.mac Email vs. GMail question/opinions

[chriswheat]

Here's the deal, I've been using gmail for about 3 years, but with my new iPhone, I'm really annoyed with gmail's inability to do IMAP. I have a .mac account and am seriously considering switching my main personal email from gmail to .mac. I just hesitate to do it because I'd hate for gmail to enable IMAP in a month or two after I'd gone through the whole switch ordeal. I'd almost be tempted to switch back if that were the case, but I hate sending out "Change of Email" emails.

Has anyone made this switch? Any regrets?

 

[66217]

Can't you make your .mac account retrieve mail from another accounts?

 

[buckact]

Here's the deal, I've been using gmail for about 3 years, but with my new iPhone, I'm really annoyed with gmail's inability to do IMAP. I have a .mac account and am seriously considering switching my main personal email from gmail to .mac. I just hesitate to do it because I'd hate for gmail to enable IMAP in a month or two after I'd gone through the whole switch ordeal. I'd almost be tempted to switch back if that were the case, but I hate sending out "Change of Email" emails.

Has anyone made this switch? Any regrets?

Here's what I did and it may work for you. I setup email forwarding on my gmail account so all of my gmail would automatically flow into my .mac account where I could keep it all organized (Because I hate labeling my email).

I think the biggest pro of this is that you can keep both email accounts, and slowly have people start sending to you .mac account. On your computer you will even be able to respond as your gmail account if you setup your gmail with fake incoming server info and real outgoing info (I'm not sure if you can do this on the iPhone though, I don't have one yet 🙁.

The downside however is that I still have login every few days to check my gmail spam to make sure there isn't anything important. Also, your old gmail messages won't be in your .mac account, so for a while you might still need to sign in to gmail or forward them to your .mac manually to access them.

Hope this helps.

 

[MBHockey]

I am doing this same exact thing right now, for the same reason. The only problem so far is that .Mac mail has been intermittent today.

Also, there is no default sort.....so the email (even though it is organized by date in Mail.app) comes in unsorted on the iPhone and the web interface. While it's a 1 click change to sort it on the web interface, i have no idea how to sort it on the iPhone. 🙄

 

[GuillaumeB]

I too forwarded my GMail to .Mac... my downside is that i'm really gonna miss GMail Mobile on my Sony Ericsson

 

[buckact]

I too forwarded my GMail to .Mac... my downside is that i'm really gonna miss GMail Mobile on my Sony Ericsson

Since I never told anybody my new .mac email address, I still use gmail as my main address. I just use .mac as a means of accessing it on my computer. When I set up the forwarding on gmail, i told it to forward to .mac and keep all the messages in my inbox specifically so I could still access from Gmail Mobile.

It can be annoying to have to mark things as read when the mail hits .mac, but it is a small price to pay to have mobile access.

 

[xliver]

Keep your gmail but use as IMAP

Guys - this is a great solution that I have read extensively on and I think it maybe what the original poster is looking for. I to use gmail and everyone has that address and I did not want to change it on them. Also, what if they add IMAP, then i go back? To much hassle. Also, i have .mac. With .mac having IMAP thats the way to go with the iPhone and Mail.app and still have access on the web - it just keeps everything organized.
With that said, here is a great link to set things up so people see your gmail address and still mail to it but use you are using the .mac with the IMAP advantages.

Keep in mind - i changed a couple things in these settings for myself: 1) I did not add a .mac to my Mail.app - if i did that it would always look like i sent it from my .mac address and I wanted it to look like it came from gmail so they could hit reply and it would come to my gmail account. So instead of adding a .mac account to Mail.app i added an IMAP account and put my "Email Address" in the accounts preference pane as my gmail address (if you start with a .mac it will always default back to that setting even if you change the email address). With that changed, they are always replying to my gmail address.

Voila - you send from .mac, have the IMAP going on for Mail.app, iPhone, and web access but the front end to everyone else looks like its coming from gmail. You get the gmail spam filtering and the archiving of gmail with its search functions should you ever need it.

Hope that helps!

http://www.appeddesign.com/2007/7/10/gmail-mac-mashup-for-the-iphone