boxst

My wife currently uses (free) Yahoo and has done for many years.

Having just received some details on MobileMe it looks quite good. Is it worth the $99/year? Have Apple figured out how to write slightly better software on the PC than iTunes?

Steve

Markus

My understanding is that the majority of mobile me stuff is web based, though there is a PC control panel application. It also has a 60 day free trial, so I'd give that a shot before committing any money to it.

boxst

I thought you had to download something as well? The website doesn't really inspire confidence: "IE isn't properly supported, install Safari .. "

Steve

JackClark

Synchronisation works on Windows... well it would if Windows 7 shipped with an email and contacts program. iDisk is great especially file sharing. Not sure that I'd buy it if I didn't have a Mac as there's no way you'll get the full benefit.

boxst

Well, the 'Locate' and Remote wipe feature of OS3.0 requires a MobileMe account so that combined with the email side looked good.

Doesn't Windows 7 ship with Windows Mail?

Steve

JackClark

The mail is excellent, sorry didn't realise you had an iPhone in the mix, if so then the value shoots through the roof.

No email with Windows 7, you have to download Windows Mail Live, which is pants.

jowl

The e-mail ok - good that it's push but only sends as @me.com - so you can't use your own domains.

I love the (almost) instant Calendar ond contact push/sync. Works just great on my 3 devices.

The iDisk/Photo gallerys are quite handy for me. Though the website uploader isn't fantastically stable and fairly slow in my experience.

I use google domains for my e-mail now. If I could replicate the contact and calender group and get them to sync okay using google, I would ditch MobileMe.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

There have been tons of articles on the benefit of mobileme (formerly known as dotmac) over other systems whereby you get the sum of individual parts (some free) to mirror the offerings that Apple provide as a package.

So online mail is obviously mirrored by hotmail, gmail etc
Calendering by google calenders
photos by photobucket, kodak etc
and so on.

The thing to work out is just how will you benefit from it for your needs, as in your platform of OS, your media library, the iphone option etc.

I use it constantly because I use macs both at home and at work, but I find myself using it also at work when I am on a windows xp machine through firefox.
The file sharing and ftp side is great and very useful and I use it constantly to keep files I need central for access anywhere on any platform

DataCabbitKSW

Basically Apple needed a push organizational client to work with the iPhone to try and take advantage of the push email features they were implementing for Microsoft Exchange. So they built their .Mac platform up to include those features and even beefed out a few others. The initial launch of MobileMe was a heinous catastrophy. Currently MobileMe works fairly well. I would honestly like more options than just the @me.com address, such as to be able to synch to Google's products or Yahoo, or myriads of other services. There are downfalls to using the service, but it is certainly cheaper than buying, building, and maintaining your own domain and Microsoft Exchange services.
They did remove Windows Mail in Windows 7, and give you links to get the Windows LIve Essentials package (which has since been updated to have a better client under 7 for tighter integration). However MobileMe only supports the old API that was built for either OutlookExpress, or Outlook. It often even had issues with Vista's Windows Mail, and certainly I haven't been able to get it to support any other email clients successfully (Thunderbird, Eudora, etc). Further, I have had spots of trouble here and there getting it to reliably synchronize with clients who are even running full Outlook. I honestly haven't found Live Mail to be that very different from Windows Mail, save tighter integration to hotmail and the MSN Live packages.Then again, I primarily use Outlook, since I monitor about 7 different email addresses based on different work and play that I do.
The best advice in regards to MobileMe has already been given. Try the 60 day trial before you commit any money to it. If you find it is wonderful for your needs, then excellent. If not, then you have lost nothing but some time.