30 Days of iPhone – Day 20 “.Mac on iPhone – Mail that Just Works”


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You may have noticed I haven’t done these everyday. I decided to wait until I actually had something to write about, rather than just filling this article with pointless junk. So, it’s going to take more than a total of 30 days to get through the whole thing, but I think when we’re done, it will be a better overall look at the iPhone experience.

After getting fed up with Gmail last week, I decided to take a look at .Mac mail, based on reader feedback. I have never really been into the idea of giving Apple $100 dollars a year for the .Mac service, as very little of it appeals to me, but with the “Back to Mac” feature announced at WWDC, the recently upgraded Mail application, and the promise from Jobs to “make up for lost time” with .Mac very soon, I decided to finally give my 60 day trial a shot. At this rate it will expire shortly before Leopard is released, and hopefully we’ll know a little more about what it has to offer, but I can tell you right now, I’m already sold on the mail alone.

.Mac Mail does what Yahoo and Gmail SHOULD do, which is WORK on my iPhone. All three of my inboxes, the iPhone, my Desktop, and the web based Mail are constantly in sync. If I do something to one, all three sync up to create a consistent workflow. Plus, my gmail account is still forwarding to my .Mac mail, and archiving its copies on Google’s servers for me.

As of right now I haven’t given out my new .Mac address to more than handful of people because I didn’t want to give anyone an email address I wasn’t going to keep (I already made that mistake with the Yahoo account), but I have to say that I am loving the email experience with the iPhone now that I’m using .Mac.

At first, I was just happy to have email on my phone…then I got over that and Yahoo and Gmail became terribly frustrating…but now, with .Mac mail I’m back to being very happy with my email experience on my iPhone.


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

9 Comments

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  1. good to hear that .mac mail works well on the iPhone, but I’m worried/peeved that I might have to drop 100 per annum to get email working to satisfaction.

    PS: one small problem that I’ve noticed but never seen addresses is moving the text cursor near the top of the screen. The magnifying glass goes above your finger, so it is nearly impossible to see what you are doing when editing near the top of te screen!

  2. Word needs to get out…

    You have always been able to buy .Mac for $70 with free shipping from Amazon. You don’t need to buy it from Apple.

    $70/year (just under $6/month) for everything .Mac does, I believe, is a really good deal. I love it.

  3. @ John

    Thanks for the tip!

    @Craig

    That is an excellent cost saving tip. I’m going to write a post about that tomorrow.

    Thanks. 🙂

  4. Michael & Craig:

    I bought a new MacBook a few weeks ago (5th Avenue) and I got $30 off the .Mac service. The sales man told me that if I wanted to continue the .Mac service, I can keep getting the $30 off yearly if I visit the store and buy the .Mac “retail box” in the store.

    Just thought I’d let you guys know.

  5. Keep a close eye on your mail that is forwarded.

    I have my email from my optonline.net mail forwarded to my .mac mail account. Some days I look in my in box and there is nothing. Which is unheard of. If I log into optonline.net’s web based email, it will show me to have the usual amount of mail for the day. It doesn’t show up in .mac web mail or Mail on my Mac for a long time after. Sometimes hours. This may be normal, but if I send an email to myself, it shouldn’t take hours for me to get it. I think the forwarding stinks.

    Send a “test” email to yourself and see how long it takes.

  6. Michael,

    While you research tomorrow’s post about ,Mac, look at corporate discounts as well.

    Many corporations, including local, state and the Federal governments, have discounted buying agreements with Apple. As a Fed, I can walk into any Apple store and get that discount, as well as off of the on-line Apple Store.

    As a matter of fact, some Apple sales people at the stores will sometimes give you the discount you should get when buying a new Mac in addition to the corporate discount. Last year, doing that, my .Mac update only cost me $69! Plus, I got it immediately, no shipping or waiting.

  7. @krye

    I think that issue might be with optonline, and not .Mac. If I send an email to my Gmail account it shows up instantly in my .Mac account.

  8. So Michael are you going to keep .Mac or go back to the old and busted?

    I personally use gmail as a .Mac backup using filters and rules to tag the incoming mail and sort it. Once a week I check it to see if there is anything new I need to file and thats it. I use it as a just in case solution.