Recycled Computing

Walking in the Clouds: Google vs. MobileMe

- 2010.09.15

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When I installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on my old 12" PowerBook G4 laptop, I got my first taste of using Apple's "cloud"* in my everyday computer use. Every once in a while, a box appears on my desktop asking permission to sync my computer with Apple's $99 per year MobileMe service.

My iPod touch does the same thing, but without telling me.

This is a great feature in Leopard that is not present in OS X 10.4 Tiger, the ability to maintain databases across different computers without having to think about it. It's kind of like the convenience of Time Machine. Leopard takes care of two critical functions without any fuss or bother.

Nevertheless, when my MobileMe account runs out in about 200 days, I won't be renewing it.

Why? Because it just doesn't justify the money spent on it. There are other "clouds" available that don't require payment. And (this is an important and) these other "clouds" are platform independent.

When I first started running the computer labs at the high school, I switched from the paper system and went to using the iCal application on my Mac. Then I started to think about making this electronic schedule available to teachers so they could do their planning from their home or office. It is possible to "subscribe" to my iCal, but the tech director at our district level pointed out to me that Google Calendar does the same thing as iCal - and it is platform independent. This meant that Windows and Linux users can go online and view the calendar.

I've been using Google Calendar ever since. When I got my iPod touch (I don't leave home without it), Mr. Mike showed me how to sync Google with the Calendar on the iPod and I've steadily been exploring the Google online applications. Our resident boot loader Jedi Knight, Mr. Mike, uses Google Docs to transfer documents between his PC, Mac, and Linux machines (He has a box that boots all three!).

Google Voice has some really nice features as well. Rumor has it that an independent app may come to the App Store that will allow people to use Google Voice on the iPod touch. Neat.

I just recently synced my contacts to Gmail, so I'm thinking that Google will be my "cloud" in the future.

It's kind of nice to be able to track my "missing" iPod with Apple's "Find My Phone" feature, but really, is it worth the money? In two to three years without the MobileMe fee, I save enough to buy a new iPod touch.

I may abandon my use of AppleWorks for Google's online applications.

I am even thinking about using an Android phone! How can this be? (AT&T does not provide service in my area.)

I love using Apple products, but it seems to me that Android coupled with Google's free cloud apps may be very serious competition for the iPhone and MobileMe.

It would take some big additions to MobileMe for me to consider renewing my subscription. Perhaps an online version of Pages? Keynote?

Competition is good, and Apple has to realize that it has to compete with the power of Google and its free cloud. LEM

* Cloud computing is a paradigm shift. Just as personal computers moved data storage from the mainframe or minicomputer to the PC, the cloud moves data storage (and sometimes applications) from the PC to the Internet, where documents and files can be accessed and synchronized with multiple computers, even ones with different operating systems.

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