Apple's new iCloud storage plans: Cheap for consumers, even cheaper for developers

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  • Reply 41 of 187
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    I think 20GB will be plenty for me for a year or three... by which time prices will drop further.

    99 cents it is!

    And of course you're getting more than just storage, with all of these options to one degree or another, you're getting services that go with it.

    I also like that Apple has added APIs to make Dropbox and Google Drive better if they chose to use them.
  • Reply 42 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    darkvader wrote: »
    So, iDisk is back.  About time.

    Of course, they're idiots for killing it in the first place, and I'm probably not going to use it, I've already got other solutions in place at this point.

    Thankfully iDisk is not back. That was an archaic design left to rot for far too long. If you had a large file to be up or downloaded to or from iDisk the entire file had to be complete before you disconnect or you'd have to restart the process again the next time you connect. If you made a single change to, say, a cell in a 100 MiB spreadsheet the entire file had to be uploaded again. And it didn't have any cryptography so all these files were sent as cleartext through most of its history.
  • Reply 43 of 187
    newbeenewbee Posts: 2,055member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    Ah, I hadn't read the rest of the thread.

    It's 1 TiB for $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year. 10 TiB is $99.99 per month or $1199.88 per year.

     

    post removed as I didn't check the link first.

  • Reply 44 of 187
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by PatchyThePirate View Post





    Great response to these ridiculous trolls. Thanks.

     

    If the mods had sense people like this would be banned right away so we can be spared future bullshit. If someone registers and his first post is a general proclamation of "Apple has lost it's way and is now like Ford", "following instead of leading, etc" while including ridiculous assertions not based on any kind of fact, we know everything we need to know about the kinds of posts going forward- it leaves little room for any potential of constructive discussion. Getting rid of these people quickly would go along way into clearing rubbish. 

  • Reply 45 of 187
    mechanicmechanic Posts: 805member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by djkikrome View Post



    Hopefully apple won't abandon this and us like they did with mac.com and me.com, both of which I put plenty of money into. I really missed my gallery for sharing photos and videos with family.



    Theres no way in hell apple is abandoning iCloud.  It is key to the integration of there devices in the future.  Apple has invested multiple billions in data centers maiden nc, prineville oregon, reno nevada, california, and now the new one in the netherlands, and more in the future.  you don't make that kind of investment and just drop it.

    iCloud is here to stay.

  • Reply 46 of 187
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DarkVader View Post

     

    So, iDisk is back.  About time.

     

    Of course, they're idiots for killing it in the first place, and I'm probably not going to use it, I've already got other solutions in place at this point.


     

    Thanks for keeping up up to date about new features you don't intend to use. Looking forward to hearing more. 

     

    And no, "iDisk isn't back". iCloud drive is insanely more powerful and robust, and isn't just an online hard drive for files like iDisk was. Apple's vision was much grander than that for iCloud. I would expect someone of your intellectual fortitude, (in a position to classify the people who work at Apple as "idiots"), to be able to make such a distinction, but apparently not. 

  • Reply 47 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    mechanic wrote: »
    Theres no way in hell apple is abandoning iCloud.  It is key to the integration of there devices in the future.  Apple has invested multiple billions in data centers maiden nc, prineville oregon, reno nevada, california, and now the new one in the netherlands, and more in the future.  you don't make that kind of investment and just drop it.
    iCloud is here to stay.

    It's odd to read that Apple abandoned those services when what they really did was rebrand them, give them a new veneer and fix major flaws that made them comparatively poor services which is why they needed a rebranding in the first place. iCloud has been a huge success but I don't think many people realize just how much of their data is seamless and invisibly synced via iCloud.

    There is still a long ways to go with iCloud but as a free service that unifies Apple's platforms it's great. The things I'd like to see improved are 1) it's server-side email spam filtering (Gmail kicks ass here), 2) more server-side email functions (like Rules), and 3) more settings on iCloud.com (as noted by the recent iMessage debacle that wouldn't necessarily disconnect an iPhone number as an address if you logged out and wiped an iPhone).


    1000
  • Reply 48 of 187
    venomxxrvenomxxr Posts: 22member
    Hello everyone! Long time reader, first time commenter. I'm fairly new to Apple in general (first device was an iPhone 5), so excuse my basic questions. I'm curious, will Apple completely do away with in-device storage in the near future or is iCloud only a backup? I currently don't have much use for iCloud but I want to get to know it, so to speak, if I'll be using it regular some day.
  • Reply 49 of 187
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post

     

     

    If the mods had sense people like this would be banned right away so we can be spared future bullshit. If someone registers and his first post is a general proclamation of "Apple has lost it's way and is now like Ford", "following instead of leading, etc" while including ridiculous assertions not based on any kind of fact, we know everything we need to know about the kinds of posts going forward- it leaves little room for any potential of constructive discussion. Getting rid of these people quickly would go along way into clearing rubbish. 


     

    I agree. There's a big difference between criticism/argument and trolling, and it's usually glaringly obvious which is which. For instance a particularly prolific troll that has probably racked up over 100 posts simply by entering every thread with an "apple is stupid for buying beats" post. It definitely seems like there could be more done about this issue.

  • Reply 50 of 187
    venomxxrvenomxxr Posts: 22member

    Hello AppleInsider! Long time reader, first time commenter. I'm curious, is Apple laying the foundation to make a move entirely away from in-device storage, or is iCloud only a backup for what we store on our devices? 

  • Reply 51 of 187
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Most definitely, however it's progress, they are ahead of Dropbox now yet are still behind google(which might be worth it). Don't see why 20 gb free and 50 gb for $10 a year should not be something soon.

    Exactly. And google does their typical "give it away" and profit loss crap jus to gain market share- just like they did with Google Mail which is now one of the most expensive email services out there.
  • Reply 52 of 187
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member

    Apple has made a few pivots on its way to the cloud future, and the story of them "figuring it all out" is not that unusual. For one thing, the world was changing rapidly: Internet was getting faster and cheaper, home WiFi was on the rise, and these were necessary pieces to make cloud computing everywhere work the way it should. But before the iPhone, there still wasn't a compelling reason for most people to put their data in the cloud; the only people who did and paid for services like MobileMe (and .mac before it) were people who needed to sync files between computers. And that wasn't a universal need back then.

     

    The iPhone (and smartphones that followed) seems to be the catalyst that gave people a reason to share data across devices. But not immediately. It may seem strange someday, but the original iPhone didn't even present itself as cloud connected--the MobileMe apps were added to iOS later. At its introduction, Apple treated the iPhone like a kind of iPod (an iPod with a music player). And you'll recall that when iPod launched, it was part of Apple's "you computer is the hub of your digital life" strategy. In the early 2000s, Apple saw all kind of devices "going digital" -- film cameras were being replaced by digital ones, videotapes were going digital, music was jumping off CDs and into these crappy little memory card players (anyone know what a Diamond Rio was?). Apple was trying to reinvigorate the Mac around being the best hub that you would plug all these devices into.

     

    So for those historical reasons, MobileMe (and .mac) was never deeply integrated into either Mac OS X and early iOS. It was an add-on. But not for a lack of vision; Steve Jobs understood cloud computing, as did others. At WWDC'97, Jobs talked about being able to login from anywhere and seeing all his data and how that was the future. But if you think about it: we first had to get to a "digital life," before we could put it all into the cloud.

     

    With the introduction of iCloud, Apple paved the way for deep integration between OS X, iOS and cloud services. iCloud was missing a lot at its introduction, but from the announcements at WWDC'14, it's clear that iCloud integration will continue over several years; Apple is taking its time. But it's pretty clear where this is headed: someday, it will be perfectly normal to view iCloud (or some cloud vendor) as the hub of your digital (and online) life. And there's plenty of competition for that (SkyDrive, Google Drive, DropBox). I think Apple understands this is the long game in making sure their products are still unique and compelling 10-20 years from now. Being price competitive on cloud storage is the first step, because there is nothing special about a gigabyte of Apple-branded commodity cloud storage space.

     

    And I sincerely hope (and believe) that Craig Federighi and his team of dreamers don't stop at putting a WebDAV interface back on iCloud and becoming another DropBox or SkyDrive…or MobileMe. That's where Apple was already. We need the cloud to evolve beyond that.

     

    EDIT: Added link to the referenced WWDC'97 video

  • Reply 53 of 187
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    It's odd to read that Apple abandoned those services when what they really did was rebrand them, give them a new veneer and fix major flaws that made them comparatively poor services which is why they needed a rebranding in the first place. iCloud has been a huge success but I don't think many people realize just how much of their data is seamless and invisibly synced via iCloud.



    There is still a long ways to go with iCloud but as a free service that unifies Apple's platforms it's great. The things I'd like to see improved are 1) it's server-side email spam filtering (Gmail kicks ass here), 2) more server-side email functions (like Rules), and 3) more settings on iCloud.com (as noted by the recent iMessage debacle that wouldn't necessarily disconnect an iPhone number as an address if you logged out and wiped an iPhone).






     

    But according to the wringing concern-troll in this thread, Apple might just suddenly decide to "abandon" iCloud and drop all these services. This doesnt even include the new services unveiled @ WWDC. How someone is UNABLE to understand that Apple had to re-engineer its cloud services with a new vision after the advent of iOS devices blows my mind. .Mac and mobile were services that existed long before the existence of the iPhone- and don't have a shred of the functionality of iCloud. 

  • Reply 54 of 187
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    There is still a long ways to go with iCloud but as a free service that unifies Apple's platforms it's great. The things I'd like to see improved are 1) it's server-side email spam filtering (Gmail kicks ass here), 2) more server-side email functions (like Rules), and 3) more settings on iCloud.com (as noted by the recent iMessage debacle that wouldn't necessarily disconnect an iPhone number as an address if you logged out and wiped an iPhone).

     

    I agree that with regards to web-based services, Apple needs to step up their game so that a majority of users aren't left wanting to use alternative services because of key features. iCloud services should be that good on their own merits, rather than relying solely on "it's conveniently integrated with Apple hardware" as the primary reason for choosing Apple's services.

  • Reply 55 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    slurpy wrote: »
    But according to the wringing concern-troll in this thread, Apple might just suddenly decide to "abandon" iCloud and drop all these services. How someone is UNABLE to understand that Apple had to re-engineer its cloud services with a new vision after the advent of iOS devices blows my mind. .Mac and mobile were services that existed long before the existence of the iPhone- and don't have a shred of the functionality of iCloud. 

    The same can be said for iTunes but that app has scaled to deal with many changes from replacing Java for HTML/CSS/JS to supporting to iOS-based devices where you can, among other things, use a traditional PC to organize your home screens.

    I think these other services had to die because they were tainted. Atypical for Apple but we've seen MS and others rebrand the same thing many times, which is unfair because iCloud is so far beyond .Mac yet people still clamor for it's inferior features and "journalists" still say Apple has no cloud presence despite the iTS/App Store and iCloud probably pulling more data, users, and money than any other company in the world, and if not they are probably right near the top in all categories.
  • Reply 56 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I agree that with regards to web-based services, Apple needs to step up their game so that a majority of users aren't left wanting to use alternative services because of key features. iCloud services should be that good on their own merits, rather than relying solely on "it's conveniently integrated with Apple hardware" as the primary reason for choosing Apple's services.

    I can get behind that. I'd love to see maps.apple.com go live instead of pushing you to Google when there is a query added as is the case with shared Maps links from Mac OS X and iOS.
  • Reply 57 of 187
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I can get behind that. I'd love to see maps.apple.com go live instead of pushing you to Google when there is a query added as is the case with shared Maps links from Mac OS X and iOS.

     

    Yeah, having a web-based maps would be great. I can see why Apple is hesitant to do that until it reaches a certain level of quality/functionality, because it will get scrutiny from EVERYONE, not just people with iOS devices/Macs. 

  • Reply 58 of 187
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    bighype wrote: »
    No more evil Dropbox for me!!! Condoleeza Rice and that lying a-hole Dropbox CEO can go mess with other people's data.

    I hope you realize that ANY company would have to comply with a court order to provide your information to an "alphabet soup" government agency upon request. Dropbox is not unique in that respect.
  • Reply 59 of 187
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,485member
    I wonder if we'll see a storage price war?

    With Apple introducing Extensibility it's now possible for someone like Dropbox or Google to make their files open in any App. You'd just get the equivalent of a "File/Open" dialog box where you can browse files. I bet they're already thinking about it. Basically Apple has made it possible for any App to open any files on your device as well as any competing cloud service.


    To take it even further, an App could set aside storage on your device to store files, and make those files available to all Apps. Sort of like a drive partition for your commonly used files that's outside of the normal sandboxes of storage each App gets.
  • Reply 60 of 187
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member

    I will final get to use this like my old dot Mac file storage .

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