MobileMe v. Google

[niter]

I did a quick search so forgive me if this subject is a rehash (and I am more than happy to be redirected appropriately).

I started up my new iPhone yesterday (hooray) and found myself missing my .mac account for the first time in ages. Prior to gmail, my .mac address was perfect and I really enjoyed the service. I thought iDisk needed some serious work, though. I dropped, with much hesitation, my .mac account the year after .me was introduced simply because I realized I was paying $99/yr simply for the .mac handle.

Fastforward and the household has expanded past the educational laptop to the same laptop, iMac, iPad, and now iPhone...with two AppleTv for which it would be nice for everything to be synced up. My work computer is a PC but I bring in my personal computer frequently. Last night, I missed the address book syncing but again I am not sure if much has changed to warrant the return, particularly when google is free.

Is there a significant advantage for MobileMe when one has an iPhone?

Thanks!

 

[niter]

One more quick question....is it possible to reclaim my old handle? It sucks loosing the .mac but I am willing to forgo that (and the handle) for the cash I saved when I was not using the service. Still, if possible, it would be nice!

 

[7on]

You can sync your google address book between computers.

I think if you try to login to mobileme with your old account info it presents you with a sign up form for your old account - I could be mistaken though.

A better option is go to hover.com,gandi.net, or moniker.com and buy yourname.com. Create an email account and forward that to you gmail and setup gmail's send from another account feature utilizing smtp. I swear that's WAAAAAY better than any mobileme account.

 

[niter]

You can sync your google address book between computers.

I think if you try to login to mobileme with your old account info it presents you with a sign up form for your old account - I could be mistaken though.

A better option is go to hover.com,gandi.net, or moniker.com and buy yourname.com. Create an email account and forward that to you gmail and setup gmail's send from another account feature utilizing smtp. I swear that's WAAAAAY better than any mobileme account.

That seems like a very good option too and I will look into it this evening. Part of the reason I dropped .mac/MobileMe was because I did my photohosting through flickr and outgrew much of the iWeb features--I enjoyed both the photohosting and webpages but not enough to make them better than other options.

What I really miss is using iCal (I stopped using it when I hopped to gmail and still cannot figure out how to sync it with my iPad) and the address book.

 

[grawk]

I use both, and I can't say one is better than the other. If you set up google as an exchange server on your iphone, and sync your contacts etc, drop box + google does the majority of what mobileme does. I keep my mobileme because the $80 a year for a family membership (watch for sales elsewhere and renew, don't go through apple), but if finances got tight, I'd drop it and not be out much.

 

[niter]

I use both, and I can't say one is better than the other. If you set up google as an exchange server on your iphone, and sync your contacts etc, drop box + google does the majority of what mobileme does. I keep my mobileme because the $80 a year for a family membership (watch for sales elsewhere and renew, don't go through apple), but if finances got tight, I'd drop it and not be out much.

Thanks. I tried to set that up earlier but I am going to give another go.

Has iDisk improved over the years? As I remember it, it was S-L-O-W and that is me being nice.

 

[grawk]

Thanks. I tried to set that up earlier but I am going to give another go.

Has iDisk improved over the years? As I remember it, it was S-L-O-W and that is me being nice.

I don't heavily use idisk, and I cache it locally, so I don't notice how long it takes to update.