Apple Confirms iCloud Web Apps for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone

[NAG]

I don't understand 5 GB for "backup". The smallest mobile device I have is 16 GB, so what does that mean?

iOS backups are pretty much only app data and system settings (not to be confused with the actual apps). This is because all your music and stuff are located on your mac anyway so a backup would be redundant. This carries over to iCloud where it is assumed that all your music and apps and stuff will already be in iCloud anyway since they're in the various stores. So this leaves the app data, i.e. if you make a document in Pages that will be backed up but the Pages app will not (because it is in the App Store anyway). Or if you have a game, the saved games will be backed up. This drastically decreases the size needed for a backup. Most apps have very little data that is backed up (some are quite large, such as Papers or other PDF reader apps).

So you'll probably be just fine as far as backups unless you have a lot of apps like that or a lot of iOS devices on one iCloud account.

 

[rtdunham]

...I'm already in the Apple ecosystem and (MM) just made it a tighter system...As for keychain, system preferences, etc. sync. Now that was a shocker. Never expected that to leave. I've always heard people regarding it as one of the best feature of MobileMe.

It seems to me the absence of those features will cause some people to defer buying new computers. Wouldn't the absence of those features make setting up a new computer--pretty much a piece of cake, right now--a more annoying, time-consuming process?

 

[Reach9]

no iDisk?! And is Documents in Cloud the same thing? I'm guessing not since it can only do Office documents. What about .pdf, and other quick files i use? iDisk was the BEST feature of MobileMe, how could they remove it? I really hope Apple adds iDisk features to Documents in Cloud, or else i'm moving to DropBox.

I really don't see any point in using iCloud now, except keeping iOS backups, and Apps.

 

[PlaceofDis]

its a shame that we're losing some features, but i always found the MM galleries to load slowly and never used them. iDisk has always been sloooooow, so unless they fixed that there'd be no reason to keep it either, dropbox is faster and better imo.

the whole file sharing thing needs to be clarified though. asap.

 

[Chris Tilton]

The exclusion of iDisk is very disappointing. It is an essential part of my workflow. When a client has to give me a 1GB quicktime, for example, I know that if he puts it on my iDisk, my Mac will auto-sync and it'll be ready to go when I get into my studio. It is also an essential part of getting audio to my music editor, and vice versa.

Another extremely useful feature was the iDisk app on my iphone. If he had to edit a fix of my music, for example, he'll put up a quicktime of the scene and the edited music on my idisk. Use the app on my iPhone while I'm out and about to view and approve or request changes. For me, it was THE best thing about MobileMe/.Mac/etc.

If Apple is getting rid of it, and not offering any kind of replacement, that is going to be really infuriating.

 

[maclaptop]

It does seem like Apple is going about this in a rather odd way. I've read everything I could find, as well as performing a few very comprehensive searches. Long story short, I believe that we won't know the real story until we've transitioned. One constant is Apple saying we can buy additional storage at a price to be announced when I cloud goes live for the public. This certainly seems to indicate their desire to recoup much of that $99. we were paying for mobile me. Yet I wouldn't mind if we weren't losing some of the best aspects like keychain etc. Really makes one wonder just what Apple is, or isn't thinking. As far as them adding these back later on, that doesn't help those of us who have a need for it immediately after they shut down mobile me.

I agree with an earlier post, I doubt they are intentionally trying to screw us, but they are nonetheless.

What is Apple thinking? Where are they going? (besides to the bank with our money). Yikes!

 

[MacFly123]

1. Will your email aliases also transfer over? I use 4 alias email accounts and 1 main account.
2. Is "Documents in the cloud" the same thing as iDisk? I currently use iDisk.

So no iDisk?

Fine. No problem.

So what will they be calling my 20 GB of storage space, accessible across all my devices? Will this be "Documents in the Cloud" as we see above? What type of documents? Does this include movies, audio files, etc?

Will documents in the cloud only work for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote? What about Word and Excel? Photoshop? Sibelius?

I use iDisk all the time with video clients to send files and previews etc. I don't think documents in the cloud will be like iDisk. It sounded like it will just sync iWork documents between devices.

I hope I am wrong! Has anyone seen or heard anything on that?

I wish they would keep iWeb publishing.

Me too. I use it for my portfolio site. Simple and elegant, all I need!

This is a huge kick in the teeth for everyone using iWeb. It's a pity that FrontPage isn't available for Mac.

Oh no, that's right, it isn't.

Is there an app for the Mac that is like iMovie? Simple with nice templates and maybe some customization?

I know I will still have the iWeb app, but who knows how long it will be supported with Lion and in the future.

Anyone know of a reliable and reputable web host? I switched to MobileMe because of shady business practices by 1and1—not something I'd like to repeat. I don't need anything fancy—just ad-free, really.

Ditto!

Also, aren't the iDevices with iOS5 going to backup when they sync wirelessly to iTunes now? If so why are we also backing up wirelessly to iCloud all the time? Is it just meant to be a 2nd back up off site incase our Mac or the hard drive bites the dust? Or is it mainly just for people that use iDevices and have no Mac or computer? Seems like that would take up a lot of the space from that free 5 GB and I don't wanna have to buy more storage unless I really need to for some reason!

P.S. What about notes??? Anyone seen or heard anything about syncing notes? I use that and I haven't heard any mention

P.P.S. Really hoping we see 1080p movie content on iTunes soon with an Apple TV update and apps or AirPlaying mirrored apps and iTunes & iCloud support for video content as well! I know Apple is working on getting the licenses right now, I just hope we see it soon! It would be great if they updated iTunes Extras to support multiple audio tracks and subtitles etc. and when you buy or rent a movie it just quickly downloads the Extras file so the menu and structure come up, and then whenever you click to play a movie or special features it just starts streaming 1080p from the iTunes cloud! THAT is what I want

 

[Rend It]

Aggravating

I can't help but be really annoyed at the way Apple is handling this. The integration of iDisk into the Mac and iOS UIs gave me nearly all of the perceived benefits of iCloud, without having to worry about which developers of all of the various apps I use support file syncing. How long will it take the folks at Wolfram, or Adobe, or Nemetschek to put the "Documents in the Cloud" API into their apps? Not to mention MS, who seem to take forever to make any change at all.

Maybe Apple has been convinced that the change is easy and a plurality of developers have expressed their commitment to integrating the APIs. But, it reminds me of AirPrint. A whopping 27 printers support it, and they're all from HP! Perhaps developers will say, "iCloud is a bag of hurt".

 

[PCClone]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Galleries a big loss. Better than picassa and the alternatives for sharing pics with family and friends.

I'll stick with google (Apps) for e mail though - brilliant.

Gmail is not brilliant.

 

[PCClone]

Keychain sync is the single most useful thing about MobileMe. I am SHOCKED that it is being omitted from iCloud.

Never used it. Email access from anywhere is more important.

 

[PCClone]

I can't help but be really annoyed at the way Apple is handling this. The integration of iDisk into the Mac and iOS UIs gave me nearly all of the perceived benefits of iCloud, without having to worry about which developers of all of the various apps I use support file syncing. How long will it take the folks at Wolfram, or Adobe, or Nemetschek to put the "Documents in the Cloud" API into their apps? Not to mention MS, who seem to take forever to make any change at all.

Maybe Apple has been convinced that the change is easy and a plurality of developers have expressed their commitment to integrating the APIs. But, it reminds me of AirPrint. A whopping 27 printers support it, and they're all from HP! Perhaps developers will say, "iCloud is a bag of hurt".

I recall SJ saying that app data would be in the cloud, not just iworks.

 

[Rend It]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I recall SJ saying that app data would be in the cloud, not just iworks.

The data and docs will be in iCloud, but only if the developers write in support for it. It's not automatic with Lion or the iCloud launch. This is SJ trying to kill all remnants of the concept of a file system. The apps are supposed to handle versioning, backup, and syncing themselves — not the operating system.

Or, at least that's the impression I got from WWDC.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Completely disappointed in Apple for their extremely dumb decision to get rid of MobileMe galleries. It's one of my most used features! I use it at least once a week to create galleries for friends & family. I can't BELIEVE they are getting rid of it!!!!!

I bet the person who decided to get rid of MobileMe galleries is the same person responsible for the Final CutX fiasco.

I'm going to submit feedback to Apple every day until 30 June 2012.

 

[PeterM11]

Semi-related topic:

Anyone know of a good alternative to the iWeb app?
I've tried Rapidweaver but would prefer something with a drag-and-drop design like iWeb. I know you can get those add-on things for Rapidweaver to be able to do that but I don't want have to pay that much for a simple feature.
I don't really need anything too fancy but don't want crapware either.
I mainly use iWeb for ideas of websites I might want to make someday (meaning I would probably use iWeb to use them though I guess) and for my custom start page attached below. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of it. Simple yet useful. Links to all of my common used sites.
So anyone know of a good alternative?

 

[Rocketboyo93]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Apple wins. Again.

 

[Ed State]

From the site:


GAH!!! I am SICK of signing into iTunes with my old gmail address!!

I have THREE "Apple IDs" and it sucks. An old-old email address for iTunes, an even older one for AD, and I made the mistake of using my MobileMe ID for Ping and the App Store. And I'm f'd.

I've been through all the tiers of MobileMe and iTunes support and they simply won't merge accounts. There is no remedy for us, and I know a bunch of people in the same boat. There has to be tens of thousands affected by this Apple ID stupidity.

Funny, because Xbox Live lets you do that, easily. I just did. Bam! All under one ID. You can even change your gamertag if you want.

Grrr.

 

[Rend It]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

From the site:


GAH!!! I am SICK of signing into iTunes with my old gmail address!!

I have THREE "Apple IDs" and it sucks. An old-old email address for iTunes, an even older one for AD, and I made the mistake of using my MobileMe ID for Ping and the App Store. And I'm f'd.

I've been through all the tiers of MobileMe and iTunes support and they simply won't merge accounts. There is no remedy for us, and I know a bunch of people in the same boat. There has to be tens of thousands affected by this Apple ID stupidity.

Funny, because Xbox Live lets you do that, easily. I just did. Bam! All under one ID. You can even change your gamertag if you want.

Grrr.

This, coupled with the end of iDisk and Gallery makes me really wonder what is going on at Apple. None of these actions make life simpler for end users. Remember "It just works"?

If, by June 2012, something like 80% of iOS and OS X apps support iCloud, then I won't be so adamant about the end of iDisk. Maybe that's their plan, and if devs don't support it in droves, they'll extend the cut-off date.

 

[admanimal]

Maybe Apple has been convinced that the change is easy and a plurality of developers have expressed their commitment to integrating the APIs. But, it reminds me of AirPrint. A whopping 27 printers support it, and they're all from HP! Perhaps developers will say, "iCloud is a bag of hurt".

Supporting iCloud storage in an app is trivial. Comparing the number of developers that will support a simple software feature like iCloud in their apps to the number of huge printer companies that have decided to support a specialized protocol in their devices makes no sense.

Also keep in mind that this only pertains to apps that want to allow their data to be shared across devices. Backing up app data from a particular device to iCloud as part of the normal device backup process doesn't require any work for developers.

 

[Rend It]

Supporting iCloud storage in an app is trivial. Comparing the number of developers that will support a simple software feature like iCloud in their apps to the number of huge printer companies that have decided to support a specialized protocol in their devices makes no sense.

Also keep in mind that this only pertains to apps that want to allow their data to be shared across devices. Backing up app data from a particular device to iCloud as part of the normal device backup process doesn't require any work for developers.

Yeah, it's not a direct comparison. I think the AirPrint problem is mainly an intellectual property/licensing issue (there was another post today on the Front page about this and Thunderbolt). But, some of the iCloud announcements have a tinge of what was presented with AirPrint's debut — how great it was going to be — and then later everyone realized it wasn't as broadly useful as Apple made it sound originally.

I care less about backup, because iCloud only backs up iOS devices. The stuff I'm losing along with iDisk is syncing non-mainstream machine design files across several Macs. Another file type I am curious about is .pdf. What app will take care of syncing and backing up pdfs? iBooks? There's no OS X equivalent to iBooks. Preview perhaps? Safari?

iDisk is just one of several MM features that a lot of people are going to miss (Back to my Mac, Gallery, etc.).

 

[lhotka]

yes, if you read the OP you will it's moving to iCloud.

Back to my mac is not mentioned in the OP at all.

 

[scschulte]

iWeb would be great

Sorry not sure how to reply without adding the quote - but just want to say that I agree 100% and hope some type of paid iCloud opportunity will be offered.

I can live without the iWeb publishing though I do use it sometimes for blogs about my kids.

And iDisk is another I can live without but bummer.

The real tragedy is Galleries. Their interface is much better than Flickr, Picassa, etc. and I want something totally integrated. Really a shame there. Photo Stream is NOT the same thing by any stretch.

I was happy paying $99 a year. And for me I could care less about 90%+ of the iCloud features. Downloading/Streaming music I didn't think to sync. So what. Photo stream. Really, so what. Docs in the cloud. Whatever. Of course iCloud is free, it is almost worthless compared to MobileMe.

WHY NOT offer iCloud tiered. iCloud as it is for free. iCloud with iWeb hosting and Galleries and an extra 5GB of storage for the original $99 price point or even $49. Why remove what we use. It could even be an in-app upgrade. Apple gets $70 and Apple gets $29.

 

[djgamble]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Why is it that the word cloud is now used to describe 30+ year old technology as if it is a new amazing thing?

 

[rellimie]

Semi-related topic:

Anyone know of a good alternative to the iWeb app?
I've tried Rapidweaver but would prefer something with a drag-and-drop design like iWeb. I know you can get those add-on things for Rapidweaver to be able to do that but I don't want have to pay that much for a simple feature.
I don't really need anything too fancy but don't want crapware either.
I mainly use iWeb for ideas of websites I might want to make someday (meaning I would probably use iWeb to use them though I guess) and for my custom start page attached below. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of it. Simple yet useful. Links to all of my common used sites.
So anyone know of a good alternative?

The iWeb program in iLife is compatible with any hosting service that supports FTP. Just find a new hosting service. I use iWeb all the time for blog publishing but do not have a MobileMe account.

 

[Jowl]

I can live without the iWeb publishing though I do use it sometimes for blogs about my kids.

And iDisk is another I can live without but bummer.

The real tragedy is Galleries. Their interface is much better than Flickr, Picassa, etc. and I want something totally integrated. Really a shame there. Photo Stream is NOT the same thing by any stretch.

I was happy paying $99 a year. And for me I could care less about 90%+ of the iCloud features. Downloading/Streaming music I didn't think to sync. So what. Photo stream. Really, so what. Docs in the cloud. Whatever. Of course iCloud is free, it is almost worthless compared to MobileMe.

WHY NOT offer iCloud tiered. iCloud as it is for free. iCloud with iWeb hosting and Galleries and an extra 5GB of storage for the original $99 price point or even $49. Why remove what we use. It could even be an in-app upgrade. Apple gets $70 and Apple gets $29.

Excellent idea. I would be happy to pay apple for galleries (and more storage). It would be crazy to not offer this

 

[Jowl]

Gmail is not brilliant.

I've never had trouble with google Apps. It lets me easily use my domain with e mail and calendars etc.

The contact sync isn't great which I one of the reasons I stuck with MobileMe.