When it comes to email services, I hear a lot of complaints from our customers.  Many of the free email services, such as Yahoo and Hotmail, have issues with spam, hackers and viruses.

The big guys (Bell, Cogeco and Rogers) seem to change their customer’s passwords at will and without notification. Often times, after numerous hours on the phone with their support desk, you find that your account password has been changed “for your protection.” Usually, the only recourse to get you back on track, is to have them reset it again.

You will also find that most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will not allow messages to be relayed. This means that, although you can receive messages, you will only be able send mail or respond to messages, when you are at home or on their network.

Although web based mail, such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail (now rebranded as Outlook) does overcome the problem of not being able to use email anywhere, there are privacy concerns.

Several investigative news sources have suggested that Google, Yahoo andMicrosoft scan every word in every one of your messages in order to send you targeted advertising. (Click company names above for articles relating to their “Email-Snooping” practices). Don’t believe it? You can read Google’s privacy policy for Gmail here.

As an owner of any recent Apple product, you may already have set up an Apple ID. Your Apple ID is required for registering your hardware, using Apple’s support pages, purchasing music in iTunes, renting movies and TV shows for your Apple TV, as well as, downloading and purchasing apps for your iPhone or iPad or Mac.

 

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One of the included services which in included when you set up a new Apple ID, is a free iCloud account. This is a great service that is often overlooked, but provides numerous benefits.

 One of the greatest benefits, is that you can have an @icloud.com email address.

I started using an Apple email address back when it was a paid service ($139.00 a year) and it was called Mobile Me. Some of you may even remember its’ predecessor, known as iTools, released way back in 2000!

As long as I had an Internet connection, I could send and receive email anywhere I went. I have always had great service using Apple as an email provider and have never had any issues with it. The other benefit with Apple as an eMail provider is that I can use whatever internet provider I choose, and can change providers anytime I want and not have to change my email address.

iCloud mail can be easily set up using the Mail app on your Mac or iOS device (or on a PC), as well as, being accessible from the iCloud web site. Unlike many other web-based mail clients, iCloud Mail web interface at icloud.com does not include advertisement on its pages.

I have had several Internet providers over the years as I am out in the country and the smaller players seem to change more often. There are many other benefits of iCloud, in addition to email – stay tuned and we will cover them in future newsletters.

Apple’s iCloud privacy policy can be read here.