ICloud – use a different email/calendar/address book provider for Mac OS X and iOS

contactsicalicloudmail.app

I am afraid that the switch to iCloud will make life very complicated, particularly for Snow Leopard users like myself. I am also afraid that Apple will make life generally more complicated.

So I am wondering if I can theoretically switch to another provide for synced email configurations, address book data and calendars.

I don't mind paying for those services, I just need my address book, emails and calendars to be the same between my devices, ideally between Mac OS X and iOS and everything else (Linux, Windows, Solaris etc.).

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Googles Services

iOS

  • (Push) Email using the IMAP protocol

    • Push is not default. You have to set it up manually.

  • bi-directional contacts sync (Exchange supported)

    • If you do not sync contacts using the exchange protocol, you only sync via iTunes.

  • bi-directional calendars sync

    • I don't have good experiences with the bi-directional sync using the iOS calendar app. Luckily, there are plenty of third-party apps available which offer a tight integration of Google Calender.
      CCal has been quite an enhancement to my Google experience.

OSX

iCal, Address Book and Mail allow to integrate sync with Google's services in Preferences → Accounts.

Google Services on other platforms

Google's Services are more widely available than anything else I know. It allows to keep contacts/calendars/email in sync on OSX, iOS, Android and Linux. In Ubuntu I use Google's Services in Thunderbird and Google Calendar/Contacts extensions.

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