[Macworld]

Post your comments for Alternatives to MobileMe here

[coolfactor]

I find it ironic that people balk at the cost of MobileMe, but then spend hours trying to find a replacement. What is our time worth?
"you can replicate MobileMe’s functionality but get greater flexibility and much lower cost."
I take issue with this. For example, in your article, you outline several services that replace just a part of MobileMe.
Let's say I used the following services:
- DropBox - $99/yr
- GoDaddy - $60/yr
Just those two alone cost $159, and we've barely touched the full capabilities of MobileMe.
My point is that MobileMe is a good value if you use even half of what it provides.

[pln]

That's odd. I have a new MacBook Pro, fully updated, and I don't have a sync to Google in my Address Book. I have Mobile Me, Exchange and Yahoo options.

[pln]

I should have searched before posting.
You should amend this article to say that Google Address book syncing is available only if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch synced to your Mac, but there's a workaround - http://lifehacker.co...phoneipod-touch

[meta]

I deduce that Joe Kissell has an iPhone.
Because the "Synchronize with Google" option in Address Book only appears if you have an iPhone.
Which is stupid, but that's apparently the way Apple wants it.

[pln]

One more thing - apparently even if you do the hack, it syncs with Google only when you sync your iPhone/iPod Touch, so it won't sync anyway if you don't have one.

[ZeroGravX]

I was wondering where the Google option was, thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately I don't have an iPhone... yet!

[SMacMurray]

If you want to have all the sync capabilites (email/contact/calendar) and at a reasonable price. I use a hosted email account at Inftek Hosting (www.inftekhosting.com). It's only $5.99/Mo and it will sync MACs, iPhones and most other mobile devices.

[wwelsh39]

I don't have an iPhone because Verizon Wireless doesn't sell it and I'm not switching to AT & T to get it. If the iPhone ever does come to Verizon Wireless I would seriously consider. But not until then! I do keep Apple's Address Book up to date but I don't sync it with anything because I don't want the almost inevitable duplicates I've gotten whenever I synced it with anything in the past. I use Gmail and Google's contacts within Gmail and I use Google Calendar. I tried syncing Apple's Calendar in the past and once again I got duplicates. Same when I used to use a Palm product and tried to sync it to Apple's Calendar. I have Gmail on my BB and that works out well for me. I use the free DropBox for sharing some files and have several external hard drives for automatic backups.
I can't see paying Apple $99/year to have more duplicates in my calendar and contacts.
For those of you who use and like "Mobile Me" I'm glad you like it, but don't expect the rest of us to suddenly see your light and switch. It's way too expensive for what it provides "TOO ME" and the alternatives are not that complicated to find, set up or use.

[hayesk]

wwelsh39 said:

For those of you who use and like "Mobile Me" I'm glad you like it, but don't expect the rest of us to suddenly see your light and switch. It's way too expensive for what it provides and the alternatives are not that complicated to find, set up or use.

Are you the pot or the kettle? First you say don't expect the rest of you to have the same needs/wants as us, and then you make a blanket statement that it is way too expensive expecting us to suddenly see your "light". Don't be a hypocrite.

And your statement "It's way too expensive for what it provides and the alternatives are not that complicated to find, set up or use." is full of assumptions that are not necessarily correct for everyone.
1. It's way too expensive. That depends. If you only use web hosting, then maybe. Mobile Me is $8.25/month. How much is hosting? Does hosting give you automatic sync of photo galleries, contacts, etc. How much is flickr pro on top of regular web hosting?
2. Alternatives are not that hard to find, set up or use. Really? then why did this article have to be written? It seems to me that not everyone knows of alternatives. And then why did the commenters have to make suggestions and corrections? It seems to me, it's not as easy as you say.

Odd how Mobile Me users simply say "it saves me money and time (which is money) over alternatives" without making assumptions about your needs or wants. But the MobileMe haters seem to imply anyone is stupid for using MobileMe because they can't or don't want to roll their own.

[chuckbo]

There's another terrific alternative for sharing calendars that my family's been using for years.
If you get a free account at box.net, you can publish your calendar, you can put a password on it, and then others can subscribe to it. It works real well.

[hayesk]

SMacMurray said:

If you want to have all the sync capabilites (email/contact/calendar) and at a reasonable price. I use a hosted email account at Inftek Hosting (www.inftekhosting.com). It's only $5.99/Mo and it will sync MACs, iPhones and most other mobile devices.

This is only $2.26 less than MobileMe and doesn't come with photo galleries, web hosting, etc. If all you want is synchronization to your cell phone, then this is good. If you need more, MobileMe seems like a good deal.

[beardy]

http://fruux.com/ does all the Address Book, iCal and Safari bookmark syncing I need, and it's free.

[hmurchison]

Sorry

My time "is" important and if there's one thing I know about vendors it's that when the proverbial cacca hits the fan it's nice to have "one neck to choke" versus getting caught up in the blame game between vendors.

I've also noticed an interesting trend.

If you're anti MobileMe it's $99 a year.
http://store.apple.c...&mco=MzE2OTk1OQ


If you're pro Mobileme it's $69 a year.
http://www.amazon.co...01BY45QO/ref=pdrhfshvl_1

Since I know Amazon is a reputable company you all go ahead and pay the extra $30 and I'll save a third and enjoy single sign-on to all services.