On this WWDC day

[Andy Tarpinian]

On Jun 9, 2008, at 9:05 PM, Tony Scharf wrote:
>>
>> but can it really do everything Mobile me can do, and here's the key
>> point, for the average user?
>>
>
> The google stuff is *extremely* simple.  My mother uses it.  My wife
> uses it, and (of course) I use it.  you simply install an application
> on your blackberry and your windows machine that handles keeping
> things in sync.  It keeps my outlook in sync, which (via the RIM
> server we have at work) keeps my blackberry in sync.  My wife and I
> use the shared google calendar and its been really sweet and easy.

If a user has a blackberry they are paying for the push service that  
RIM's servers give you, and that is more expensive than iPhone  
service. Also from what I can tell the only desktop app google  
calendar syncs 2 ways with is outlook. Outlook is not a free app and  
also not available for mac. Also this service is ment for the iPhone  
user not the blackberry user. From what I can tell you cannot have a  
true over the air sync running with ical, address book, and the iPhone  
using google. It seems there might be inexpensive third part conduit  
apps around though.

> Google has Picasa web for images, btw.  I think its only 1gb of space
> without paying for it though.  Even then, its $75 for 40gb of space.
>
> The e-mail is 7gb of free space, and they keep increasing the space
> all the time.  WIth this move, I would be really surprised if Google
> doesnt more tightly integrate what they already are offering and up
> the storage allocation.  I havnt come close to filling my allotment in
> any case.

Picasa though is not compatible with mac as far as I can tell. Also  
you get push email with apple where as google mail is imap(on a  
blackberry this becomes push thanks to RIM's servers). + a handy  
feature is your space is available to you in the form of a virtual  
disk that mounts on your computer and you can transfer files to it and  
access from any mac, and I guess PC now too?

Not trying to argue every point but I think you might catch my drift.  
While it is a service that is designed more for mac users vs. PC users  
and probably would not appeal to someone like you, Mobile me looks to  
provide a slick automatic service for a user to sync all of their  
stuff on demand. Whether that service is worth the price for the  
connivence we shall see. I still have a .mac sub so I'll see if it's  
any good once things convert over.