<p>Google's campaign to draw a sharp line between its free email offerings and what it delivers for paying customers is nearly complete.</p><p>Last week, Google announced it was killing off its free Google Apps offering for new customers. Today it dropped the other shoe, announcing, in a bizarrely named "Winter cleaning" blog post, that as of January 2013 it will no longer support Google Sync connections for new devices using a Gmail or free Google Apps account.</p><p>Why "Winter cleaning"? Who knows? Google isn't dropping support for Google Sync for its paying customers, only removing the option for free Gmail customers.</p><p>The announcement is even more confusing because both Google and Apple have misused brand names associated with the various products. So here's a cheat sheet:</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/google-drops-exchange-activesync-support-for-free-email-accounts-7000008836/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/14/google-winter-cleaning/">Google discontinues calendar appointment slots, Exchange sync, Punchd, and ...</a> (VentureBeat)</p><p><a href="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/google-retires-more-services-including-gmail-exchange-sync">Google Retires More Services, Including Gmail Exchange Sync For iPhone ...</a> (TPM)</p><p><a href="http://www.citeworld.com/cloud/21205/google-phase-out-sync-other-services">Google to end support for Microsoft sync protocol</a> (CITEworld)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dMwszDHOwRYs2vMM26stzBlXy_wEM&ned=us">61 additional articles.</a></p>