MobileMe Replacement?
Andy Chan | Feb 12, 2009 | Comments 20
I am a MobileMe (a.k.a. .Mac or Dot Mac) user for the past 5 years since I switched over to OS X from the world of Linux (CentOS 5). For the past years, I always debate I should continue with the US$99 yearly subscription or not. Let’s go through the current MobileMe features and discuss what other alternative solutions can replace them.
MobileMe Mail
MobileMe comes with the Mail service. It works pretty much the same as the other web based email client except it comes with the push service for the iPhone/iPod Touch. It shares with the 20GB storage with the standard MobileMe account and you can pay more to increase the storage size. MobileMe Mail supports IMAP for incoming emails and SMTP for outgoing emails. However, MobileMe Mail does not have email filtering and the spam filter sucks.
There are a lot of free solution to replace MobileMe Mail. As all we know, Gmail (Google Mail) is the best free email web client right now. It comes with about 7+ GB storage and it supports filtering, labeling, folder, etc. The most important features are FREE and AWESOME spam control. Gmail supports POP3 and/or IMAP for incoming email and SMTP for outgoing emails. There are uncountable number of features and new features are adding in via Google Lab almost every month. Although IMAP is not true pushing technology, it works well with iPhone/iPod Touch.
MobileMe Contact
MobileMe Contact works very well with Mac OS X’s Address Book application via MobileMe Sync. It supports international format of address and phone number. Also, you can add almost unlimited number of fields into the address book. For example, you can have multiple home phone numbers and multiple work email addresses. This is a very useful features and a lot of other address book applications are missing that.
Similar to Mail, Contact is a push service for iPhone/iPod Touch as well. Alternative solution could be Gmail Contacts, which comes with the Gmail account. Mac OS X Address Book supports syncing with Google Contact natively. However, I don’t have good experience with that because the fields in OS X Address Book are different with Google Contacts. Occasionally, the sync screws up my contact information. This is one of the reasons I don’t want to give up the expensive MobileMe account.
In addition, Google just releases Google Sync Beta for iPhone/iPod Touch yesterday. I don’t have a chance to try it yet but it seems could be the other alternative solution to sync Google Contact with iPhone/iPod Touch.
MobileMe Calendar
Same as MobileMe Contact, the MobileMe Calendar works almost perfectly with iCal (Birthday calendar and subscribed calendar don’t work together via MobileMe Sync). On the other hand, Google Calendar is still a big winner on free calendar solution. Also, we can use the newly released Google Sync to synchronize between iPhone/iPod Touch with Google Calendar and using 3rd party solution such as Spanning Sync with iCal on the Desktop/Notebook.
MobileMe Gallery
I don’t use MobileMe Gallery that much because I am using Flickr and Smugmug for most of my photography works. MobileMe Gallery works the best with iLife’s iPhoto and iPhone. For the alternative solution, we can use Flickr’s free account or Google Web Picasa. Google Picasa works even better than iPhoto and it’s FREE as well.
[smartads]
MobileMe iDisk
iDisk is always a problem since the day it was introduced back in the late 90′s. It shares the same storage space with the MobileMe storage, which is around 20GB. The syncing mechanism is slow and problematic. For the past few years, I have encountered at least 3 times of corrupt synching and forced me to cleanup everything. iDisk was a simple WebDav implementation and now it turns into a cloud service.
There is rumor about Google is working on GDrive. As a result, there is no Google solution for this feature. However, we can use Drop Box. The free Drop Box account comes with 2GB storage. The client supports Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux! Drop Box also supports version control so you can always rollback the deleted files instantly from the web client.
MobileMe Sync
MobileMe allows synchronizing data (contact, calendar, keychain, bookmark, dashboard, gadgets, and other 3rd applications data) across multiple Mac’s. I found out synchronizing contact and calendar are the most useful features. I don’t sync the keychain because I don’t want to mix up the keys between work and home accounts. I don’t sync the dashboard and gadgets because I have different setup for work and home. As for the bookmark, since I mainly use FireFox 3 instead of Safari, it is no use at all.
As I mentioned earlier, Google just released Google Sync for Mobile Device. It solves the issues about synchronizing contact and calendar between desktop/notebook and mobile devices. For bookmark, the best alternative solution is Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. It supports both Safari and FireFox 3. Besides synchronizing the bookmarks, the Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer also syncs the username/password acrossing different computers/browsers.
Back to My Mac
This feature never works for me. It could be I’m using a modified Linksys router instead of Apple Airport. However, I can use either Chicken of the VNC or LogMeIn. Both of the applications/services are free and works across platforms (Mac OS X / Windows / Linux).
iLife
iLife integrates pretty well with MobileMe. For example, iPhoto can publish photos to MobileMe Gallery and iWeb can create simple web site and publish to MobileMe. However, I don’t use any of these features at all.
iWorks ’09
iWorks can utilize MobileMe for online sharing documents. I don’t have a copy of iWorks 09 so I do not know too much about this feature. However, alternative solution could be Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for quite awhile to replace MS Office. It works pretty good for simple document editing. With the help of Google Gears, Google Docs can be worked standalone offline.
Other Applications
There are a lot of Mac OS X applications are utilizing MobileMe for data backup and sharing. It’s a nice touch but I don’t think it’s really important for daily usage.
Conclusion
By using Google Apps (Google Mail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sync for Mobile) and some 3rd party solutions (Flickr, Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer, Spanning Sync, LogMeIn), I can replace MobileMe by paying nothing.
What about you? Are you going to give up your MobileMe account? Please comment below.
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[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt supports both Safari and FireFox 3. Besides synchronizing the bookmarks, the Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer also syncs the username/password acrossing different computers/browsers. Back to My Mac. This feature never works for me. … [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMobileMe Contact works very well with Mac OS X’s Address Book application via iSync. It supports international format of address and phone number. Also, you can add almost unlimited number of fields into the address book. … iWorks can utilize MobileMe for online sharing documents. I don’t have a copy of iWorks 09 so I do not know too much about this feature. However, alternative solution could be Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for quite awhile to replace MS … [...]
[...] See the original post here: MobileMe Replacement? [...]
I struggle with the decision to renew MobileMe (.Mac) every year. This last time it was easier, because we had added 4 iPhones to my family and the OTA syncing was a pretty big part of the decision. Now Google Sync takes care of that for the most part.
So you can get almost everything MobileMe does for free by using a hodge-podge of free services. It won’t be as clean, thorough, and integrated as MobileMe… but it will be cheap.
We’ll see when it’s time to renew again whether I will or I won’t. Hopefully they add enough to MobileMe to keep it compelling, or at least they decrease the price.
You said “MobileMe Contact works very well with Mac OS X’s Address Book application via iSync.”
No, it doesn’t.
iSync is ONLY for syncing Contacts and Calendars from Address Book and iCal to non-Apple mobile phones, via a USB or Bluetooth connection.
iSync does not sync with MobileMe at all. It is “MobileMe Sync” which handles Contact syncing between other Macs and me.com.
I’m a .Mac user since the first day it was introduced and I’m quite happy with it. I’m not using it very much, but the Email address and (working) sync features are good enough for me. I just don’t like mixing up things too much with solutions from different vendors. And, apart from that, Gmail is the most unreliable IMAP service I’ve ever used – I have my main email address on Google apps for domains and it sucks. At the moment I’m looking into better solutions and I have no problem paying 99 or even 199 (for the whole family) a year just for working email accounts. Other people are paying that for their satellite TV service in a months …
I use Me and Google for my daily communication needs. I still think that Me is a good value. As an owner of an iPod touch, have Me is a necessity. I don’t see this as an either/or proposition.
I have only been using MobileMe for a year, but am happy with how well it performs for me. I do use Back to My Mac and it works great for me! I work a lot with VPN technologies at work and did an analysis of Back to My Mac and was very impressed at how well it has been implemented (way more secure than VNC).
As for the cost: I don’t see $99US/year as a big deal. Especially if you own an iPhone and are handing over a boatload of cash to AT&T every month. MobileMe is a small cost service add on to the iPhone relative to the total cost of owning an iPhone.
Also, I think I am geting old because I find myself getting really irritated by all the ads web sites are subjecting me to. I have no problem paying $99/year to use a site which does not subject me to all that noise. Guess I am not the target market for any of Google’s services given that ads is their way of making money. In that sense, I do not see the Google solutions as free: they cost you in other ways. I rather pay real money for the services I use.
While there are definitely some capable and free solutions out there, the simplicity and tight integration of MobileMe is easily worth the current price for me.
Apple is hyper-aware that MobileMe got off to a rocky start and I’d be willing to bet they will make sure the next update a VERY smooth move.
With the idea of cloud computing becoming increasingly important, I think we will find Apple investing a lot more innovation in MobileMe. I imagine the new iWork.com is a tiny taste of what’s coming.
“The free Drop Box account comes with 20GB storage.”
Dropbox is free but only up to 2Gb. You have to pay for additional storage above that.
Cheers
Good article. If I only used one computer, I’d agree with most all of your conclusions, but I have a desktop and a laptop, and an iPhone, and they’re all kept in synch (mail, contacts, calendars, bookmarks) using MobileMe. This is such a great feature that I’m more than willing to spend the $99 MobileMe to have it. I use my laptop far more now that it’s in synch with my desktop, and the fact that I can update my whole system via my iPhone is very powerful.
I have a Mac desktop, 2 Mac notebooks, 1 Windows 7 notebook, and 1 Linux Desktop. That’s why I have to mix and match MobileMe along with the other services in order to have all of them in sync. I’m trying to find out if I can ditch MobileMe but it seems I cannot.
To each his own but i’m not seeing the value. MobileMe give you a single login for all the features. Sure I’ve saved 6 bucks a month by using add supported sites but i’ve lost efficiency. I wouldn’t trade Address Book for Gmail Contacts on its best day. Flickr is nice but sometimes I just want a clean non web 2.0′ish gallery. Spanning Sync and LogMe in are yet other obstructions and services that require management. Dropbox is nice but if I need to send someone something they have to create an account unlike iDisk which will eventually allow you to send anyone a link.
I urge you to think about what you’re really gaining here. Amazon has sold .mac and now Mobileme for $69 for quite some time. That’s $5.75 per month. You honestly expect me to forgo on a better UI, better iLife integration and cheap webhosting to save $5.75 a month. How about skip that fast food value meal once a month or sack lunch it to work. To make a financial impact in your life you have to save more than $10 a month or you need an efficiency increase that is substantial. Your solution is going to make you happy but I think it has as many flaws as it has gains.
I am a happy iMac user, however when I first migrated to the Mac, MobileME had just collapsed with errors causing lots of grief. So I elected NOT to go with MobileME, even when they seemed to have solved their many problems. Fact is I didn’t think I needed anything they had to offer, and I’ve seen nothing since then to cause me to change my mind. So this is about the only Mac related Apple offering which I did not buy into. I do appreciate learning of many free apps if I decide I need any of them. I do have an iPod Touch, which gives me a portable backup of my addresses, etc., which I think is all I will use of such features. But I’m happy with Gmail and Google documents, so I doubt if I will ever need them. And I don’t plan to ever use any Microsoft app. again. Charles Wilkes, San Jose, Calif.
I always take the path of least resistance! If I can get .Mac (AKA MobileMe!!) for less than $99, THAT is all the justification I neew to renew again… SO, every year on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) I do my MobileMe renewal. The cost? Usually about $69.00 from Apple Online Store!! NOW MobileMe’s subscription price is worth the money. @ $99? Not so much!
Thanks for the TIps Vic!!! For $69, may be I have a reason to continue my MobileMe subscription again.
For $8.25 a month (unless you shop Amazon, then it’s usually $5.75/month) I don’t have to think about what apps or services I use to keep my digital life smooth. I happen to like Apple’s apps (not everyone does) and when you add in the iPhone integration, well I can skip a cup of coffee or two per week to pay for it. $99 – not worth it. OTOH $5.75/month (that’s one cup of coffe a week at 7-Eleven) well, then it’s suddenly very affordable for the simplicity alone.
P.S. Back to My Mac works fine for me and pretty much always has. I have an Airport network in my home but none of my remote locations have one. It has something to do with the firewall and UPnP settings of the network. If the settings are acceptable the service seems pretty hardware neutral.
With three macs, an iPhone and iPod Touch to keep track of my stuff, I do not mind paying for Mobile Me at all. It is only 8.20$ a month and it keeps my mail, contacts, calendar, web browsers all in sync in one place. I also use my iDisks to back up all my most important documents, just in case. It’s simple and reliable. The part of the service I like most when I get a brand new mac, is to watch all these informations magically appeared on the drive, after registration and entering my .mac account. It is an extremely well implemented service and is worth every penny of it.
$99 is too much for the service, so I get a new registration (disk) on eBay or Amazon for about 1/2 that; or, at least, I could until the service became more stable and therefore, more popular. I enjoy building my personal websites with iWeb and it’s trivial to upload them to my MobileMe account. And Aperture is compatible with MobileMe Gallery just like iPhoto, so that’s another plus for me. But, the biggest plus is that I can edit my calendar from any Mac or my iPhone and it updates everywhere so it’s always current. I also have investigated alternatives to MobileMe, but the scenario I’ve outlined works best for me.
I have been with mac.com since the early days. I can tell you from the time of the original isync application through mobile.me sync, there were a lot of growing pains. Right now, mobile.me sync is rock solid between 5 computers and 2 iphones. This just didn’t happen. There have been a number of times when I felt like I would like to strangle someone at Apple. I would be vary skeptical of sync apps. just being released. When something goes wrong with your sync, you better have a good backup.
Anyway, mobile.me just keeps getting more and more useful. I am working on an idea right now where I am uploading to idisk and using individual bento clients on each machine to get the effect of a database on server solution. We will have to see how successful this will be. But it holds great promise in organizing file information on multiple machines.
And the real problem with idisk is the asymmetrical service between uploading and downloading that is typical of dsl or cable service. While download speeds are great, uploading can be a great pain. It takes a great deal of time to upload 20G of information.