Free Alternatives to MobileMe

Dec 13, 2009 by     No Comments    Posted under: Mac OS X, Tech

For syncing my files and calendars between my two Macs, or getting data from home while I’m on the road, I really thought I needed MobileMe. What always bugged me about MobileMe was the slowness and unreliability of iDisk. I also didn’t like the cost of their subscription service, it just didn’t seem worth it to me. Then I found a couple of free tools that completely alleviated any need for MobileMe: Dropbox and CalDAV support in iCal.

With Dropbox, I can seamlessly connect to online storage repository on my Macs and PCs, with handy toolbar or dock icons that make uploading to or downloading files from the repository a breeze. Dropbox gives you 2 GB for free, and I’ve already upped mine to 2.5GB by referring a friend and completing my account information (for which they gave me 250MB free, each time).

For Calendar support, it was as easy as using Google to manage my calendars, and having iCal sync with the CalDEV service. To enable this, visit your iCal preferences, click on “Accounts”, and click the plus button to add a new account–which will be your Google account information.

Now iCal will sync with your Google calendars, which allows you to have up-to-date calendar information across all your Macs. If you need to sync your contacts with Google, it’s really easy too–you can do it from within iTunes.

You may not need this solution, but check out Dropbox at the very least. It’s incredibly easy to use and they have a great iPhone app as well.