Apple Introduces iCloud: Contact, Cal, Docs, Photos, and Music Syncing Free of Charge

[johnvr]

Underwhelmed, but waiting...

Maybe it's the hype that sites like these build up before an Apple announcement, but so far I'm not impressed by what Apple has rolled out.

I have MobileMe, never use it for documents and have never had a problem with synching music and photos in iTunes.

Now, Apple wants to sync it all. Why?

When I travel in Europe (where I live), any cloud-based service becomes way too expensive. So, I'm used to not using the cloud and/or to paring down what I put on there. In the US, online will just get more expensive if we all move to the cloud to put stuff there that we don't really need there, as is Apple default setup.

I'm an avid photographer, but fail to see why on earth I would want 1000 pictures on my devices. It's not that I'm going to browse them for fun. What I want is a low-res file on my iPhone, a high-res on my iPad and the RAW file on my computer and backup hard drives. And I don't want to use iPhoto, because it's too basic and uses a file structure that makes me cry.

I also can't have the model photos that I take show up on my kids' devices, nor do I think my wife would enjoy them very much on her devices.

I also dread getting the music my kids ordered automatically added to my own devices.

So, in the end, Apple is giving me something that I already have, but now it's going to be free (I'm lucky that my MobileMe account is running out around the time they're introducing iCloud). I don't know yet what they do with family accounts or how much storage they're going to allow (is it an alternative to backup storage?) and for what price.

I don't know how much control they're going to give me between not using the service and tweaking it so it makes sense for me.

 

[MrSmith]

We just got rid of our iPhones so only have 2 computers. I presume photos I import from my camera to my computer will go into the stream (I watched the keynote some hours ago so I've forgotten a lot). But what if I move them to a folder/event, then edit them. How will the edits be reflected in the other computers? If I move them to a folder on my machine, will they be moved into the same folder on the other computer. I'm after identical iPhoto libraries on both machines.

 

[gorgeousninja]

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 guess I don't "get" it, what the big deal about this is.

I already have Gmail.

I already have Flickr.

And I already have online storage.

How is this any different?

So, let's get this straight you cannot see any difference from having three seperate accounts with three seperate companies as opposed to one place that does all that and more? You can't see that? Errr......

 

[whiteboytrash]

I find it funny how people say they won't store anything in the "cloud" as they want their files locally for security purposes. At a guess I’m sure these are the same people who have wireless internet connections to their PC's at home which will always be much easily hacked than a secure data centre ever will be. Probably the same people who'll happily enter all sorts of data including names, addresses, credit card numbers etc. into internet web pages and allow all sorts of companies store their data "in the cloud" - but still say "I don't store my data somewhere else". The fact is you already have your data stored in the cloud. You just don't care because its so convenient to do so.

 

[Cougarcat]

I find it funny how people say they won't store anything in the "cloud" as they want their files locally for security purposes. At a guess I’m sure these are the same people who have wireless internet connections to their PC's at home which will always be much easily hacked than a secure data centre ever will be.

Hackers are more likely to go after an enticing target like a datacenter than a random person's computer.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Steve said that everything uploaded to iCloud was encrypted.

 

[ryan.stewie]

Apple better offer some method for merging Apple ID's this time round, there's no point signing up for an iCloud account which includes an email address, because I already have an Apple ID with my gMail account with all my iTunes purchases on it. I will be VERY annoyed if they don't allow merging this time. And I can guarantee there are LOTS of other people thinking the same thing.

UPDATE: It may be a bit farfetched, but judging by the wording on the iCloud page it seems that merging might be possible, that when you "set up iCloud" you get a .me email address. It doesn't imply the creation of any new accounts. But we'll wait and see I guess.

 

[Supersonic]

Reading between the lines a bit, on a subject often discussed particularly with iPad owners is the request for multiple user accounts, but with the reply that the OS and particularly the File System on iOS wont really support it..

With the comment Apple has been working for 10 years to get rid of the file-storage system does this now mean it could be an option in a future iOS with user account details held and stored elsewhere?

 

[Rordeb]

Family Subscription using one iTunes account

Just wondering about what is going to happen to our family email addresses in future. We currently have two mobile me email addresses. We also have a separate email address for iTunes - we both use this and it allows us to buy apps only once - both use same iTunes for pc synch etc.

When icloud comes, will we be able to enjoy the same freedom?

 

[FutureChips.org]

Just wondering about what is going to happen to our family email addresses in future. We currently have two mobile me email addresses. We also have a separate email address for iTunes - we both use this and it allows us to buy apps only once - both use same iTunes for pc synch etc.

When icloud comes, will we be able to enjoy the same freedom?

I think this wil impact all of us at a personal level. They have introduced new coolness for the users and new challenges for the engineers(http://bit.ly/jHOczu). Needless to say, there will be issues which will need a resolution. It will get polished over the years. I do expect the first gen to be a bit itchy.

 

[miografico]

Of course these is an underlying file system just like there is with iOS.

The laughable part of your post is that the professionals you mention use the "appification" of the file system already.

Programmers? Nope. They deal with SVN.
Engineers? Nope. They deal with programs like Buzzsaw.

Give it up my man. You really have no clue what you are talking about and are just pulling out subversioning and a SAS app like Buzzsaw because they are keywords you may have heard. We are at least 20 years away from developers not accessing the filesystem on an operating system level i.e. creating folders (directories) and files directly through baked in operating system functionality: graphical or command line.

Yes, you as an enduser may not need access to your filesystem directly through your operating system, but you're making a false assumption about a world in which you know nothing about - software development / engineering.

If Apple were to completely take away native OS functionalities that an advanced user would use and do so to your vision of things; I would not develop for Apple anymore and every engineer in any field using their products would migrate away from the company's software and hardware.

I suggest you take some undergraduate courses in EE and Comp Science perhaps they will aide you more in terms of counter arguing as opposed to a Google search on your iPad.

 

[paulsalter]

Just been thinking about calendar

How can this require Lion to sync, I thought it used the industry standard CalDAV, so it should work with any app that supports this

or is this going to change again to another Apple format

 

[spacemanspifff]

Me too..?

I think iCloud is partly just a "me too" gimmick. Syncing my devices was not, as Steve suggested, "driving me crazy". This seems like a big solution to a non-existant problem.

First, iTunes in the cloud why? My phone can't store all the music I have on my Mac as it is, so how will this "auto sync" work? I just don't think it will.

All I wanted was an easy way to sync my iWork documents between my Mac and my iPad. I would have been happy to do this through the existing 30pin link or over the new iOS 5 local WiFi network. However, I don't really want them to go into the cloud. See the recent problems Sony has had for why not.

On the surface, documents in iCloud seems to offer me the above and I would use it, but only if the files are encrypted. Thing is, why in the keynote demo yesterday and on the website do they not actually show a Mac being used? Photostream and Music do... Steve said it works on Macs and PCs too but didn't actually show it, maybe they're still working on this bit?

Also I don't understand how they can say that they've moved the digital hub to the cloud, when it seems that everything [well the iOS everything] is still 'actually' stored on my own devices?

It seems to me that iCloud is just a re-brand of the old iSync software, its just now they're using the internet to do the transfers. It makes me laugh to see the marketing saying "your documents will be available anywhere*" *[cough] As long as you have an internet connection! [cough]

I guess I will wait to see how it all shakes out...

 

[Steviejobz]

Why is everyone all fussed about iCloud? It is on my default but you turn it off and keep your current file system. This just happens to be convenient for the rest of us and there are many times when I didnt upload something to Dropbox or put something onto a USB drive and I wish I had. And its free. So some of you all need to chillax.

As for the plethora of comments about how underwhelming, that is par for the course from this crowd. In a year you will have iCloud logo tattooed on your chest.

 

[rcp27]

It seems that it boils down to the following:

1) if you have MobileMe, you will not lose anything until more than a year from now. If you recently bought a MobileMe subscription, yes you can have your money back if you want.
2) except for the size of iDisk and the web hosting, everything you got with MobileMe you will now get with iCloud free. Web hosting and online file storage are easy to find in lots of other places for cheaper than a MobileMe subscription and you have a year to change over.
3) All features can be turned on and off on all devices at will. If you don't want it, don't use it.
4) The system is clearly designed around the concept of 1 iCloud account = 1 person. If you have a spouse and a bunch of kids, then get each one a separate account. Accounts are free, so there's no problem cost wise. Calendars and contacts can be shared across accounts easily. Photo sharing already exists in iPhoto et al.

There are two areas of uncertainty in my mind:

1) if I have a single iTunes account for a large family, and I want to divide it into multiple accounts on a 1 account per person idea, is there a way to divide the library across the new accounts (I suspect copying the music across (iTunes is DRM free, after all), then do a one-off Match on it to get the iTunes version flagged as owned on the new account, then job done)
2) How does document syncing work in terms of the mac file system. In a sensible world, the document synced would be able to be placed anywhere on the mac's file system (so, eg Keynote knows that file A that is synced to the iPad and iPhone is in /home/username/Documents/Project A/file A and file B is in /home/username/Documents/Project A/file B while file C is /home/username/Documents/Project C/file C), so that current ways of working on the mac are not adversely affected. No doubt such information will become clear in due course.

 

[paulsalter]

It seems that it boils down to the following:

1) if you have MobileMe, you will not lose anything until more than a year from now.

unsure a little on this

That seems to be the case if you hold off upgrading to iCloud until a years time

What happens if you upgrade your mm to iCloud when it is released

 

[aussie_geek]

The main issues I have with this are

iDisk - not available any more..

Safari bookmark sync.

Back to my Mac.

Apple needs to get us some more info on this iCloud service

 

[CyberBob859]

The main issues I have with this are

iDisk - not available any more..

Safari bookmark sync.

Back to my Mac.

Apple needs to get us some more info on this iCloud service

Just shows that iCloud is not a complete replacement for MobileMe. I agree with Molly Wood of Buzz Out Loud when she said this should have been called iSync because that's what seems to be emphasized in iCloud.

 

[rcp27]

The main issues I have with this are

iDisk - not available any more..

Safari bookmark sync.

Back to my Mac.

Apple needs to get us some more info on this iCloud service

It's a shame that they are rushing this out, it would be great if they had like 3 months to sort out telling people exactly how the migration to the new service will work out. Oh wait...

 

[iggypod]

Just wondering about what is going to happen to our family email addresses in future. We currently have two mobile me email addresses. We also have a separate email address for iTunes - we both use this and it allows us to buy apps only once - both use same iTunes for pc synch etc.

When icloud comes, will we be able to enjoy the same freedom?

This is a VERY popular question right now in which there is no certain answer. Many people, myself included, don't know how this scenario will play out yet in iOS 5.

It is also discussed in this thread.

 

[danrees]

Not quite in the same boat as the MobileMe users but I have a very good mac.com address from way back when iChat was first released.

Would love to secure this username for @me.com but guess MobileMe users will have their usernames automatically transitioned, while the rest of us have to fight it out on Day 0 for the best usernames.

Still, I managed to do it for Facebook short URL so can't be that hard.

 

[steadysignal]

I guess I don't "get" it, what the big deal about this is.

I already have Gmail.

I already have Flickr.

And I already have online storage.

How is this any different?

i am surprised you got modded down for this comment.

 

[jonnysods]

They really should try a US rollout, then internationals in stages. Remember when they released MobileMe, and then had everyone activating their iPhones on the same day? People had to wait 5 days to get their phones activated.

I couldn't imagine 200 million iOS users jumping on the cloud at the same time.

 

[tashomamusha]

Photos, and Music Syncing Free of Charge.

 

[paulsalter]

They really should try a US rollout, then internationals in stages. Remember when they released MobileMe, and then had everyone activating their iPhones on the same day? People had to wait 5 days to get their phones activated.

I couldn't imagine 200 million iOS users jumping on the cloud at the same time.

wonder what percentage of these are current mm subscribers

could they migrate these over first and then open it for everyone else

 

[newagemac]

Apple created that mess and they have no idea how to deal with it.
Right now we have to id's - apple id and mobileme id, they can't
recognize them and that's why so often I can't log in, I get
"wrong id" message all the time. works on my iPhone, but it's terrible
on my macs...

Uh, when you get your me.com address why don't you just go into your current Apple ID account and update your email address to the me.com one? You do realize you can change your email address associated with your Apple ID at any time right?