MobileMe vs. Gmail

[317342]

iChat uses AIM for everything (encryption with a MobileMe username is optional). iChat is the best desktop client, however....

Google Talk works on Mac or PC, is encrypted, and allows video/audio chat with a small plugin.

Personally, I use Google Talk 98% of the time...everyone I know uses Gmail so it's an easy fit.

 

[petvas]

Well, "primitive" is not a good thing. I like sort like an easy and fun experience. Your comment makes me think I should go with MobileMe.

Thanks.

Maybe primitive isnt the best word. Using google talk or iChat doesn't necessarily mean that you should also be using MobileMe or Google Mail.

 

[lucus56]

mobile me

I'm a long time Gmail user (I got my invite many moons ago by spelling a girl's name in pepperoni slices on a pizza, from that gmailswap website!) -- and I've been impressed with its evolution over the years. The ads are negligible, since they're all text. The interface is smooth and simple. You can store almost limitless messages, and as promised in the beginning, the storage space increases by the minute. I can't find much not to love about it.

Last year, I got MobileMe. I'd had .Mac before and wasn't thrilled with it, so I didn't keep that long - but MobileMe is like a whole new animal and I really love it. I have my iPad, iPhone, iMac, and Macbook Pro all perfectly synced with my email and calendars. I'm still learning how to make use of all the storage space. I love using iWeb for my website (I still use Wordpress to blog, but I link in the RSS feed with iWeb and have my domain linked with that). Honestly, MobileMe is great. I don't really pay $99/year (I ordered my box on eBay last year after my trial expired, and it didn't cost but about $54, or about .15 cents per day) so it is definitely worth the price, to me.

Since I got MobileMe, I generally just have my Gmail forwarded to it. I can't seem to "let go" of Gmail, probably for sentimental reasons, but there is no practical cause for me to prefer it any longer. Google Voice is not something I feel I need, since I have unlimited long distance through my cable company, and lots of minutes on my AT&T wireless plan. I don't really use Google Docs anymore, now that I've got MobileMe iDisk.

I'm starting to really appreciate MobileMe, even though I haven't really dug into all its uses and features yet. Find My iPhone/iPad is valuable to me.

I have mobile me and gmail too. Something you said in your post really caught my eye. You seemed to indicate you purchased mobile me on e-bay & got it for $54. This interests me greatly because I didn't know there was a way to get around Apple's $99 subscription fee. This is my #1 drawback/reason for preferring other e-mail to mobile me. But how does this work if you already have mobile me? I paid the $99 and my year expires early next year. If I were to purchase one of these boxes from e-bay, would that mean I would have to cancel my current account and establish a new one, losing all the content and e-mail name from my current account?

 

[lucus56]

g-mail labels

Labels insead of folders is an important distinction. It makes it difficult to delete e-mails in Mail, too. I always liked the convenience of having all my e-mail accounts in Mail & the function of it's spam folders & spell check, also the way it works with Address Book. BUT.......I looked at my mail cache one day & got a bit of a shock, it was nearly half a gig! I had all my old gmail going way, way back! Pictures html stuff, you name it! I finally deleted it by eliminating the account from Mail & just using Safari to access gmail. I don't like composing messages as well as I did in Mail, though.

 

[MacVixen]

I have mobile me and gmail too. Something you said in your post really caught my eye. You seemed to indicate you purchased mobile me on e-bay & got it for $54. This interests me greatly because I didn't know there was a way to get around Apple's $99 subscription fee. This is my #1 drawback/reason for preferring other e-mail to mobile me. But how does this work if you already have mobile me? I paid the $99 and my year expires early next year. If I were to purchase one of these boxes from e-bay, would that mean I would have to cancel my current account and establish a new one, losing all the content and e-mail name from my current account?

No when you purchase your box from ebay or amazon, it will have a code inside that you can enter on the MobileMe website to update your subscription. I did that last year, and it worked great. no problems, no need to set up a new email account (and it saved me about $40 which is always a plus).

 

[317342]

Gmail is just overall more reliable than MobileMe. Having had both for two years and counting, Gmail has been down a perhaps once--maybe twice--and the one time I do remember it being down, it was only out for an hour and I didn't lose any e-mail. What's funny is Google has an web page and RSS feed that is continuously updated if there is an outage.

MobileMe has lost e-mail. (July '08 anyone?) It also seems to be down a lot more often than Gmail, Dropbox, or just about any other service I use. The joke of it all is that Gmail and Dropbox are both FREE and MobileMe costs $99/yr MSRP. Apple updates the System Status for MobileMe usually long after the problem has been fixed. In the meantime, contacting their support is nothing more than "Have you tried restarting?" or "Remove your e-mail account, add it back in, and see if that fixes it." I gave up on their e-mail a few months ago and went exclusively to Gmail--no more SMTP timeouts or mystery outages either.

About the only feature I envy about MobileMe is the Find My iPhone function. I'll continue to use it until the membership expires next year but I wouldn't pay $60-$99/yr for it. Plus, Gmail was SSL/HTTPS compliant from its inception several years ago--MobileMe just got it a few weeks ago.

Dropbox vs. iDisk is not even a comparison.....more like a joke.

 

[Dias]

iChat uses AIM for everything (encryption with a MobileMe username is optional). iChat is the best desktop client, however....

Google Talk works on Mac or PC, is encrypted, and allows video/audio chat with a small plugin.

Personally, I use Google Talk 98% of the time...everyone I know uses Gmail so it's an easy fit.

Btw, Gizmodo did a comparison between iChat, gChat and Skype video/audio qualities. Best are (in order): gChat, iChat, Skype. Can I use gChat with iChat client?

 

[317342]

Yep, iChat supports Google Talk.

 

[pitt1717]

moved to gmail a while back as i think $99 (even $55 on ebay) is too much money.

i use the mail and calendar functions of gmail and they both work fine. i just wish i can sync contacts and keep my groups with gmail. other than that, find my iphone is the only feature of interest

 

[317342]

You can sync Contacts with Gmail; Address book allows it in Preferences, iOS devices use Exchange (ActiveSync) via "Google Sync"

http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/

 

[pitt1717]

You can sync Contacts with Gmail; Address book allows it in Preferences, iOS devices use Exchange (ActiveSync) via "Google Sync"

http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/

i guess you mis understood. i need groups to sync, not just google "my contacts"

 

[317342]

Oops, yes in that case MobileMe would be the only option.

Don't get me wrong, I think MobileMe is a great "concept" but it needs some work. I'm tempted to go back to it for a few days and see if it has improved.

 

[Dias]

Oops, yes in that case MobileMe would be the only option.

Don't get me wrong, I think MobileMe is a great "concept" but it needs some work. I'm tempted to go back to it for a few days and see if it has improved.

It's a good concept but at a wrong market price. It should be a free complementary service for all Apple users to sync all their devices.

 

[BHP41]

i guess you mis understood. i need groups to sync, not just google "my contacts"

This has been my only issue with Gmail and is the only reason I have a mobile me account. When this is solved in gmail I will have no need for MM. Until then I'm almost forced to use it so I can have all my contacts on my phone. It is a real pain to be "off" on the weekend and try to sort through 500+ contacts.

 

[317342]

It's a good concept but at a wrong market price. It should be a free complementary service for all Apple users to sync all their devices.

Maybe I'm looking at it differently... I think it has to be weighed as a whole package. The real grabbers for me early on were...

- Back to my Mac w/ full-time SSL encryption (ex. Gotomypc is $20/mo!)
- iDisk (20GB)
- IMAP E-Mail (Industry standard IMAP, btw. I hate Gmail's version)
- SSL Encrypted iChat
- 24/7 Support

My #1 favorite thing about "me.com" is no advertising. It's negligible on Gmail but still.... I hate ads.

 

[domness]

I have had MobileMe for well over a year now and my subscription is about to run out. I've already moved quickly over to GMail and Google Sync, and find that everything is faster, more reliable and I'm actually not missing MobileMe much except for the lovely interface online. iDisk is very very slow and Dropbox works perfectly fine for me. Find my iPhone is now free and I can't afford another year of MobileMe.

 

[Laroosco]

I am a ling time Gmail user. I love the email service and have no intention of doing away with it.
I bought my subscription of MobileMe last April for $59 and love that as well.
I have both email addresses forwarded to Mail.

I like MobileMe for keeping the calendars and contacts synced between my MacBook, iPhone and iPad. iCal does everything I need and I'm used to it, so for my needs I don't really feel like switching over google calendar

Plus the photo gallery feature has come in handy on numerous occasions. Plus I have iDisk and iGallery apps on my iPhone and iPad so I can access my server from any device.

I like Gmail's calendar just fine but it's not worth it for me to use it when I have iCal in all my devices and MobileMe calendar that sync automatically.

 

[spencers]

Few reasons why I've stuck with MobileMe:

- Push sync. Add/update a calendar or contact on my phone, and boom, it's automatically changed on my Mac and other devices.
- Push email. Incoming email instantly in my inbox.
- Easy file sharing and storing. Upload a file to iDisk and click the share button. All my contacts are already on the cloud, so just type a few characters of their name, and a sharing email is sent. (Though I would like this sharing feature on my Mac instead of having to log in to the web version iDisk)
- Photos, iWeb, and Find My iPhone are cool features, but I don't really use them. (Find My iPhone is free now anyway, so that point is moot)

I haven't used gmail's sync features, so I'm unaware of the competition.

 

[BHP41]

MobileMe has some great features, some are better than gmail IF you have a "i" device of any sort. The biggest thing for me that MobileMe has over gmail for my iPhone and iPad is the contacts. Storage is a joke with iDisk IMO. Photos would be great if I could upload more than one photo at a time from my iPhone. This is where Google, specifically picasa has the advantage for me.

I take a lot of photos with my iPhone and almost always upload them to my picasa account for fear of losing or something happening to my iPhone. With the app web albums I'm able to upload all the photos I just took to my album and put the phone back in my pocket and continue on my way without being inivolved for 15 minutes uploading photos.

I'm really looking forward to the updates that steve says is coming next year. Hopefully he will see the limitations and make the proper adjustments.

 

[Dr McKay]

Just in case you did not know. IE7 does work (only gets a warning). From others I understand that IE6 does not work at all.

From pained experience I can confirm IE 6 works with MobileMe.

 

[TLewis]

The biggest thing for me that MobileMe has over gmail for my iPhone and iPad is the contacts.

That's the only thing that keeps me with MobileMe. If google ever implemented contact groups for the iPhone, I'd dump MM.

 

[lennonmichael]

I use both e-mail. I like MobileMe push e-mail on my phone. I know I can use for Gmail, but the battery runs out, and I'm not interested in using more complicated ways to push my Gmail account. I really do not use calendars of each, so I can not comment on that.

 

[thewhitehart]

I prefer Gmail to MobileMe mail. But I do like using an application to check my mail rather than Gmail's web interface. Using Apple Mail is too clunky for Gmail though - it's slow, mail is downloaded into All Mail and the Inbox - just messy, you know.

Then I found Sparrow Mail. It's still in beta, but it's fantastic. It syncs with Gmail, and works like Gmail. You can even use Gmail keyboard commands with it.

I only use a Gmail address, and it has thus replaced Apple Mail for me.

 

[BacklitFirefly]

I use gmail less and less since I got MobileMe last year. I don't seem to get the same quality of spam in MobileMe mail as I do in gmail. So far, I have experienced no multiple logins of my MobileMe mail with IP addresses originating in China -- that is a plus for me. I also haven't been completely locked out my MobileMe account because someone hacked it, changed my signature to some spam website, and it got screened as suspicious activity. I don't know...I just like mail where all that stuff doesn't happen. It makes me feel secure.

Yeah, I know I've just had bad luck. That isn't at ALL typical of gmail or any other free webmail service, and I'd been using gmail for a number of years before I began to have such issues. So I'm not knocking it for everyone -- but it's just not my thing anymore.

 

[fourcolourblack]

I'm not an iPhone user (Android user) but I do have a Mac at home, laptop, and Mac at work. So I like to access my calendar in all these places, and pretty much use the same address book for all too.

Needing this multiple directional sync for contacts and calendars works absolutely perfect with Gmail and a Spanning Sync account. Its not free but at $65 for life or $25/year you can hardly complain.

I can't see anything here this can't do you'd need MobileMe for. I work with really big files so transfer these around via Dropbox (or a big flash drive). Online disk space is just too slow for design work.

I come across a post on how to setup your iPhone properly using Spanning Sync just today as I was toying with the idea for my next phone. Seems there's a few things by default they don't want you knowing about but this all worked perfectly on my Motorola Dext first time round.