop mail to folders, forward mail, receive other POP accounts, etc. There's also a feature that lets me set up several throw away addresses. The SPAM filter works fairly well. Usually it errors on the side of putting real mail in the junk folder.

Downside for Yahoo is no IMAP and no POP unless you pay. But Yahoo Plus is only $20/yr.

 

[d21mike]

What about Yahoo! Mail?

Yahoo Mail does all that MobileMe "Mail" does and more. For my first year with the iPhone I used Yahoo Push Mail. However, now with with MobileMe Push Mail, Calendar and Contacts it is time to switch. I am suprised that after a full year Yahoo still only pushes mail.