That's reasonable because there is no replacement for that or better 3rd-party options. I'm expecting we'll be seeing some new iCloud features come to light with iOS 6 and later ML betas.
re: galleries. it's already been added with the release of iPhoto for iOS -- Journals.
now we just need the Mac OS version to be able to edit them
I would be delighted if they weren't killing off Gallery.
Have you used journals in the iPad version of iPhoto? It seems to work kinda like gallery if you have iCloud activated. iPhoto on the mac doesn't seem to have journals yet, though.
All of Apple's web storage offerings to date -- iCloud included -- have been surprisingly mediocre and disappointing for a company that outshines with such great software. They have all seemed like half-baked, less-than-fully-developed offerings, at best.
At this point, I am convinced that this is one arena that Apple just needs to let go. It has to either find a solid partner to whom it can outsource, or acquire something major for further development. I don't think Apple is capable of ceeating an organically developed world-class offering in this realm.
Um... why in the world would anybody not be able to live without iDisk? It was a TERRIBLE technology that NEVER worked properly and was SLOW as molasses. People who need that sort of technology have all adopted Dropbox, an OUTSTANDING service from an EXCELLENT & trustworthy company that truly UNDERSTANDS what cloud storage is all about. Apple has YET to prove that they understand ANYTHING about the cloud, after their botched disasters known as iTools, mac.com, and MobileMe. iDisk worked for us maybe 1% of the time. Dropbox works for us 100% of the time, and shows that they have a much sharper set of software engineers than Apple.
I have a couple of issues with Apple on iCloud. First has been beaten to death, but it is really a shame they don't support their own OS as well as they support Windows. i.e. Windows Vista is supported but not Snow Leopard. Vista was released before Snow Leopard. Not everyone who has Snow Leopard can upgrade to Lion. Maybe not every function should be supported, but at minimum calendar, bookmarks, and contacts should be able to sync.
2nd is more complicated, but I own multiple iOS/Macs but still my iCloud account is limited to 5gb without paying for more. Users should get an additional storage for each device they own and register on their same iCloud account.
I've done nothing to keep iDisk because it's horrible and outdated in every way, hence my disdain with people that want this antiquated technology to stick around.
All apps have access to the iCloud APIs. Meaning, I see no reason why one can't make Mac and iOS apps that will store any and all hierarchal files and folders, just like iDisk. It could reside as a folder and Menu Bar item just like Dropbox but use Apple's servers for storage. Apple would be very happy to get people to pay for additional data storage.
Even better is using a service that doesn't make you restart the entire UL/DL if you lose your connection right before you finish transporting a large file. It's sad that installing a 3rd-party app adds so much usability and adds to the user experience so much that a built-in, native option is unusable by those that care about speed, security, reliability and redundancy.
That's reasonable because there is no replacement for that or better 3rd-party options. I'm expecting we'll be seeing some new iCloud features come to light with iOS 6 and later ML betas.
Oh. You're one of those people. No need to post anything more. Clearly your opinion is the only valid thing on the Internet. I'm such a jerk. How did I not know that already?
HEY EVERYBODY! DEFER ALL COMMENTS TO SolipsismX. Stop having opinions of your own, they're not valid. Stop! Don't form that opinion. It's not valid. Regardless of how you work or how well things work for you YOU ARE WRONG.
All of Apple's web storage offerings to date -- iCloud included -- have been surprisingly mediocre and disappointing for a company that outshines with such great software. They have all seemed like half-baked, less-than-fully-developed offerings, at best.
At this point, I am convinced that this is one arena that Apple just needs to let go. It has to either find a solid partner to whom it can outsource, or acquire something major for further development. I don't think Apple is capable of ceeating an organically developed world-class offering in this realm.
I have a been a user since the free iTools days and was more than happy to pay the small $50*-99 per year for .Mac and then MobileMe with all their faults because they offered so many useful features that no other service to this day has been able to compete with*. iCloud is a major step in the right direction and does a lot of things better than the competition.
Unfortunately they have no gotten the bugs worked out of any of their 4 branding attempts, which is somewhat pathetic, considering that a startup like Dropbox could come along and take very simple ideas and technologies Apple had full access to and put them together without any of the growing pains Apple has experienced. Apple had every piece of the puzzle that Dropbox had except Apple had a lot more money at their disposal.
I don't see Dropbox becoming a powerful business but it's this sort of thing that has been the downfall of many great companies. I'm glad Apple made it free as it will strengthen their ecosystem but there is a laundry list of little things they need to iron out to make it great. What annoys me is that they have everything they need to do it, including a major template from Dropbox on how to make the backend function. I can't imagine Apple are ignorant so the only answer is they simply don't care enough to make it work. I hope I'm wrong.
PS: We know Apple is one of the most successful internet services company in the world as proofed by iTunes Store so why can't they make iCloud the same success?
* Buying it from a 3rd-party could easily get you 30-40% off the retail price. Even more if you bought the old .Mac boxes which had a version number on them yet the contents contained a code that worked not only with all .Mac but with MobileMe, too.
** Yes I'm sure some of you will argue that you can get most of them for free from many different companies but to claim that it's just as simple and easy to setup VNC and write scripts for backing up and syncing your settings is not my idea of convenience. A couple dollars a month is well worth the savings in configuration and troubleshooting on that front.
Hey Solips, I'm curious as to why you picked Skydrive over Dropbox?
I was a heavy iDisk user up until Apple decided to EOL it. I share your criticisms of it. Dropbox is so much more useable for me.
So why Skydrive?
I use Dropbox. That was jragosta (post #4) that stated he choose SkyDrive.
I've tried all the ones I mentioned in a later post, and they all have their pros and cons, but I prefer Dropbox for reasons that come to do the user experience. Plus so many people I know use it and I have 9.5 GB of free space from signing people up for the service.
SugarSync offer the most features and versatility for users that want to micro-manage, as well as giving you a lot more free space than Dropbox (5GB v 2GB), but the user experience suffers greatly. I'd say Dropbox is to iOS as SugarSync is to Android but that's an insult to SugarSync.
SkyDrive gives you even more space with 7GB free and has nearly all the features that SugarSync does and a pretty good user experience to boot, including their Mac app. If you don't go with Dropbox then I say go with SkyDrive.
edit: Wow Found a great review of 13 different services (didn't know half of these existed) from The Verge from less than 2 weeks ago.
I went back to Dropbox when they launched iCloud. For the simple reason that Apple does not have a file level cloud service. And, setting up sharing of folders/files in Finder across multiple Macs and user logins is (I find) a mess. I can't get it to work sometimes.
Dropbox is wonderful. I want file level visibility. I love their iOS apps and how I can access anything, at any time, and easily share. I think Jobs underestimated them and what that are trying to accomplish.
For iCloud, I hope In particular they bring better cloud storage and management for photos. I find trying to manage photos across iPhoto on OSX, iPad and iPhone a cluster-f***. For example, there is no way in iOS to see all my Albums and Events without hard syncing through iTunes. All photos on iPhone have to be manually synced back to OSX. There is no way to make changes to an Event or Album on iOS and have it automatically update across all devices
I think iCloud's app centric approach, where you never even see your cloud filesystem, will ultimately win out in the end. For most people, the concept of an overall filesystem is just something that is not needed to get your job done. They want the file->open dialog on their apps to only show the documents for that app. They don't want to be shown a hierarchy of all their files every time, and then have to drill down and find things. This is Apple's ultimate answer to "Fix the Finder."
Here is my take. Apple consistently fails to understand, people DO want a file-level interface for iCloud, similar to the one, provided with iDisk as well as competition. Having the file access only via the apple apps like iWork (and this only on iOS, not even MacOS) or via the web interface is simply not enough. I was happy to pay Apple for MobileMe as I got all this functionality and not because of the data storage limit granted. If this won't change and Apple shuts the iDisk down I will be using iCloud for everything but file storage as a free service and will be FORCED to switch over to DropBox and pay the for the additional storage I do need. Offering free 20 GB of storage with iCloud can not change anything at all...
The major conceptual gap between iCloud and MobileMe is sharing. Specifically, MobileMe (and iWork.com) had some decent sharing capabilities whereas iCloud has nothing. The iCloud philosophy seems to be that it's "all about me."
That doesn't cut it for me. I need to share some of my stuff with various other people and iCloud ignores that need.
I think iCloud's app centric approach, where you never even see your cloud filesystem, will ultimately win out in the end. For most people, the concept of an overall filesystem is just something that is not needed to get your job done. They want the file->open dialog on their apps to only show the documents for that app. They don't want to be shown a hierarchy of all their files every time, and then have to drill down and find things. This is Apple's ultimate answer to "Fix the Finder."
That may be true for lots of people but I'm not sure it's the majority. I have many thousands of files in my iDisk folder. Finding the file I want out of thousands of files would be a nightmare - plus naming could get to be a problem. For someone with limited needs, iCloud's approach is probably fine. It's probably OK for what is largely a media centric device like an iPad (although even there, I prefer using something like LogMeIn which gives me access to my hierarchical files. But as a Finder replacement? I just don't see it.
Hey Solips, I'm curious as to why you picked Skydrive over Dropbox?
I was a heavy iDisk user up until Apple decided to EOL it. I share your criticisms of it. Dropbox is so much more useable for me.
So why Skydrive?
Size. I needed more than the 2 GB that I got for Dropbox.
Unfortunately, though, it looks like Skydrive isn't going to work, either. First, I had to change a bunch of file names because it has the file name limitations of Windows (too many forbidden characters). And it doesn't offer me as much space as I need, either.
Adrive provides plenty of storage, but doesn't work properly on Macs. It keeps telling me that I don't have Java installed and I know I do.
Looks like I'll be paying for more storage on Dropbox - unless something better comes along.
I would be delighted if they weren't killing off Gallery.
100% agree.
I just do not understand why they cannot simply include Gallery in iCloud. Heck Apple are even going to have to update (downgrade) Aperture and iPhoto to remove the feature which seems a totally regressive.
That may be true for lots of people but I'm not sure it's the majority. I have many thousands of files in my iDisk folder. Finding the file I want out of thousands of files would be a nightmare - plus naming could get to be a problem. For someone with limited needs, iCloud's approach is probably fine. It's probably OK for what is largely a media centric device like an iPad (although even there, I prefer using something like LogMeIn which gives me access to my hierarchical files. But as a Finder replacement? I just don't see it.
Size. I needed more than the 2 GB that I got for Dropbox.
You can make folders inside each app's area (from inside the file open dialog), there's just no longer any concept of a grand filesystem where you view all your files, from all your apps, at once.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
That's reasonable because there is no replacement for that or better 3rd-party options. I'm expecting we'll be seeing some new iCloud features come to light with iOS 6 and later ML betas.
re: galleries. it's already been added with the release of iPhoto for iOS -- Journals.
now we just need the Mac OS version to be able to edit them
Quote:
Originally Posted by gobble gobble
I would be delighted if they weren't killing off Gallery.
Have you used journals in the iPad version of iPhoto? It seems to work kinda like gallery if you have iCloud activated. iPhoto on the mac doesn't seem to have journals yet, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna
re: galleries. it's already been added with the release of iPhoto for iOS -- Journals.
now we just need the Mac OS version to be able to edit them
snap
At this point, I am convinced that this is one arena that Apple just needs to let go. It has to either find a solid partner to whom it can outsource, or acquire something major for further development. I don't think Apple is capable of ceeating an organically developed world-class offering in this realm.
Dropboxes interface is unacceptable.
I have a couple of issues with Apple on iCloud. First has been beaten to death, but it is really a shame they don't support their own OS as well as they support Windows. i.e. Windows Vista is supported but not Snow Leopard. Vista was released before Snow Leopard. Not everyone who has Snow Leopard can upgrade to Lion. Maybe not every function should be supported, but at minimum calendar, bookmarks, and contacts should be able to sync.
2nd is more complicated, but I own multiple iOS/Macs but still my iCloud account is limited to 5gb without paying for more. Users should get an additional storage for each device they own and register on their same iCloud account.
Oh. You're one of those people. No need to post anything more. Clearly your opinion is the only valid thing on the Internet. I'm such a jerk. How did I not know that already?
HEY EVERYBODY! DEFER ALL COMMENTS TO SolipsismX. Stop having opinions of your own, they're not valid. Stop! Don't form that opinion. It's not valid. Regardless of how you work or how well things work for you YOU ARE WRONG.
Sorry. My bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Enigmamatic
third post
Calm down, tiger.
I have a been a user since the free iTools days and was more than happy to pay the small $50*-99 per year for .Mac and then MobileMe with all their faults because they offered so many useful features that no other service to this day has been able to compete with*. iCloud is a major step in the right direction and does a lot of things better than the competition.
Unfortunately they have no gotten the bugs worked out of any of their 4 branding attempts, which is somewhat pathetic, considering that a startup like Dropbox could come along and take very simple ideas and technologies Apple had full access to and put them together without any of the growing pains Apple has experienced. Apple had every piece of the puzzle that Dropbox had except Apple had a lot more money at their disposal.
I don't see Dropbox becoming a powerful business but it's this sort of thing that has been the downfall of many great companies. I'm glad Apple made it free as it will strengthen their ecosystem but there is a laundry list of little things they need to iron out to make it great. What annoys me is that they have everything they need to do it, including a major template from Dropbox on how to make the backend function. I can't imagine Apple are ignorant so the only answer is they simply don't care enough to make it work. I hope I'm wrong.
PS: We know Apple is one of the most successful internet services company in the world as proofed by iTunes Store so why can't they make iCloud the same success?
* Buying it from a 3rd-party could easily get you 30-40% off the retail price. Even more if you bought the old .Mac boxes which had a version number on them yet the contents contained a code that worked not only with all .Mac but with MobileMe, too.
** Yes I'm sure some of you will argue that you can get most of them for free from many different companies but to claim that it's just as simple and easy to setup VNC and write scripts for backing up and syncing your settings is not my idea of convenience. A couple dollars a month is well worth the savings in configuration and troubleshooting on that front.
I was a heavy iDisk user up until Apple decided to EOL it. I share your criticisms of it. Dropbox is so much more useable for me.
So why Skydrive?
I use Dropbox. That was jragosta (post #4) that stated he choose SkyDrive.
I've tried all the ones I mentioned in a later post, and they all have their pros and cons, but I prefer Dropbox for reasons that come to do the user experience. Plus so many people I know use it and I have 9.5 GB of free space from signing people up for the service.
SugarSync offer the most features and versatility for users that want to micro-manage, as well as giving you a lot more free space than Dropbox (5GB v 2GB), but the user experience suffers greatly. I'd say Dropbox is to iOS as SugarSync is to Android but that's an insult to SugarSync.
SkyDrive gives you even more space with 7GB free and has nearly all the features that SugarSync does and a pretty good user experience to boot, including their Mac app. If you don't go with Dropbox then I say go with SkyDrive.
edit: Wow Found a great review of 13 different services (didn't know half of these existed) from The Verge from less than 2 weeks ago.
Dropbox is wonderful. I want file level visibility. I love their iOS apps and how I can access anything, at any time, and easily share. I think Jobs underestimated them and what that are trying to accomplish.
For iCloud, I hope In particular they bring better cloud storage and management for photos. I find trying to manage photos across iPhoto on OSX, iPad and iPhone a cluster-f***. For example, there is no way in iOS to see all my Albums and Events without hard syncing through iTunes. All photos on iPhone have to be manually synced back to OSX. There is no way to make changes to an Event or Album on iOS and have it automatically update across all devices
Free storage? Great. How about dealing with the fundamentals first, such as the unreliable mail server.
I think iCloud's app centric approach, where you never even see your cloud filesystem, will ultimately win out in the end. For most people, the concept of an overall filesystem is just something that is not needed to get your job done. They want the file->open dialog on their apps to only show the documents for that app. They don't want to be shown a hierarchy of all their files every time, and then have to drill down and find things. This is Apple's ultimate answer to "Fix the Finder."
iDisk has been working great for me. Being able to host my website has been an added benefit.
Currently using DropBox which is ok - but I'd rather have iCloud serve all my needs. Unfortunately, it is currently lacking....
I will also miss Gallery. Being able to view my uploaded pictures/videos in any browser is very nice.
Hoping iCloud gets more functionality over time. Maybe we'll get some updates during WWDC 2012....
Here is my take. Apple consistently fails to understand, people DO want a file-level interface for iCloud, similar to the one, provided with iDisk as well as competition. Having the file access only via the apple apps like iWork (and this only on iOS, not even MacOS) or via the web interface is simply not enough. I was happy to pay Apple for MobileMe as I got all this functionality and not because of the data storage limit granted. If this won't change and Apple shuts the iDisk down I will be using iCloud for everything but file storage as a free service and will be FORCED to switch over to DropBox and pay the for the additional storage I do need. Offering free 20 GB of storage with iCloud can not change anything at all...
The major conceptual gap between iCloud and MobileMe is sharing. Specifically, MobileMe (and iWork.com) had some decent sharing capabilities whereas iCloud has nothing. The iCloud philosophy seems to be that it's "all about me."
That doesn't cut it for me. I need to share some of my stuff with various other people and iCloud ignores that need.
That may be true for lots of people but I'm not sure it's the majority. I have many thousands of files in my iDisk folder. Finding the file I want out of thousands of files would be a nightmare - plus naming could get to be a problem. For someone with limited needs, iCloud's approach is probably fine. It's probably OK for what is largely a media centric device like an iPad (although even there, I prefer using something like LogMeIn which gives me access to my hierarchical files. But as a Finder replacement? I just don't see it.
Size. I needed more than the 2 GB that I got for Dropbox.
Unfortunately, though, it looks like Skydrive isn't going to work, either. First, I had to change a bunch of file names because it has the file name limitations of Windows (too many forbidden characters). And it doesn't offer me as much space as I need, either.
Adrive provides plenty of storage, but doesn't work properly on Macs. It keeps telling me that I don't have Java installed and I know I do.
Looks like I'll be paying for more storage on Dropbox - unless something better comes along.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gobble gobble
I would be delighted if they weren't killing off Gallery.
100% agree.
I just do not understand why they cannot simply include Gallery in iCloud. Heck Apple are even going to have to update (downgrade) Aperture and iPhoto to remove the feature which seems a totally regressive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
That may be true for lots of people but I'm not sure it's the majority. I have many thousands of files in my iDisk folder. Finding the file I want out of thousands of files would be a nightmare - plus naming could get to be a problem. For someone with limited needs, iCloud's approach is probably fine. It's probably OK for what is largely a media centric device like an iPad (although even there, I prefer using something like LogMeIn which gives me access to my hierarchical files. But as a Finder replacement? I just don't see it.
Size. I needed more than the 2 GB that I got for Dropbox.
You can make folders inside each app's area (from inside the file open dialog), there's just no longer any concept of a grand filesystem where you view all your files, from all your apps, at once.