using your @me.com iCloud email as your primary email?

[jfremani]

How viable is iCloud/me.com for email?

I created an email account because I could get the name I wanted, but it seems very cumbersome to use. I'm not sure why it is a cloud anyway since gmail updates on any client you have and is much easier to access via web than iCloud's email.

Will @me.com email accounts become mainstream, like gmail?

 

[wrinkster22]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

No one knows if it will become mainstream. It is quite possible though

 

[mox358]

I've used one (all the way back to .Mac) as my primary email for a long time. It's not too bad. As far as going mainstream, that's anybody's guess, but considering Apple's current popularity and the fact they've made it free for iOS 5 users, it's got a much better chance than it previously did as $99/yr service.

 

[jfremani]

Any chance that Apple will change their policy on free me.com accounts and start charging for it again and dropping those who don't pay?

 

[iDuel]

Any chance that Apple will change their policy on free me.com accounts and start charging for it again and dropping those who don't pay?

That is highly unlikely. It's all apart of iCloud which is free.

You technically pay for your @me.com email when you buy your device.

 

[rick snagwell]

i got my name too, grabbed it on ios5 beta the first day...been using as primary since. couple humps in the road so far, but looks better everyday.

 

[ann713]

I was able to snatch up a firstnamelastname@me.com account so hopefully the iCloud client sticks around. It's fairly "new", thus the reason it's still a secondary e-mail account for me.

 

[nmork]

I was able to get the address I wanted in beta as well (an old expired MobileMe account) and I've been trying to use it as my primary.

The only problem I have with this is the hundreds of dollars I've invested in store purchases on my old Apple ID. I really wish there were a way to transfer that over. It's not something I can't live without, though.

 

[fastmax]

iCloud and a me.com address are completely viable as a primary email service. Apple email accounts have been solid since the days of iTools and many a Mac user are still using their mac.com addresses for primary email access. The fact that after all these years these accounts can still be relied on and are a pleasure to use solidifies that Apple is serious about the email service they provide.

There is absolutely no reason that I can think of to have reservations about relying on a me.com address over gmail or any other service for that matter. And whether iCloud email becomes hugely popular or not, it will continue to be used by those of us with the experience of time to attest to its reliability.

It does seem that many more will come to rely on it. If for no other reason than they paid for it when they bought an Apple device. It also integrates well into the larger ecosystem of products. And even if iCloud were to become no more like some of Apple's earlier web services, the email service would live on.

 

[dlsife]

The website email functionality leaves a lot to be desired, imo. No threading is a big one.

 

[KenOzz]

How viable is iCloud/me.com for email?

I created an email account because I could get the name I wanted, but it seems very cumbersome to use. I'm not sure why it is a cloud anyway since gmail updates on any client you have and is much easier to access via web than iCloud's email.

Will @me.com email accounts become mainstream, like gmail?

I don't use my .me account as a primary account due to the fact I just can't put up with the fact it will not update the read status across all devices

I read an email on my Mac and delete it, then several hours later look on my iPhone see an email and its the same one I read hours ago

It was the same with MobileMe we all complained, I hoped it would be fixed on iCloud, but NO!!!!

So I just forward all my .me mail to Gmail and problem solved, once read Gmail syncs the read status across all my devices

Can't believe Apple won't allow this on iCloud makes no sense at all

 

[fastmax]

I have heard of other users having difficulty with the read status and proper syncing accross devices. It's unfortunate that some are having these issues. But these features are certainly a part of IMAP email with iCloud and MobileMe for that matter.

Syncing works perfectly for me across all my devices, so it seems that for everyone one that is having problems, many more are using iCloud email without difficulty.

 

[KenOzz]

I have heard of other users having difficulty with the read status and proper syncing accross devices. It's unfortunate that some are having these issues. But these features are certainly a part of iCloud and MobileMe for that matter.

Read status works perfectly for me on all my devices, so it seems that for everyone one that is having problems, many more are using it without difficulty.

Now that is a really interesting statement, and totally at odd's with Apple's statement in reply to those of us who complained about it as MobileMe users see link below

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1795

Apple say that MobileMe was designed not to push read email status to all devices, and as far as I know this is still their official position on the matter

As an example read status will update to a Mac from which ever device the email is read on, but it will not update to an iPhone or Ipad

So to be clear are you saying that if you read an email on a Mac the read status will update on an iPhone or iPad without any intervention from you?

I await your reply with bated breath

 

[fastmax]

The document you refer to says that read status will be updated after opening Mail on a device using MobileMe. It is also related to using only the Push setting. So, according to this document an additional step was required to sync read status. Can't verify this fine point as I'm no longer on MobileMe.

This document does not however address iCloud, which updates on all my devices automatically, whether it relates to receiving email, read status or deleting messages.

 

[KenOzz]

The document you refer to says that read status will be update after opening Mail on a device for MobileMe. So, according to this document an additional step was required to sync read status.

This document does not however address iCloud, which updates on all my devices automatically, whether it relates to receiving email, read status or deleting messages.

Well lets look at your reply

The first paragraph relates to MobileMe and as you confirm the read status will not update to all devices with out operator intervention so read status is not "Pushed" but user updated so result we agree

The second Paragraph is the interesting and some what encouraging one, as you seem to be saying that iCloud acts in true "push" mode for you, in the fact that the read status is pushed to all your devices, without any intervention from you

If this is the case you are the first person in the many threads on the matter to say this, and that's encouraging to the rest of us who are suffering with this

Apple are saying that iCloud like MobileMe will not update read status to all devices,

I wonder if any other readers of this thread are like you getting true read 'Push" on all devices

----------

The document you refer to says that read status will be updated after opening Mail on a device using MobileMe. It is also related to using only the Push setting. So, according to this document an additional step was required to sync read status. Can't verify this fine point as I'm no longer on MobileMe.

This document does not however address iCloud, which updates on all my devices automatically, whether it relates to receiving email, read status or deleting messages.

Just a point are you including an iPad, iPhone or iPod in you all devices claim

 

[fastmax]

Interesting thing is, when I click on a new message in Mail on my Mac, it doesn't update on my iPod until I update that account, by either clicking on the inbox or hitting refresh. If I click on an unread message on my iPod it instantly changes on my Mac to read status.

So, to be clear, is that the issue that you and others are having as well? That you have to select an Inbox, hit refresh or launch Mail on your device for the status to update?

 

[KenOzz]

Interesting thing is, when I click on a new message in Mail on my Mac, it doesn't update on my iPod until I update that account, by either clicking on the inbox or hitting refresh. If I click on an unread message on my iPod it instantly changes on my Mac to read status.

We have just wasted 30 mins

That what I have been telling you, the read status will not update across all devices

If you re read my original post (11) and follow up post (13) I clearly state that the read status will update to Mac's

But will not update to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad with out user intervention as you now have proved for yourself

 

[fastmax]

So, the main inconvenience being that the unread count on the Mail badge is not correct until you refresh. I agree that this read status functionality should be improved on the Mac -> device side. It's not really a problem for me because of how I use my iPod, but I can see why it would be for others, for instance iPhone users who are always connected to the network.

 

[KenOzz]

So, the main inconvenience being that the unread count on the Mail badge is not correct until you refresh.

Bingo

You have it,

Wether it is or isn't an inconvenience is irrelevant to our exchange, you were claiming that you had true "push" across all devices, I was querying that claim

I think we both agree now that in fact you don't have true Push across all devices, so that claim as been corrected

Now some users will accept that iCloud will not give true read "push" across all devices, and see it as a minor issue, others as is their right will not

But that is a side issue to our original exchange

 

[fastmax]

Hopefully the information provided above will help those considering whether to use iCloud as their primary service.

To summarize: iCloud exhibits automatic read status syncing issues from Mac -> iDevice. For the time being this is solved by connecting to the network from a disconnected state, launching Mail, hitting refresh or selecting the particular Inbox in question on your iDevice.

Found a very helpful article here that further clarifies the unread email count on iDevices: http://macography.net/2011/10/unread-email-count-on-ios-with-icloud-and-mobileme/

The article states that the iOS Mail app does not support IMAP IDLE and this is the cause of the unread status problem under iCloud for iDevices, whereas Mail on the Mac fully supports IDLE, so it doesn't exhibit the same issue.

After reading other sources some say the reason IDLE is not part of iOS Mail is because it keeps an open TCP connection and thus uses more power on an iPhone.