evansims.com: A Week with MobileMe: Final Day • Evan Sims
Daniel
· 1 year ago
why dont you people try exchange? You can have a hosted exchange account for around if not less money
Evan Sims
· 1 year ago
I'm not sure what the "you people" means, but yes, you can obviously get a hosted Exchange account for less. However, MobileMe has a lot of other features that aren't found in Exchange- bookmark synchronization, cloud storage, a web UI that isn't hideous. Whether it turns out to be worth it or not, I think it's worthwhile to try out new products and services, which is why I did this review.
astorg
· 1 year ago
Evan, I actually think you're being unduly harsh. MobileMe is much more powerful for Mac users than WIndows users. But have you ever reflected on what it is like using Exchange (which is the only competitor around) on a Mac? It means using Entourage which is basically a second-rate version of Outlook and is completely obsolete in a huge number of ways.
You seem to have used MobileMe primarily on the web, with a heavy focus on email, and view the choice as being either Gmail or MobileMe. In reality, Mobile is primarily designed, like Exchange, to be used with a desktop or mobile client, ideally the Apple Mail/iCal/Address Book and iPhone combo, with data being synced seamlessly to the cloud and the web interface being used as a backup when you aren't actually using your own machine. Far from ruling out Gmail or any other IMAP-compatible mail server, it actually makes a lot of sense to use MobileMe in combination with Gmail, which is exactly what I do. See a record of my experience here.
Evan Sims
· 1 year ago
Thanks for your comment, astrog. I appreciate your opinion, but I have to disagree. I own several Macs, and am painfully familiar with Entourage. However, for the purposes of this experiment I decided to approach the product from a Windows users perspective. Apple markets MobileMe as a powerful tool for Windows users just as much as it does Mac users, so it seems logical to approach it as such. The very fact that it has considerably more features under Mac than Windows was one the points I tried to bring into perspective.
Also, Apple has heavily touted MobileMe's "next generation Web 2.0" UI, which is why I approached that side of things so strongly in this series. I did test it under Outlook as well, but with luke-warm (at best) results. The problem with MobileMe's Web UI is that it flat out does not work in many regards, and Apple has yet to admit or face that problem.
I certainly understand where you're coming from with your opinions, but I think you're missing my problem with MobileMe as a service. I love Apple products. I'm not a hater by any means. But they let me down terribly with MobileMe, and given the press it's gotten elsewhere I don't think I'm alone there.
Out of curiosity, how do you use Gmail and MobileMe together? I was hoping to do this myself when I started this experiment, but MobileMe Mail does not support SSL nor IMAP importing, so I was unable to connect the services.
astorg
· 1 year ago
@Evan: Regarding the Windows/webmail/Mac issue, I guess we just have differing perspectives, not incompatible ones. I can easily believe that MobileMe is less than satisfactory for WIndows users, although that's something I can live with!. I still suspect it isn't as unsatisfactory as using Exchange is for a Mac user...
Regarding using Gmail with MobileMe, I have been doing so from the start: of course, you can't use Gmail on the webmail interface, which is probably what you would have wanted to do... but you can use it with the MobileMe clients (Apple Mail, iPhone). They support SSL and IMAP. I use Google Apps with my own domain fro email, and MobileMe for calendar and contact items. Integration is perfect since all the mail is on IMAP and on the rare occasion when I need to access my email on the web... well, I just use the Gmail web interface.
Apart from (1) poor spam control and (2) lack of support for personalized domains (I find it unacceptable being tied to a generic email address), MobileMe mail is actually pretty reliable (plus it offers push for those who need it). When those two major flaws are corrected, which I suspect they will in a future release, the product in my view will justify switching away from Google altogether.
All Comments
You seem to have used MobileMe primarily on the web, with a heavy focus on email, and view the choice as being either Gmail or MobileMe. In reality, Mobile is primarily designed, like Exchange, to be used with a desktop or mobile client, ideally the Apple Mail/iCal/Address Book and iPhone combo, with data being synced seamlessly to the cloud and the web interface being used as a backup when you aren't actually using your own machine. Far from ruling out Gmail or any other IMAP-compatible mail server, it actually makes a lot of sense to use MobileMe in combination with Gmail, which is exactly what I do. See a record of my experience here.
Also, Apple has heavily touted MobileMe's "next generation Web 2.0" UI, which is why I approached that side of things so strongly in this series. I did test it under Outlook as well, but with luke-warm (at best) results. The problem with MobileMe's Web UI is that it flat out does not work in many regards, and Apple has yet to admit or face that problem.
I certainly understand where you're coming from with your opinions, but I think you're missing my problem with MobileMe as a service. I love Apple products. I'm not a hater by any means. But they let me down terribly with MobileMe, and given the press it's gotten elsewhere I don't think I'm alone there.
Out of curiosity, how do you use Gmail and MobileMe together? I was hoping to do this myself when I started this experiment, but MobileMe Mail does not support SSL nor IMAP importing, so I was unable to connect the services.
Regarding using Gmail with MobileMe, I have been doing so from the start: of course, you can't use Gmail on the webmail interface, which is probably what you would have wanted to do... but you can use it with the MobileMe clients (Apple Mail, iPhone). They support SSL and IMAP. I use Google Apps with my own domain fro email, and MobileMe for calendar and contact items. Integration is perfect since all the mail is on IMAP and on the rare occasion when I need to access my email on the web... well, I just use the Gmail web interface.
Apart from (1) poor spam control and (2) lack of support for personalized domains (I find it unacceptable being tied to a generic email address), MobileMe mail is actually pretty reliable (plus it offers push for those who need it). When those two major flaws are corrected, which I suspect they will in a future release, the product in my view will justify switching away from Google altogether.