For instance I find the whole idea of iTunes match as well as Photostream completely useless. They are what I would call "low end" consumer features that anyone who actually knows how to use a computer would find more of a hinderance than a help.
I'm sure on the other hand that lots of folks just love them.
What I'd like to see is for Apple to get the basic service running a bit more efficiently. I'm a big time Apple supporter and a user of .Mac, MobileMe, and now iCloud since the first day they were available, yet if I am honest the service is actually *worse* with each iteration.
I'm not sure if it's just volume, but iCloud mail is painfully slow and has had several outages a week since it debuted. MobileMe mail was slow but not this bad, .Mac mail was actually kind of snappy.
What's really insulting also is that stupid page that tells you everything is fine or that only some fraction of a percent of users had "some problems" recently, when in fact the system can be totally broken for long periods of time and this isn't reflected in the status page.
It's really total garbage for me so far. Very, very unreliable. I'm patiently waiting for them to fix it and probably won't leave even if they don't, but I'm seriously thinking of switching to another provider for my main email address.
It would also help if they provided some way of controlling SPAM which is way out of control. There is no way the user can actually designate SPAM except through the webmail interface which is so painful it's just not worth it. The mobile clients *still* don't have any way of marking SPAM.
I must say it seems strange that the spam filter on my MBP isn't able to share its database with the rest of my devices that are all linked via iCloud more efficiently. My ipad2 gets all the spam and no way to mark it as such. Wake my MBP's Mail up and the spam vanishes from my iPad. It seems it would be better if the spam filtering were done server side and all devices could mark it when needed.
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 exact same issue with MobileMe. It took unsyncing everything, deleting data off everything except my Mac then sending the Mac's data to MobileMe then syncing other devices. Until I did this I was going around in circles. Sounds like the same situation can occur with iCloud although that's not hit me so far.
One thing I've noticed is even with a 25 Mb/s upload speed FiOS, I see my Macs going slow at times as they link with my idevices and photo stream, I'd hate to see this on a slower connection
I like the iTunes syncing (which I think is iCloud). It ensures that music is downloaded to my Mac Mini I use as a server, and then backed up to my Time machine hardened drive. I use IMAP, so my email syncs just fine from my phone to my Macbook with only a few problems.
With over the air syncing and updating, I can finally give my wife her own apple account since I won't ever have to plug her iPhone or iPad into a computer which she doesn't have. Although, I do not look forward to purchasing all her content over again.
Apple needs to recognize that not all users are single. Some like to have individual apps and books and magazines, but want to share music. Still not sure how I am going accomplish that.
I like the Photostream syncing too, just not for home. We might use that at work to allow teachers to take pictures, and have them sync to a central office computer for archiving. Now we have to swap chips from cameras and download, etc.
I had the exact same issue with MobileMe. It took unsyncing everything, deleting data off everything except my Mac then sending the Mac's data to MobileMe then syncing other devices. Until I did this I was going around in circles. Sounds like the same situation can occur with iCloud although that's not hit me so far.
One thing I've noticed is even with a 25 Mb/s upload speed FiOS, I see my Macs going slow at times as they link with my idevices and photo stream, I'd hate to see this on a slower connection
I may have found a resolution. I took my Mac's Address Book offline from iCloud, then edited the contacts so they are accurate. Then I highlighted them all and did File » Export… » Export to vCard from Menu Bar.
I then turned on iCloud syncing (which messed it up again), and then logged into icloud.com. This time only 3 groups with one contact remained. I had to delete them about 4x before it would stop showing back up. Once I let that sit to make sure all the wonky syncing was out of its system I found my vCard file I'd exported and dragged that to Address Book on icloud.com where it synced. It didn't work importing into my Mac's Address Book and then pushing to iCloud.
Comments
In all fairness "usefulness" is subjective.
For instance I find the whole idea of iTunes match as well as Photostream completely useless. They are what I would call "low end" consumer features that anyone who actually knows how to use a computer would find more of a hinderance than a help.
I'm sure on the other hand that lots of folks just love them.
What I'd like to see is for Apple to get the basic service running a bit more efficiently. I'm a big time Apple supporter and a user of .Mac, MobileMe, and now iCloud since the first day they were available, yet if I am honest the service is actually *worse* with each iteration.
I'm not sure if it's just volume, but iCloud mail is painfully slow and has had several outages a week since it debuted. MobileMe mail was slow but not this bad, .Mac mail was actually kind of snappy.
What's really insulting also is that stupid page that tells you everything is fine or that only some fraction of a percent of users had "some problems" recently, when in fact the system can be totally broken for long periods of time and this isn't reflected in the status page.
It's really total garbage for me so far. Very, very unreliable. I'm patiently waiting for them to fix it and probably won't leave even if they don't, but I'm seriously thinking of switching to another provider for my main email address.
It would also help if they provided some way of controlling SPAM which is way out of control. There is no way the user can actually designate SPAM except through the webmail interface which is so painful it's just not worth it. The mobile clients *still* don't have any way of marking SPAM.
I must say it seems strange that the spam filter on my MBP isn't able to share its database with the rest of my devices that are all linked via iCloud more efficiently. My ipad2 gets all the spam and no way to mark it as such. Wake my MBP's Mail up and the spam vanishes from my iPad. It seems it would be better if the spam filtering were done server side and all devices could mark it when needed.
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 exact same issue with MobileMe. It took unsyncing everything, deleting data off everything except my Mac then sending the Mac's data to MobileMe then syncing other devices. Until I did this I was going around in circles. Sounds like the same situation can occur with iCloud although that's not hit me so far.
One thing I've noticed is even with a 25 Mb/s upload speed FiOS, I see my Macs going slow at times as they link with my idevices and photo stream, I'd hate to see this on a slower connection
With over the air syncing and updating, I can finally give my wife her own apple account since I won't ever have to plug her iPhone or iPad into a computer which she doesn't have. Although, I do not look forward to purchasing all her content over again.
Apple needs to recognize that not all users are single. Some like to have individual apps and books and magazines, but want to share music. Still not sure how I am going accomplish that.
I like the Photostream syncing too, just not for home. We might use that at work to allow teachers to take pictures, and have them sync to a central office computer for archiving. Now we have to swap chips from cameras and download, etc.
Lots of people share iTunes content over a single Apple ID. iCloud is a personal account and should be separate for each individual.
My phone easily handles my Apple ID & different iCloud login with ease
I had the exact same issue with MobileMe. It took unsyncing everything, deleting data off everything except my Mac then sending the Mac's data to MobileMe then syncing other devices. Until I did this I was going around in circles. Sounds like the same situation can occur with iCloud although that's not hit me so far.
One thing I've noticed is even with a 25 Mb/s upload speed FiOS, I see my Macs going slow at times as they link with my idevices and photo stream, I'd hate to see this on a slower connection
I may have found a resolution. I took my Mac's Address Book offline from iCloud, then edited the contacts so they are accurate. Then I highlighted them all and did File » Export… » Export to vCard from Menu Bar.
I then turned on iCloud syncing (which messed it up again), and then logged into icloud.com. This time only 3 groups with one contact remained. I had to delete them about 4x before it would stop showing back up. Once I let that sit to make sure all the wonky syncing was out of its system I found my vCard file I'd exported and dragged that to Address Book on icloud.com where it synced. It didn't work importing into my Mac's Address Book and then pushing to iCloud.
I hope this one sticks.