Apple open to restoring axed MobileMe features in iCloud
Apple hasn't completely ruled out the return of features like iDisk and System preference syncing from eventually reemerging as part of its iCloud service, representatives for the company's new chief executive are telling customers.
Though Steve Jobs is no longer presiding over Apple, the company's new CEO, Tim Cook, still offers the same personal care for customers shown by his predecessor. In the most recent case, one AppleInsider reader sent an email to Cook complaining about the lost functionality in the move from MobileMe to iCloud and was shocked when he received a personal call from the company.
"Specifically, I bemoaned the loss of sync services (syncing application preferences, keychain, etc.) and the loss of iDisk," the reader said of his initial email to Cook . "I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from his office just now.
According to Cook's people, while there are no plans to add those particular services to iCloud at this time, "Apple is open to it if there's enough feedback on the subject."
As part of a FAQ on the matter, Apple in June revealed that a number of data syncing features would not be making the transition when MobileMe becomes iCloud this fall.
Once iCloud has replaced MobileMe, features like Keychains, which sync passwords in the cloud, and System Preferences, which allow users to sync settings between Macs, will no longer be offered. Users will also no longer be able to sync Mac Dashboard Widgets, Dock Items, Mail Accounts, Rules, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes after moving to iCloud.
Other features on the chopping block with iCloud are iDisk, Gallery and iWeb. Users who own a MobileMe account as of June 6, 2011 will see their service extended through June 30, 2012, but after that date, MobileMe will be shuttered forever.
The reader who contacted Cook has encouraged that users reach out to Apple if they too would like to see features like System Preferences and Keychains restored to iCloud.
During his tenure as CEO of Apple, Jobs was known to personally respond to customers who wrote to him, and would sometimes forward issues to officials within the company to have users' issues resolved. He's even offered inside information from the company, such as late last year when he told a customer that "hardly anyone" was buying Apple's Xserve line of rackmounted servers, prompting their discontinuation.
Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple in August, and Cook immediately took over. Cook has been viewed as a different kind of executive, who lacks Jobs's charisma and vision but has a firm grasp on the company's operations and overseas supply chain. But this week's exchange with a customer would suggest that customers are still be able to get results by emailing Apple's head honcho, despite the regime change.
Though Steve Jobs is no longer presiding over Apple, the company's new CEO, Tim Cook, still offers the same personal care for customers shown by his predecessor. In the most recent case, one AppleInsider reader sent an email to Cook complaining about the lost functionality in the move from MobileMe to iCloud and was shocked when he received a personal call from the company.
"Specifically, I bemoaned the loss of sync services (syncing application preferences, keychain, etc.) and the loss of iDisk," the reader said of his initial email to Cook . "I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from his office just now.
According to Cook's people, while there are no plans to add those particular services to iCloud at this time, "Apple is open to it if there's enough feedback on the subject."
As part of a FAQ on the matter, Apple in June revealed that a number of data syncing features would not be making the transition when MobileMe becomes iCloud this fall.
Once iCloud has replaced MobileMe, features like Keychains, which sync passwords in the cloud, and System Preferences, which allow users to sync settings between Macs, will no longer be offered. Users will also no longer be able to sync Mac Dashboard Widgets, Dock Items, Mail Accounts, Rules, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes after moving to iCloud.
Other features on the chopping block with iCloud are iDisk, Gallery and iWeb. Users who own a MobileMe account as of June 6, 2011 will see their service extended through June 30, 2012, but after that date, MobileMe will be shuttered forever.
The reader who contacted Cook has encouraged that users reach out to Apple if they too would like to see features like System Preferences and Keychains restored to iCloud.
During his tenure as CEO of Apple, Jobs was known to personally respond to customers who wrote to him, and would sometimes forward issues to officials within the company to have users' issues resolved. He's even offered inside information from the company, such as late last year when he told a customer that "hardly anyone" was buying Apple's Xserve line of rackmounted servers, prompting their discontinuation.
Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple in August, and Cook immediately took over. Cook has been viewed as a different kind of executive, who lacks Jobs's charisma and vision but has a firm grasp on the company's operations and overseas supply chain. But this week's exchange with a customer would suggest that customers are still be able to get results by emailing Apple's head honcho, despite the regime change.
Comments
I have used MobileMe to sync my Safari bookmarks between my computers for years. I would be thrilled to see that added to iCloud.
It's already in iCloud and has been since the beginning?
Back to my Mac is in the latest iCloud 10.7.2 beta...
The reader meant to type iDisk and corrected himself in a followup email, but we forgot to make the edit to original quote. It has been fixed. Our apologies.
K
Steve, you are already missed and you only switched seats.
I use it and GoogleDocs (the interface of which I can't stand) both, and if it weren't a fraction of GD's speed I'd use it more.
I want iDisk, I am satisfied with it in its current form and willing to pay for it, in fact it is why I am paying for MobileMe. Who can I contact about this?
No one, really. You'll have it until June of next year and then if nothing's done before then, it's gone.
Apple should give it up. They haven't gotten it right in 7 years, why continue trying?
Okay.
Is there a part of iCloud that offered part of iDisk's function? It's easy to see why they'd ax it (big deal to make it run well), but to me it's always been the biggest draw to having an account at all.
I use it and GoogleDocs (the interface of which I can't stand) both, and if it weren't a fraction of GD's speed I'd use it more.
I want iDisk, I am satisfied with it in its current form and willing to pay for it, in fact it is why I am paying for MobileMe. Who can I contact about this?
You two realize that iCloud has APIs that will tie into both iOS and Mac App Store apps, right? There is no reason to think there will be no way to sync data outside of iTunes with this dynamic setup and every reason to think that it'll be world's better than what iDisk has give .Mac/MobileMe users over the years.
I want iDisk, I am satisfied with it in its current form and willing to pay for it, in fact it is why I am paying for MobileMe. Who can I contact about this?
You can contact DropBox. Refer enough friends/co-workers and you can get 10GB of cloud synching FREE. And adding 50GB is around the same price as MobileMe used to be.
My 70 year old father who cannot use a computer to save his life can use gallery to share photos.
Come on Apple.
Can we please shutter "shutter"? That's an overworked metaphor. Some years ago, a tornado de-shuttered my house. One of the shutters flew away, never to be found again. Since then, I seem to be tripping over shutters all over the web. Must be where they went. The shutters have shown up on web sites right before they've closed, and now on product features! When you shutter the door on your office, drive home, shutter the door on your car, and after you shutter your email, please don't shutter your dictionary or your thesaurus. The English language has more than one word for what you call shuttering. I read about all these shutters and shudder. Stand out from the pack! Shutter this nonsense and get a vocabulary!
Best post ever! Made me LOL!
Apple can even run Open(Show Results) or Hidden "Election"/Poll where ANYONE can give them Feedback on Features, Products etc. 1 Vote per Device, like computer or iOS, so that nobody votes more than once! With Browser Cookies that should be possible, I guess, right?
I'd like to keep using Galleries, and iWeb, or better see it become iWeb Pro, so that it replaces my Dreamweaver 8!!! I'd be willing to pay for iWeb Pro, if Galleries are part of that!!! Galleries should be Password Protected, if that what the owner chooses! Public and thus open to Google, or Private, and thus hidden from Google!!!
iWeb Pro designed sites should be automatically friendly to iPhones and iPads of course, with Like Share Buttons for Facebook & Twitter!!!!
Why wouldn't Apple make iWeb Pro, and have people pay Apple for it, instead of seeing those $$$ go to Adobe or others?
BTW, is there a way to Increase Font Size in Safari, so that the Text Automatically Re-flows, instead of Zooming via Pinching! I don't own iPhone + iPad yet, so I don't know! If they don't have that, it be a huge improvement!!! Some sites are almost impossible to read on iPhone without Zooming, and then constantly moving the page around Left-Right to be able to read it. Silly!!! Text Automatic Re-flow is a must have!!!
Apple should give it up. They haven't gotten it right in 7 years, why continue trying?
Apple charges too much for cloud services that can be found for free and at times are superior. Maybe not all at the same place thou - but Apple is trying to put value into servicing all features with it's one offering, as individually, none stand on their own that warrant the price.
iChat vs Skype for example. Skype is free, works great, everyone can access it. iChat on the other hand, is proprietary and costs $120. Doesn't matter that iChat is great and has all sorts of cool features... if there is nobody to connect to.
Also, there aren't any 'needed' services that Apple's cloud offers that couldn't be done manually with a tiny bit of effort. (like having the same piece of music on all your devices).
Apple has also surrendered offerings for business and industry. So there is really nothing compelling for that market.
Then there is the trust issue of 'Cloud' services.
.mac / mobile me / iCloud... it is somewhat remarkable that Apple keeps face-planting with online services. Making the service free would go a very long ways in drawing people to the platform. As it currently stands, iCloud is looking like more of the same... fail.
'Free' is not in Apple's DNA. They will have to hit a major home run with some new or compelling service to see wide spread adoption of it's cloud service.
I'd like to keep using? ?iWeb?
So what's stopping you? iWeb publishes to absolutely anywhere, not just soon-to-be-discontinued Apple hosting.
replaces my Dreamweaver 8
TextEdit is a better website developer than Dreamweaver. You should be using iWeb right now, or Coda.
BTW, is there a way to Increase Font Size in Safari, so that the Text Automatically Re-flows, instead of Zooming via Pinching!
Open Apple++ and Open Apple+-. Open Apple+0 resets. It's right under the View menu?
iWeb Pro wouldn't work because iWeb is designed so that people who don't know crap about websites can make a crappy little page using a canned template.
A true professional would not use such an oversimplified tool, and making it more complex would make it harder to use. So the same people who wish for all these advanced features would shudder and complain if it were to actually make it to market.
Example: Adding Facebook and Twitter links automatically? What about people who don't want those links? What hoops will they have to jump through to remove them, and how will that impact the site layouts in the templates? What if someone just wants one or the other? What if people start complaining that the links are added in a bad spot and want to move them? How do you make these options work then while it keeping it simple for everyone?
Web design gets complicated real fast. That is why you either have crippled "easy to use" solutions like iWeb or pro tools like Dreamweaver and just about nothing in between.
There is nothing stopping you from not using iWeb anymore anyway. Just publish to a different host other than MobileMe. There are millions of free hosts out there, plenty to choose from.
I want iDisk, I am satisfied with it in its current form and willing to pay for it, in fact it is why I am paying for MobileMe. Who can I contact about this?
Let Apple know here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/mobileme.html