- Jul 19, 2001
- 38,572
- 2
- 91
So after a year of using MobileMe, i decided to let my subscription lapse and try out the gmail capabilities as a MobileMe replacement. Considering gmail supports exchange on the iPhone, syncing contacts, calendar and e-mail was my primary goal (and what I mainly used MobileMe for)
Now, let me preface this by saying that I never wanted to like MobileMe, in fact, at first (with the launch fiasco), i thought it was a ripoff. But i'll hand it to Apple, after they got the initial bugs worked out, the syncing was flawless for me. Update a contact or appointment on the phone, it shows up on my Mac and at Me.com, and vice versa. It was always quick, painless, and just plain worked. No thought required.
Gmail integration has come quite a long way, but IMO, its not fully there yet.
For example - Contacts. Once you add the gmail exchange server to the iPhone, it ends up as two separate contact lists on your phone ('On My iPhone' and 'Gmail Contacts'). Unfortunately getting these two contact lists in sync and fully workable, isn't all that easy. When I add a contact from scratch, it lets me pick which list to store the contact, no biggie. But when I try to add a number from my call log, it only lets me add it to the contacts on my phone. It ends up becoming quite a frustration as I end up with multiple and different contact lists.
Also i regard to calendars, the appointments just never seem to sync properly. Things i add to my iPhone don't always make it to my gmail calendar and vice versa (even though i'm adding them directly to my gmail calendar on my iPhone) - Another area where duplicate items are created, or things I delete still show up in 1 place and not another.
Thus far, its just been a frustration. I've replaced something that was expensive, yet painless, with something that is free, and halfway works. I plan to give it a few more days to try and get this all sorted out and synced properly, but i'm not sure if I can get the level of integration and ease I was hoping to have.
Anyone else experience similar?
Now, let me preface this by saying that I never wanted to like MobileMe, in fact, at first (with the launch fiasco), i thought it was a ripoff. But i'll hand it to Apple, after they got the initial bugs worked out, the syncing was flawless for me. Update a contact or appointment on the phone, it shows up on my Mac and at Me.com, and vice versa. It was always quick, painless, and just plain worked. No thought required.
Gmail integration has come quite a long way, but IMO, its not fully there yet.
For example - Contacts. Once you add the gmail exchange server to the iPhone, it ends up as two separate contact lists on your phone ('On My iPhone' and 'Gmail Contacts'). Unfortunately getting these two contact lists in sync and fully workable, isn't all that easy. When I add a contact from scratch, it lets me pick which list to store the contact, no biggie. But when I try to add a number from my call log, it only lets me add it to the contacts on my phone. It ends up becoming quite a frustration as I end up with multiple and different contact lists.
Also i regard to calendars, the appointments just never seem to sync properly. Things i add to my iPhone don't always make it to my gmail calendar and vice versa (even though i'm adding them directly to my gmail calendar on my iPhone) - Another area where duplicate items are created, or things I delete still show up in 1 place and not another.
Thus far, its just been a frustration. I've replaced something that was expensive, yet painless, with something that is free, and halfway works. I plan to give it a few more days to try and get this all sorted out and synced properly, but i'm not sure if I can get the level of integration and ease I was hoping to have.
Anyone else experience similar?
Facebook
Twitter