so i'm new to macs and i'm a little overwhelmed with all my choices here: principally, whether to use mac applications or just web based solutions. i like the idea of using mac applications for their integration, but does it really make a difference?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why do you use Mail/iCal instead of just google/yahoo/hotmail??
- Thread starter jeremy6044
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Because web based solutions are generally inferior. I keep Mail open all the time checking my 3 POP e-mail accounts and my Gmail account every 5 minutes for new e-mail. Name me one web based service that can do that and offers the power of Spotlight searching my e-mail.
by the way, these are the advantages and disadvantages as i see them so far:
yahoo (my current email):
+don't have to give all my friends, family and businesses and services a new email
+ easy to use interface
+ calendar scroll on the bottom
- no desktop or dashboard indicator/widget to show if i have new mail. really annoying!
- no imap, so even if i upgrade to yahoo plus and pay to download to mac mail, it won't sync on the servers
- no calendar sync with ical (but maybe it will be when they redo the calendar)
- no yahoo mail functionality in safari! what's that about?!
switch to google:
+ imap (if i want to use mac mail)
+ notifier & widget (if i don't want to use mac mail)
+ sync with ical
- have to give everyone a new address
using mac mail with a web based service:
- syncing issues that arise from using services from different companies:
i tried to set up a google mail to sync using imap with mac mail and the messages: (1) took forever to load up when i went from one to the other (is it always like that?), and (2) had little indicators saying the program thinks they're spam (even though they were sent from my other email account!). also, i set up address book to sync with yahoo contacts and it worked fine before but now doesn't seem to be syncing.
so do you think it's worth it to switch to google or to use mac mail and ical with google or yahoo?
yahoo (my current email):
+don't have to give all my friends, family and businesses and services a new email
+ easy to use interface
+ calendar scroll on the bottom
- no desktop or dashboard indicator/widget to show if i have new mail. really annoying!
- no imap, so even if i upgrade to yahoo plus and pay to download to mac mail, it won't sync on the servers
- no calendar sync with ical (but maybe it will be when they redo the calendar)
- no yahoo mail functionality in safari! what's that about?!
switch to google:
+ imap (if i want to use mac mail)
+ notifier & widget (if i don't want to use mac mail)
+ sync with ical
- have to give everyone a new address
using mac mail with a web based service:
- syncing issues that arise from using services from different companies:
i tried to set up a google mail to sync using imap with mac mail and the messages: (1) took forever to load up when i went from one to the other (is it always like that?), and (2) had little indicators saying the program thinks they're spam (even though they were sent from my other email account!). also, i set up address book to sync with yahoo contacts and it worked fine before but now doesn't seem to be syncing.
so do you think it's worth it to switch to google or to use mac mail and ical with google or yahoo?
well it does for me. I use Mail for all my email address's [i have three: SBC, Google, and Work]. I mostly use google and my web based client for when i'm on the go.
But mostly, i just like having it all in one spot.
But mostly, i just like having it all in one spot.
so the only reason you guys use mail is because you can have more than one email account attached to it? are there any other reasons?
what about ical?
what about ical?
Address Book and iCal are integrated into Mail without having either open which is very nice.
Unless you love the Gmail interface, if you want to do things right, use Gmail's IMAP through Mail.* That way you can access your email even with no connection (yes that's been very helpful at times) and you can still get your mail on someone else's machine. It's really the best of both worlds.
*This can be done with Gmail's POP3 and archiving the mail, but that's really a cheap imitation of IMAP.
Unless you love the Gmail interface, if you want to do things right, use Gmail's IMAP through Mail.* That way you can access your email even with no connection (yes that's been very helpful at times) and you can still get your mail on someone else's machine. It's really the best of both worlds.
*This can be done with Gmail's POP3 and archiving the mail, but that's really a cheap imitation of IMAP.
I don't really use iCal to much, except for keeping track of birthdays, and holidays. But thats generally about it.
Gmail will happily check your POP3 mail boxes and bring those messages in to it's inbox, you can then have them auto labelled so you know which accounts the e-mail came from. Gmail search is pretty damn good too (shockingly for a search giant!)
I find Google calendar works very well too.
Mainly I use Mail because I don't always have internet access. Sometimes I read and respond to my mail when I'm offline.
I also prefer the seamless way Mail handles attachments (drag and drop, rather than browse--upload each attachment separately).
And I think the interface is nicer than an online mail service.
But I don't use .mac's mail service, I use gMail.
I also prefer the seamless way Mail handles attachments (drag and drop, rather than browse--upload each attachment separately).
And I think the interface is nicer than an online mail service.
But I don't use .mac's mail service, I use gMail.
I use gmail but it also is pulled through Mail. I don't like hotmail or yahoo due to spam. I barely used it then gmail hit and I never cared to turn back to see how they've improved.
I like having my primary e-mail as a web account because I can indeed get it anywhere easily. Otherwise, I think the Mac applications are far superior to web based apps.
I like having my primary e-mail as a web account because I can indeed get it anywhere easily. Otherwise, I think the Mac applications are far superior to web based apps.
Re (2): Try turning off junk mail filtering in Mail--Google pre-filters the email so that everything it thinks is spam goes into a spam folder. Also, in In my experience, Google's spam filter is a lot better than Mail's. It's been almost perfect for me.
In general, I think it's worth it to use any email service that provides you an IMAP interface.
IMAP is about the only way to keep your email in sync when you're viewing it from multiple non-web interfaces, like Mail.app or Thunderbird on your Mac, or the Inbox of a mobile device (like a BlackBerry or iPhone).
I love Mail.app on my Mac mostly because it's (in my opinion) extremely well integrated into the system, which means I can get things done quicker and with a whole lot less effort. wordmunger pointed out how insanely easy it is to drag 'n drop attachments. Try emailing 5 photos from your iPhoto library that need resizing. With Mail.app, that's a 15 second job. With any webmail service, it's going to take several minutes.
I'd recommend you check out what edesignuk mentioned about having gmail automatically pull your Yahoo mail over. That'll give you a chance to set up (and play with) Mail.app without having to tell your friends and family that you have a new gmail address.
I used to totally live by webmail, but now I dread it for anything other than quickly checking my inbox from someone elses computer.
Gmail will happily check your POP3 mail boxes and bring those messages in to it's inbox, you can then have them auto labelled so you know which accounts the e-mail came from. Gmail search is pretty damn good too (shockingly for a search giant!)
I find Google calendar works very well too.
Yes but you need to use a web browser which is probably the number one reason why I hate web mail. It is slow, clunky and generally annoying.
I use AOL Mail with Apple Mail mainly because I can have it running in the background and I don't have to navigate to a webpage to see if I have new mail. Since I've began using it I really don't know how I lived without it. The same goes for iCal, I wouldn't make it through my online classes without it.
You don't "need" to use a web browser, gmail is accessible via web, POP, or IMAP. what more can you ask for?
It's not slow either.
Obviously your preference isn't for webmail or gmail, which is fine, doesn't mean it's no good or as capable though. it is.
I realise that. If you see my first post you will see that I use Gmail with Apple Mail. It is in fact slower than my other POP e-mail accounts.
Gmail uses pretty intrusive junk mail filtering. Personally I want to be in control of what mail gets filtered out of my inbox, not some system admin who has no idea about what e-mail I do or do not want receive. I guess that is my major gripe with web based e-mail services. They take away most of the control from you in the name of 'ease of use'. Which I'm not a massive fan of to be honest.
How is clicking the "Spam" or "Not Spam" buttons in GMAIL (if it accidentally flags any of your email) any different than having to hit the "This is not junk mail" button in Mail.app when it accidentally flags stuff?
They all need some training every now and then. For the email I get, gmail's done the best job of filtering spam (with very low false positives) than any of the other services I've used over the past 10 years (including hosting my own with some crazy SpamAssassin, procmail and postfix configs/rules).
i wish:
1. dot mac would be free and competitive with google web services because then no one would need to use gmail/google calendar and worry that when you stop paying your dotmac email account will disappear.
or
2. yahoo would allow free imap access.
1. dot mac would be free and competitive with google web services because then no one would need to use gmail/google calendar and worry that when you stop paying your dotmac email account will disappear.
or
2. yahoo would allow free imap access.
I have started using my AOL email account with Mail.app and it's been working really well. It took some searches out here and the web to find out how to get the various folders to sync up with their online versions (Use This Mailbox for...).
The only thing I've not figured out yet is how to add multiple IMAP accounts and have them all use different Inboxes. So far, adding multiple IMAP accounts has them all sharing the same Inbox.
If anyone can help with this, I'll be able to get another IMAP account or two added under Mail.app.