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

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  • Reply 101 of 187
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    slurpy wrote: »
     

    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.

    I have found, however, that simply flagging the post (bottom left) with a comment that says 'trolling' gets the Mod's attention. It probably gets the poster at least a warning, I am guessing, if enough people flag it. I don't think the Mods necessarily read everything that gets posted.
  • Reply 102 of 187
    applesauce007applesauce007 Posts: 1,698member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

     

    The one thing I took home after this chart is Google drive provides the first 15 GB free, and Apple provides just 5 GB free. Apple need to seriously consider providing at least the first 10 GB for free. You bump into that 5 GB limit very, very easily.




    Think of it this way...

    1.  Apple offers 20 GB to users for $10 per year;  they actually care more about your up-to-date credit card info for mobile payments than the $10.

    2.  Apple offers 200 GB to users for $48 per year;  that is less than 25% of what other services charge.  (A DropBox and Google killer)

    3.  Apple offers Free DB, Security, and Hosting infrastructure to iOS and OS X developers.  (A Microsoft and Amazon killer)

     

    #1 and #2 rock with awesome free web application suites and should get every iOS and OS X user on board.

    #3 should attract a lot of developers to Apple's platforms.

    Apple is revolutionizing the cloud services industry to its advantage.

    Many people watch the presentation but don't really understand how HUGE these announcements are.  

  • Reply 103 of 187
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    solipsismx wrote: »
    Thankfully iDisk is not back. That was an archaic design left to rot for far too long.
    Yes it is back, albeit not literally, but conceptually. And this article proceeds from a ridiculous premise that Apple's motivation here is because they don't want to lose anymore ground to Dropbox, et al. And that's ridiculous, back when Apple chose to drop Gallery and iDisk, they didn't give a rats ass what the Apple customers wanted, they just killed it, and they killed it for over two years. Whatever losses they allegedly perceive are their own fault and casts a serious shadow over Apple's ability to gauge the market, if true. Given Apple's largely prescient ability to guess the next big thing, I reject this argument. Whatever Apple's reason for getting rid of a largely popular integrated file sharing service , it wasn't because it wasn't being used, nor because they had no interest in such services, which were already wildly popular two years ago. And frankly Apple would be seriously arrogant to think if THEY build it! people will come ... If Apple truly is jumping back into the market because they are afraid of losing market share for such services, well they need to get ready for another PING, because I for one have no need to upturn my digital life by moving everything back to Apple's servers, much as they forced me to scramble to move it away two years ago.

    I mean what's next? Bringing back iWeb? Develop Apple branded apps to compete with Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram, and any other service that Apple doesn't already host on its servers? Apple had an amazing marketing branding on every one of these former services they previously offered "Built by Apple" they proudly proclaimed to all visitors, and Apple threw that all away. They had to have known what they were giving up by taking those tools away from their customers rather than developing them in the first place.
  • Reply 104 of 187
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    darklite wrote: »
    Out of curiosity, what have they done that with? I'm not overly familiar with Google's prices for cloud storage, but I was under the impression that it's got substantially cheaper over time.

    One I can think of right off the rip of my head is google mail for businesses. It was free for either 100, then they downgraded to 50 users, then 10- it is now $5/month per user or $50/year per user. That's one of the most expensive mail services out there- by far. That said, it's a solid service and vastly superior to godaddy- but again, they gave away free for market share then increased their prices substantially.
    Read more here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Apps

    There are a couple others I just can't remember them this early in the morning. :)

    The bottom line for me as it relates to Google- they are so freaking wishy washy. I think they're a cool company, and I think the owners and upper management genuinely want to have their customers get cool new services and products. I really do. But in terms of execution it just seems like they never carry things to completion or offer forethought when they release things. How many google tv iterations do we have to go through? take your time and make one, then stick to it- don't release one, have early adopters buy it, and then switch it 6 months later. Why anyone buys something new from Google is beyond me... The odds of them abandoning it is great.
  • Reply 105 of 187
    lorin schultzlorin schultz Posts: 2,771member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    [...] iClouf is so far beyond .Mac yet people still clamor for it's inferior features

     

    Thing is, some of those features were damn handy.

     

    Despite the technical limitations of iDisk you described earlier in the thread, it was a very simple way for me to share large files with those who had the password and not those who didn't. Easy for me and easy for them.

     

    iWeb was simple enough that even a fool like me could use it, and the cost was almost completely offset by what I now pay for web hosting.

     

    Photostream, while being automatic, doesn't come close to being the Facebook replacement Galleries was. I don't want to send every photo I ever take to everyone i know. I want to put together little collections that are presented in an attractive and tidy fashion and are stupidly simple for people to view (i.e. a browser interface). Even now, no third-party substitute matches the ease of viewing and downloading Galleries offered.

     

    It was also really handy to have my calendar on a web page that I could share with family. Having my activities update the calendar on their devices is overkill, and they are annoyed by the alerts they receive every time I make a change. All they want is an easy way to look at my schedule when they need to. The online calendar in MobileMe was perfect.

     

    So, while I do very much appreciate the many new features Apple has brought to the cloud (I don't know how I lived prior to device syncing), I also really miss some of the features they've dropped, particularly since things like iWeb and Galleries were among the reasons my wife and I switched to Mac in the first place.

     

    EDIT: Corrected accidental use of iWeb where I meant MobileMe

  • Reply 106 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Thing is, some of those features were damn handy.

    Despite the technical limitations of iDisk you described earlier in the thread, it was a very simple way for me to share large files with those who had the password and not those who didn't. Easy for me and easy for them.

    iWeb was simple enough that even a fool like me could use it, and the cost was almost completely offset by what I now pay for web hosting.

    Photostream, while being automatic, doesn't come close to being the Facebook replacement Galleries was. I don't want to send every photo I ever take to everyone i know. I want to put together little collections that are presented in an attractive and tidy fashion and are stupidly simple for people to view (i.e. a browser interface). Even now, no third-party substitute matches the ease of viewing and downloading Galleries offered.

    It was also really handy to have my calendar on a web page that I could share with family. Having my activities update the calendar on their devices is overkill, and they are annoyed by the alerts they receive every time I make a change. All they want is an easy way to look at my schedule when they need to. The online calendar in iWeb was perfect.

    So, while I do very much appreciate the many new features Apple has brought to the cloud (I don't know how I lived prior to device syncing), I also really miss some of the features they've dropped, particularly since things like iWeb and Galleries were among the reasons my wife and I switched to Mac in the first place).

    When you factor in cost, ease-of-use, features (which can be part of ease-of-use) and security so many other services completely trounce iDisk and iWeb. I was all for Apple building these services up from the ground to compete but I have adamantly against iDisk, specifically, being kept around because it such an insecure system. Some here said that they know it was unsecured and were willing to accept that, but how many that used it knew that was the case? How many that accessed their email via mac.com and me.com knew that their emails were sent as cleartext without any SSL?


    PS: iWeb was always a very poor app. I suggest to anyone that wants a good and simple hosting service with templates to match their needs to look at SquareSpace. From their designs to features to cost to their excellent support staff I have no complaints.
  • Reply 107 of 187
    avonordavonord Posts: 71member
    I just checked my Aperture library. 300GB... :(
  • Reply 108 of 187
    solipsismx wrote: »
    [...] iClouf is so far beyond .Mac yet people still clamor for it's inferior features

    Thing is, some of those features were damn handy.

    Despite the technical limitations of iDisk you described earlier in the thread, it was a very simple way for me to share large files with those who had the password and not those who didn't. Easy for me and easy for them.

    iWeb was simple enough that even a fool like me could use it, and the cost was almost completely offset by what I now pay for web hosting.

    Photostream, while being automatic, doesn't come close to being the Facebook replacement Galleries was. I don't want to send every photo I ever take to everyone i know. I want to put together little collections that are presented in an attractive and tidy fashion and are stupidly simple for people to view (i.e. a browser interface). Even now, no third-party substitute matches the ease of viewing and downloading Galleries offered.

    It was also really handy to have my calendar on a web page that I could share with family. Having my activities update the calendar on their devices is overkill, and they are annoyed by the alerts they receive every time I make a change. All they want is an easy way to look at my schedule when they need to. The online calendar in MobileMe was perfect.

    So, while I do very much appreciate the many new features Apple has brought to the cloud (I don't know how I lived prior to device syncing), I also really miss some of the features they've dropped, particularly since things like iWeb and Galleries were among the reasons my wife and I switched to Mac in the first place.

    EDIT: Corrected accidental use of iWeb where I meant MobileMe

    You've clearly never used iCloud Photo Streams.

    There's no need to share every photo you've taken. You can create galleries with exactly the photos you want and share them. You can even customise them with graphics and text if you so desire. This is all possible on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Those photo streams are presented to those you share as a beautiful gallery or can be viewed as a slideshow. You can allow others to add to or comment on the photos or download them. Finally, you don't need a Mac or an iOS device to see shared photo streams.
  • Reply 109 of 187
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,807member

    A few years ago Box offered 50GB for free so I signed up with 2  accounts so now have a total of 100GB of completely free storage. I also think Box has a better interface and is is more intuitive than Dropbox. You can't beat 100GB for free and so far it seems to be enough for my iOS needs. Any other Box users?

  • Reply 110 of 187
    greatrixgreatrix Posts: 95member

    I still use me.com !!??

  • Reply 111 of 187
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,807member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by greatrix View Post

     

    I still use me.com !!??


    My Apple ID is still a .Mac account but now I also have a .icloud as well which can get confusing at times. I am able to log in to various Apple services with either one and from what I understand they are somehow the same account. I wish I could just retire the .mac one and only have the iCloud one as my Apple ID. 

  • Reply 112 of 187
    Another catch for developers, Apple owns your customer.

    With other services like Parse.com or raw Amazon S3 you can charge your customer and communicate with them as you wish.

    Note also, you can only add 100Mb per user for assets, that might be too restrictive.

    The Assets are then 'frozen' inside Apples walled garden, unable to be shared on the web with friends of family.

    I'm sure this will meet some use cases, but I'm scratching my head about which developers will find this useful.
  • Reply 113 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Another catch for developers, Apple owns your customer.

    With other services like Parse.com or raw Amazon S3 you can charge your customer and communicate with them as you wish.

    Note also, you can only add 100Mb per user for assets, that might be too restrictive.

    The Assets are then 'frozen' inside Apples walled garden, unable to be shared on the web with friends of family.

    I'm sure this will meet some use cases, but I'm scratching my head about which developers will find this useful.

    How does Apple own your customers but using a 3rd-party service like Parse or Amazon doesn't?
  • Reply 114 of 187
    onhkaonhka Posts: 1,025member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post

     

    My Apple ID is still a .Mac account but now I also have a .icloud as well which can get confusing at times. I am able to log in to various Apple services with either one and from what I understand they are somehow the same account. I wish I could just retire the .mac one and only have the iCloud one as my Apple ID. 


    Just don't use it. 

     

    It is yours forever. No one else but you can use it.

  • Reply 115 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    onhka wrote: »
    Just don't use it. 

    It is yours forever. No one else but you can use it.

    I have no choice but to use it. My iTS account shows up as my @mac.com email address even if I log in with @me.com, which is my preferred email address because it's the shortest. Frankly, if I could get rid of @mac.com and @icloud.com I would as I find them a distraction, especially when sending someone an iMessage and then later find out it wasn't going to the proper device because they had unchecked an address on one device but not another (or it reset it after an OS update).
  • Reply 116 of 187
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    chris_ca wrote: »
    For every purchase (of anything, including iTunes) you make directly from Apple, you should get 1 point. After 12 points you get one free share of AAPL.
    You do get free storage and unlimited downloads or streaming for your Apple iTunes and AppStore purchases. Now even for your Mac App purchases from Apple. Every song or video you have purchase can be streamed at no charge over wifi. Songs even over data service. All at not charge. That's a good deal.
  • Reply 117 of 187
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hitchhyker View Post



    "Apple has lost its way and is no longer leading but is now like Ford, let others come up ideas and then improves it."

    That's actually how Apple has operated forever.  The Apple I wasn't the first personal computer, but it was better than everything out there.  The Mac wasn't the first personal computer with a graphical user interface, it was just the first one that was (somewhat) affordable- and was more accessible to normal people than earlier attempts by other companies.  iPod wasn't first, just best.  iPhone wasn't the first touch screen smart phone either, just the best designed.  Tablet PCs pushed by Microsoft existed for over a decade before the iPad dropped.  If you're an Apple fan for tech firsts, you're doing it wrong.

  • Reply 118 of 187
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by genovelle View Post





    You do get free storage and unlimited downloads or streaming for your Apple iTunes and AppStore purchases. Now even for your Mac App purchases from Apple. Every song or video you have purchase can be streamed at no charge over wifi. Songs even over data service. All at not charge. That's a good deal.

    That's a pretty obvious option to provide dont you think, if Apple didn't offer free streaming for something that you payed for then no one in their right mind would use the service. Can you imagine having to pay an additional fee everytime you want to listen to the album that you just paid 15 dollars for? Your mobile provider will still charge you for any data usage. Here in Switzerland however our mobile providers don't charge for data when streaming music from Spotify or watching TV and Movies with Zattoo. Though coming very soon it won't matter anymore as every body is going to an unlimited data plan, you will pay according to the download speed, similiar plan that you have for internet at home.

  • Reply 119 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    relic wrote: »
    That's a pretty obvious option to provide dont you think, if Apple didn't offer free streaming for something that you payed for then no one in their right mind would use the service. Can you imagine having to pay an additional fee everytime you want to listen to the album that you just paid 15 dollars for? Your mobile provider will still charge you for any data usage. Here in Switzerland however our mobile providers don't charge for data when streaming music from Spotify or watching TV and Movies with Zattoo. Though coming very soon it won't matter anymore as every body is going to an unlimited data plan, you will pay according to the download speed, similiar plan that you have for internet at home.

    That is how digital media downloads worked for most of its existence. You paid for the digital content and if you choose to delete it after the download was completed and verified by the server you had to pay for it again, outside of sending a message to that service's support group to state that your machine was stolen, HDD drive, or some other excuse where they would determine to let you DL previously purchased content again. This was how content owners had setup the deals when they were still scared that legitimate digital media downloads would lead to even more stealing of their content.
  • Reply 120 of 187
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post





    You've clearly never used iCloud Photo Streams.



    There's no need to share every photo you've taken. You can create galleries with exactly the photos you want and share them. You can even customise them with graphics and text if you so desire. This is all possible on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Those photo streams are presented to those you share as a beautiful gallery or can be viewed as a slideshow. You can allow others to add to or comment on the photos or download them. Finally, you don't need a Mac or an iOS device to see shared photo streams.

     

    This is actually a pretty standard feature for cloud services. I have been doing this for 2 years now with OneDrive (SkyDrive). When I take a picture with my Nokia 1020 I can even dictate which album to add the photo too additionally add the photo to Instagram at the same time. The photo albums permissions can be set to allow certain users, public for all or even just thoughs who have the link and of course add comments, look at photos that were taken in the same area, etc. So pretty similar to most cloud services.

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