TechMiso

So you just purchased your iPhone after months of being on the ropes. You really wanted the sexiest mobile device man has ever created, but had reservations about the service provided by the mobile service provider. While the allure of a Blackberry was quite enticing, they just do not provide the same overall experience the iPhone offers. After hemming and hawing, you finally decide to take the plunge!

Now that you have finally opted to go mobile, why not try and use your iPhone like a Blackberry, with push email and over-the-air synchronization for your contacts and calendars? After all, you might as well jump in to the deep end, right? Is MobileMe, Apple’s push product for your iPhone, really a worthwhile experience if your sole intent is to keep your iPhone in sync over-the-air?

Assuming MobileMe has piqued your curiosity, the best way to dive in to the service is to sign-up for the free 60-day trial. You can get a really good feel for MobileMe’s operation within this time frame. The 60-day trial allows complete and unfettered access to all MobileMe features – you get push email from the @me.com domain and over-the-air synchronization of both contacts and calendars, among other non-iPhone features. Our focus is on the OTA sync capabilities of MobileMe.

If you are unsure what MobileMe offers, here is how Apple explains MobileMe:

Over-the-air updates on your iPhone in seconds.

MobileMe stores all your email, contacts, and calendars in the cloud and sends updates instantly to your iPhone or iPod touch. New mail arrives right away on your iPhone. Changes you make to contacts and calendars at me.com are updated on your device in seconds, and vice versa. So you’ll always have the latest information in your pocket and on the web. Since MobileMe syncs everything over the air, there’s no dock required.

Over-the-air synchronization is the holy grail of mobile computing. It essentially negates the requirement to plug-in the iPhone to a computer to sync data periodically. The use of MobileMe allows for automatic synchronization of all this data without every having to physically connect an iPhone to a computer. The iPhone essentially turns in to a makeshift Blackberry.

But is the service really worthwhile? The answer to that question depends on what your expectations are for MobileMe. Here are my observations after having used MobileMe for the 60-day trial.

• Push email. The @me.com email address is fairly sexy, but having new email pushed to the iPhone is the really important feature. If you are used to mobile phone email in the states where push email is non-existent then this specific MobileMe feature may be just what the doctor ordered.

  However, here in Japan, mobile push email is as standard as getting a dial-tone on your phone – it is obligatory. Email on mobile phones is already push, so we expect this feature in Japan. Additionally, if you use your existing Gmail or Yahoo! email accounts on your iPhone then you will get almost-push, which essentially negates the MobileMe push requirement.

• Calendar synchronization. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Apple’s very own iCal as your calendaring application, and desire to synchronize your desktop calendar with your mobile, then MobileMe is exactly what you need. When you create a new appointment in Outlook or iCal while sitting in your home office, that calendar event is immediately sent to your iPhone – again, no need to plug-in and sync the iPhone to get the data to the device. This allows your iPhone and Outlook or iCal calendars to mirror each other with ease.

  Unfortunately, if you use an online calendar such as Google Calendar then you are out of luck – MobileMe only works with a short list of desktop applications in addition to the web-based MobileMe suite on me.com. Another limitation is MobileMe’s inability to sync read-only subscription calendars (ie. those nifty holiday calendars, shared calendars, etc.).

• Contact synchronization. As with calendar sync, contact syncing allows you to keep Outlook or Address Book contacts immediately in-sync with each other. If you add a new contact on the iPhone, that contact is automatically synchronized to your desktop address book – the entire process works in reverse as well. This is probably the most important over-the-air syncing feature available in MobileMe. By negating the requirement to modify both the desktop and mobile version of a contact, you can not only save time but ensure all contacts have identical data across all your devices and address books.

So is MobileMe ultimately a worthwhile product if you only want to sync your iPhone? Should you spend your hard-earned money on the product?

The iPhone 3G’s battery is already nothing to write home about. If you use your iPhone for any substantial period of time during the day you will find the device in need of recharging by the time you get home, if not sooner. When MobileMe syncing is turned on the iPhone 3G is constantly polling for updates from the cloud. These polls require juice – juice which your iPhone is already lacking. The mere use of MobileMe will drain your battery quicker than if you were not using the service; the little power the iPhone 3G’s battery does hold is very precious.

In my humble opinion, the features currently offered by MobileMe are not worth the cost of the service. While push email and over-the-air syncing of calendars and contacts is a killer idea, the current implementation leaves a lot to be desired. There are still quite a few kinks Apple needs to work out before MobileMe is a viable solution.

In the meantime, if you would like a free alternative to MobileMe you might consider checking out NuevaSync. The service performs over-the-air synchronization of contacts and calendaring, including Google Calendar and Google Contacts.

Do you use MobileMe? If so, are you happy with the service compared to the amount of money you are paying?