Just setting up mail on a new ipad mini. Is there any advantage/reason to use icloud vs. say, gmail?
Mac Pro
The syncing options are much the same - for me it would depend how much you already have invested in either Google Docs or iCloud / iWork - i.e., if you use Pages heavily, you may prefer iCloud for document storage.
Matt
Thank you. This new ipad is my first "smart" device -- so I am on something of a learning curve. I have an old flip cell phone and my mac laptop has whatever the OS was that came after Tiger! I will continue to use my laptop for any iwork projects -- the ipad is to be for fun stuff and travel. Just didn't know if there was any reason or advantage of any mail program over another.
It's not an either/or situation. You can use both if you want. Most people just continue to use whatever email provider they've been using. I use iCloud for back up and Find My iPhone but not for email. I use Google for email, calendar and contact syncing, in part because I've been using it for years and in part because I also have an Android phone and this way everything is synced across all of my devices. Additionally, I also back my photos up to Dropbox as well as through iCloud.
I think the important thing to remember is that iCloud is great if all of your devices are Apple products. If you have or may have in the near future both Apple and non-Apple devices, it may not be the best option.
I get a lot of junk in my gmail account. When I got an iPad a few years ago, I set up an icloud account and use that address to give to friends or business contacts that I think won't be selling my address. So far it's free from junk and semi-junk and my most important mail ends up in my iCloud mail account.
Then that sounds like a good reason to keep using iCloud. You may not even want to put your Gmail on your phone if you find it's mostly junk.
Just as an aside, a friend of mine created a second Gmail address which was "susiesmithshopping@...." (ok, she used her real name, not susie) and she uses that when she orders anything online or signs up for email offers from stores. That way, she can easily find shipping and delivery information and it keeps her personal email from getting clogged with ads.
icloud vs. gmail -- advantage/reason?
