iCloud questions: RE Apple ID, @me vs@icloud and GMail

[Argelius]

As Apple continues to make all of its devices and services increasingly tied together, I'm thinking of bagging GMail and Google Calendars and going whole-hog Apple. (In addition, I'm growing increasingly distrustful of Google's "we'll give it to you free if you let us mine your data to sell ads" business model. Anyway, a couple of quick questions:

[1] My Apple ID is my GMail address. I have one iCloud address associated with with account. I also have a second iCloud (@me) account that was created at some point. So in iCloud preferences on my Mac, both iCloud accounts show up. I'd like to use my @me iCloud account and get rid of the other which is my current Apple ID. Is this possible?

[2] Are @mac.com, @me.com, and @icloud.com all equivalent/aliases?

[3] I currently have 3 GMail addresses (personal, e-commerce, and forums). Can I get additional @icloud.com addresses or does Apple use "aliases" that are the equivelnet of individual accounts?

Thanks!

 

[appleii.c]

As Apple continues to make all of its devices and services increasingly tied together, I'm thinking of bagging GMail and Google Calendars and going whole-hog Apple. (In addition, I'm growing increasingly distrustful of Google's "we'll give it to you free if you let us mine your data to sell ads" business model. Anyway, a couple of quick questions:

[1] My Apple ID is my GMail address. I have one iCloud address associated with with account. I also have a second iCloud (@me) account that was created at some point. So in iCloud preferences on my Mac, both iCloud accounts show up. I'd like to use my @me iCloud account and get rid of the other which is my current Apple ID. Is this possible?

[2] Are @mac.com, @me.com, and @icloud.com all equivalent/aliases?

[3] I currently have 3 GMail addresses (personal, e-commerce, and forums). Can I get additional @icloud.com addresses or does Apple use "aliases" that are the equivelnet of individual accounts?

Thanks!

as far as changing your appleId, you should be able to do that rather easily. See here:
Change your Apple Id

They should all be equivalent, meaning they go to the same location. I have a .me and a .icloud email and I only set up the .me and they both get activated. I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can separate them into two separate mailboxes if they are both the same name, i.e. johndoe@me.com & johndoe@icloud.com. Maybe someone else can clarify though to be sure.

You can probably set up different iCloud accounts, but personally i keep my gmail and just forward everything to my iCloud account. When I am emailing friends/family or for personal emails, I use my iCloud account. If i'm registering for something, or adding myself to an email list, I simply use my gmail account (let them handle the spam).

 

[impaler]

[1] My Apple ID is my GMail address. I have one iCloud address associated with with account. I also have a second iCloud (@me) account that was created at some point. So in iCloud preferences on my Mac, both iCloud accounts show up. I'd like to use my @me iCloud account and get rid of the other which is my current Apple ID. Is this possible?

[2] Are @mac.com, @me.com, and @icloud.com all equivalent/aliases?

[3] I currently have 3 GMail addresses (personal, e-commerce, and forums). Can I get additional @icloud.com addresses or does Apple use "aliases" that are the equivelnet of individual accounts?

Thanks!

For 2), .mac, .me and .icloud emails are essentially aliases, depending on when you created them. I've had my .mac since 2000, since it was iTools, and I can use all three simultaneously. Those that created accounts through the MobileMe era should have a .me and .icloud, and those most recent folks should only have a .icloud. They are full aliases and point to the SAME mailbox.

3) Apple uses aliases. You can set up to three, I think - they also support "+' addressing, such as "myname+XXX@icloud.com".