iCloud email vs Gmail?

[Blaine]

Originally Posted by AzureCloud

As enticing as it sounds to have everything in one place with iCloud, I'd recommend holding off on switching from Gmail. Better security, greater reliability, actual spam filtering, and a significantly better web interface make Gmail far superior for your emailing needs. I have used Apple's email service since MobileMe's rocky beginnings, and I have never been completely satisfied. At least Gmail is a priority for Google, because the mail service is obviously an afterthought to Apple.

I agree. Gmail for life!

[GIZBUG]

I currently have my primary email address with google.
Also I have two calendars in google, and share my wifes google calendar.
I have an iphone, ipad, mac air, and a windows desktop. I am thinking of moving over to icloud for calendar and maybe mail. But that would require me to make, yet another, email address. I'm still on the fence, but it seems like that is the key + and feature with this new Mountain Lion OS, no?

[N-Y]

what i hate about gmail.... which causes me to disable it... when i connect to another network, if im outside the city or country, it doesnt recognize my password in the mail app or ichat and so on... not sure if there is a fix for that

[GIZBUG]

Originally Posted by N-Y

what i hate about gmail.... which causes me to disable it... when i connect to another network, if im outside the city or country, it doesnt recognize my password in the mail app or ichat and so on... not sure if there is a fix for that

I dont have that issue

[MasterHowl]

Really comsidering switching again after all these new posts on this thread...

I hate the gmail web interface, and love the iCloud one, but I very rarely use a web browser for emails.. hmmmm. Time to get the thinking cap on!

[poobear]

Long time gmail user with hosted domain. Have now switched and will never go back.

Didn't like how much Google tracked me and that they always wanted me to join Google+. Now I don't have to care about it anymore.

edit: Some people say it's unreliable. Not for me.

[David Menzel]

At the moment I am using both services. I really like the simplicity of Apple's iCloud services, however Gmail is a powerful service with a better spam filter and lot of individual options like labels, filter, email forwarding, sending as ...
But at the end there is on thing that bothers me all the time: "Ads"! I hate to I see them, at least when I read a serious mail. I feel observed in some case... I know it sounds a little bit weird, but when you are reading the text of a serious email and see pertinent ads on the right and below it looks odd. As powerful Gmail is it only remains as my email service for automatically generated stuff like newsletters. For personal emails I am using iCloud.

Both services have their advantages, decide with options do you want and with which service you are feeling more comfortable.

My personal preferred solutions is like outlined above: Gmail filters all crap and iCloud only receives emails from real people. The next step could be to use Gmail as a filter for iCloud to forward the (for me) important newsletters directly to my iCloud Account.

[Rigby]

Originally Posted by David Menzel

At the moment I am using both services. I really like the simplicity of Apple's iCloud services, however Gmail is a powerful service with a better spam filter and lot of individual options like labels, filter, email forwarding, sending as ...
But at the end there is on thing that bothers me all the time: "Ads"! I hate to I see them, at least when I read a serious mail. I feel observed in some case... I know it sounds a little bit weird, but when you are reading the text of a serious email and see pertinent ads on the right and below it looks odd.

I agree. I think it's a bit creepy that they datamine your personal email for who-knows-what kind of purposes. I also still remember the privacy breach when Google Buzz was introduced, where they basically published your most frequently used email contacts on the Buzz profile page.

I actually like the iCloud interface due to its simplicity, but Gmail really has some great features when it comes to filtering etc., as well as two-factor authentication for people with higher security needs (why doesn't Apple, as a mobile phone maker, have an equivalent to Google Authenticator? ). However, I usually read my email through an old-fashioned mail client anyway, so the web interface is not really that important to me.

[HarryPot]

Why do so many people still use the web interface?

I haven't entered my GMail account thru a web browser in many years.

[ugahairydawgs]

Originally Posted by HarryPot

Why do so many people still use the web interface?

I haven't entered my GMail account thru a web browser in many years.

For me it is generally the most convenient way to access it. I spend a lot of time at my desk in my office in front of a PC. It's easier to go home (which for me is Google) and bring up my e-mail than it is to grab my phone, unlock, and pull up mail. Plus if there is a response that needs to happen it is much easier to type it out on my keyboard than to do so on the virtual keyboard on my phone.

[HarryPot]

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

For me it is generally the most convenient way to access it. I spend a lot of time at my desk in my office in front of a PC. It's easier to go home (which for me is Google) and bring up my e-mail than it is to grab my phone, unlock, and pull up mail. Plus if there is a response that needs to happen it is much easier to type it out on my keyboard than to do so on the virtual keyboard on my phone.

Well, I guess if you have different computers for work and home it might make sense. Specially if at work you have a PC.

But doesn't IMAP let's you have the same account in two desktop mail clients? Without having to worry about loosing mails.


----------------------------

Back on topic, I think the best between the two is GMail, for the single reason that I'm sure they will never drop the name @gmail.com.

It drives me crazy the way Apple doesn't cares about changing from @mac to @me and now to @icloud. I know all of them still work, but it just goes to show how Apple is still very new at this. They haven't been able to come with something good.

Changing their domain so frequently just makes their service less well known.

Saying "my mail is user@gmail.com" never gets me in problems. Everyone knows GMail. Yet, not many people know @me, and I guess the same will apply to @icloud.

[ugahairydawgs]

Originally Posted by HarryPot

Well, I guess if you have different computers for work and home it might make sense. Specially if at work you have a PC.

But doesn't IMAP let's you have the same account in two desktop mail clients? Without having to worry about loosing mails.

They do, but like you mentioned....I want to keep my work stuff and my personal stuff segregated.

[hafr]

I've had hotmail since 1997. I've tried most free web based e-mail clients I can think of, but never found anything I liked as much. I've tried Gmail several times, but I just can't stand the interface. Also, deleting an e-mail from there seems to be a ten step project, they keep on reappearing in different folders and back to earlier folders... Nope, it never did it for me.

Then came iCloud. I loved it, it was great. Only problem was it didn't push notifications properly (like read status). On the other hand, in no way could I get proper support for Hotmail in OS X (mBox mail for mac is a ****ing joke, so is their support). So that's why iCloud got my business...

Although it does seem like Gmail is a very stable service, and more powerful than iCloud. I can't really see why one would want to switch from a service that works wonders. Save for me not being able to log on to gmail.com without hurling like a baby with stomach flu, it would probably have been my first choice.

Originally Posted by HarryPot

It drives me crazy the way Apple doesn't cares about changing from @mac to @me and now to @icloud. I know all of them still work, but it just goes to show how Apple is still very new at this. They haven't been able to come with something good.

Changing their domain so frequently just makes their service less well known.

On the other hand, they use very simple domain names, and this opens up popular names and aliases to more people. I prefer Apple having 20 e-mail domains over ending up in Hotmail/Gmails "I've got common, dot, underscore, dot, dot, name, WhatLooksLikeAPhoneNumber@hotmail.com"

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

They do, but like you mentioned....I want to keep my work stuff and my personal stuff segregated.

Heh, this post made me laugh

[whsbuss]

Originally Posted by hafr

Then came iCloud. I loved it, it was great. Only problem was it didn't push notifications properly (like read status). On the other hand, in no way could I get proper support for Hotmail in OS X (mBox mail for mac is a ****ing joke, so is their support). So that's why iCloud got my business...

The sync issues prevents me and the wife from switching over. Gmail sync almost immediately from any device. iCloud doesn't sync back to iOS devices.

[hafr]

Originally Posted by whsbuss

The sync issues prevents me and the wife from switching over. Gmail sync almost immediately from any device. iCloud doesn't sync back to iOS devices.

Yeah, but I've noticed I use Notifications Centre in iOS rather than looking at the badge so I don't even think about it anymore

What bugs me the most is that Hotmail integrates perfectly with iOS, but not at all with OS X... Not sure if it's due to Apple or Microsoft, so can't even rage properly

[Rigby]

BTW, Microsoft just announced a revamped version of Hotmail, now called Outlook.com:

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-...mailboxes.aspx

Only briefly tried it so far, but the web interface looks good, nice and clean. It has a good set of filtering and forwarding options.

Unfortunately it does not support IMAP (yet?). No problem for iOS devices since it naturally supports Exchange Activesync, but to my knowledge there are currently no desktop clients that support Activesync. So you're pretty much limited to the web interface on OS X or Windows computers.

[HarryPot]

Originally Posted by Rigby

BTW, Microsoft just announced a revamped version of Hotmail, now called Outlook.com:

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-...mailboxes.aspx

Only briefly tried it so far, but the web interface looks good, nice and clean. It has a good set of filtering and forwarding options.

Unfortunately it does not support IMAP (yet?). No problem for iOS devices since it naturally supports Exchange Activesync, but to my knowledge there are currently no desktop clients that support Activesync. So you're pretty much limited to the web interface on OS X or Windows computers.

I have no problems setting up Hotmail with the Mail app. It works pretty well.

[Rigby]

Originally Posted by HarryPot

I have no problems setting up Hotmail with the Mail app. It works pretty well.

Which protocol are you using? POP is not an option for me, since I need to access my mailbox from multiple devices.

[HarryPot]

Originally Posted by Rigby

Which protocol are you using? POP is not an option for me, since I need to access my mailbox from multiple devices.

Oh, I use POP.

I sometimes have the trouble that when I see a mail from my iPhone, it won't appear immediately at my Mac when I use it. But after some minutes the mails arrive.

Truth be told, only very few people still email me to Hotmail.

[Rigby]

Originally Posted by HarryPot

Oh, I use POP.

I sometimes have the trouble that when I see a mail from my iPhone, it won't appear immediately at my Mac when I use it. But after some minutes the mails arrive.

Truth be told, only very few people still email me to Hotmail.

The main issue with POP3 is that it only works in one direction. It can download mail, but cannot update the mailbox on the server (e.g. mark mails as read, delete them, move them to folders etc.). So if you want "mail in the cloud" and manage it from multiple devices, you need IMAP or Activesync support.

[Evoken]

Originally Posted by AzureCloud

As enticing as it sounds to have everything in one place with iCloud, I'd recommend holding off on switching from Gmail. Better security, greater reliability, actual spam filtering, and a significantly better web interface make Gmail far superior for your emailing needs. I have used Apple's email service since MobileMe's rocky beginnings, and I have never been completely satisfied. At least Gmail is a priority for Google, because the mail service is obviously an afterthought to Apple.

Well put. I've been with Apple's Mail since the .mac days and keep my account now with iCloud and Gmail is simply the better option. I also have no problems with my mail syncing be it on my Mac, iPhone or the web interface. If I read it in Sparrow on my Mac, it comes up as read in the web and the iPhone. Also the organization with labels is much more efficient than folders as you can, for example, have a message appear in multiple folders by assigning them two or more labels. The labels also sync so that if you create a label in sparrow for mac, it will appear in it for iPhone and the web interface. I also sync my Calendar, Contacts and Notes (yet for notes I mostly use Evernote) without problem.

The whole ecosystem that is open to you with the Gmail account is fantastic. Google+, Google Drive/Docs (an awesome alternative to Dropbox), Google Reader (which like Gmail keeps your RSS feeds in sync), bookmark/history syncing with Chrome on the Mac or iPhone, etc are all very nice and useful things from Google.

Going with Gmail and also taking advantage of all these services is pure win imo and the great thing is that they work for you if you have a Mac or Pc, an iPhone or an Android phone.

[Major.Robto]

keep gmail, you can use it on other devies,

its stable and just works


apples icloud email is ****,

also gmail is easer for people to understand,

because some por sap might think eyecloud.com

Gmail, its not hard to miss prounouce or for some one to confuse it with.

also Gmail also has a bit more push, professional sounding, compaired to icloud or hotmail. I know people who work in the hiring bizunuess and they only take people over email domains if everything is the exact same,

[richard13]

And to every claim there's a counter-claim...

I have, in fact, on more than one occasion been asked to give a non-gmail e-mail address because they have had issues with it.

Try them and use the one you like. There is no best e-mail service.

[hafr]

Originally Posted by Rigby

The main issue with POP3 is that it only works in one direction. It can download mail, but cannot update the mailbox on the server (e.g. mark mails as read, delete them, move them to folders etc.). So if you want "mail in the cloud" and manage it from multiple devices, you need IMAP or Activesync support.

Read status isn't synced, and there is no folder support, but you can delete e-mails with POP3. I do it every day from Mail.app.

Originally Posted by Evoken

The whole ecosystem that is open to you with the Gmail account is fantastic. Google+, Google Drive/Docs (an awesome alternative to Dropbox), Google Reader (which like Gmail keeps your RSS feeds in sync), bookmark/history syncing with Chrome on the Mac or iPhone, etc are all very nice and useful things from Google.

G+ is a PoS in my book, Google Docs is not for me since you're tied to Google (in comparison with for instant Microsoft's solution), the Google Drive application for OS X kept my computer from going to sleep and the iOS application is nothing but a joke. Don't use RSS feeds and I sync bookmarks with iCloud.

I'm not bashing Gmail, just wanted to give my take to the Google ecosystem

[Evoken]

Originally Posted by hafr

G+ is a PoS in my book, Google Docs is not for me since you're tied to Google (in comparison with for instant Microsoft's solution), the Google Drive application for OS X kept my computer from going to sleep and the iOS application is nothing but a joke. Don't use RSS feeds and I sync bookmarks with iCloud.

I'm not bashing Gmail, just wanted to give my take to the Google ecosystem

Fari enough, different strokes for different folks, the Google ecosystem is not necessarily the best for everyone and people with different needs/uses may find another solution more satisfying.

I've personally find Google+ awesome, I no longer touch Facebook since I started using it. The Google Drive app has not given me the issue you describe on OS X, perhaps it has to do with some setting? I agree about the iOS app tho, it is just read/view only and doesn't even allows to share or upload documents. That said, it is quite new, so hopefully they update and improve it. It does allows you to open the documents/pictures in different apps, but this is not really optimal.