I'm looking for a one-stop shop for mail, contacts, calendaring, and tasks across multiple devices. But I'm picky.
What I'm doing now:
- Gmail via IMAP w/ IDLE on laptops and ActiveSync on iPhone for personal mail, but new device support via ActiveSync will be gone when I upgrade phones, so that's no good
- Google Contacts via built-in sync on OS X and CardDAV on the iPhone
- Google Calendar via web interface on laptops and ActiveSync on my phone for calendaring and tasks, but no real task support on phone without third party apps
What is ideal:
- Push support on iPhone and IDLE or Exchange available on laptop
- Updating of mail read counts on iPhone without mail being active, which iCloud does not do (basically requires ActiveSync as far as I can tell)
- Not spread across services (as in contacts/calendar on one service, mail on another)
All I'm coming up with is:
1. Paying for hosted Exchange for personal use and having to get my own domain name -- maybe overkill
2. Going with iCloud and not having read status sync in the "background" on the phone as ActiveSync accounts would
Simpler is better. Any Exchange suggestions or other service ideas?
What I'm doing now:
- Gmail via IMAP w/ IDLE on laptops and ActiveSync on iPhone for personal mail, but new device support via ActiveSync will be gone when I upgrade phones, so that's no good
- Google Contacts via built-in sync on OS X and CardDAV on the iPhone
- Google Calendar via web interface on laptops and ActiveSync on my phone for calendaring and tasks, but no real task support on phone without third party apps
What is ideal:
- Push support on iPhone and IDLE or Exchange available on laptop
- Updating of mail read counts on iPhone without mail being active, which iCloud does not do (basically requires ActiveSync as far as I can tell)
- Not spread across services (as in contacts/calendar on one service, mail on another)
All I'm coming up with is:
1. Paying for hosted Exchange for personal use and having to get my own domain name -- maybe overkill
2. Going with iCloud and not having read status sync in the "background" on the phone as ActiveSync accounts would
Simpler is better. Any Exchange suggestions or other service ideas?
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