iCloud Photo Library....Is This Really It For 2014?

Padmini · Aug 20, 2014

iCloud Photo Library, in concept, is finally the perfect automatic photo handling solution...

But am I really to believe that it is only going to exist on iOS 8 for the remainder of 2014?

iPhoto is going to remain incompatible with it, and Photos, which is not expected until sometime in 2015 (read: Fall) is going to be the first Mac client to support iCloud Photo Library? Am I the only one who finds this absurd?

I believe in the keynote there was vague mention of access "from Windows...via the web"

So are we to infer that there is iCloud.com access to iCloud Photo Library coming as well? Where has that been during the beta period?

I just can't conceive that such a perfect solution, and major upgrade over Photo Stream, is actually going to be this incomplete come next month....
Thoughts?

wolfpackfan · Aug 20, 2014

I have wondered the same thing.

Belmont31R · Aug 20, 2014

I have questions, too, but these are still beta builds and I'll wait until after Yosemite gets its public debut. There is still a lot of backend work with this type of process that we don't see. I actually prefer the iCloud folder on a pc to iPhoto and going down through iCloud photos that was. As a non professional just taking personal and family photos the pc version is more intuitive and less confusing. When I used a pc I could easily use the file system to drag drop between folders and stuff I dragged into the iCloud folder showed up on my phone pretty quick. I've never been a fan of the iPhoto way to sync stuff to my phone.

wolfpackfan · Aug 21, 2014

Seems to me unless there is some way to upload pictures from your desktop computer to iCloud Photos, it's use will be fairly limited. I was surprised they said the Photos app for Mac would not be released until 2015. Apple is going to want folks to start uploading like crazy to sell more iCloud storage. Surely there will be some way to upload from your desktop. Just hope it isn't something kludgy with a web interface. I can't imagine them allowing something simple like just copying photos to a Photos folder in iCloud Drive. That would be too simple and un-Apple like.

marvz · Aug 21, 2014

You don't have to activate iCloud Photo Library, you can still use Photostream as before.
And I read somewhere that photos in iCloud Photo Library are in fact displayed somewhere in iPhoto but I can't verify this since I have neither of the betas.

Padmini · Aug 21, 2014

marvz said:
You don't have to activate iCloud Photo Library, you can still use Photostream as before.
And I read somewhere that photos in iCloud Photo Library are in fact displayed somewhere in iPhoto but I can't verify this since I have neither of the betas.

You did not read that, anywhere.

GoCubsGo · Aug 21, 2014

Padmini said:
You did not read that, anywhere.

No kidding, right? Where in the world would he have read that because it is simply not happening. At least not on any machine I own.

But I wonder the same thing even though I don't push my photos to the cloud.

madsci954 · Aug 21, 2014

We'll probably get more details when iOS 8 goes GM in a couple weeks, I don't think they would leave users high and dry, it is definitely un-Apple like. Also, Craig said at WWDC that the Yosemite Photos app would launch early next year, not in the Fall.

Stuke00 · Aug 21, 2014

Padmini said:
You did not read that, anywhere.

All they said is they would provide iPhoto updates to support Yosemite.. not necessarily iCloud Photo Library.

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madsci954 said:
We'll probably get more details when iOS 8 goes GM in a couple weeks, I don't think they would leave users high and dry, it is definitely un-Apple like. Also, Craig said at WWDC that the Yosemite Photos app would launch early next year, not in the Fall.

Remember what they said about iTunes 11 release? It was delayed a few times.

Padmini · Aug 21, 2014

Stuke00 said:
All they said is they would provide iPhoto updates to support Yosemite.. not necessarily iCloud Photo Library.

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Remember what they said about iTunes 11 release? It was delayed a few times.

Unless Photos comes with 10.10.2, I'd say more likely it comes with 10.11

matrix07 · Aug 21, 2014

Yeah.. it seems like a mess initially. Un-Apple like but I understand somewhat. This year they are really ambitious. Continuity, Hand Off, Extensibilty, Swift in iOS 8. The whole new look in Yosemite. It's understandable something might have to give. Well, early next year isn't too far off anyway.

crashoverride77 · Aug 22, 2014

Belmont31R said:
I have questions, too, but these are still beta builds and I'll wait until after Yosemite gets its public debut. There is still a lot of backend work with this type of process that we don't see. I actually prefer the iCloud folder on a pc to iPhoto and going down through iCloud photos that was. As a non professional just taking personal and family photos the pc version is more intuitive and less confusing. When I used a pc I could easily use the file system to drag drop between folders and stuff I dragged into the iCloud folder showed up on my phone pretty quick. I've never been a fan of the iPhoto way to sync stuff to my phone.

Would be amazing (as wolfpackfan mentioned) if we would just get a folder in icloud drive called photo library (like they do for pages, keynote etc). Than we could just drag and drop as we please. We could also see the photos in yosemite without the need for the photo app (which is not out till 2015).
Having followed the beta progress I have little hope tho. I do agree that so far everything regarding icloud photo library is vague at best.

Padmini · Aug 22, 2014

matrix07 said:
t's understandable something might have to give. Well, early next year isn't too far off anyway.

But its not really about far off vs. soon....I don't see how they can release iCloud Photo Library at all without more than what we've seen. No web client, no Mac client....no real photo management of any kind....?

crashoverride77 said:
Would be amazing (as wolfpackfan mentioned) if we would just get a folder in icloud drive called photo library (like they do for pages, keynote etc). Than we could just drag and drop as we please. We could also see the photos in yosemite without the need for the photo app (which is not out till 2015).
Having followed the beta progress I have little hope tho. I do agree that so far everything regarding icloud photo library is vague at best.

Personally, I have no idea how they can NOT do this, if iCloud Drive is truly what is supposed to be, and its a a cloud File System for EVERYTHING stored in iCloud.

This would at least make iCloud Drive equivalent to Dropbox come launch. Even if a Mac client app is truly not forthcoming until 2015.

jrswizzle · Aug 22, 2014

Padmini said:
iCloud Photo Library, in concept, is finally the perfect automatic photo handling solution...

But am I really to believe that it is only going to exist on iOS 8 for the remainder of 2014?

iPhoto is going to remain incompatible with it, and Photos, which is not expected until sometime in 2015 (read: Fall) is going to be the first Mac client to support iCloud Photo Library? Am I the only one who finds this absurd?

I believe in the keynote there was vague mention of access "from Windows...via the web"

So are we to infer that there is iCloud.com access to iCloud Photo Library coming as well? Where has that been during the beta period?

I just can't conceive that such a perfect solution, and major upgrade over Photo Stream, is actually going to be this incomplete come next month....
Thoughts?

My guess is it's a rather large project to build out the complete solution. So while the photo app will be perfected on the iOS side, it'll take a little longer to get completed across the board.

I'm curious why its such a huge deal? You want them to get it right don't you? And if its such a perfect solution, wouldn't you be willing to wait a few months?

Small White Car · Aug 22, 2014

jrswizzle said:
I'm curious why its such a huge deal? You want them to get it right don't you? And if its such a perfect solution, wouldn't you be willing to wait a few months?

Yes, but why are they giving us half of it?

I'd rather they hold it ALL back and just not let us have access to any of it until it's all ready.

jrswizzle · Aug 22, 2014

crashoverride77 said:
Would be amazing (as wolfpackfan mentioned) if we would just get a folder in icloud drive called photo library (like they do for pages, keynote etc). Than we could just drag and drop as we please. We could also see the photos in yosemite without the need for the photo app (which is not out till 2015).
Having followed the beta progress I have little hope tho. I do agree that so far everything regarding icloud photo library is vague at best.

Padmini said:
Personally, I have no idea how they can NOT do this, if iCloud Drive is truly what is supposed to be, and its a a cloud File System for EVERYTHING stored in iCloud.

This would at least make iCloud Drive equivalent to Dropbox come launch. Even if a Mac client app is truly not forthcoming until 2015.

No - we need to move AWAY from folders. It's an old way of doing things.

Someone else posted in another thread, Apple seems to be moving toward tag based organization. FAR more efficient and informative IMO. Instead of various folders you would simply tag files for different projects/ideas/classes etc and they would be grouped.

I don't want a "drag and drop". That UI has been around for a long time and something better should come along. I like having photos together, automatically grouped by filetype (photo files) and then being able to separate via tags/albums.

Same goes for iWork docs. No need to "drag and drop". Simply save to iCloud (it knows what the filetype is and where it should go) with certain tags that identify how you want it grouped.

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Small White Car said:
Yes, but why are they giving us half of it?

I'd rather they hold it ALL back and just not let us have access to any of it until it's all ready.

I don't think that's whats happening.

iOS Photos have been ahead of OS X photos for some time. And the two don't really work together all that well. What we're getting in iOS 8 is simply a consolidation of the photos services into one iCloud Photo Library which will then work better with whatever solution they come out with for the Mac and web.

Right now you have iCloud photos, Photo Streams, Shared albums....its somewhat messy. All their doing is streamlining on the iOS side. Which needs to be done regardless of what happens on the OS X/web sides.

Small White Car · Aug 22, 2014

jrswizzle said:
I don't think that's whats happening.

iOS Photos have been ahead of OS X photos for some time. And the two don't really work together all that well. What we're getting in iOS 8 is simply a consolidation of the photos services into one iCloud Photo Library which will then work better with whatever solution they come out with for the Mac and web.

Right now you have iCloud photos, Photo Streams, Shared albums....its somewhat messy. All their doing is streamlining on the iOS side. Which needs to be done regardless of what happens on the OS X/web sides.

I haven't used iOS 8, but this is my understanding:

In 2 weeks millions of people's phones are going to switch from photo stream to iCloud photos. Those people will then say "ok, now why aren't I getting my photos on my Mac anymore?" and the answer will be "just wait until 2015. Yeah, I know it USED to just work, but now it just doesn't, so get used to it."

Do I have that right?

Because that sounds like we're gonna get REAL sick of threads asking why that is for the next 6 months.

I'd rather iOS 8 just launch with Photostream and then they can release iCloud Photos with 8.2 or something.

Or am I misunderstanding how this is going to work?

jrswizzle · Aug 22, 2014

Small White Car said:
I haven't used iOS 8, but this is my understanding:

In 2 weeks millions of people's phones are going to switch from photo stream to iCloud photos. Those people will then say "ok, now why aren't I getting my photos on my Mac anymore?" and the answer will be "just wait until 2015. Yeah, I know it USED to just work, but now it just doesn't, so get used to it."

Do I have that right?

Because that sounds like we're gonna get REAL sick of threads asking why that is for the next 6 months.

I'd rather iOS 8 just launch with Photostream and then they can release iCloud Photos with 8.2 or something.

Or am I misunderstanding how this is going to work?

I don't believe that's how it will work.....but I could be wrong. TBH, I don't bother using iPhoto so I'm not really all that concerned because its a confusing mess.

My understanding is that iCloud Photo library will be available in iCloud Drive as well. What they are building for Mac and the web (that won't be available until next year) is the dedicated Photos app. Likely adding various editing tools and such that will make it a bit more powerful than the iOS photos app.

Small White Car · Aug 22, 2014

jrswizzle said:
My understanding is that iCloud Photo library will be available in iCloud Drive as well. What they are building for Mac and the web (that won't be available until next year) is the dedicated Photos app. Likely adding various editing tools and such that will make it a bit more powerful than the iOS photos app.

Ok, then I would prefer that Apple choose between either adding iCloud Photo support into iPhoto (probably won't) or holding back iCloud Photo Library until the Mac 'Photos' app is available (doesn't sound likely).

I don't think either of those options is great, but they both sound better to me than option 3 (breaking online photo integration between iOS and Mac OS).

Or perhaps option 4 is thus: I just really don't understand how iCloud Drive on the Mac will work and it will actually be a suitable way to get your photos. I didn't think that was the case but I see this as the easiest place for Apple to prove me wrong. So maybe that's it.

jrswizzle · Aug 22, 2014

Small White Car said:
Ok, then I would prefer that Apple choose between either adding iCloud Photo support into iPhoto (probably won't) or holding back iCloud Photo Library until the Mac 'Photos' app is available (doesn't sound likely).

I don't think either of those options is great, but they both sound better to me than option 3 (breaking online photo integration between iOS and Mac OS).

Or perhaps option 4 is thus: I just really don't understand how iCloud Drive on the Mac will work and it will actually be a suitable way to get your photos. I didn't think that was the case but I see this as the easiest place for Apple to prove me wrong. So maybe that's it.

More likely option 4. I don't think they'll break the integration. But IMO iPhoto needs to be a stand alone editing app or just go away all together.

Won't be long now before we find out. But given Apple's dedication to the ecosystem, I doubt they'd break something like this.

matrix07 · Aug 22, 2014

Small White Car said:
Yes, but why are they giving us half of it?

I'd rather they hold it ALL back and just not let us have access to any of it until it's all ready.

Might have something to do with how many iOS devices sold (hundreds of million). They likely didn't want all those customers to wait for this nice built-in apps. Mac? iPhoto still there last time I check.

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Padmini said:
But its not really about far off vs. soon....I don't see how they can release iCloud Photo Library at all without more than what we've seen. No web client, no Mac client....no real photo management of any kind....?

A lot of people using iPhone solely (and/or iPad) or coupled with PCs. These people never manage their photo on the computer apart from copying them to HDD.
In fact, when I was using PC, I never managed my photo. Putting them in folders was all I did.

jmantn · Aug 22, 2014

Most likely.

I bet we get a public beta of photos app for Mac and on ios 8 u have the option of enabling both icloud photos and photostream at the same time and Aperture and iPhoto are able to pull new photos from my ios 8 devices via photostream.

So it's not like this won't keep working if we don't see the photos app till next year.

crashoverride77 · Aug 23, 2014

jrswizzle said:
No - we need to move AWAY from folders. It's an old way of doing things

People still use the file system. That's the whole idea behind icloud drive and why they put it in finder. Now having all my documents in icloud drive for drag and drop but no photos seems weird. I want to use the photo app of course but give us the option to at least do drag and drop. I suppose the problem with this is the non destructive edits that get synced accross devices.

Padmini · Aug 23, 2014

Small White Car said:
I haven't used iOS 8, but this is my understanding:

In 2 weeks millions of people's phones are going to switch from photo stream to iCloud photos. Those people will then say "ok, now why aren't I getting my photos on my Mac anymore?" and the answer will be "just wait until 2015. Yeah, I know it USED to just work, but now it just doesn't, so get used to it."

Do I have that right?

Because that sounds like we're gonna get REAL sick of threads asking why that is for the next 6 months.

I'd rather iOS 8 just launch with Photostream and then they can release iCloud Photos with 8.2 or something.

Or am I misunderstanding how this is going to work?

This is correct, and why it is a problem.

jrswizzle said:
I don't believe that's how it will work.....but I could be wrong. TBH, I don't bother using iPhoto so I'm not really all that concerned because its a confusing mess.

My understanding is that iCloud Photo library will be available in iCloud Drive as well. What they are building for Mac and the web (that won't be available until next year) is the dedicated Photos app. Likely adding various editing tools and such that will make it a bit more powerful than the iOS photos app.

iCloud Drive access would suffice, but 1) that is coming with Yosemite, more than a month or two after iOS 8. 2) there has been no indication that this is actually happening.

iCloud Photo Library....Is This Really It For 2014?

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