Filed under: Internet, Internet Tools, MobileMe
MobileMe renewal: Yes or no?
Earlier this week, I noticed that the calendars on my Mac and my iPhone weren't in sync. "More MobileMe nonsense," I thought. However, I soon found the culprit, and it wasn't MobileMe acting wonky. My account had expired, and I was within the 15 day grace period.I saw the "Renew" button and reached for my wallet like a well-trained Pavlov iDog. Then something stopped me. "Do I really want to do this?" There are so many alternatives that offer nearly the same services. Calling upon my days as a used car salesman (true story), I pulled out a piece of paper and drew a vertical line down the center, labeling one side "Pros" and the other "Cons." Then, I got to work.
Pros
First of all, I should outline what I use MobileMe for. An email account, address book, calendar sync between my Mac and iPhone and iDisk storage. I don't use the photo galleries, though my kids' grandparents wish I did, or the web apps. With that in mind, here are the pros.
Everything is built in. There's nothing to download, install or configure. iCal, Address Book, Mail (OK, I have to set up an account. Nit-pickers) and iDisk are ready to go from the start.
My iDisk is accessible from the Finder, and things like MobileMe Galleries just work. Sounds like an easy choice, eh? Keep reading.
Cons
Honestly, it doesn't always "just work." The synchronization has been flaky in the past, and push notifications have been pokey. Granted, it's light-years beyond where it was after launch, but I don't really trust it 100%.
It's a bit pricey. The standard fee is $99US/year. I've got one additional email address for my wife, so tack on another ten bucks. Before you fly into an iRage, know that I realize that one hundred bucks for push email, contacts and calendar, 10GB online storage, web hosting and so on is not a bad deal. It's just that there are less expensive alternatives.
With Gmail, I can have email, address book and calendar for free. With Spanning Sync, [TUAW Spanning Sync posts here] I can sync Google Calendar and iCal in both directions for $25 per year or $65 as a one-time fee. And I can easily set up my iPhone to send and receive Gmail.
Let's look at the available-anywhere online storage. Here at the TUAW offices, we're big fans of Dropbox [TUAW Dropbox posts here]. Once installed, it's super easy to use. A menu bar item and a Finder window item make access a snap. Additionally, sharing files and folders is just as simple.
The first 2GB of storage are free. After that, you'll pay $9.99US/month or $99US/year for 50GB of storage.
So why not just switch? It's not that easy. My MobileMe email address is in heavy use. Not only among my contacts, but across many places online. Switching would be a hassle. I'm also held back by the "What If Factor."
There's a part of me, deep inside my cynical, self-deprecating heart that's convinced that the very day I cancel my subscription, Apple will release the MobileMe update of my dreams. It's the same certainty that prevents me from buying a DVD player or a Blu-ray player as I watch my VHS tapes.
For now, I've got 14 days to decide. I'll let you know what I chose in a future post.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Chedstone said 12:07PM on 1-28-2009
I really liked having my outlook calendar at work automatically sync with my iphone calendar so I could always see what's happening. I am not, however, willing to pay 100$ a year for it.
cie la vie.
Reply
balls said 1:09PM on 1-28-2009
If you setup exchange correctly you get push exchange calender sync to your iphone for free.
chad said 1:12PM on 1-28-2009
I use Kerio mail, hosted by Inftek for $5.99/month. This gives me push email, and push contact and calendar sync. It doesn't offer some of the nice features that mobileme does (photo sharing...etc) but it's everything I need for productivity, and it's a bit cheaper than mobileme (and paid monthly instead of annually which makes it easier to swallow).
http://www.inftekhosting.com/groupware.html
Chedstone said 1:14PM on 1-28-2009
I don't have exchange. Otherwise I would be all over it.
Marcos said 12:08PM on 1-28-2009
I struggle every year with this, and always renew. The syncing does it. This year the decision was a lot easier: In my 5-people family, we have 7 Macs and 4 iPhones. No brainer. I don't use the me.com email though... I'm the "master of my domain" (i.e. own my own domain).
Reply
alberto mario pernett said 12:12PM on 1-28-2009
You were a used car salesman? Wow, right now I can't reconcile your past image with your actual image LOL, of course it was a phase, it was? :)
Reply
ericdano said 12:12PM on 1-28-2009
Easy.........renew. The syncing for me has been great. iPhone, 2 macs and a PC. All synced up. Plus using Filechute to be able to put files on my .Mac/.Me account for people to get.
Great service.
Reply
Quinn Taylor said 12:15PM on 1-28-2009
It's a no-brainer for me: definitely yes. I'm a Computer Science grad, so I technically *could* set up all my own services and coordinate their efforts. However, that would mean I'd spend my own time to do it, and although I'm not paying someone else, I'm wasting time that could be used more productively. Plus, I *hate* dealing with server configuration and problems. Also, let's be completely honest: Gmail's IMAP is pretty lackluster and annoying.
If it really comes down to money, buy a boxed copy at a discount.
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB824Z-A-MobileMe-Retail/dp/B001BY45QO
Reply
Tony Bowman said 12:13PM on 1-28-2009
i don't use Mail or iCal, so it's not an issue for me. Dropbox, GMail, Air Sharing and LogMeIn/Ignition cover everything I could possibly need for working remotely and other such things.
Reply
Michael said 1:26PM on 1-28-2009
I originally signed up when it was still .mac strictly to be able to log into my macs in my office. Guess what, it didn't work once. I then found out about logme.com and it does everything perfectly. I will NOT be renewing my mobileme account.
Rob said 12:14PM on 1-28-2009
I let mine expire without even realising. Using Vista it just took an awful lot of effort and the MobileMe webapps just didn't compare to the Google apps. In the end I use www.nuevasync.com and they do it for free, syncing the iphone with Google's contacts and calenders.
I just really miss the push email but will have to live with the iphone checking every 15mins instead.
Reply
aj_robins said 2:20PM on 1-28-2009
Free push email exists -- see my other post here.
Nick said 12:14PM on 1-28-2009
Gmail account: $0
NuevaSync (for syncing Gmail calendar/contacts on iPhone): $0
So, unless they're willing to pay ME to use MobileMe, I'm opting out.
Reply
BIGGSHAAD said 12:20PM on 1-28-2009
I agree I left and went your route
aj_robins said 2:13PM on 1-28-2009
And, if you need free push email, you can use the free versions of yahoo mail or mail2web.
Also, if you combine gmail with any push mail account, you can also get push of selective messages only. It's a great way for being interrupted only by the important messages, and not by the lesser-important ones.
aj_robins said 2:40PM on 1-28-2009
OK, while I think MobileMe is worth it for many people (e.g., someone who's willing to pay for ease-of-use), pieces of MobileMe-like functionality exist in free or less-expensive forms, if you're willing to put up with reduced functionality or setup hassles. The above article lists some of them, and I wrote a blog post that lists a couple more (no hosting solutions, though):
http://meepmeep.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/mobileme-alternatives/
dtschlitt said 4:50PM on 1-28-2009
Yes! Nuevasync, best service on the net and they have much better customer service!
Malcolm said 6:05PM on 2-01-2009
I just used this very scenario with one exception... I did buy a custom domain and put all this on my custom domain & google.
I was using the MobileMe pic gallery extensively, but switched over to Picasa... then I was using iWeb... but since I primarily blog anyways... I switched everything over to blogger accounts.
Now with gmail & custom domains, you can get a free account... with smaller sizes for storage... if my email gets to the point of needing more space, then I will pay the $ for it.
As far iDisk... I never used it a ton anyways... but I am going to use Google docs for storage of those related docs... then as I look to move other files like movies or other files over then I will wait to see about the new Google drive that is rumored... or other file storage. I never did get the iDisk to work correctly on my iPod touch [2ndGen].
I refuse to pay this money... especially in today's economy when I can pay a smaller amount and have more flexibility in my IT needs.
Nachtmeister said 12:18PM on 1-28-2009
btw. NuevaSync is Free. You can sync your google calendar in realtime (automatic). There are so many alternatives to MobileMe. I never used MobileMe. Why I should spend Money for a service I can get for free?
Sorry Spple. But for MobileMe you get only a big kickass.
Reply
Gazoobee said 12:16PM on 1-28-2009
As a .Mac user from the first day, I appreciate the agony of the decision to leave/notleave the service. There is always that suspicion that Apple will finally make the service "good" one day and that you'll be the sucker for cancelling your account.
Personally, I really hate having my personal info spread across multiple questionable web sites and would rather have everything from one provider like MobileMe. Sadly, MobileMe and .Mac before it provide minimal services at best.
Despite the horrible debacle of the recent MobileMe launch however the site has been a fairly solid if incredibly dull performer. It doesn't typically have a huge amount of down time and (mostly) just works, but on the other hand it (mostly) doesn't provide anything to get excited about either.
I agonise about leaving a lot, but in the end the difference between 8 bucks a month and zero a month isn't enough to cover the hassle of leaving for me. Most folks pay between 70 and a hundred bucks a month just for a cell phone so I don't feel the 8 bucks is going to break the bank.
I would say it's definitely *not* worth the 8 bucks, but on the other hand it's only 8 bucks. And so I wait, possibly forever like a lot of folks, for MobileMe to turn into something that provides some function that justifies the cost. I'm sure it will happen some day, it's only been five years or so to get to where we are now. ;)
Reply