I can't get rid of POP, no matter how 'old' that is. Having multiple mailboxes or if you prefer to call them folders, is a must, I can not have all my mail go into 1 inbox, that would be a complete and utter disaster!
I get about 15-20 orders a day, each order generates about 5 different emails (item sold, order confirmation, payment confirmation, item shipped/tracking no, item delivered), so generally that is 75-100 emails daily, or about 3000 emails per month, excluding the emails I get questions, items returned etc. (Just my 'orders Dec has 5297 emails in them).
If I have handled an email properly, I move it to another mailbox/folder, like 'orders Dec', so I know it has been taken care of. AT the end of the day, my inbox is 'empty', all things taken care of. There would be no way of keeping track of things if I didn't separate all my emails. Can you imagine having 15k + of emails in your inbox, o my word........
A mobile unit is just that, a tractor trailer with the whole shop. Since we are on the road much of the summer season, but still ship, and answer questions, I need the mailboxes/folders, to look for something, or if somebody has a question about returns etc. Industry standard is a 90 day return policy, so I have to have 90 days of sales 'at hand' where ever I am. So that means on the server. After 90 days I move them to the external hard drive or other back up. The IRS requires you to keep records for 5 years in my line of business, so I often burn a DVD.
Though I agree about POP/IMAP, it is not my choice. The online ecommerce site comes with that (and yes there is much improvement to be had with that company, unfortunately, others are not much better or even worse in SEO abilities, and if they can't find you, you can't sell). I have tried forwarding to a gmail, but too much got 'stuck' and too many costumers emails went into outerspace. Obviously not good for business.
I am repeating myself here, I have all said this before.
I've long taken care of the font, after the first mention of tinker tool.
Dumping QB, I wish, o I so wish, and everytime I have to prepare my taxes and see all the things QB did wrong I'd be soo ready to dish it, but again not an option. There is no (affordable) small business accounting tool available, they are all worse, plus
, that is what my accountant wants. And no, I'm not going to switch accountants, as we also run a horse breeding farm, and agricultural accountants, that know about the horse taxes are VERY hard to find. Also not all merchant accounts (i.e. to accept credit cards), work with other software, and if you don't accept credit card you don't sell. Most mobile cc link directly into QB, which keeps my inventory up to date and tells me when to order new, and a quick look this way makes me be able to tell customers at the mobile unit whether I can have it sent from our home base. BUT QB is coming with a patch, supposedly before the summer this year. And then that will be a little less painful? Or so I wish
I'll deal with this, I have dealt with QB for some time, I'm sure I'll survive this too.
The contacts have long been pointed out and fixed.
As to iLife vs CS, I use CS. And I was very very very disappointed when I realized what the deal was. I was told including at the Apple store that I could do all that with iLife. I should have asked deeper, and I am taking responsibility for that, but the sales person was a great sales person. And even when I said that I worked with CS, he said I would be thrilled to work with the MAC software. THAT is what clinched the deal. So we purchased the MAC, and the 1-2-1 guys is showing me around the MAC and iLife about 1 week after purchase. And I'm like, so how do you do X. And he goes like, well, you can't do that with iLife. WHAT????!!!!!!!! And how about Y, NOPE, Z? NOPE, you need Adobe, aperture/final cut won't do that. I was furious, disappointed and depressed and until somebody pointed out you can call Adobe for a change, at the end of my wits. There is no comparison between the 2. iLife may be great for college students, families etc, but not for what I'm doing. Compared to what I do it IS very basic. Avatar was not made on iLife for a reason. (then again, my work falls very short of Avatar, also for a reason
)
And then, though the basics of OS are just fine and easy, I find that one thing after another is either NOT or barely compatible with OS.
Currently, except that my computer is 'dead', my biggest problem is the whole POP thing. I know it works just fine in Outlook, but outlook is not available on a MAC. There is supposed to be a way around it in 'thunderbird', and it was my task of the day to see if that would work on the MAC, as it does under Windows, the day before I had tried with MacFreepop, but that *may*
have caused the failure (no conclusive on that). Entourage is supposed to have a fix for that, but I haven't found that one out just yet. I have extensively tried with both the Apple phone support and the store to get this to work, but Mail and MobileMe don't support this server/client.
I'm beginning to think that online the webbased solution is going to work.
As to the VAIO outperforming the MAC, of course not with speed and other things, but on the VAIO I can currently handle all my emails, and my accounting and my designing, I can't on the MAC, so yes, it is outperforming at this moment. As long as I'm unable to do things on the MAC (aside from it being dead at the moment), it isn't worth much. And an old and slow VAIO is. My time is money, if I can't do my business on the MAC, but I can on the VAIO, then there is no comparison.
If anybody knows of any way to download multiple mailboxes/folders in ANY mail application, I would be thrilled, THAT is the only real problem, the rest is no big deal and dealt with.
