Apple Announces 'iCloud Drive' and 'Mail Drop' Features for OS X Yosemite

[MacRumors]

At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple announced iCloud Drive and Mail Drop, two new cloud-based services that are a part of the new OS X Yosemite.

iCloud Drive allows users to store all of their individual files from OS X and iOS in addition to data from applications on Apple's cloud storage service, with the feature syncing all files across every Mac. The files stored on iCloud Drive are even available on a user's iOS devices, as the feature also contains support for Windows through the iCloud client.

(Image Credit: The Verge)​

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Meanwhile, Apple's new Mail Drop feature bypasses traditional email attachment size limits allows users to send attachments up to 5GB through iCloud. The system is seamless for Mail users, while users on other platforms will receive a links via email to allow them to download the files.

iCloud Drive and Mail Drop will ship as a part of OS X Yosemite, which will be available this fall for free. Apple will now offer the first 5GB of iCloud storage for free, with 20GB and 200GB costing $0.99 per month and $3.99 per month, respectively. Tiers of up to 1TB are also available.

Article Link: Apple Announces 'iCloud Drive' and 'Mail Drop' Features for OS X Yosemite

 

[randj89]

I'm loving it!

Love all the new features they are implementing in the new Yosemite!

 

[balamw]

iDisk is back. Curious to see how this will be implemented on the iPhone.

B

 

[Silly John Fatty]

It's all flat. Oh god. It's real people

 

[lewdvig]

Can they finally give a good cloud backup service for iPhoto?

I use Flickr and Google now. I'd like something that works even better - tighter integration.

 

[ZombiePete]

Really interested in seeing if storage prices will be adjusted to correspond with what other services are charging. If so, I would completely move all my cloud services to iCloud and bid a final adieu to Google and One Drive.

 

[sprezz]

I hope iCloud Drive makes iCloud easier to deal with than the current implementation...

 

[mabaker]

Craig is on fire. Best keynote since Steve passing.

 

[unplugme71]

Craig is on fire. Best keynote since Steve passing.

I agree. I'm guessing they kept Tim off stage as he makes it very boring. Last few he hosted I fell asleep.

Then again, this keynote is actually packed with features, most of which people will actually use and not just 'oh that's cool'.

 

[nutmac]

Price comparison.

• Dropbox: Free: 2GB, $10/month: 100GB, $20/month: 200GB $40/month: 500GB
• Google Drive: Free: 15GB, $2/month: 100GB, $10/month: 1TB
• iCloud Drive: Free: 5GB, $1/month: 20GB, $4/month: 200GB

 

[garylapointe]

iDisk returns!

Makes me cRaZy when they take away a feature like iDisk for a few years and then bring it back (iCloud Drive) and act like it's a feature! (They did the same for KeyChain).

At least it seems like we're going to get some serious price drops, but looks like a lot (if not all) our photos are going out there now. I'll be interested to see how it works with storing photos in the cloud but NOT on all my devices.

Gary

 

[Ingot]

So my question is can I store anything in the cloud then? I still use word for school and work. Don't have a choice. Would love to use icloud exclusively for this.

 

[Glassed Silver]

iCloud Photos will use up my storage, yet Flickr gives me 1TB free, full-res.
Granted, videos is limited there I think, but wow...

That feature is practically useless unless you're willing to fork over money.

Hey Tim, my Mac is always on, maybe that could be my server? No? Ah right, no money to be made there...

Synching options (lack of "synch everything" with an option of exclusions) could be brushed up a bit, too.

Other than that, iCloud Drive is nice, but with 5GB as base free model still just a "toss it over to a device and delete it from the cloud" feature for me personally.

Mail Drop sounds amazing, I didn't see mentioning of it for iOS?
Is this the continued lack of continuity albeit highlighting continuity? I hope not.
I have a friend in the Netherlands, passing around videos that are over 10 minutes is a pain in the ****.
It shouldn't be.
Mind you, private sharing, not youtubing it and most apps decrease quality or have strict limitations.

If that feature lands on iOS - chapeau!

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[KALLT]

It's all flat. Oh god. It's real people

I would not call that flat. Shadows are still there, but more subtle, and a lot of gaussian blurs. Buttons are still clearly demarcated, the menu bars and structure are retained (they even keep a slight hint of metal) and the icons are just as rich as ever. This is the style I was hoping to see with iOS 7, it looks a lot better than I anticipated, although it does need some more polish here and there.

 

[Glassed Silver]

So my question is can I store anything in the cloud then? I still use word for school and work. Don't have a choice. Would love to use icloud exclusively for this.

Yes, you can.
That's exactly it.

It's iDisk 2.0 basically.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[garylapointe]

Apple will now offer the first 5GB of iCLoud storage for free

Isn't that what we currently get? Was hoping for a little more to start (or for the first year) since they want us to push our photos out there...

Gary

 

[philipk]

To me it's positive that Apple will dump something that's not working properly for something new.

This is not iDisk reinvented. This is Dropbox improved. Yes you may want to call iDisk 2.0, but it is significantly different.

I hated iDisk. It never worked properly for me. I love Dropbox and the later clones. If this new iCloud Drive works as well as Dropbox I will love it. I have desperately needed a way to backup my photos in the cloud. And this seems like it may be the way.

I am excited at the potential. Time will tell if it is fulfilled.

 

[Identity Fraud]

I am excited at the potential. Time will tell if it is fulfilled.

I'm starting to consider the ease of use of having a cloud drive with all my devices accessing the same core file system. It would help eliminate the duplication of files/revisions that get scattered throughout.

 

[philipk]

BTW

For those of you who might suggest that I could back up my iPhoto's in Dropbox or similar programs you can't. The Containers that Apple chooses to use does not allow that. I hate the containers but I love the Apple programs so I'm stuck with it.

This is why I am very excited with iCloud Drive.

----------

I'm starting to consider the ease of use of having a cloud drive with all my devices accessing the same core file system. It would help eliminate the duplication of files/revisions that get scattered throughout.

A very huge +1!

 

[mdmorgan]

Price comparison.

• Dropbox: Free: 2GB, $10/month: 100GB, $20/month: 200GB $40/month: 500GB
• Google Drive: Free: 15GB, $2/month: 100GB, $10/month: 1TB
• iCloud Drive: Free: 5GB, $1/month: 20GB, $4/month: 200GB

Copy.com: Free: 20GB, Earn 5GB each invite.

 

[Manderby]

"iCloud Drive"

or

"devs had lots of trouble using iCloud API, therefore we newly invented... well, just have some space and use it the old fashioned way."

Thx! Really!

 

[kurosov]

I was hoping they'd offer a space bump on iCloud for free as i'm almost at 5gb with just iphone+ipad backups and htats with some apps set not to backup.

I got used to the temp space offered to MobileMe customers. Guess i'll be getting the new paid option.

I was also hoping we'd hear something about iTunes radio in the UK.

 

[jayducharme]

I love the concept of iCloud Drive. But I'm not happy with Apple's execution. That 5 GB of "free" storage comes with my iDevice -- and only one of those devices per account. I already get messages that I'm out of storage room just backing up my iPhone, never mind my iPad.

Since Apple devices come at a premium price, each one you buy should come with at least 5 GB of storage for free. iCloud should be an incentive to buy an Apple device, not an extra expense after you've bought one.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Looks good.

 

[Mums]

Price comparison.

• Dropbox: Free: 2GB, $10/month: 100GB, $20/month: 200GB $40/month: 500GB
• Google Drive: Free: 15GB, $2/month: 100GB, $10/month: 1TB
• iCloud Drive: Free: 5GB, $1/month: 20GB, $4/month: 200GB

I wish Apple would let us buy as many terabytes as we need. Then I could really start doing without external hard drives. Although I don't know if I'll ever fully trust cloud storage.