Free, Cheap or MobileMe?

I am amazed at what the web is able to do and what I can use the web for...

I can run my calendar, documents, spreadsheets at Google for free.  More things are coming online at Google all the time.  Pretty handy.   If you have a web connection, you can get at the work you have posted at Google.

Several companies have noticed this move to the web.  Google may not have started web apps, but I like how they have what I need and you can't beat the price.  I wonder if Microsoft making a bid for Yahoo was MS playing catch-up.  Trying to get into the low end web service business.

Apple now offers MobileMe.  They have what used to be called .Mac syncing your computers and making it possible to have your work available everywhere as well.  The neat part is that this works well with your on-computer applications (iCal, Address Book, etc.)

After playing with Google for a while, I did notice that I am not online all the time.  At work, I have several hours a day where I am on a laptop away from a connection several hours a day.  

I couldn't be the only person like this and I started looking for solutions.  Some are easy.  If you know you are going away from the net for a bit, download the likely-to-be-needed documents from Google.

Calendars and address books are a little trickier and they will be the things you will need to update at a meeting.  For syncing  Google and your on-board calendar take a look at Spanning Sync.  This program will sync your Google and Apple calendars for cheaper (in the long run) than a MobileMe account.

Of course, Apple users could spring for the server version and be able to sync things from their own home web site.  hmmm. Lots of choices.