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MobileMe Email
- Thread starter Roy Hobbs
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No. I've heard from a MobileMe designer it can check POP addresses much like Gmail.
Dot Mac already can be configured to check POP addresses, but on the webmail, you can't reply from a different address. Since they're doing a major re-vamp of the webmail interface (from what I can see, going from no better or worse than gmail/Yahoo to much better, from looking at the demos), I wouldn't be surprised if they change that.
I certainly hope they do! That's the ONE thing I'm really disappointed about with .Mac - I don't want to have to give out my .Mac email address when I've been using the same address for years (on a personal domain) with my friends and family. ATM, it's not possible to change the "Reply To" address, and I really hope they change that.
You are already pushing your Yahoo accounts to the iPhone, right?
Right now I forward my email to gmail so I can take advantage of its web interface and imap capabilities. I will be checking out Mobile Me with an eye toward forwarding my accounts there. Gmail allows me to set the reply to field (although it says it is from my gmail account on behalf of my personal account). I would love Mobile Me to offer full domain name integration.
they do push to my iphone but sometimes it works sometimes ill check and 3 emails came in 4 hours ago...its odd....I was just hoping with this mobile me I could assign all my email address under one roof to mobile me and it would send it instantly threw mobile me......well the good thing is all iphone users get a free 60 day trial of mobile me so I can try it and see....but if it dose work that way everything to my mobile me then mobile me sends it to my iphone instantly count me in...
Is there such a thing as free Exchange hosting?
The way I see it, I can either pay for Exchange hosting or pay for MobileMe. Given the integration with the apps I use on my Mac, it's a no-brainer. Even if I used Windows, though - I don't know. It'd be a tough call, but MobileMe would probably still get my vote (the web apps look pretty cool, and MobileMe isn't just for syncing devices - it's a full webhosting package) ...
Let's recap the conversation:Is there such a thing as free Exchange hosting?
HSquared said, "MobileMe is so overpriced for something that you can do for free anyway."
I responded saying, "How can I freely push my email? I've tried mail2web, but is really sucks."
HSquared has yet to response, but rtmadden responded directly to me via a quote and said, "I've used 1&1 Internet for my MS Exchange services. It's only about $21/3 months and I've been fairly happy with it."
I responded saying "That's not free."
Hopefully that clears things up some.
And to be more precise, there simply is no free or cheaper alternative to MobileMe on the market. Push is not all, I'm talking about 20GB of storage + push contact/calendar+ all the other features.
Since you can't compare it to anything else except a professional MS Exchange server, saying MobileMe is overprice is a huge nonsense.
Since you can't compare it to anything else except a professional MS Exchange server, saying MobileMe is overprice is a huge nonsense.
a full blown exchange server and mobileme would not even be a comparison, exchange offers much more than mobileme but most everyday users probably don't need any of those features
mobileme is a combination of a bunch of readily available web services, all nicely put into 1 single package:
1. IMAP mail (available free)
2. Online Address Book (available free)
3. Online Calendar (available free)
4. Online Photo Gallery (available free)
5. Online storage (available free, but probably not 20GB of space)
All of those services can be had for free, what you are paying for is the convenience of having all those services under 1 application. You can get close if you use all of Google's apps but they currently don't offer online storage, although your e-mail account has plenty of storage available
MS Exchange is an e-mail server designed to be used in a corporate atmosphere, featuring public folders, delegation, global address book, shared calendars, meeting requests, etc
there is no comparison of these 2 products, only part that is even close is e-mail
so if you think the convenience of a one stop shop is worth the $99/year, then great, if you don't that is fine too, you have free alternatives out there that will get you the same service
mobileme is a combination of a bunch of readily available web services, all nicely put into 1 single package:
1. IMAP mail (available free)
2. Online Address Book (available free)
3. Online Calendar (available free)
4. Online Photo Gallery (available free)
5. Online storage (available free, but probably not 20GB of space)
All of those services can be had for free, what you are paying for is the convenience of having all those services under 1 application. You can get close if you use all of Google's apps but they currently don't offer online storage, although your e-mail account has plenty of storage available
MS Exchange is an e-mail server designed to be used in a corporate atmosphere, featuring public folders, delegation, global address book, shared calendars, meeting requests, etc
there is no comparison of these 2 products, only part that is even close is e-mail
so if you think the convenience of a one stop shop is worth the $99/year, then great, if you don't that is fine too, you have free alternatives out there that will get you the same service
They also don't do instant push email/calendar/contact updates to all of your devices, either.
The comparisons I've seen have been between a hosted individual Microsoft Exchange account and MobileMe. Hosted Exchange accounts don't usually deal with GALs and shared calendars.
no system pushes changes instantly, not even exchange with a blackberry, mobileme isn't using a new protocol, so i don't see how it is going to push e-mail any faster than someone with an e-mail client setup with IMAP.
true, i was just pointing out Exchange is much more than just push e-mail, since someone had made the comparison between a "professional Exchange server" and MobileMe.
IMAP is not "push" email; it's pull. IMAP client still logs in and polls the server for new messages. What IMAP does that is similar to Exchange using MAPI is the message stays on the server, and depending on the client software, there may or may not be a local copy (MS calls it "cached" in Exchange/Outlook) on your computer/phone.
Push email is the server gets the message and automatically sends the message to the client.
Exchange using MAPI is push email. Exchange using IMAP is pull email.
To the person who asked if there are any free Exchange hosting services: I doubt it due to the cost of Exchange and Windows Server.
I use Exchange at work and have a Windows Mobile 6 phone with active sync (push email). I have played with this thing many times and have found new messages arrive within a minute the PC shows it. NOTHING will ever be "instant" as there's not such thing when dealing with any kind of network. Don't let "instant" confuse you.
Push email is the server gets the message and automatically sends the message to the client.
Exchange using MAPI is push email. Exchange using IMAP is pull email.
To the person who asked if there are any free Exchange hosting services: I doubt it due to the cost of Exchange and Windows Server.
I use Exchange at work and have a Windows Mobile 6 phone with active sync (push email). I have played with this thing many times and have found new messages arrive within a minute the PC shows it. NOTHING will ever be "instant" as there's not such thing when dealing with any kind of network. Don't let "instant" confuse you.
In all of the free examples of the services you've posted, you either have to change the data via a web client, or the client on your computer pulls the data at predefined intervals.
I can't think of a free IMAP service that offers push to your computer. Yahoo does push IMAP to the iPhone (but not computers), but from what I've read on the forums, it's not very reliable.
Which protocol do you think MobileMe uses to push contact and calendar updates? I don't think I've ever seen anything non-proprietorial that does that.
Have you seen the MobileMe videos? It definitely doesn't look like just push IMAP to me.
Sorry, when I said instant, I meant it more along the lines of "not having to wait for the device to do a regularly scheduled pull".
i.e. If you're on your computer and change a person in your Address Book, the change is "instantly" sent to your iPhone and other computers, meaning that the change is pushed to them, ... you don't have to wait 1,5,15,30,whatever minutes for the iPhone/other computers to "check in" and pull any new data.
Exchange doesn't pull with IMAP, it supports it as a way for an e-mail client to connect to it, just as it supports POP3
Outlook uses MAPI/RPC to communicate with Exchange, IMAP is not even in the picture
no one is saying IMAP is push e-mail, except maybe Apple. LOL... take at a look at their section on e-mail, "IMAP technology"
and after years of using and administering Exchange, i have to say, i love it, hosted Exchange is great for small companies that can't afford the infrastructure to support it properly, but i never quite understood the market for individuals buying hosted Exchange services for a single user, seemed like overkill, since you don't utilize any of the features that make Exchange a powerful tool
My guess is that a lot of folks don't work in environments where a GAL, shared calendars, delegated account access, and public folders really add any value to them. There are lots of one, two people shops out there.
Whereas, they couldn't live without their email and PIM updates being automatically shot between their Windows Mobile device and Outlook on their computer (plus being available in OWA).
If MobileMe allows people to select different "Reply From" addresses, it'd could be a real competitor for RIM and their BIS market.
no one knows what they are using to push contacts or calendar, because i don't believe they have said yet.
as for this whole discussion between push and pull, there is no difference other than who initiates the connection. both ways the e-mail is delivered almost instantly provided you are polling the server constantly to the point where it is almost persistent. so to an end user it really isn't going to matter
by "reply from" addresses are you talking about sending on behalf of someone? or just being able enter a different address in the "from" field?
The other difference is in regards to battery life.
A smartphone set to pull IMAP every 15 minutes kills its battery by end of day. Set to one minute, I'd be surprised if it even makes it 1/2 the day.
For whatever reason, the same device sitting there waiting for stuff to be pushed to it ends the day with a lot more battery life. Probably because it doesn't have to do all of the sending and receiving every 1 minute just to find out that there's no new mail.
Different address in the "From Field".
.Mac's had a feature for years where it could POP into your other email accounts and put the new mail in your .Mac account, but if you replied, the reply always came from your "@mac.com" account.
BlackBerry's BIS pushes emails from up to 10 (I think that's the max) accounts, and when you reply, it replies with the correct email address in the From line (or lets you manually select a different one).
a BB BIS is actually handling multiple e-mail accounts, not just multiple e-mail addresses. so that is a key distinction. so the question is then will MobileMe handle and manage multiple accounts. the option of being able to enter a different e-mail in a "from" field is going to be on the e-mail client side and won't have anything to do with a server
and then on your blackberry there are actually filtered inboxes for each account that you setup with the BIS, so will the iPhone also have this type of feature with MobileMe is another question, otherwise all your mail for all your accounts gets mixed into 1 inbox
