Making The Switch From MobileMe to Google Apps

Posted by Wolfen in Computers, Mac, PC, Software

While this blog is primarily about online gaming, every now and then I will make a post about technology in general. This is one such post.

In May 2009 I wrote about my reasons for using MobileMe over Google Sync. Things have changed since then.

I have been using Apple’s MobileMe service for a couple of years now. My main gaming rig is a PC, but I have owned an iPhone in the past and I own an iPad now. MobileMe has worked flawlessly for me on both Apple and PC products. I used it to sync my email, contact, and calendar and it did so without issue. The problem with MobileMe is that it costs $100 a year. That is not such a great cost when you spread that out over a twelve month period of time.

Even so, Google’s Gmail and Calendar service is free. Google also has a service called Google Apps, which allows you to use your personal or business domain name for your email. The standard version is free and a Premiere version is only $50 a year. The differences in the two plans can be seen here.

I decided to try the Premiere edition due to the extra storage space and enterprise features. I have used the service for a month now and I have been very impressed. Emails are pushed via two-way sync to my iPad instantaneously. My contacts and calendar items also synced without issue.

My only real complaint is that I can not seem to get my Blackberry to perform two-way email syncing. I receive email easily enough and if I delete items on the Blackberry they are also deleted on the server. However, if I delete email via Google’s webmail, it does not delete from the handset. I have yet to figure out why. Setting it up using IMAP settings should do the trick, but it has not worked as of yet.

One very nice item that Google offers for free is a piece of software that automatically uploads all of your email to your new account. Switching to a different email service has been a big pain in the past, but Google’s Uploader program makes it easy.

So, to line the services up, they go like this: Regular Gmail is free and you get an @gmail.com email address. The Standard edition of Google Apps allows you to use a personal domain name, more storage, and better administration. Google Apps Premiere gives even more storage, Exchange syncing on the desktop using Outlook, more users, and many higher-end enterprise features.

I will be sticking with the Google Apps Premiere account and canceling my MobileMe service. I will save $50 a year and gain extra features on top of that.