Google Apps (free) on a new mobile device via CardDAV
I’ve had many accounts on Google Apps for Domains. I guess its kind of a blow that the free option is gone now, and the cheapest is now USD$50/year. One thing Google recently killed in their winter cleaning of 2012 was Google Sync.
Now when you setup a new device, say an iPhone, you will have to “fetch” Mail (push email has stopped working). If you want push email, you will have to use the GMail app.
Calendars seem to sync just fine.
Contacts need you to use CardDAV. Google has useful instructions.
How easy was it to ditch a BlackBerry? Dead easy. Setup email, allow it to sync calendar, allow it to sync contacts and the new phone “just works”.
I did for sometime think of using Rackspace hosted webmail, which is USD$2/user/month, with $1/user/month for push, but wasn’t really certain that paying them $3/month/user made sense when Google was really only $4.17 (you get all the other stuff with google apps too).
In the future I’m guessing I will be paying Google for services. But for today, I live to see another (free) day.
