How is Photostream anything remotely like Web Galleries? From my understanding, Photostream is not shareable. It's just your camera roll for the last 30 days. You would have to give someone your username or password to share your photo stream, or give them access to your Apple device. Even then, since it is just your raw camera roll, it's unlikely you would want to share your Photostream especially if it has naked pictures of your girlfriend or something equally sensitive that the majority of people probably have.
Since Mail Rules have been removed as a syncing feature, and since "the truth is in the cloud" is the motto of iCloud, why isn't anyone covering what features iCloud mail has that allow you to filter your email so that all devices are getting mail in the right places? Do we have to keep our Mac powered on at home to filter our email and sync it back up to the cloud so that we aren't getting hundreds of insignificant mail messages pushed to our phone? That is hardly "demoting" the Mac.
I agree on both points. Photo Stream is great for getting all your photos on all your Apple devices but it's pointless for sharing your photos with others which is what Web Gallery is all about. Once MobileMe ends, Apple will offer NO WAY to share full quality images with whomever you choose. That's not a good thing.
I certainly hope the new iCloud Mail will offer junk mail filtering unlike the current version of Mail. I get a significant amount of junk mail and currently must leave my Mac on to have it filtered out of my In Box. I find it a bit incredible that so few are asking if iCloud mail will feature junk mail filtering just like other free email services like Yahoo and Gmail.
[Web] Gallery let users post selected photos for grandma to see. Photo Stream requires grandma to visit you or you to visit her and take your iPad/MacBook/AppleTV with you. By eliminating Home Page, Gallery and iWeb Apple has conceded the photo sharing market to Yahoo, Google and Facebook. I consider that a huge and unforgivable step backward.
I couldn't agree more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bregalad
Eliminating iDisk means no other document types can be shared either. Mac users who share documents will have to find third party alternatives. It seems very strange for Apple to be sending millions of users to competitors who have no qualms about selling our identities to the highest bidder.
Again, I agree wholeheartedly. I happily paid for MobileMe because my data was safe, under my control and not being sold to third parties without my knowledge. Even though iCloud has some great features it's ditching WAY too much from what we've been enjoying for a decade or more with iTools, Dot Mac and MobileMe.
Two steps forward and one step back. Not much to get excited about. I expect more from Apple.
I imagine that it would be relatively simple for someone to come up with a "setup sync" program that will shove copies of your preferences and keychain into the cloud and sync between macs.
I never used preferences sync myself after moving from a Macbook to an iMac and an Air - I set them both up differently and sometimes options would clash.
That said, keychain sync was a great boon on rebuilds and new machines. One login/password for mobile me and I had all my WIFI passwords back, so I could leap straight on the net, and download dropbox/1password.
Photo Stream is in no way a rethinking of Gallery. I'm not sure there is a single thing these two services have in common. They are entirely different.
I agree. Haven't tested iCloud since I'm not a developer, but reading up on iCloud and its photo streaming I came to the conclusion that for Aperture users (I don't use iPhoto):
1. you are not able to create an album
2. share albums
3. password protect photo's
4. cannot upload original (raw) photo's
5. versioning
6. store more than 1000 photo's or keep them longer than 30 days, even if you increase your data cap
7. subscribe to RSS photo galleries
8. upload to other users' albums through email or a dedicated URL
9. show or hide version name or caption
10. manually set the pixel size of published photo's
And these are just the first 10 things that come to mind...
Of course I understand that:
1. iCloud is still in beta
2. things might be added before MM goes down next year
3. I don't know everything for sure since I'm not using/testing iCloud now
Will the iOS Gallery app be pulled from the store? Will they release a stripped down version of Aperture to remove all ties with Galleries? Installation is mandatory for all users who move to iCloud!
In the words of Jeremy Clarckson: "How hard can it be?"
[…] iCloud can store both apps' documents and "key-value data," which could include application state (allowing apps on various devices to sync their behaviors, such as resuming the same playback point in a video player app on another device), settings and "other important information that delivers a better user experience. Although not as apparent to the end-user, key-value storage will be just as important as document storage," the site notes.
Individual apps, such as Keychain Access, Launchpad and System Preferences, may be modified in the future to take advantage of iCloud's key value data store, duplicating the old MobileMe features in a more secure fashion.
When I consider the loss of iSync, it hits pretty hard… I hope Apple provides some kind of in-OS replacement for all the features it provides… maybe something akin to the "back to my Mac" that would allow background Mac-to-Mac-to-iDevice synching…?
One example of a super-useful aspect of MobileMe calendar sync has been this: I use an iPad app called 2Do for task and project management, and it syncs handily with MobileMe Calendars… I assume they will be able to shift to iCloud for that, but what of my keychains, account info, preferences, etc?
I have really enjoyed keeping my bookmarks & keychains easily synched both on an ongoing basis (live updates across devices), and when migrating to replacement computers. It really has taken a lot of headache out of that, and kept me from losing critical data on more than one occasion…
They finally got it to the point of being really useful in a "good enough to take it for granted" sense… so hopefully similar functions will be restored as the iCloud advances through beta…
It's just the kind of stuff one likes not having to do manually, ya know?
I remember a rumor from a while back that your iPhone would be used to carry around your dock, system, and keychain info and that getting it in range of any Mac would make that Mac work and look like your own. Maybe this is why they are removing these features, because they would overlap and interfere with each other.
I really liked all these synch features, I hope they keep them in some form or other.
Technically, keychain sync can be implemented easily as a document sync for “Keychain Access” app. iCloud doesn’t care what data is being synched, so it is all doable. I really hope Apple will go this way.
wouldn't this rather obviously be the result of the fact that the sync has to work on two different OS's? I don't see what's surprising (or even mildly interesting), about this at all.
If you have another OS, it would just ignore that data. It's like saying 'How can you share Pages documents when Pages only runs on a Mac?'
Anyway, it's not that curious - if they're killing photo galleries, why not the rest of the features, right? \
I agree on both points. Photo Stream is great for getting all your photos on all your Apple devices but it's pointless for sharing your photos with others which is what Web Gallery is all about. Once MobileMe ends, Apple will offer NO WAY to share full quality images with whomever you choose. That's not a good thing.
I certainly hope the new iCloud Mail will offer junk mail filtering unlike the current version of Mail. I get a significant amount of junk mail and currently must leave my Mac on to have it filtered out of my In Box. I find it a bit incredible that so few are asking if iCloud mail will feature junk mail filtering just like other free email services like Yahoo and Gmail.
Exactly - photostream has NOTHING to do with the web galleries, and as such it isn't clear why Apple is killing the galleries. I got MobileMe based on the demo of how easy it is to share pictures with the rest of your family, and iCloud is a huge step backwards from what I can see. While getting photos on to my Mac is more cumbersome than it needs to be (which could have been solved with a back-to-my-mac based autosync or even just WiFi autosync when on my home LAN...), I've never even been worried about seeing a picture on my phone that I just took on my iPad. Not having my galleries, on the other hand, is a loss.
Setting up the iCloud account with my iTunes info is also going to be a problem - I had a separate MobileMe ID just so that we can share our iTunes account in the home and not have that linked to individual email. Now what? (Apart from moving mail off of MobileMe...)
I use keychain sync, and I sync mail sigs and mail rules. This makes it so convenient as a multi-machine user (laptop, home desktop, and work computer). In combination, all the MobileMe syncing makes my computers all work the same way with zero ongoing configuration by me. I was hoping with the addition of iCloud that model would be extended to document sharing as well. Seems like with iCloud it's a tentative half step forward and several full steps back.
Apple implementation of sync caused me constant problems with losing data,or double, triple, instances of same data. It appears it was never sure what was the master computer and which were the clones. Good idea poor implementation.
In all the years I have had MobileMe (and all of its incarnations) I have never synced keychains, widgets, accounts, or preferences. I did use Gallery, iDisk and iWeb publishing, but only very lightly.
My biggest questions are on the limitations of Photostream. 1000 photos for 30 days? What does that mean?
I suspect that Photostream will be like your iPhone's Camera Roll but in the Cloud. It's purpose will be to push your latest pics out to all of your devices. Presumably, Photostream will start deleting photos from the cloud automatically when they're over 30 days old and/or there are more than 1000 of them. The photos should already be synced to your devices by then.
Comments
I will miss the keychain sync mostly.
I agree. Of all the features we're losing, keychain sync is the most useful and the most difficult to do any other way.
How is Photostream anything remotely like Web Galleries? From my understanding, Photostream is not shareable. It's just your camera roll for the last 30 days. You would have to give someone your username or password to share your photo stream, or give them access to your Apple device. Even then, since it is just your raw camera roll, it's unlikely you would want to share your Photostream especially if it has naked pictures of your girlfriend or something equally sensitive that the majority of people probably have.
Since Mail Rules have been removed as a syncing feature, and since "the truth is in the cloud" is the motto of iCloud, why isn't anyone covering what features iCloud mail has that allow you to filter your email so that all devices are getting mail in the right places? Do we have to keep our Mac powered on at home to filter our email and sync it back up to the cloud so that we aren't getting hundreds of insignificant mail messages pushed to our phone? That is hardly "demoting" the Mac.
I agree on both points. Photo Stream is great for getting all your photos on all your Apple devices but it's pointless for sharing your photos with others which is what Web Gallery is all about. Once MobileMe ends, Apple will offer NO WAY to share full quality images with whomever you choose. That's not a good thing.
I certainly hope the new iCloud Mail will offer junk mail filtering unlike the current version of Mail. I get a significant amount of junk mail and currently must leave my Mac on to have it filtered out of my In Box. I find it a bit incredible that so few are asking if iCloud mail will feature junk mail filtering just like other free email services like Yahoo and Gmail.
[Web] Gallery let users post selected photos for grandma to see. Photo Stream requires grandma to visit you or you to visit her and take your iPad/MacBook/AppleTV with you. By eliminating Home Page, Gallery and iWeb Apple has conceded the photo sharing market to Yahoo, Google and Facebook. I consider that a huge and unforgivable step backward.
I couldn't agree more.
Eliminating iDisk means no other document types can be shared either. Mac users who share documents will have to find third party alternatives. It seems very strange for Apple to be sending millions of users to competitors who have no qualms about selling our identities to the highest bidder.
Again, I agree wholeheartedly. I happily paid for MobileMe because my data was safe, under my control and not being sold to third parties without my knowledge. Even though iCloud has some great features it's ditching WAY too much from what we've been enjoying for a decade or more with iTools, Dot Mac and MobileMe.
Two steps forward and one step back. Not much to get excited about. I expect more from Apple.
I never used preferences sync myself after moving from a Macbook to an iMac and an Air - I set them both up differently and sometimes options would clash.
That said, keychain sync was a great boon on rebuilds and new machines. One login/password for mobile me and I had all my WIFI passwords back, so I could leap straight on the net, and download dropbox/1password.
Photo Stream is in no way a rethinking of Gallery. I'm not sure there is a single thing these two services have in common. They are entirely different.
I agree. Haven't tested iCloud since I'm not a developer, but reading up on iCloud and its photo streaming I came to the conclusion that for Aperture users (I don't use iPhoto):
1. you are not able to create an album
2. share albums
3. password protect photo's
4. cannot upload original (raw) photo's
5. versioning
6. store more than 1000 photo's or keep them longer than 30 days, even if you increase your data cap
7. subscribe to RSS photo galleries
8. upload to other users' albums through email or a dedicated URL
9. show or hide version name or caption
10. manually set the pixel size of published photo's
And these are just the first 10 things that come to mind...
Of course I understand that:
1. iCloud is still in beta
2. things might be added before MM goes down next year
3. I don't know everything for sure since I'm not using/testing iCloud now
Will the iOS Gallery app be pulled from the store? Will they release a stripped down version of Aperture to remove all ties with Galleries? Installation is mandatory for all users who move to iCloud!
In the words of Jeremy Clarckson: "How hard can it be?"
Would like your feedback!
Thanks
[…] iCloud can store both apps' documents and "key-value data," which could include application state (allowing apps on various devices to sync their behaviors, such as resuming the same playback point in a video player app on another device), settings and "other important information that delivers a better user experience. Although not as apparent to the end-user, key-value storage will be just as important as document storage," the site notes.
.tsooJ
Individual apps, such as Keychain Access, Launchpad and System Preferences, may be modified in the future to take advantage of iCloud's key value data store, duplicating the old MobileMe features in a more secure fashion.
... and be a paid service.
J.
Two steps forward and one step back. Not much to get excited about. I expect more from Apple.
Eh? Last time I checked iCloud was free of charge, gratis and for nop.
J.
One example of a super-useful aspect of MobileMe calendar sync has been this: I use an iPad app called 2Do for task and project management, and it syncs handily with MobileMe Calendars… I assume they will be able to shift to iCloud for that, but what of my keychains, account info, preferences, etc?
I have really enjoyed keeping my bookmarks & keychains easily synched both on an ongoing basis (live updates across devices), and when migrating to replacement computers. It really has taken a lot of headache out of that, and kept me from losing critical data on more than one occasion…
They finally got it to the point of being really useful in a "good enough to take it for granted" sense… so hopefully similar functions will be restored as the iCloud advances through beta…
It's just the kind of stuff one likes not having to do manually, ya know?
I really liked all these synch features, I hope they keep them in some form or other.
I only sync bookmarks, contacts, and calendars. Seems those will all be in iCloud
Same here.
I'll also miss iWeb. Handy for quickly running up pretty websites
Which it will STILL. DO. Just not hosted on Apple's servers.
It seems slowly, one by one, the cool things about macs are slipping away.
Curious???
wouldn't this rather obviously be the result of the fact that the sync has to work on two different OS's? I don't see what's surprising (or even mildly interesting), about this at all.
If you have another OS, it would just ignore that data. It's like saying 'How can you share Pages documents when Pages only runs on a Mac?'
Anyway, it's not that curious - if they're killing photo galleries, why not the rest of the features, right?
I agree on both points. Photo Stream is great for getting all your photos on all your Apple devices but it's pointless for sharing your photos with others which is what Web Gallery is all about. Once MobileMe ends, Apple will offer NO WAY to share full quality images with whomever you choose. That's not a good thing.
I certainly hope the new iCloud Mail will offer junk mail filtering unlike the current version of Mail. I get a significant amount of junk mail and currently must leave my Mac on to have it filtered out of my In Box. I find it a bit incredible that so few are asking if iCloud mail will feature junk mail filtering just like other free email services like Yahoo and Gmail.
Exactly - photostream has NOTHING to do with the web galleries, and as such it isn't clear why Apple is killing the galleries. I got MobileMe based on the demo of how easy it is to share pictures with the rest of your family, and iCloud is a huge step backwards from what I can see. While getting photos on to my Mac is more cumbersome than it needs to be (which could have been solved with a back-to-my-mac based autosync or even just WiFi autosync when on my home LAN...), I've never even been worried about seeing a picture on my phone that I just took on my iPad. Not having my galleries, on the other hand, is a loss.
Setting up the iCloud account with my iTunes info is also going to be a problem - I had a separate MobileMe ID just so that we can share our iTunes account in the home and not have that linked to individual email. Now what? (Apart from moving mail off of MobileMe...)
One step forward, 2 steps back. Argh.
In all the years I have had MobileMe (and all of its incarnations) I have never synced keychains, widgets, accounts, or preferences. I did use Gallery, iDisk and iWeb publishing, but only very lightly.
My biggest questions are on the limitations of Photostream. 1000 photos for 30 days? What does that mean?
I suspect that Photostream will be like your iPhone's Camera Roll but in the Cloud. It's purpose will be to push your latest pics out to all of your devices. Presumably, Photostream will start deleting photos from the cloud automatically when they're over 30 days old and/or there are more than 1000 of them. The photos should already be synced to your devices by then.