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Anyone here use gmail as their only real email yet use iCloud?

S

sakau2007

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
488
2
If so, could I get your reasoning behind it? I'm referring to the syncing of contacts, calendar, etc. not so much the photo stream which I understand has a separate purpose.

What (if any) benefit does iCloud offer that Google's syncing does not? Just wondering if it would be worth my time to go the iCloud route.
 
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sakau2007 said:
If so, could I get your reasoning behind it? I'm referring to the syncing of contacts, calendar, etc. not so much the photo stream which I understand has a separate purpose.

What (if any) benefit does iCloud offer that Google's syncing does not? Just wondering if it would be worth my time to go that direction.
Click to expand...

This. Set up gmail as an exchange account, get push sync for email/contacts/calendar...done.

Google Sync ftw.
 
I have moved everything over to iCloud except my primary email which will eventually take place.

Google scans through ALL of your information and uses everything to ultimately sell it to advertisers to market better to you.

With Google, you are the product.

With Apple, iCloud is a feature.
 
On my iPhone and my Mac they both work the same, but I prefer the Address Book and Calender in www.iCloud.com 100x more than their counterparts in G-Mail online.

When you do that stuff in gmail it's always pushing you to be chat-buddies and Google+ buddies and to have a public Google profile and all that crap. Google makes their money from that stuff so it's never far away.

Apple makes their money from their hardware so their web services are blissfully clean and simple. I prefer them.

As Doug even says, I'd prefer to ditch the Mail part of google as well for all those reasons. But I'm a little bit afraid to change my address I've had so long, so the e-mail stays. But everything else was MobileMe and is now iCloud.
 
DougFNJ said:
I have moved everything over to iCloud except my primary email which will eventually take place.

Google scans through ALL of your information and uses everything to ultimately sell it to advertisers to market better to you.

With Google, you are the product.

With Apple, iCloud is a feature.
Click to expand...

So the fact that Google can advertise more to your tastes is... bad? I don't understand how receiving ads about fire sales at places I like to shop, or memorabilia from my favorite sports teams, or anything else that Google knows I am an enthusiast of is a bad thing. Am I the only person who actually likes targeted ads? It's no different than when Budweiser advertises during a football game, or the new Justin Bieber CD is promoted during an episode of some teen drama on ABC Family. Only now in 2011, it is way, way, way more efficient. Which means advertisers will pay more per view. Which means that ultimately I will see fewer ads, and the ads I do see will be much more relevant.

In my OP, I guess I wasn't clear. I actually have Google Syncing for everything right now and it works perfectly best I can tell. I was just curious if there was a reason to give iCloud a go. And no, I don't consider Google being a big bad company a reason to do it.
 
I use gmail as my primary email to maintain platform / ISP independence. If I should choose to leave the Apple ecosystem, it's easier if I'm not tied to an @me address.

I use iCloud for calendar/contact sync now due to the automatic sync capabilities with my Macbook Air.
 
Small White Car said:
On my iPhone and my Mac they both work the same, but I prefer the Address Book and Calender in www.iCloud.com 100x more than their counterparts in G-Mail online.

When you do that stuff in gmail it's always pushing you to be chat-buddies and Google+ buddies and to have a public Google profile and all that crap. Google makes their money from that stuff so it's never far away.

Apple makes their money from their hardware so their web services are blissfully clean and simple. I prefer them.

As Doug even says, I'd prefer to ditch the Mail part of google as well for all those reasons. But I'm a little bit afraid to change my address I've had so long, so the e-mail stays. But everything else was MobileMe and is now iCloud.
Click to expand...

If you feel that way, surely you could just start using a new email address and have all your GMail forwarded to that new email address. In time, it would become obsolete.
 
sakau2007 said:
If so, could I get your reasoning behind it? I'm referring to the syncing of contacts, calendar, etc. not so much the photo stream which I understand has a separate purpose.

What (if any) benefit does iCloud offer that Google's syncing does not? Just wondering if it would be worth my time to go that direction.
Click to expand...
I can sync my contacts with iCloud with their FULL SCREEN hi-res picture ID. It has been an issue since iOS4 that Google failed to fix. All picture IDs are downscaled to a tiny image using Google sync.

I only use Google sync for my push email since I have a Google apps account (custom domain). Gmail still offers more functions.
 
bowlerman625 said:
I use a gmail account as my primary. I have a @me.com account that has everything synced to it. It works ok for me and I'm used to it now.
Click to expand...
Same here. I use Gmail through mail apps since I don't like it's interface (I know it's going to change) and I like native apps better. So for email, iCloud, Gmail or whatever, for me makes no difference.
 
sakau2007 said:
So the fact that Google can advertise more to your tastes is... bad? I don't understand how receiving ads about fire sales at places I like to shop, or memorabilia from my favorite sports teams, or anything else that Google knows I am an enthusiast of is a bad thing. Am I the only person who actually likes targeted ads? It's no different than when Budweiser advertises during a football game, or the new Justin Bieber CD is promoted during an episode of some teen drama on ABC Family. Only now in 2011, it is way, way, way more efficient. Which means advertisers will pay more per view. Which means that ultimately I will see fewer ads, and the ads I do see will be much more relevant.

In my OP, I guess I wasn't clear. I actually have Google Syncing for everything right now and it works perfectly best I can tell. I was just curious if there was a reason to give iCloud a go. And no, I don't consider Google being a big bad company a reason to do it.
Click to expand...

You asked what the reasoning was behind it, I gave you that reasoning, not to judge, but to give you my reasoning. I do not particularly like being advertised to. Do you keep your phone number off the Do Not Call List so you can listen to the telemarketers for optimal buying opportunities during dinner? Do you fast forward through the TV shows so you could watch the ads in between? I like my privacy, and I prefer it. If I am looking to buy something, I go online and find the best price myself, I don't need 500 spam emails a day telling me about it.

I'm not saying Google is bad or evil for doing this, they are primarily an advertising company and that is their business.
 
sakau2007 said:
Am I the only person who actually likes targeted ads? It's no different than when Budweiser advertises during a football game, or the new Justin Bieber CD is promoted during an episode of some teen drama on ABC Family.
Click to expand...

I think you're probably in the minority if you actually like being advertised to, and that's coming from someone who works in the business. Most people I know go out of their way to avoid ads - TiVo/DVRs have always been marketed as devices to help viewers skip the ads, there are abundant browser plug-ins that provide ad blocking, etc, etc.

My wife used to work for google in the early years and the discussions I had with developers back then gave me the sense that tying my life to a platform that makes ME the commodity is just not where I want to be. To each their own, if having all of your browsing, buying, emailing, professional documents, social networking, photos, etc behavior being scanned and tracked for the purpose of being sold as marketing information is appealing to you so be it, it's just not what many folks like. Most use Google apps for ease of use, not even realizing how much of their personal info they're trading away for a "free" service.
 
sakau2007 said:
So the fact that Google can advertise more to your tastes is... bad? I don't understand how receiving ads about fire sales at places I like to shop, or memorabilia from my favorite sports teams, or anything else that Google knows I am an enthusiast of is a bad thing. Am I the only person who actually likes targeted ads?
Click to expand...


Targeted ads are better than non-targetted ads.

No ads are better than any ads.


If I have to have ads, I prefer to have targeted ones. Sure. I've got no problem with that. But the choice here is between "targeted ads" and "no ads." How on earth does "no ads" not win out for you?


sakau2007 said:
If you feel that way, surely you could just start using a new email address and have all your GMail forwarded to that new email address. In time, it would become obsolete.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about it. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I NEVER liked the way Gmail's web version worked. I just put up with it. But perhaps I won't anymore.

I do own the x@me.com that matches my x@gmail.com, so the change would be minimal.
 
I don't plan to use .me as my primary email. I did that once when it was .mac. And frankly, I didn't get enough value to continue. It was too much work to transition the first time, and I don't want to do it again. (As I had left hotmail, comcast, mailblocks...the list goes on and on. At least gmail seems pretty committed to remaining as a product.)
 
Small White Car said:
No ads are better than any ads.
I NEVER liked the way Gmail's web version worked. I just put up with it. But perhaps I won't anymore.
Click to expand...

I rarely go to Gmail's web interface, I primarily use it via IMAP to Outlook on my main computer. About the only time I hit the web interface is if I'm on a different computer for some reason and need to do something I can't do from my iphone such as marking something as Spam that got through Google's filters.

This avoids Google's ads for the most part. :D
 
deeddawg said:
I rarely go to Gmail's web interface, I primarily use it via IMAP to Outlook on my main computer. About the only time I hit the web interface is if I'm on a different computer for some reason and need to do something I can't do from my iphone such as marking something as Spam that got through Google's filters.

This avoids Google's ads for the most part. :D
Click to expand...

Any advantages of using IMAP over Exchange?
 
DougFNJ said:
I have moved everything over to iCloud except my primary email which will eventually take place.

Google scans through ALL of your information and uses everything to ultimately sell it to advertisers to market better to you.

With Google, you are the product.

With Apple, iCloud is a feature.
Click to expand...

For now. Wait until Apple pulls everyone into the iCloud "ecosystem," then starts sending iAds to your devices.
 
ericrwalker said:
Any advantages of using IMAP over Exchange?
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I don't believe you can set Outlook to access an Activesync connection (which is the iphone Exchange connection), and AFAIK google doesn't present a true Exchange interface. If anyone knows different I'd certainly like to know.
 
deeddawg said:
I could be wrong, but I don't believe you can set Outlook to access an Activesync connection (which is the iphone Exchange connection), and AFAIK google doesn't present a true Exchange interface. If anyone knows different I'd certainly like to know.
Click to expand...

Maybe, I use gmail as exchange on my phone, but not on outlook. I don't use outlook at home, and my outlook at work using my work exchange account (outlook seems to only support one exchange account).
 
I host my own domain's email on Google Apps. So far all I use iCloud for is syncing my contacts with my phone. If it weren't for the fact that the Exchange sync is limited when used with Siri, I wouldn't have changed at all.
 
Not only does no spam get into my inbox with my gmail account, my spam folder is empty...don't know if it's ever had anything in it.

No matter if I go Android or stay iOS, all it takes is putting in my gmail information and all of my info is instantly there. Photostream would be cool, but iPhone is the only Apple product I have so it's kind of meh to me.

And now I also have Music from Google. Up to ~20,000 songs (not sure of the actual storage space available) on the cloud, accessible from anywhere with a connection, including my iPhone with the new app out and obviously any Android phone should I switch over.

Thinking of picking up a 4s to hold me over for a while, will not be bothering with iCloud.
 
I only use iCloud for find my iPhone and backup. Photo stream is kind of lame to me really and I find it mostly useless. I wish I had the options to take my photos and put them on a gallery.

I still use and will always use Google for email, calendar, and contacts. I purchased .me a few years back but let it cancel out because I wasn't using it. Apple just has never really been able to figure out cloud services and I don't see iCloud as being that great personally.

The best thing about Google is it's platform agnostic. That is the same reason Dropbox will always be more popular than anything iCloud puts out.
 
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