How to get Exchange ActiveSync, MobileMe, iCal, and AddressBook to coexist

Question

From reading these forums, I have come to understand that an ActiveSync-enabled iP3G will not sync with iCal and AddressBook running on my iMac. The workaround proposed is to get a MobileMe account so that the iMac's information is made available to 'the cloud', from where it is pushed to the iP3G, thus making my iMac's contacts and calendars available on the iP3G.
My present desktop setup involves Entourage 2004 communicating with my company's Exchange Server to offer up my email, and, through Entourage's Sync Services preference, place my Exchange calendar into iCal. (I use Sync Services only for calendar events, not contacts.) Thus, iCal on my desktop shows an "Entourage" calendar generated by that program, and additional Personal and Children calendars; my AddressBook has only personal contacts, and not any Exchange contact information.
So, the iP3G will now get business mail, business contacts, and business calendar using ActiveSync directly from the Exchange server. Using the MobileMe workaround will allow AddressBook to offer my personal contacts to the cloud, from where they will be pushed to the iP3G, and that is great. The MobileMe workaround will also send my iCal calendars to the cloud and then the iP3G, and this is what leads to my question.
iCal already has a business events calendar called "Entourage", and I assume this calendar will get pushed to the iP3G along with the Personal and Children calendars that are on my iMac. The iP3G is also getting a business events calendar pushed to it through ActiveSync. How does one avoid the resulting duplication of business events on the iP3G. One solution would be to turn off Sync Services for events in Entourage so that it does not create its calendar in iCal, but I would prefer to avoid this as I like seeing all my calendars in one place (in iCal) on my desktop.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

The minimum requirement for iCloud on your Mac is Lion 10.7.2 (Mountain Lion preferred): the iCloud Preference Pane does not appear on earlier systems - the MobileMe pane appears on Lion and earlier but is non non-functional - you cannot now open or access a MobileMe account.
You can set Snow Leopard up to access the email on an existing iCloud account which has been set up on a compliant device, and you may be able to sync iCal using an unsupported (and possibly unreliable) hack, but no other facilities will work. You cannot open an iCloud account on Snow Leopard.
This page outlines the limited use you can make of an existing iCloud account with Snow Leopard:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudSL.html
To make full use of iCloud you will have to upgrade your Mac to Lion or Mountain Lion, provided it meets the requirements.
The requirements for Lion are:
Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2GB of memory
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
7GB of available space
To purchase it you will have to ring Apple at the number given at the bottom left of this page.
The requirements for Mountain Lion are listed here:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
It is available from the Mac App Store (in Applications). (If you are currently pre-Snow Leopard you will have to upgrade to that to access the Mac App Store: it's available in the online Apple Store.)
You should be aware that PPC programs (such as AppleWorks) will not run on Lion or above; and some other applications may not be compatible - there is a useful compatibility checklist at http://roaringapps.com/apps:table