what is the point of iCloud? how do i sync emails / calendars?

[superspud]

ok so i just "set up" my iCloud tonight thinking it would be the greatest thing since sliced bread and have thus far found it absolutely pointless....

i set it up with my macbook and iPhone thinking things would mesh together nicely but can not seem to get anything to work aside from photo stream, which is an absolute disaster seeing as you can't even delete photos on your iPhone unless you turn off photo stream, thus loosing all the pictures..... genius?


anyway, the main and really only reason i wanted to set this up is so i would not have to read and delete emails on all of my devices multiple times. however, upon turning on iCloud, i was prompted to create a new email. in doing so, as I am sure you are aware, it added an @me inbox to both my macbook and my iPhone to go along with my gmail. i have NO clue what purpose this serves. does this mean the only emails that will sync will be those sent to and by my @me account? i do not want or need a new email address as I have used my gmail account for years now...

can someone explain this to me? there is surprisingly very little information on anything involving iCloud out there and their instructions are essentially useless....

help!

 

[superspud]

really struggling to grasp this... I've sent several "test emails" from my gmail account (one i actually have had on my iPhone for a year or so now) back and forth from my devices and it is not syncing... if its only the @me emails that sync and come up as "read" from device to device thats just absurd, but i don't see that being the case. i doubt everyone who uses iCloud changed their personal email addresses so hopefully I'm just doing something wrong.


also, can't seem to get my reminders in calendar to sync... had a few tests go off there as well and it would pop up on both my phone and computer. i would check the one on my phone (as if i were at work or away from my macbook) and it would never go away on my macbook.

one good bit of news - if i set up a date in calendar, it does sync between devices, so thats cool, at least that works as it should.


anyone? please shine some light on this....

 

[d21mike]

In regards to iCloud Mail, Calendar and Contacts. It is a "competitor" to Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts which is a "competitor" to Windows Live Mail, Calendar and Contacts. In this regard if you are happy with one of the "competitors" then you do not need iCloud for this purpose. Does that make sense? These other products have their own cloud storage and they sync with multiple devices. Example: If you had a @me.com email address and you decided to move to @gmail.com you would be expected to drop your @me.com address. It is simply your choice.

Now there are other features of iCloud which you may want to use. But for me they are not as important as the main 3.

Read all about it here:

http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html

 

[superspud]

thanks for the response mike.

i guess i was just expecting more than what it actually is. i just can not get past the fact that they make you create an entire new email address in order to use the features. so everyone who uses iCloud, changed their email address?

i guess i can use other features of iCloud and just leave the email part out... i like the calendar sync'age and..... well i guess thats it....


oh well, thanks again.

 

[aristobrat]

anyway, the main and really only reason i wanted to set this up is so i would not have to read and delete emails on all of my devices multiple times.

That's up to your email providers (and how you setup your devices to access your emails). iCloud and similar services can't help with other providers emails (like gmail, etc).

If your email provider supports the IMAP protocol for accessing your email, and you've set your devices up to use IMAP for that email account, changes you make on one device (like deleting an email, or moving it to a folder) will show up on all of your other devices.

If you're using the POP protocol to access your email, that's not the case. Changes made one one device will not show up on other devices.

i just can not get past the fact that they make you create an entire new email address in order to use the features. so everyone who uses iCloud, changed their email address?

No. Everyone got a @me.com address, but I highly doubt that everyone started giving that out. Just because you have it doesn't mean that you have to use it.

 

[superspud]

That's up to your email providers (and how you setup your devices to access your emails). iCloud and similar services can't help with other providers emails (like gmail, etc).

If your email provider supports the IMAP protocol for accessing your email, and you've set your devices up to use IMAP for that email account, changes you make on one device (like deleting an email, or moving it to a folder) will show up on all of your other devices.

If you're using the POP protocol to access your email, that's not the case. Changes made one one device will not show up on other devices.



No. Everyone got a @me.com address, but I highly doubt that everyone started giving that out. Just because you have it doesn't mean that you have to use it.

i guess thats really what i need to figure out. how to make my gmail account on my iPhone and mac mail do the whole IMAP thing. guess i can start researching that now.

thanks guys

 

[d21mike]

Google has a nice product. You can do everything you want with it so really no reason to change. I personally just prefer iCloud for all of features as a whole. For about 30 years I was in the MS camp. Since the iPhone I am now in the Apple camp. Mac Mini, Mac Air, iPhone, iPad, ATV and they all sync extremely well. And the future Mountain Lion is going to be even better. If you decide to make the move it is pretty easy to start forwarding a copy of your gmail to iCloud to see how you like it. If you do change to me.com then just forward your gmail like before but do not keep a copy. Then slowly give out the new email address. Again, Google products are well done. It is simply your choice. You may find you simply like Gmail better. Others here do.

 

[MacManTexas56]

U can use iCloud without having a me.com email. Any email works actually. You just can't use it for notes or the mail obviously. I have my gmail set up in iCloud on iPhone 4 and iPad. It handles my bookmarks, photo stream, documents/data, and find my iPhone. You can also use it for contacts, calendar, and reminders. Using it for "notes" only works with a me.com email. I have gmail set up as exchange to handle calendar, contacts, and mail.....

It may sound confusing but using a me.com email is not actually required.

So I can do everything in iCloud except "notes" which isn't an issue for me.

My gmail is listed as sign in for iCloud and is also listed as an exchange account also. Works nice without using me.com email!

 

[tblrsa]

Besides, the @me.com E-Mail Account is only a small part of iCloud. I use it mainly for iCal/Contacts Sync and iCloud Backup for my phone. With Mountain Lion I will extend this to Document Storage in the Cloud.

Sad to see the MobileMe Gallery gone, as I would have appreciated a place to share pictures without having to resort to Facebook or others.

 

[KenOzz]

anyway, the main and really only reason i wanted to set this up is so i would not have to read and delete emails on all of my devices multiple times.

help!

I have found that iCloud works well for me with the exception of email, as an old MobileMe user I had an .me email address already which I hardly used

I still use Gmail as my primary email address for the simple reason iCloud will not sync the "Read" status across all my devices,

I can read a email on my Mac and delete it, only to find it showing as unread several hours later on my iPhone

This is an old problem discussed many times on forums, and its the way Apple have designed their email system to work

So iCloud is really good on all aspects except email for me, so I use the bits I like, and ignore the email bit I don't like

 

[newagemac]

thanks for the response mike.

i guess i was just expecting more than what it actually is. i just can not get past the fact that they make you create an entire new email address in order to use the features. so everyone who uses iCloud, changed their email address?

i guess i can use other features of iCloud and just leave the email part out... i like the calendar sync'age and..... well i guess thats it....


oh well, thanks again.

Well if you are using iCloud or MobileMe and try to switch to gmail, Google makes you change email addresses too.

The reason to switch to iCloud is that it simply integrates better with your Apple devices. Gmail has poor integration because of the unorthodox implementation of labels, deleting, and archiving with IMAP and Activesync as well as starring messages as opposed to flagging them not fully supported.

Then there is google contacts which has all sorts of integration problems and limitations as compared to iCloud. Limits to contact photos where they get altered, limits and poor integration for custom labels, limits to the number of email addresses associated with a contact, etc. All problems iCloud does not have.

The google calendar integration has its own issues. Mainly that it is fetched on a time interval on the Mac rather than pushed like iCloud which means changes take longer. There are other issues as well.


I recently made the switch to iCloud and my Macs, iPhone, and iPad are now kept perfectly in sync with no "gotchas" I used to have to put up with or workaround with trying to use Google's stuff on my computers and devices. Google's stuff works well if you only use the website, but you run into problems with native apps on computers and mobile devices. But then native apps work better and are more integrated with your computers, devices, and the OS than websites.

What finally pushed me to make the switch was the new Lion Mail.app. I had been using gmail since 2004 and this was the first native mail app that was hands down better than using gmail on a website in my opinion.

 

[newagemac]

I have found that iCloud works well for me with the exception of email, as an old MobileMe user I had an .me email address already which I hardly used

I still use Gmail as my primary email address for the simple reason iCloud will not sync the "Read" status across all my devices,

I can read a email on my Mac and delete it, only to find it showing as unread several hours later on my iPhone

This is an old problem discussed many times on forums, and its the way Apple have designed their email system to work

So iCloud is really good on all aspects except email for me, so I use the bits I like, and ignore the email bit I don't like

The read status does sync across. You must not have set yours up correctly. The read status on mobile devices like the iphone and ipad is updated any time you open the mail app, access a folder, move an email to a folder, manually refresh, or receive a new email. So for instance, when you open the mail app on your iPhone, the read status is immediately synced.

The only way you won't see the read status updated immediately is if you leave the mail app up, open, and running in the foreground on your iPhone while you are reading email on your Mac. But who does that?

The only real downside is that the badge number for unread emails on your phone can be inaccurate until you open the app. The upside is longer battery life due to not having to have a constant open connection to the server.

 

[d21mike]

The read status does sync across. You must not have set yours up correctly. The read status on mobile devices like the iphone and ipad is updated any time you open the mail app, access a folder, move an email to a folder, manually refresh, or receive a new email. So for instance, when you open the mail app on your iPhone, the read status is immediately synced.

The only way you won't see the read status updated immediately is if you leave the mail app up, open, and running in the foreground on your iPhone while you are reading email on your Mac. But who does that?

The only real downside is that the badge number for unread emails on your phone can be inaccurate until you open the app. The upside is longer battery life due to not having to have a constant open connection to the server.

I believe all who are complaining understand this. But simply do not like it. They would rather use more battery so that they do not need to open the mail app on the phone when they start using it. For me, my iPhone sets on my desk for hours without me using it since I am on the Mac. Then when I pick up my iPhone to say leave for lunch I just open the Mail App and all is then in Sync so not a big deal. On the other hand my iPhone is connected to power during those several hours so it would not be a battery drain so why not keep it up to date. Again, you can go in circles with this topic all day. I think Apple should provide a setting that makes everybody happy. Also, I think they should also PUSH Updates to ALL FOLDERS, not just the Inbox like other ActiveSync Clients do. For me this is more important. Again, other clients offer a option to say which folders act this way. Giving users these options is a good thing.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

The read status does sync across. You must not have set yours up correctly. The read status on mobile devices like the iphone and ipad is updated any time you open the mail app, access a folder, move an email to a folder, manually refresh, or receive a new email. So for instance, when you open the mail app on your iPhone, the read status is immediately synced.

The only way you won't see the read status updated immediately is if you leave the mail app up, open, and running in the foreground on your iPhone while you are reading email on your Mac. But who does that?

The only real downside is that the badge number for unread emails on your phone can be inaccurate until you open the app. The upside is longer battery life due to not having to have a constant open connection to the server.

I don't buy that last line. I have used both iCloud and Exchange and there is no noticeable difference battery consumption differences.

 

[newagemac]

I believe all who are complaining understand this. But simply do not like it. They would rather use more battery so that they do not need to open the mail app on the phone when they start using it. For me, my iPhone sets on my desk for hours without me using it since I am on the Mac. Then when I pick up my iPhone to say leave for lunch I just open the Mail App and all is then in Sync so not a big deal. On the other hand my iPhone is connected to power during those several hours so it would not be a battery drain so why not keep it up to date. Again, you can go in circles with this topic all day. I think Apple should provide a setting that makes everybody happy. Also, I think they should also PUSH Updates to ALL FOLDERS, not just the Inbox like other ActiveSync Clients do. For me this is more important. Again, other clients offer a option to say which folders act this way. Giving users these options is a good thing.

Here's what I don't understand. How can you actually use the mail app without opening it? I guess I am trying to understand why you would need the read status updated on the phone before you open the mail app. Except of course for the badge not being updated. That I can understand. I don't have that problem though because I archive my mail on my Mac after reading it and any time an email moves into another folder, the iDevices update the read status throughout the entire account. It's one of the triggers.

 

[d21mike]

Here's what I don't understand. How can you actually use the mail app without opening it? I guess I am trying to understand why you would need the read status updated on the phone before you open the mail app. Except of course for the badge not being updated. That I can understand. I don't have that problem though because I archive my mail on my Mac after reading it and any time an email moves into another folder, the iDevices update the read status throughout the entire account. It's one of the triggers.

You replied to my answer but I am not the one making a big deal about it. But you answered your own question. "Except of course for the badge not being updated." As far as I can tell that is it. They do not like to see the badge not being updated.

 

[newagemac]

I don't buy that last line. I have used both iCloud and Exchange and there is no noticeable difference battery consumption differences.

It doesn't matter because it is true. Read up on IMAP IDLE. Apple uses IMAP IDLE on the Mac because there is less worry with battery drain there. But on iDevices they use a true push email implementation so that a constant connection to the server does not have to be maintained. A true push email services uses less battery. Using IMAP IDLE is sort of a hybrid push/fetch.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. There's some good information on the differences here:

http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/imap-idle.html

 

[d21mike]

It doesn't matter because it is true. Read up on IMAP IDLE. Apple uses IMAP IDLE on the Mac because there is less worry with battery drain there. But on iDevices they use a true push email implementation so that a constant connection to the server does not have to be maintained. A true push email services uses less battery. Using IMAP IDLE is sort of a hybrid push/fetch.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. There's some good information on the differences here:

http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/imap-idle.html

First. I am on your side regarding the battery issue. But it should not matter whether they use IMAP IDLE or PUSH Notifications, the Apple Servers could notify the iOS Device that some change has occurred to the account and that it needs to wake up and handle it. My point is that this constant waking up to handle the READ Status Update for every single change would take more battery then to do the update after 3 hours of no use. I.E. All at once. Lastly, for me it would not matter that much since I leave my iPhone plugged in while working on my Mac.

 

[BroadcastDoc]

I don't buy that last line. I have used both iCloud and Exchange and there is no noticeable difference battery consumption differences.

I certainly noticed. In fact, I switched back to iCloud because my battery life with Gmail was bad enough that it was worth switching back to my @mac account.