Now might be the time to take up the cause, methinks. I've been strongly considering a change of pace, a removal, of sorts, from the GMailification of my life toward that of ever-increasing Applinity.
Recent improvements to iCal and Google Contact syncing across the iPhone spectrum have really made the decision more difficult. At the same time, however, those same improvements have also led to frustration in terms of the antiquated means by which Address Book fits into that same equation (read: no sync, and thus no cloud, until physically connecting iPhone to computer).
I am also interested in the tertiary features like iDisk, etc. There are a series of documents on my computer that I am adamant having as much redundancy of as possible. Additionally, I'd like to explore the Gallery functions as they relate to iPhoto, etc. It would be nice to utilize the full convergent brunt of these otherwise good to excellent native apps.
My primary reservation is, of course, the cost -- one which I was most certainly unwilling to bear until news such as this came along. Paying for a pretty much free everywhere else service is bad enough; paying for one that works poorly, or in a manner not up to that of the aforementioned competitors is just a slap in the face.
Anyway, any tips or information anyone would like to share would be fantastic. I use iCal, Address Book, have 11 GMail accounts (several party to Google Apps), 2 Yahoo Accounts, an iPhone, and a MB running Leopard. What is the best course of action, if any?
So I guess this means that if I go into iCal and move an appt from one day to another, or if I go to my MobileMe Calendar and do the same, it should "push" and update automatically right?
Well it doesn't update unless I right-click the Sync icon and select "Sync Now".
@MrYuk: instant push is kind of relative to your Internet, apples servers, and whether your iPhone has a good edge/3G or wifi signal, and also if you have the most recent version of os x.
@CoHPhasor: Im not familiar with the blackberry service but mobilme isn't just email. As far as I know you can get all the features of mobile from various services and providers for free, but there isn't one that has all the MM features together for free. There's the iDisk, web site, email, contact, calender, and gallery (sort of with the site though) that makes it easy for those freaks who have a couple macs and an iPhone to sync data.
Otherwise you're using geocities (does that still exist?), gmail, some free cloud data storage with a few gigs, just for that particular stuff, but that doesn't count the fact that MM also syncs preferences, saved passwords (keychain), bookmarks, widgets and dock appearance between multiple macs. Can you transfer that sort of data between any major version of Windows (sans the ones that don't exist between them all like vista gadgets) as well as a phone?
Side note: I like how ms sells a windows transfer tool that's essentially a USB cable that can transfer pictures and documents between machines. It's cute.
@diabolusunknownTheSecond: "...accepted it and realised that Apple just cant figure out how to do it."
* sighs *
You may be right. Copy/Paste might be one of those technological challenges that is so extreme that, to accomplish it, they'd have to dedicate their top brain to the project, sequester him somewhere for like six months and then see if
@bosskev: They're great at the copy part... they have been trying Copy/Copy for a long time. Recently they've been testing Copy/Cryfoul. The latest insider scoop is that they'll work the problem from a different angle with Paste/Paste. It's simpler, and alleviates any confusion, since they can decide what gets Pasted. It will work great with the revived push functionality.
@bosskev: We knew you would mention it, so thanks for not disappointing us. If the iPhone could copy and paste, we would just paste your comment for all future iPhone posts, but we just don't have the ability to do that.
@EBone: Emails are sent to the iPhone without polling the server if you are using a MobileMe account, emails come in real-time using push technologies if you have it set to do so in your settings.
MobileMe mail is much slower than Gmail, even using Safari 4. I use both. Compare the two interfaces sometime. MobileMe looks cool, but it is still a dog when switching between messages, etc.
Heck, I still use it. I just wish it would get snappy like Gmail is.
@Closed captioning provided by Homerjay: Why are you guys using the web app anyway? You have imap at your disposal. Use a real mail client like Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird.
@tony4d: I wonder why people don't use a email client as well. I would agree though that gmail web app is faster than mac.com (yes i still say mac.com) but I never use it.
@color_guru: The reason you would use a mail client is because the web based client is not good enough. I think nearly everyone who uses Gmail would tell you that it is outstanding, so why bother with configuring a program? Google, I believe, would argue that the computing world is moving to devices that are nothing but a web browser - and given the trends in the industry, it would be difficult for me to argue the opposite perspective.
This isn't new. We knew this since 10.5.6 was released. This is just a nice email to subscribers.
BTW, MobileMe works really well now, although it still has bugs. Every once a while a contact doesn't get synced from my mac to my iPhone, and the only way to fix it is to turn off push on the phone, which removes all contacts from phone, then re-enable on phone so it download all contacts new. Annoying.
But anyway, I think Apple is aware and will have more fixes in 10.5.7 and in Snow Leopard. Sync is an important part of their strategy, as evidenced by all the time they're investing.
09/26/09
02/27/09
Recent improvements to iCal and Google Contact syncing across the iPhone spectrum have really made the decision more difficult. At the same time, however, those same improvements have also led to frustration in terms of the antiquated means by which Address Book fits into that same equation (read: no sync, and thus no cloud, until physically connecting iPhone to computer).
I am also interested in the tertiary features like iDisk, etc. There are a series of documents on my computer that I am adamant having as much redundancy of as possible. Additionally, I'd like to explore the Gallery functions as they relate to iPhoto, etc. It would be nice to utilize the full convergent brunt of these otherwise good to excellent native apps.
My primary reservation is, of course, the cost -- one which I was most certainly unwilling to bear until news such as this came along. Paying for a pretty much free everywhere else service is bad enough; paying for one that works poorly, or in a manner not up to that of the aforementioned competitors is just a slap in the face.
Anyway, any tips or information anyone would like to share would be fantastic. I use iCal, Address Book, have 11 GMail accounts (several party to Google Apps), 2 Yahoo Accounts, an iPhone, and a MB running Leopard. What is the best course of action, if any?
Thanks in advance.
02/27/09
02/27/09
(The post was intended to have an air -- cloud, if you will -- of dry humor.)
02/26/09
Well it doesn't update unless I right-click the Sync icon and select "Sync Now".
02/27/09
02/26/09
mobile me costs money you know, and BlackBerrys get it built-in.
Didn't we pay for it enough by waiting forever?
02/27/09
Otherwise you're using geocities (does that still exist?), gmail, some free cloud data storage with a few gigs, just for that particular stuff, but that doesn't count the fact that MM also syncs preferences, saved passwords (keychain), bookmarks, widgets and dock appearance between multiple macs. Can you transfer that sort of data between any major version of Windows (sans the ones that don't exist between them all like vista gadgets) as well as a phone?
Side note: I like how ms sells a windows transfer tool that's essentially a USB cable that can transfer pictures and documents between machines. It's cute.
02/26/09
You guys disappoint me...
02/26/09
02/26/09
* sighs *
You may be right. Copy/Paste might be one of those technological challenges that is so extreme that, to accomplish it, they'd have to dedicate their top brain to the project, sequester him somewhere for like six months and then see if
Wait a minute...
02/27/09
/sarcasm
02/27/09
02/26/09
02/26/09
02/26/09
02/26/09
02/26/09
02/26/09
But MobileMe still blows compared to GMail
02/26/09
02/26/09
MobileMe mail is much slower than Gmail, even using Safari 4. I use both. Compare the two interfaces sometime. MobileMe looks cool, but it is still a dog when switching between messages, etc.
Heck, I still use it. I just wish it would get snappy like Gmail is.
02/26/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/26/09
BTW, MobileMe works really well now, although it still has bugs. Every once a while a contact doesn't get synced from my mac to my iPhone, and the only way to fix it is to turn off push on the phone, which removes all contacts from phone, then re-enable on phone so it download all contacts new. Annoying.
But anyway, I think Apple is aware and will have more fixes in 10.5.7 and in Snow Leopard. Sync is an important part of their strategy, as evidenced by all the time they're investing.
02/27/09
A stunning statement of recommendation.