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iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

domlaut.com

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Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#81

Post by crossroadsguy »

I reckon some people have an inherent need to keep things inside Apple’s walked garden. I often see it becoming nothing short of an obsession.

For the rest I’d, as someone who gave it a try - almost their entire services suite including TV etc a thorough try, highly recommend to stay out.

Stay out even if they improve it (which I doubt) from its current state i.e. pathetic.

- Apple is a weird company but they are weird because they can afford to be weird in the way they are because they know their fan base (their majority/core users)

- Their software and services have revisions/major updates/upgrades tied with OS versions.

- Even across OS versions they so deliberately don’t add the most essential features and literally “hold back” as if they go completely deaf on user needs

- I believe it stems of a inferior software engineering prowess and a lack of confidence - that “let’s keep it for the next OS release” so that we announce on stage “For the first time in any iOS - you can control two SIMs separately - TrueSIM™ - or named something ridiculously absurd.

- They have repeatedly shown they’re not callous about user needs or feedback but they’re openly hostile to it.

- The “just works” smoke is very much cleared by now and they’re either just too incompetent or stupidly adamant still trying to ride the fan wave of “they know what we want” and fans giddily shoving everything down their own throats claiming as the best whatever Apple churned out. I skew towards the former though.

- Also they do not have real competition with other softwares, more so on iOS and iPadOS, unlike Android (which I develop for but am not a user of) you literally don’t have options of softwares for many basic usage.

- Now one can argue they like it that way - I don’t. They have anyway such a locked down App Store - not letting users choose browser, SMS apps etc is just a poor excuse that they can somehow get away with.

I would just treat them as a device seller and keep my software and services from other competent places. Besides I like my eggs in various baskets.

The last thing I want is my email from a provider which 100% coupled with devices from one manufacturer that is locked down like never before in history and their locking users out puts Google’s famous locking out to shame.

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#82

Post by stillblue »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #81

I reckon some people have an inherent need to keep things inside Apple’s walked garden. I often see it becoming nothing short of an obsession. For the rest I’d, as someone who gave it a try - almost their entire services suite including TV etc a thorough try, highly recommend to stay out. Stay out even if they improve it (which I doubt) from its current state i.e. pathetic. - Apple is a weird company but they are wei…

As someone who uses a lot of Apple devices, I agree with you 100%

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#83

Post by AnonC »

nvr219 wrote: post #77

I will once again recommend Fastmail for any family that uses a custom domain. You legacy G-suiters have a couple months left!

Fastmail is not a good replacement for family needs because it’s quite expensive at one mailbox per person. Those who need multiple mailboxes should look at other options.

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#85

Post by AnonC »

netfortius wrote: post #5

If it's just for custom domain and email, then Infomaniak is yet another choice, on a price to features, unlimited storage (for email) and hosting country (privacy concerns with Apple and US, anyone?!?) ratio solution. I have recently moved my custom domain hosting from a more expensive service, to Infomaniak, and I got the first email address for free (the main from my Google workspace), to which I may add some more…

Seems like the email service is only available if you buy the domain from them or transfer the domain to them. I couldn’t find how one could use an existing domain that one owns without transferring to them.

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#86

Post by AnonC »

theginger wrote: post #17

My biggest problem with it is I cannot sign up to iCloud+ because I don't have an apple device or a windows pc I could install the iCloud app onto. I suspect if I was to borrow one trying to use the mail on an android device would be fairly miserable making it not worth it but would be nice to have the option to try without needing to jump through hoops.

Apple designs services to cater to its own hardware, first and foremost. The intent is to get more people to buy Apple hardware. Any apps or services available on other platforms are usually poor efforts from the company (like iCloud or iTunes on Windows or Apple Music on Android).

With Apple focusing more on growing its services business to compensate for any saturation in the hardware market space, there’s some chance that the situation might improve for other platforms (but those would be Windows and Android, not Linux). But Apple already has about a 70% profit margin on its services. So it’s unlikely that other platforms will be prioritized in the next few years (it’s not in Apple’s DNA).

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#87

Post by nickmcc »

domlaut wrote: post #12
dan_wood wrote: post #7

No mention of the 3 existing email address limit per user on this article makes me sad...

This was something I was hoping to get around with using a separate relay like ImprovMX or Cloudflare's Email Routing -- that'd allow you to have a bunch more assuming you didn't need to use them for outbound emails -- discovering issue #2 in the process. And issue #6, if you did want to use them for outbound emails :-)

I’ve switched from my Gmail domain to CloudFlare + iCloud. Initially, I set MX records and the txt record to iCloud for verification, and then added the CloudFlare MX records at a higher priority. So far, the setup seems to be working well.

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#88

Post by seanp2k2 »

silvestrov wrote: post #23
abestic9 wrote: post #19

I'm optimistic that Apple is working on most of these issues (especially catch-all) right now and this is just representative of their new offering. Like many things I've seen from Apple it will take a release cycle or two (of 1-2 years per cycle) to bring in this arguably basic functionality - as is tradition we'll groan about other issues being held back in favour of fancy new features. I have no doubt they intend…

I would fear that Apple forgets about the feature after a few years and then just drops it. This is not central to their business and Apple trims such things very agressively. I would always buy a domain-email from somebody who has this as their main business, and I would never couple my email to Apple which could lock me out of my account if they think I "behave suspiciously".

This happened to me with EndJunk and it was absolutely devastating trying to recover and reset the email address on all of my accounts. Some were straight-up locked out after too many failed password attempts and required email access on the original email address (which I no longer had access to as EndJunk had gone silently under), so I just lost those. Some let me change email addrs if I remembered the password, others required verification at the original and new addr, which again was impossible as EndJunk was just gone.

I guess I got what I paid for.

Re: iCloud+ custom email domains should be better

#90

Post by seanp2k2 »

merlinscholz wrote: post #78
nvr219 wrote: post #77

I will once again recommend Fastmail for any family that uses a custom domain. You legacy G-suiters have a couple months left!

Or ProtonMail, which is outside of the Five Eyes!

If you're doing anything substantiative enough to warrant investigation by a big government, that won't help much https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58476983
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