mobile me

[silverpig]

I just signed up for the free 60 day trial of mobile me as I was curious about it. I didn't think I'd ever use it, but now that I've signed up I'm actually finding uses for it.

First I'm toying a bit with a website I'm making, and am hosting it (at least for now) via mobile me. I also edit the website with iWeb from both my hackintosh and my wife's macbook, so I saved the iWeb project to my iDisk and have it sync between the computers so I can always be working on an updated file regardless of which machine I happen to be on.

I think I might actually renew it when my trial is over.

Anyone else? Cool tips/tricks? Gripes?

 

[QueBert]

If you're going to renew it I suggest getting a subscription thingy off Ebay. Not sure how but they're like $35 for a year long one on therre. Versus the 99 Apple charges. I used it when it first launched and it was nothing but trouble. I wanted to love it but I couldn't. I might look back into it again as I'm sure Apple has their stuff together. I really like the calendar and the Email interface was very nice (I hate gmails UI)

 

[aphex]

I use it. I don't think its worth the $100/year apple charges, but with the $35-40 boxes you can find on eBay, I think its worth it at that price.

My primary use for it is the wireless syncing it does between my Macbook, iPhone and Me.com

Its just super handy to have a nearly instant copy of everything, everywhere. My wife can even log in from work and add crap to my calendar so I don't forget.

 

[alevasseur14]

I never use the web based Apps but even for 100 dollars, the contact and calendar syncing is completely worth it. I have 2 computers and a phone and I'd never keep them updated on my own. It's just icing on the cake that you can find them for so much cheaper on eBay!

P.S. I was lucky enough to not have any major issues when I signed up at launch, but I haven't heard of any issues iwth the service in some time.

 

[silverpig]

Oh nice. Thanks for the ebay tip.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: QueBert
If you're going to renew it I suggest getting a subscription thingy off Ebay. Not sure how but they're like $35 for a year long one on therre. Versus the 99 Apple charges. I used it when it first launched and it was nothing but trouble. I wanted to love it but I couldn't. I might look back into it again as I'm sure Apple has their stuff together. I really like the calendar and the Email interface was very nice (I hate gmails UI)

Where do you see $35 a year? The only ones less than $70 I see are "subaccounts" where basically the seller activates one of his family packs under your name and you only get 5GB out of it.

I'd do it though but the thought of being at the whim of the seller to stay activated and being limited to 5GB kind scare me.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: QueBert
If you're going to renew it I suggest getting a subscription thingy off Ebay. Not sure how but they're like $35 for a year long one on therre. Versus the 99 Apple charges. I used it when it first launched and it was nothing but trouble. I wanted to love it but I couldn't. I might look back into it again as I'm sure Apple has their stuff together. I really like the calendar and the Email interface was very nice (I hate gmails UI)

Where do you see $35 a year? The only ones less than $70 I see are "subaccounts" where basically the seller activates one of his family packs under your name and you only get 5GB out of it.

I'd do it though but the thought of being at the whim of the seller to stay activated and being limited to 5GB kind scare me.

Prices have gone up and down depending on supply, here is one for $60 shipped:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mobi...%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

I paid $40 or so for my Dot Mac 5.0 which works fine for Mobile Me.

 

[Kaido]

My wife likes MobileMe, but if you're a bit creative you can roll your own pretty easily. Dropbox gives you up to 2 gigs free and you can use the built-in gallery, or else use Picasaweb or Flickr for hosting images, then just get a host for $60 a year like Hostgator, Bluehost, or IX Web Hosting for a web server & domain, then hook up Google Apps for Business (standard edition is free). It's a bit more work and not as tightly integrated as MobileMe, but the web server speeds are much better, plus you have a ton more storage etc. Add Google Contacts & Calendars and you're in business!

MobileMe is extremely nice for the price, however, and offers nice, tight integration with OS X, which is really handy. You can't really hit the same level of service for $99 if you roll your own though...

 

[bigrash]

I use it. Bought it from ebay for about $30 last year. I use it primarily for contacts syncing with my iphone and the photo gallery hosting, but also use email and other functions at times too.

I don't think the service is worth it's retail price of $99, but for $30 it's more than worth it for me.

 

[QueBert]

Wow OP I had no idea the price fluxuated that much, I figured it might a little. I hadn't been on Ebay in awhile looking at how much they run. Apparently I won't be getting it anytime soon. I swear I use to see them for 35-40 all the time

 

[chadisawesome]

I use it. I originally got it when it was dotmac for the imap email since google didn't offer it at that time. Now that I have an iphone it's great for the wireless contact synching and calendars. I love it. I also have it set up that I can forward pictures I take on my iphone to automatically go to my mobileme gallery.

The web apps are awful however.. I have had to use the web app for email for a while at work and it was awful. I convinced them to let me download thunderbird so I can keep using the account at work, but not be stuck with their awful web app. gmail blows it away 100%. also, as kaido said, idisk is nice but ridiculously slow at synching. I suggest grabbing dropbox, it's free, 2 gigs, and so much faster at synching.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE1NzIxOQ">https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE1NzIxOQ</a>

click there and sign up if you want to try. We'll both get a bonus 250MB if you use that link, so I'd appreciate it... I don't even use idisc anymore... but like everyone else said, grabbing it from amazon or ebay will save you money and make it well worth the price.