Should I use Iphone Native Apps or Google?

You have been missing the boat!!

On your Mac, you have a stock mail App. You can add other mail, calendar and contacts to the computer so they can all be accessed from one place.

The iPhone and iPad (as well as android devices) all do this.

On the Mac, find the stock mail application. from the menu bar, select the option to add account. do the same with calendar.

You can still open just one gmail account with your browser if you want (to keep work and personal email separate)

Important to know know about combined mail...

When sending, you have to select which account you want as the default. this doesn't mean you can't select a different outgoing email for a selected email.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5508745_add-new-email-account-iphone.html

CCAPPL wrote:

I am a Mac user and I am finally ready to switch to an iphone. (6+) I currently use google, gmail, cal and contacts (I have multiple gmail/google accounts and they are getting tougher to manage because I cannot share contacts between them.)

With the new iphone I am trying to decide should I use 1) google apps 2) Cal Dav for contacts and calendar or 3) is it time to switch to using the native IOS and Mac apps for mail, calendar and contacts?

I think you can use Apple apps and just have them sync with your Google accounts. For example, in Apple Mail I have added email accounts from 4 different providers including Apple and Google. They are maintained separately within Mail, but if you want to see messages from all Inboxes at once, you can click the Inbox icon to do that. And I have Google calendars right next to Apple calendars in the OS X Calendar app.

CCAPPL wrote:

I assume if I go with all apple apps, I should make the switch on my macbook first, importing all contacts, cals, etc. in order to make sure things sync properly to iphone? Thanks!

I don't think it matters. Technically, if I understand it right, none of your devices is the master sync source, iCloud or Google is. It doesn't matter how you enter the data (computer, phone, tablet, web browser), it all goes into the cloud as the central repository first, and then is distributed out to all your devices. Like you could get an iPhone and load it up with contacts and appointments, and those will continually sync up to iCloud (or Google) servers, and then 6 months later you get a Mac and enter your iCloud (or Google) account info and everything comes down from the cloud into the Mac.

Of course, it will be easier to do the management and migration from a computer.

CCAPPL wrote:

Do you know If I use the Mac apps, will I get my email in real time on my phone or will I have to schedule it to refresh hourly?

It's your choice. iOS supports Push or Fetch for services like email. If you choose Push, you will get email whenever the server pushes it to the phone. If you choose Fetch, you then choose a time interval for updates: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly, or manually.

Some people say Fetch uses less battery life, but there is disagreement.

CCAPPL wrote:

Do you know If I use the Mac apps, will I get my email in real time on my phone or will I have to schedule it to refresh hourly?

If you want push on your iPhone using Gmail, you need to use the Gmail app.