I find that iCloud is good for some uses like photo stream and contacts most notably in my use but 5GB is not a whole lot of space. I was lucky enough to get a free 50GB account from Box which I use for larger space. Even my ISP Cox has a really nice cloud app offering 5GB free with a handy iOS app in addition to a handy menu bar item in OS X. I have dropbox as well but don't really use that. But between the 3 I use for free, 60GB is a decent amount of free storage.
Har har. ..... I used to be a computer geek, and now I've matured into just another person that wants to get stuff done with my tools, while spending cautiously.
Then switch, get stuff done with your tools, lead a more satisfying life as a mature person, and leave us alone.
2006 iMac can't run iCloud but a 2006 Windows machine can.
It's not a win for MS or Windows users that their OS is so stagnant and their user-base so weary of upgrading that they still support Windows Vista. Considering the number of users still on WinXP Apple is ignoring a much bigger percentage of the Windows market than they are the Mac OS X market*.
* Full disclosure: I assume that last comment is factual but I did not verify before posting.
Wow. Doesn't Microsoft have some kind of cloud storage solution?
You know, like all their other "checkbox marketing" me-too-I'm-following-along products?
Skydrive is very good, similar to Dropbox, except with 7 gb of free storage, and you can open MS Office files stored in Skydrive in Office Web Apps. But I currently have 50 gb of free storage on Dropbox and use iCloud as well for iWork storage, so I don't use it.
Since every iDevice prompts the user to sign up for iCloud, this isn't very surprising. I suspect that in this report "most-used" means most people signed up.
iCloud is great for syncing contacts and bookmarks. Photo Stream is pretty cool. Syncing files using a flat file system? Not cool. Android slaughters iOS when it comes to file management. Apple really need to include a finder and make it easy to sync an iOS device with specific directories in OS X.
For example, on my Android tablet, I can plug it in (or do it wirelessly if I used Windows), drag and drop my PDF file folder to the tablet, and quickly copy about a thousand PDFs organized in a deep hierarchical structure. iTunes is fine for smaller numbers of PDFs, but not so much for large numbers. Flat file systems just aren't the innovation Apple seem to think they are.
I can understand the need for simple file hierarchies on an iPhone, but not on an iPad. It may be time to bifurcate iOS into phone and tablet versions so the iPad isn't uneccesarily gimped when it comes to file management.
I wonder how many people use iCloud without realizing it. It is so integrated and once you have signed up to iTunes Match, it's just there... iCloud also backs up devices with no interaction. Photostream is also so transparent the fact that it uses iCloud may not be obvious to many people.
And thats how the cloud should be, integrated and transparent to the user, which is how other services miss the mark.
There is a bit of Apples v. Oranges here. Most (all?) of Apple's cloud customers are individual customers. Dropbox has a very healthy contingent of the same. Amazon, on the other hand, serves corporate customers. In fact, both Apple and Dropbox are Amazon customers. Effectively, some (many?) in the survey checking off Apple and Dropbox as their cloud storage provider may have in fact be using Amazon S9 without being aware of it.
Having said this, it is important to point out that while Apple's iCloud service has not been outstanding, it has grown and scaled rather well. Kudos to them.
Lots of Mac users are also on Dropbox and Google drive because iCould won't store files.
True, I use dropbox. If there's one thing I wish iCloud had, it was a dropbox (iDisk anyone?) style drive I could mount to store my files. I think this is one of the biggest things missing on iCloud. Not all of my files are iWork files so keeping this iWork only seems foolish to me.
That's the beaury of Apple "It just works" unlike all those other services where I have to manage/backup/micro manage it all, but you know those clueless geek losers just love a command prompt and of course have no time to actually be human and talk to people, remember they have zero social skills
Just works, does it? Not according to this article I happened upon. www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20/apple_fails_at_cloud_leaving_market_open_to_android/
Well, your experience is not the same as mine. My wife and I both using iClouds back up and it did stellar job transfer all her datas from iPad 2 to iPad mini. We couldn't care less about Google Contact or Calendar because we deleted those once we get iClouds. And for gmail, we're still syncing it thru Exchange.
Agreed. However, I really wish Apple would bring back iDisk. Far more useful (at least to me) than iCloud.
Since iCloud doesn't directly make Apple much money, this isn't a game Apple needs to win, they just need to have something experience-enhancing that serves their customers well and keeps them in the game, prevent ceding the control to others. iCloud certainly doesn't need to be all things to all people, and there's room for Dropbox and other services that offer different kinds of flexibility to coexist.
I'm a happy user of iCloud and Dropbox. Perfectly happy with both of them and see no need for either one to trample the other.
iCloud does seamlessly keep my contacts, calendar and reminders in sync. iTunes Match is brilliant, though with Spotify not as important. Documents in the cloud is a work in progress though and I do not see how this replaces Dropbox. I have PDF's which I annotate and since there is no iOS version of Preview I cannot use iCloud to sync these documents. Why is there no IOS version of Preview?
Since iCloud doesn't directly make Apple much money, this isn't a game Apple needs to win, they just need to have something experience-enhancing that serves their customers well and keeps them in the game, prevent ceding the control to others. iCloud certainly doesn't need to be all things to all people, and there's room for Dropbox and other services that offer different kinds of flexibility to coexist.
I'm a happy user of iCloud and Dropbox. Perfectly happy with both of them and see no need for either one to trample the other.
I completely disagree. It's not the carrot on the stick Google needs to be to get their gaggle of googlers to gander at garnish ads but the service ties their devices together which strengthens their ecosystem. It's doing what the iTunes app did with iTunes Music Store and iPod, but to much larger degree.
I think Tim Cook has even stated that their plan for the decade will focus more heavily on cloud-based computing. There really is a long way to go to truly make it all interconnected. I personally can't believe it's 2013 and despite having 3 Macs, an iPhone, an iPad, and Apple TV, and AirPort that it's all too unintelligent to know when I'm on my Mac or iPad to auto-disable audible alerts on another devices. This is especially annoying with iMessages. After that is finally dealt with there is getting APIs so that 3rd-party apps can seamlessly talk to each other so that updates between your devices are seamless.
I would say there's a lack of fringe case testing.
I was going to disagree with you, but in a way you're right. When my Mac fails to do something or does something wrong, it's usually completely random and not reproducible. That's gotta make troubleshooting a BITCH.
So much for the definition of insanity being repeating an action and expecting a different outcome! With a modern Mac you can't assume that because something didn't work the first time that it won't the second.
Lots of Mac users are also on Dropbox and Google drive because iCould won't store files.
I use Dropbox, iCloud, Skydrive among a suite of such services.
One of the disappointing things about Dropbox is it requires local storage, which I found out when I deleted files from my MacBook, to make more space and they also disappeared from my Dropbox, all that is left are the empty folders I set up to hold photo's organised by month and year.
It's a good thing I backed the files up to an external hard drive first.
I use Dropbox, iCloud, Skydrive among a suite of such services.
One of the disappointing things about Dropbox is it requires local storage, which I found out when I deleted files from my MacBook, to make more space and they also disappeared from my Dropbox, all that is left are the empty folders I set up to hold photo's organised by month and year.
It's a good thing I backed the files up to an external hard drive first.
1) It does use local storage but cloud storage is typically much, much smaller than amount of local storage you have. I have over 15GB from Dropbox (only using 1GB right now) and yet my Mac's sleep image is 24GB because that's how much RAM I have.
2.1) One of the wonderful things about Dropbox is that if delete something you can restore by simply showing the deleted files on their site and choosing un-delete. Depending on the type of delete performed it may show up on your local system instantly as it was sitting in a hidden purgatory folder for a short period in case you wished to restore it, thus saving the network data usage.
2.2) These deleted items are saved for up to 30 days for free accounts and indefinitely for paid accounts. It also has the added bonus of saving any and all file revisions in the aforementioned timeframe. Since it uses delta updates (not unlike how Time Machine works) a small edit to 100MB document on Dropbox can be synced across all devices almost instantly. I highly recommend Dropbox to students of all kinds because of these features. It's simple too hard to lose your data and you have to do nothing extra to back it up.
3) You do also have the option to remove a folder and its contents from local system(s) but keep them saved on the server. This is accessed right through Dropbox Preferences » Advanced tab » Selective Sync: Change Settings.
1) It does use local storage but cloud storage is typically much, much smaller than amount of local storage you have. I have over 15GB from Dropbox (only using 1GB right now) and yet my Mac's sleep image is 24GB because that's how much RAM I have.
2.1) One of the wonderful things about Dropbox is that if delete something you can restore by simply showing the deleted files on their site and choosing un-delete. Depending on the type of delete performed it may show up on your local system instantly as it was sitting in a hidden purgatory folder for a short period in case you wished to restore it, thus saving the network data usage.
2.2) These deleted items are saved for up to 30 days for free accounts and indefinitely for paid accounts. It also has the added bonus of saving any and all file revisions in the aforementioned timeframe. Since it uses delta updates (not unlike how Time Machine works) a small edit to 100MB document on Dropbox can be synced across all devices almost instantly. I highly recommend Dropbox to students of all kinds because of these features. It's simple too hard to lose your data and you have to do nothing extra to back it up.
3) You do also have the option to remove a folder and its contents from local system(s) but keep them saved on the server. This is accessed right through Dropbox Preferences » Advanced tab » Selective Sync: Change Settings.
I have 53GB and 20GB is used, I keep getting "running out of disk space" errors on my MacBook.
I might try moving the DropBox folder to my external drive and only sync when it's plugged in.
Comments
I find that iCloud is good for some uses like photo stream and contacts most notably in my use but 5GB is not a whole lot of space. I was lucky enough to get a free 50GB account from Box which I use for larger space. Even my ISP Cox has a really nice cloud app offering 5GB free with a handy iOS app in addition to a handy menu bar item in OS X. I have dropbox as well but don't really use that. But between the 3 I use for free, 60GB is a decent amount of free storage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dysamoria
Har har. ..... I used to be a computer geek, and now I've matured into just another person that wants to get stuff done with my tools, while spending cautiously.
Then switch, get stuff done with your tools, lead a more satisfying life as a mature person, and leave us alone.
It's not a win for MS or Windows users that their OS is so stagnant and their user-base so weary of upgrading that they still support Windows Vista. Considering the number of users still on WinXP Apple is ignoring a much bigger percentage of the Windows market than they are the Mac OS X market*.
* Full disclosure: I assume that last comment is factual but I did not verify before posting.
I'm currently using 3 out of the top 4.
I'd love Apple to give us Dropbox-like functionality. Then I got make that 2 out of the top 4.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SockRolid
Wow. Doesn't Microsoft have some kind of cloud storage solution?
You know, like all their other "checkbox marketing" me-too-I'm-following-along products?
Skydrive is very good, similar to Dropbox, except with 7 gb of free storage, and you can open MS Office files stored in Skydrive in Office Web Apps. But I currently have 50 gb of free storage on Dropbox and use iCloud as well for iWork storage, so I don't use it.
Since every iDevice prompts the user to sign up for iCloud, this isn't very surprising. I suspect that in this report "most-used" means most people signed up.
iCloud is great for syncing contacts and bookmarks. Photo Stream is pretty cool. Syncing files using a flat file system? Not cool. Android slaughters iOS when it comes to file management. Apple really need to include a finder and make it easy to sync an iOS device with specific directories in OS X.
For example, on my Android tablet, I can plug it in (or do it wirelessly if I used Windows), drag and drop my PDF file folder to the tablet, and quickly copy about a thousand PDFs organized in a deep hierarchical structure. iTunes is fine for smaller numbers of PDFs, but not so much for large numbers. Flat file systems just aren't the innovation Apple seem to think they are.
I can understand the need for simple file hierarchies on an iPhone, but not on an iPad. It may be time to bifurcate iOS into phone and tablet versions so the iPad isn't uneccesarily gimped when it comes to file management.
Quote:
Originally Posted by paxman
I wonder how many people use iCloud without realizing it. It is so integrated and once you have signed up to iTunes Match, it's just there... iCloud also backs up devices with no interaction. Photostream is also so transparent the fact that it uses iCloud may not be obvious to many people.
And thats how the cloud should be, integrated and transparent to the user, which is how other services miss the mark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent
There is a bit of Apples v. Oranges here. Most (all?) of Apple's cloud customers are individual customers. Dropbox has a very healthy contingent of the same. Amazon, on the other hand, serves corporate customers. In fact, both Apple and Dropbox are Amazon customers. Effectively, some (many?) in the survey checking off Apple and Dropbox as their cloud storage provider may have in fact be using Amazon S9 without being aware of it.
Having said this, it is important to point out that while Apple's iCloud service has not been outstanding, it has grown and scaled rather well. Kudos to them.
Er... Don't you mean Cuedos to them
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wurm5150
A lot of iOS users don't even realize they're using iCloud..
The way it should be. Whenever possible, technology should be a non-issue for customers. It should work this seamlessly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
Lots of Mac users are also on Dropbox and Google drive because iCould won't store files.
True, I use dropbox. If there's one thing I wish iCloud had, it was a dropbox (iDisk anyone?) style drive I could mount to store my files. I think this is one of the biggest things missing on iCloud. Not all of my files are iWork files so keeping this iWork only seems foolish to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Er... Don't you mean Cuedos to them
Good one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul94544
That's the beaury of Apple "It just works" unlike all those other services where I have to manage/backup/micro manage it all, but you know those clueless geek losers just love a command prompt and of course have no time to actually be human and talk to people, remember they have zero social skills
Just works, does it? Not according to this article I happened upon. www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20/apple_fails_at_cloud_leaving_market_open_to_android/
Agreed. However, I really wish Apple would bring back iDisk. Far more useful (at least to me) than iCloud.
I'm a happy user of iCloud and Dropbox. Perfectly happy with both of them and see no need for either one to trample the other.
I completely disagree. It's not the carrot on the stick Google needs to be to get their gaggle of googlers to gander at garnish ads but the service ties their devices together which strengthens their ecosystem. It's doing what the iTunes app did with iTunes Music Store and iPod, but to much larger degree.
I think Tim Cook has even stated that their plan for the decade will focus more heavily on cloud-based computing. There really is a long way to go to truly make it all interconnected. I personally can't believe it's 2013 and despite having 3 Macs, an iPhone, an iPad, and Apple TV, and AirPort that it's all too unintelligent to know when I'm on my Mac or iPad to auto-disable audible alerts on another devices. This is especially annoying with iMessages. After that is finally dealt with there is getting APIs so that 3rd-party apps can seamlessly talk to each other so that updates between your devices are seamless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
I would say there's a lack of fringe case testing.
I was going to disagree with you, but in a way you're right. When my Mac fails to do something or does something wrong, it's usually completely random and not reproducible. That's gotta make troubleshooting a BITCH.
So much for the definition of insanity being repeating an action and expecting a different outcome! With a modern Mac you can't assume that because something didn't work the first time that it won't the second.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
Lots of Mac users are also on Dropbox and Google drive because iCould won't store files.
I use Dropbox, iCloud, Skydrive among a suite of such services.
One of the disappointing things about Dropbox is it requires local storage, which I found out when I deleted files from my MacBook, to make more space and they also disappeared from my Dropbox, all that is left are the empty folders I set up to hold photo's organised by month and year.
It's a good thing I backed the files up to an external hard drive first.
1) It does use local storage but cloud storage is typically much, much smaller than amount of local storage you have. I have over 15GB from Dropbox (only using 1GB right now) and yet my Mac's sleep image is 24GB because that's how much RAM I have.
2.1) One of the wonderful things about Dropbox is that if delete something you can restore by simply showing the deleted files on their site and choosing un-delete. Depending on the type of delete performed it may show up on your local system instantly as it was sitting in a hidden purgatory folder for a short period in case you wished to restore it, thus saving the network data usage.
2.2) These deleted items are saved for up to 30 days for free accounts and indefinitely for paid accounts. It also has the added bonus of saving any and all file revisions in the aforementioned timeframe. Since it uses delta updates (not unlike how Time Machine works) a small edit to 100MB document on Dropbox can be synced across all devices almost instantly. I highly recommend Dropbox to students of all kinds because of these features. It's simple too hard to lose your data and you have to do nothing extra to back it up.
3) You do also have the option to remove a folder and its contents from local system(s) but keep them saved on the server. This is accessed right through Dropbox Preferences » Advanced tab » Selective Sync: Change Settings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
1) It does use local storage but cloud storage is typically much, much smaller than amount of local storage you have. I have over 15GB from Dropbox (only using 1GB right now) and yet my Mac's sleep image is 24GB because that's how much RAM I have.
2.1) One of the wonderful things about Dropbox is that if delete something you can restore by simply showing the deleted files on their site and choosing un-delete. Depending on the type of delete performed it may show up on your local system instantly as it was sitting in a hidden purgatory folder for a short period in case you wished to restore it, thus saving the network data usage.
2.2) These deleted items are saved for up to 30 days for free accounts and indefinitely for paid accounts. It also has the added bonus of saving any and all file revisions in the aforementioned timeframe. Since it uses delta updates (not unlike how Time Machine works) a small edit to 100MB document on Dropbox can be synced across all devices almost instantly. I highly recommend Dropbox to students of all kinds because of these features. It's simple too hard to lose your data and you have to do nothing extra to back it up.
3) You do also have the option to remove a folder and its contents from local system(s) but keep them saved on the server. This is accessed right through Dropbox Preferences » Advanced tab » Selective Sync: Change Settings.
I have 53GB and 20GB is used, I keep getting "running out of disk space" errors on my MacBook.
I might try moving the DropBox folder to my external drive and only sync when it's plugged in.