Some time ago, I broke down and migrated my email from .Mac to Gmail. .Mac was prone to service issues, had less storage (because I like a healthy amount for my iDisk and sync data), and still didn’t support push email (aka the IDLE command). Once Gmail had IMAP, I simply forwarded all my email to that account.
Except for the inner shame of no longer using the Apple product and the lack of contact syncing, it worked perfectly. 10.5.3 changed that last caveat (although I had to hack a p-list in order to get access to that feature; thanks a lot Apple). Google still aggressively adds an entry to its address book for everyone you email, which can be bothersome. However, it also allows you to specify your email to be represented as nearly anything for outgoing email (assuming you have access to that email).
With Apple’s Mobile Me announcement, I’ve made the decision to go back, for better or worse. There’s a couple reasons. First, there was one additional problem with using Gmail. It’s special purpose All Mail folder seems to make Mail.app cranky (and it’s always there, causing duplicate results when trying to search). Second, I’m actually going to get an iPhone now. Between the lower price (yes, I’m aware of the data plan cost hike), 3G, GPS, and third party apps being a reality, the next iPhone is positioned right for me. I want that push email that Mobile Me brings. Third, with 20 GB of total storage, I can give a heady 10 GB to my iDisk and still have 10 left for my email (more than Gmail).
All that’s left for me is to clean up my .Mac email account, copy all that email from Gmail back to that account. I have a massive amount of stored email and I’m not looking forward to spending the time copying it back. Are any of you switching back to .Mac/Mobile Me email after a hiatus or is Apple’s service not reliable enough for your taste?
Not going back, per se, but I was considering dumping .Mac once this year's subscription runs out. With the news about Mobile Me, it looks more like I plan to stick with it. And I'm VERY seriously considering the iPhone now...
Hi Derik,
i have .mac account and have never had a problem with it. I also have the gmail account which is just full of spam. Congrats on the iPhone, I have the old one but will upgrade.
Chris
I never actually used .mac mail (but owning account), gmail was all the way, but now I hope Apple do all things right, and I finally switch. :)
The only problems I have had with .Mac are sync-related. I had to turn off some of the sync type (dock, dashboard, and keychain) due to conflicts when syncing two systems. I really like the web gallery.
If only Safari on Windows would sync with my .Mac bookmarks (which I assume are still available on MobileMe), I'd be golden.
I so want to change to mobileme but my Gmail account is just too important to me. And I hate maintaining more than 1 account.
Why would I switch to a service that costs $99 per year when I get the same from gmail for free?
I'm delighted that Apple are finally offering the same as gmail, but they are charging a hefty price for something I already get for free....
(although apple's web photo albums are much nicer than Picasa web)
Does anyone know if MobileMe will support server-side Rules / Filtering into folders? That was the primary reason I moved away from .Mac to aim.com and later gmail once it supported IMAP. If my laptop was shut down / not receiving mail I'd get unfiltered messages to my mobile devices.
Now my challenge will be migrating from Plaxo to MobileMe synchronization for iCal/Address Book. Plaxo let me use pretty much everything interchangeably, but didn't play nicely with .Mac syncing on at the same time.
@YO said:
"Why would I switch to a service that costs $99 per year when I get the same from gmail for free?"
For push email, contacts, and calendars of course.
I did renew my expired dotmac account, I hate the new name but the service is going to be AWESOME!
I have been very happy with the .mac mail service. I have had occasional sync problems which were corrected by resetting Sync, but that is it. Down times are very rare.
I do have a Gmail account, but haven't felt the need to use it much. I do use it as the default mail server on my iPhone, though, so that I don't have to keep changing it with a change in connection.
I have been thinking of dropping GMail, or at least wondering if MobileMe will support all things IMAP. Any word on syncing any IMAP e-mail account? Will MM support syncing GMail address book and Google Calendars via .ics?