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luigi408

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 22, 2008
362
114
Hi all I'm an iPhone user and I am wondering what email/calendar service is best to use? I am currently trying out MobileMe I like it but not sure if ts worth $99 a year just yet. The email I use regularly is yahoo but I can't do much with them and I don't like how the calendar/email is set up. I also have a gmail account but I hardly use it cause I have always used yahoo. Can you guys please recommend me what service would be the best to use for contacts/calendar/email for my phone forever. Also I'm a pc user and I use outlook. Thanks so much.
 
Hi all I'm an iPhone user and I am wondering what email/calendar service is best to use? I am currently trying out MobileMe I like it but not sure if ts worth $99 a year just yet. The email I use regularly is yahoo but I can't do much with them and I don't like how the calendar/email is set up. I also have a gmail account but I hardly use it cause I have always used yahoo. Can you guys please recommend me what service would be the best to use for contacts/calendar/email for my phone forever. Also I'm a pc user and I use outlook. Thanks so much.
Google sync works very well for calendars and contacts... and gmail imap for email is brilliant. I highly recommend the combo.
 
I have found Mobileme to be very nice because I use it to merge all my email. The ability for me to forward my work, home and web based emails to one service and have it keep my iPhone and computer in perfect sync is worth the price. I previously had my email forwarded to my home address and could access it, but if I deleted something on my iPhone, I then had to delete all the junk on my laptop and desktop, and work computer as well. Pain in the butt, $99 is a bargain for not having that hassle alone.

The other aspect of it is the ability to share my pictures and video with family. Setting up events of vacations, birthdays etc... and uploading to Mobileme is very nice. I don't know of limits with other photo sites but I do know uploading 1000+ pics to Mobileme was painless and easy. I also can let family members download what they want for themselves and put passwords for different users for different content.

Again I'm not sure how Flickr and other sites work, but I enjoy the ease of how Mobileme handles it.

The other aspects such as calender, contacts etc.. also very nice to have everything from work and personal dealings all sync'd.
 
I've heard lots of good things about GMail, contacts, and calendars on the iPhone too. I've decided to give it a try and have already gotten my contacts and calendar updated online. Hope it goes as smooth as I've heard and everything syncs up accurately.
 
GMail is good. However I am quickly starting to enjoy MobileMe. Not to mention that you can get a year of MobileMe from Amazon for ~$60. More than worth it at $5/month.
 
Google sync works very well for calendars and contacts... and gmail imap for email is brilliant. I highly recommend the combo.

I agree with all of this, except I use Nuevasync for push calendar and contacts. They are currently testing push email. These guys are great!!
 
Thanks for the quick answers. I'll try out google, it's between them and MobileMe. For the people who have tried both what are some features that google is lacking compare to MobileMe or the other way around? Also does google push like MobileMe to a cloud thing? And is there a guide to set up google stuff with iPhone. Thanks again.
 
If you already use Gmail, their calendar/contacts integration is the best out there for free, IMO. If you need push, and don't want to pony up for MobileMe, you can use Yahoo! mail.

Don't forget that you get other stuff with MobileMe too, like Find my iPhone, gigs of storage, integration with iPhoto, etc. If you can find 5 friends who want to go in on a family plan with you, it's a lot cheaper!
 
MobileMe > gmail

now that the kinks are out of MM, it's far superior in utility and you also get the bonus of "Find My Phone" with the combination of MM and 3.0 (you don't get this feature with any other email service)......which is priceless in my opinion.
 
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Why limit yourself to just one? I currently have a Mobile Me, 2 Gmail and 1 email on my own domain on my iPhone.
 
I am running hosted exchange for my iPhone which runs about $90 a year which isn’t bad considering the cost of Mobile Me. I have found that there seems to be a better integration through exchange then I got for the 2 years I had Mobile Me, especially with the computer and pushing updates. This performance difference might be rectified in 3.0.
 
How good is yahoo's integration with iphone when compared to gmail? You'd think there was a yahoo or gmail app for iphone...
 
MobileMe. I purchased it on eBay for 40 bucks for a family pack. It's been well worth it. The over the air syncing of bookmarks and contacts alone would be worth the full price for me.
 
Why limit yourself to just one? I currently have a Mobile Me, 2 Gmail and 1 email on my own domain on my iPhone.

I found that the more accounts I used, the worse my battery life was. It wasn't worth it.

I eventually forwarded all my accounts to my gmail and just use that for everything now.
 
I forgot about find my phone, storage, and photo stuff in MobileMe that is pretty good stuff. If I want to keep my gmail and MobileMe together in my phone with everything synced up can it be done? The reason is because my church uses google calendar and soon I'll be in charge of updating and stuff and I'd love to be able to use it on my phone. Sorry for so many questions.
 
If you already use Gmail, their calendar/contacts integration is the best out there for free, IMO. If you need push, and don't want to pony up for MobileMe, you can use Yahoo! mail.

Don't forget that you get other stuff with MobileMe too, like Find my iPhone, gigs of storage, integration with iPhoto, etc. If you can find 5 friends who want to go in on a family plan with you, it's a lot cheaper!

Hold on yahoo mail has push..? I don't understand.
 
Just to point it out, given Apple’s disastrous handling of Mobile Me last year – which I was a part of – I wouldn’t guarantee that all these new iPhone users this device and the $99 3G are supposed to bring in wouldn’t overwhelm the servers once again. Hopefully Apple has learned the lesson but you can’t truly prepare for unexpected events.
 
Hold on yahoo mail has push..? I don't understand.

Yep. Yahoo supports push to the iPhone, and has for quite some time now. Only problem is....it can be a bit problematic as to whether or not it will actually push. Granted, my own experience I'd guesstimate about 80% of the time it works, but it is enough that I'm looking into playing with MobileMe on the two month free trial.
 
Yep. Yahoo supports push to the iPhone, and has for quite some time now. Only problem is....it can be a bit problematic as to whether or not it will actually push. Granted, my own experience I'd guesstimate about 80% of the time it works, but it is enough that I'm looking into playing with MobileMe on the two month free trial.

Yup yahoo push is not that great. Just like you said you dont always get it on time. Im really liking MobileMe and I want google but you cant have google sync and MobileMe on at the same time. I think I am going to get rid of yahoo only to use it for messenger thats all.
 
I have both MobileMe and Gmail accounts..

My main mail is Gmail, only because I didn't feel like notifying everyone to send emails to my MobileMe email. So my MobileMe I now use for business emails, banking info, etc,etc..

I absolutely love every aspect of MobileMe, everything from Photos down to Bookmarks.

One of these days, I'll end up dropping Gmail all together, once I can get all my mail contacts switched over to MobileMe..

I recommend both services though, if you don't want to pay for MobileMe, Gmail is a formidable replacement.
 
I have used .me/.mac and love it as well... never had a problem and I really like all it offers. Everything transitions so smooth from my phone to my Mac and its all stored somewhere "in the clouds" so I dont have to worry about lost data.
And of course in a couple of hours I will be able to track my iPhone if I need to or just want to...
 
Yup yahoo push is not that great. Just like you said you dont always get it on time. Im really liking MobileMe and I want google but you cant have google sync and MobileMe on at the same time. I think I am going to get rid of yahoo only to use it for messenger thats all.

Yahoo push is terrible. I think i've had two emails pushed to my phone threw yahoo ever.
 
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