It definitely needs some finer controls. Since the switch from MM to iCloud I have multiple contacts and groups. Unlike with MobileMe's preference pane I can't figure out how to completely clean out my contacts and push the right setup from my Mac to iCloud and down to all my devices. The iCloud server keeps propagating this incorrect list.
I had the same issue, but a bit of experimentation sorted it all out.
On your Mac, go to your Address Book, Preferences, Accounts, and have a look at what you've got in there. If you're anything like I was you'll have both MobileMe AND iCloud. Update your iCloud contacts, delete the MobileMe contacts and, hopefully, that will resolve that for you..
iCloud has been ok so far, but I've run into more faults/issues than exciting features. The best feature is the streaming of purchased TV shows from the Cloud to your Apple TV2. This one feature has saved me multiple GBs of space and has been simply magical. 2nd best feature is the automatic downloading of new music and app purchases to all your devices. 3rd best feature is iMessage which is seamless and elegant and has allowed me to cancel SMS with my provider.
But then there are the problems.
- email not consistently pushing to my devices
- PhotoStream not getting all the pictures I take with my iPhone
- No ability to delete pictures from PhotoStream
- No ability to organize PhotoStream pictures into albums on iOS
- All photos in PhotoStream are tagged with a 'Photostream' tag that's difficult to delete
- No way to share photos
- No way to share files with others
- Sharing iOS iWork files with your Mac is a big pain (and vice versa)
- No Podcast support with iCloud
- the loss of web hosting through iWeb
PhotoStream needs the most work. It's so pointless in its current form. There is potential for iCloud but it sure has a long way to go. It's not the awesome service it was made out to be.
iCloud has it's benefits, but for my money, "artificial intelligence" in the form of Siri is THE breakthrough of the year. It will only keep improving and will eventually allow things like instant 2-way translation and it will act functionally like a real secretary or assistant, which will give every person with an iPhone benefits that only multi-millionaires have had access to up to now. As a matter of fact, I can foresee Siri performing doctor or nurse-like functions, fashion or design advice, and on, and on, and on...
I'm not sure people appreciate the fact that we are edging toward what is known as "strong A.I.", or true artificial intelligence. The addition of sensors that will give Siri a finer sense of being in the same location as the user will enable it to act scarily intelligently, almost intuitively.
iCloud has it's benefits, but for my money, "artificial intelligence" in the form of Siri is THE breakthrough of the year. It will only keep improving and will eventually allow things like instant 2-way translation and it will act functionally like a real secretary or assistant, which will give every person with an iPhone benefits that only multi-millionaires have had access to up to now. As a matter of fact, I can foresee Siri performing doctor or nurse-like functions, fashion or design advice, and on, and on, and on...
I'm not sure people appreciate the fact that we are edging toward what is known as "strong A.I.", or true artificial intelligence. The addition of sensors that will give Siri a finer sense of being in the same location as the user will enable it to act scarily intelligently, almost intuitively.
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
It definitely needs some finer controls. Since the switch from MM to iCloud I have multiple contacts and groups. Unlike with MobileMe's preference pane I can't figure out how to completely clean out my contacts and push the right setup from my Mac to iCloud and down to all my devices. The iCloud server keeps propagating this incorrect list.
i just went to iCloud.com and deleted all the contacts (select all) from there and uploaded the right ones from my mac… it was an easy setup…
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
A lot us think 'a' remote will have the microphone for Siri. We shall see.
As for iCloud... underwhelming for me. Syncing contacts and bookmarks is good. I'm surprised there is not a 'dropbox' feature... Or is there?. Photostream.. Ugh... I shoot lots of shots and then sort. So have to have it off then sort, then turn it on, ...I think that's how it works. What I'd prefer is it would stream my existing folders. Perhaps in future.
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
iCloud is nice but Siri... Now that's massive. It's voice control done right. Stay on target, stay on target...!
You remember how every crewman in Star Trek Next Generation talks to the ship's computer for pretty much any administrative, logistical, research, informational and whatever task that needs to be done? That's what Siri/iCloud is driving towards.
I hate something in Lion: it decides for me if applications should quit or not.
I have issues with iChat staying online after I quit it and reopening by itself (Hey, I'm the Ghost of iChat... scary).
I don't want iCloud to decide for me what's on a server and what's in my private collection of data. I don't want to have to go back to Linux machines because Apple's idea of a Unix is turning into a thin client (it's a revolution... we're doing a 360° back to the eighties, data in the mainframes and thin clients... come on...)
While I like the concept of storing all my data in the cloud, I worry that once we start becoming dependent on doing so that our ISP's will move to capping the amount of data we use in a month. This is already practice in other countries in the US, and several ISP's here (Comcast, TWC) have already tried it. The mobile operators have already basically en masse moved to it, it's only a matter of time until the major ISP's attempt to do the same in earnest.
You mean iDisk, don't you? The ability to take a picture and then have it show up on all your other devices via PhotoStream is great, which is just an extension of the file syncing within the system. Also, the backup and syncing for all your settings is nice, if not a time consuming way to restore your device when trying to get 800MB to an iPhone over even a fast WiFI connection.
Overall the way iCloud integrates with your devices is far superior to MobileMe, though it's not without its problems.
I have not pulled the trigger yet on iCloud still using Mobile Me. For me the last few months MM has been acting flaky with my contacts and calendar and don't want to risk making it worse.
I guess I just don't see the appeal of photo stream. For every one picture of the kids on my phone there would be 5 pictures of some parts i am disassembling or some doodad I am fixing. Kind of a waste to be streaming that.
As more product makers move to the cloud, local storage such as flash memory and hard drives is slowly becoming irrelevant as users are able to stream or download content from services like iCloud.
That's the whole problem with iCloud - you can't store your iTunes library in the cloud and stream it. You can re-download purchases but you still have to store your content on a local hard drive. I'm just about to buy my third external hard drive because I've bought so much iTunes content.
What we need is the ability to store your iTunes library in a digital locker in the cloud and stream and/or download the content as you wish. That way you wouldn't need to store your content locally. I know some people who download iTunes stuff and then upload it again to a cloud based storage service. It takes forever and is a huge waste of both time and bandwidth.
I could stream the content when I'm at home on my Mac or AppleTV with broadband and download it to my iOS devices to avoid using up my data allowance.
While I like the concept of storing all my data in the cloud, I worry that once we start becoming dependent on doing so that our ISP's will move to capping the amount of data we use in a month. This is already practice in other countries in the US, and several ISP's here (Comcast, TWC) have already tried it. The mobile operators have already basically en masse moved to it, it's only a matter of time until the major ISP's attempt to do the same in earnest.
Thing is, all that has to happen is one of them not doing it and the others will be forced to also remove their caps.
iCloud has been ok so far, but I've run into more faults/issues than exciting features. The best feature is the streaming of purchased TV shows from the Cloud to your Apple TV2. This one feature has saved me multiple GBs of space and has been simply magical. 2nd best feature is the automatic downloading of new music and app purchases to all your devices. 3rd best feature is iMessage which is seamless and elegant and has allowed me to cancel SMS with my provider.
Actually, you do not need iCloud for any of those features. I'm still on MobileMe (sorry but I'm holding on to iDisk and Gallery for dear life as long as possible) and I use those features with no problem on all devices.
Such as... 1984 big government mandated cloud snooping (read as fishing expeditions), in the name of "security", of course.
Meanwhile what is left of liberty? I am leery of iCloud for these reasons...
Could people making this claim please read the book first and understand what the book is all about?
You couldn't be more wrong about the intent of iCloud if you tried.
I would like to see how GameCenter uses iCloud. It sucks when you have the same game on multiple iOS devices and not get your saved games and all that transfer over to each of them.
I would like to see how GameCenter uses iCloud. It sucks when you have the same game on multiple iOS devices and not get your saved games and all that transfer over to each of them.
Mmm, that's good. Or when you've magically lost all progress in a game in an update or clean OS install; having a save point in the cloud would be great.
I've already got a game that handles iCloud very well.
W.E.L.D.E.R keeps things nicely in sync when I play on my iPhone or iPad. And when I checked how much data it used it was like 5.4kb. That's Key Value data ...nice and small but effective thus far.
Bandwidth caps are a fact of life or will become one. I honestly think this is a good thing because it's going to force the adoption of more efficient video codecs for streaming, it's going to make people leverage Wifi networks at home more and on their mobiles.
When people have to pay for metered bandwidth they begin to manage better and become more demanding about the efficiency of the dating going across their lines.
Comments
It definitely needs some finer controls. Since the switch from MM to iCloud I have multiple contacts and groups. Unlike with MobileMe's preference pane I can't figure out how to completely clean out my contacts and push the right setup from my Mac to iCloud and down to all my devices. The iCloud server keeps propagating this incorrect list.
I had the same issue, but a bit of experimentation sorted it all out.
On your Mac, go to your Address Book, Preferences, Accounts, and have a look at what you've got in there. If you're anything like I was you'll have both MobileMe AND iCloud. Update your iCloud contacts, delete the MobileMe contacts and, hopefully, that will resolve that for you..
But then there are the problems.
- email not consistently pushing to my devices
- PhotoStream not getting all the pictures I take with my iPhone
- No ability to delete pictures from PhotoStream
- No ability to organize PhotoStream pictures into albums on iOS
- All photos in PhotoStream are tagged with a 'Photostream' tag that's difficult to delete
- No way to share photos
- No way to share files with others
- Sharing iOS iWork files with your Mac is a big pain (and vice versa)
- No Podcast support with iCloud
- the loss of web hosting through iWeb
PhotoStream needs the most work. It's so pointless in its current form. There is potential for iCloud but it sure has a long way to go. It's not the awesome service it was made out to be.
I'm not sure people appreciate the fact that we are edging toward what is known as "strong A.I.", or true artificial intelligence. The addition of sensors that will give Siri a finer sense of being in the same location as the user will enable it to act scarily intelligently, almost intuitively.
iCloud has it's benefits, but for my money, "artificial intelligence" in the form of Siri is THE breakthrough of the year. It will only keep improving and will eventually allow things like instant 2-way translation and it will act functionally like a real secretary or assistant, which will give every person with an iPhone benefits that only multi-millionaires have had access to up to now. As a matter of fact, I can foresee Siri performing doctor or nurse-like functions, fashion or design advice, and on, and on, and on...
I'm not sure people appreciate the fact that we are edging toward what is known as "strong A.I.", or true artificial intelligence. The addition of sensors that will give Siri a finer sense of being in the same location as the user will enable it to act scarily intelligently, almost intuitively.
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
It definitely needs some finer controls. Since the switch from MM to iCloud I have multiple contacts and groups. Unlike with MobileMe's preference pane I can't figure out how to completely clean out my contacts and push the right setup from my Mac to iCloud and down to all my devices. The iCloud server keeps propagating this incorrect list.
i just went to iCloud.com and deleted all the contacts (select all) from there and uploaded the right ones from my mac… it was an easy setup…
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
A lot us think 'a' remote will have the microphone for Siri. We shall see.
As for iCloud... underwhelming for me. Syncing contacts and bookmarks is good. I'm surprised there is not a 'dropbox' feature... Or is there?. Photostream.. Ugh... I shoot lots of shots and then sort. So have to have it off then sort, then turn it on, ...I think that's how it works. What I'd prefer is it would stream my existing folders. Perhaps in future.
I was trying to get Siri into the conversation. Well done. Jobs said he "cracked" tv's! I think u will walk into ur living room and say Siri CNN, please. Siri will be the way we get rid of the multiple cursed remotes!
iCloud is nice but Siri... Now that's massive. It's voice control done right. Stay on target, stay on target...!
Are serious? gadgets? Like what? Can't you say that about most technology devices and services?
Are serious? gadgets? Like what? Can't you say that about most technology devices and services?
Isn't it obvious? It's gadgets "we haven't thought of yet"!!
(my pointless 100th post!).
I have issues with iChat staying online after I quit it and reopening by itself (Hey, I'm the Ghost of iChat... scary).
I don't want iCloud to decide for me what's on a server and what's in my private collection of data. I don't want to have to go back to Linux machines because Apple's idea of a Unix is turning into a thin client (it's a revolution... we're doing a 360° back to the eighties, data in the mainframes and thin clients... come on...)
You mean iDisk, don't you? The ability to take a picture and then have it show up on all your other devices via PhotoStream is great, which is just an extension of the file syncing within the system. Also, the backup and syncing for all your settings is nice, if not a time consuming way to restore your device when trying to get 800MB to an iPhone over even a fast WiFI connection.
Overall the way iCloud integrates with your devices is far superior to MobileMe, though it's not without its problems.
I have not pulled the trigger yet on iCloud still using Mobile Me. For me the last few months MM has been acting flaky with my contacts and calendar and don't want to risk making it worse.
I guess I just don't see the appeal of photo stream. For every one picture of the kids on my phone there would be 5 pictures of some parts i am disassembling or some doodad I am fixing. Kind of a waste to be streaming that.
As more product makers move to the cloud, local storage such as flash memory and hard drives is slowly becoming irrelevant as users are able to stream or download content from services like iCloud.
That's the whole problem with iCloud - you can't store your iTunes library in the cloud and stream it. You can re-download purchases but you still have to store your content on a local hard drive. I'm just about to buy my third external hard drive because I've bought so much iTunes content.
What we need is the ability to store your iTunes library in a digital locker in the cloud and stream and/or download the content as you wish. That way you wouldn't need to store your content locally. I know some people who download iTunes stuff and then upload it again to a cloud based storage service. It takes forever and is a huge waste of both time and bandwidth.
I could stream the content when I'm at home on my Mac or AppleTV with broadband and download it to my iOS devices to avoid using up my data allowance.
While I like the concept of storing all my data in the cloud, I worry that once we start becoming dependent on doing so that our ISP's will move to capping the amount of data we use in a month. This is already practice in other countries in the US, and several ISP's here (Comcast, TWC) have already tried it. The mobile operators have already basically en masse moved to it, it's only a matter of time until the major ISP's attempt to do the same in earnest.
Thing is, all that has to happen is one of them not doing it and the others will be forced to also remove their caps.
iCloud has been ok so far, but I've run into more faults/issues than exciting features. The best feature is the streaming of purchased TV shows from the Cloud to your Apple TV2. This one feature has saved me multiple GBs of space and has been simply magical. 2nd best feature is the automatic downloading of new music and app purchases to all your devices. 3rd best feature is iMessage which is seamless and elegant and has allowed me to cancel SMS with my provider.
Actually, you do not need iCloud for any of those features. I'm still on MobileMe (sorry but I'm holding on to iDisk and Gallery for dear life as long as possible) and I use those features with no problem on all devices.
Such as... 1984 big government mandated cloud snooping (read as fishing expeditions), in the name of "security", of course.
Meanwhile what is left of liberty? I am leery of iCloud for these reasons...
Could people making this claim please read the book first and understand what the book is all about?
You couldn't be more wrong about the intent of iCloud if you tried.
I would like to see how GameCenter uses iCloud. It sucks when you have the same game on multiple iOS devices and not get your saved games and all that transfer over to each of them.
I would like to see how GameCenter uses iCloud. It sucks when you have the same game on multiple iOS devices and not get your saved games and all that transfer over to each of them.
Mmm, that's good. Or when you've magically lost all progress in a game in an update or clean OS install; having a save point in the cloud would be great.
W.E.L.D.E.R keeps things nicely in sync when I play on my iPhone or iPad. And when I checked how much data it used it was like 5.4kb. That's Key Value data ...nice and small but effective thus far.
Bandwidth caps are a fact of life or will become one. I honestly think this is a good thing because it's going to force the adoption of more efficient video codecs for streaming, it's going to make people leverage Wifi networks at home more and on their mobiles.
When people have to pay for metered bandwidth they begin to manage better and become more demanding about the efficiency of the dating going across their lines.