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

[rhett7660]

My big question is will iCloud sync podcasts.

Obviously, podcasts will sync from iTunes to iOS via the new wifi syncing system. That's great, but I don't want to rely on iTunes to manage my podcasts. I'm hoping all of my podcast subscriptions are listed up in the cloud, and when a new episode comes out it will be automatically sent to all of my devices. And when I listen to an episode and stop half-way through, that point-in-time should be synced so I can resume on another device (a la iBooks). When I delete an episode I am done with, it should be removed from all other devices as well.

I've got Instacast and it does almost all of this, but it can't look for new episodes unless it is running, and I don't think it can sync playback points across devices (haven't tried, though the app does support syncing your list of subscriptions to Dropbox).

This would be nice if it also does podcasts. This would be really nice actually. Interesting they didn't mention podcasts specifically. I am hoping it does. I have been on the fence about Instacast since I first heard of it and then I started to hear rumors about this.

This might be the ticket for me to move away from gmail. Although, I don't think I will do it immediatly. Wait till some of the dust settles.

 

[bushido]

its already happening

 

[0dev]

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)

how come I don't hear anyone complaining or at the very least being highly suspicious of a conglomerate who says that they are trying to get rid of your ability to keep your digital everything PRIVATE? we give them ALL our docs, tastes in music, books, and movies, our private mail and text messages, our family and friends photos and contact info, etc. this is ludicrous. it's a complete invasion of privacy that they would have access to at all time for who-knows-what. these companies are targets for hackers EVERY DAY and get hacked into with valuable data stolen ALL THE TIME.

oh - and let's house everything at your 'secure' server cloud and then when we are in a spotty coverage area or no coverage area - we are just screwed. this makes no sense. I had files on storage with Apple in 1999-2000 and they deleted them all. I dunno guys.

Exactly right. I'm moving operating systems if they don't put a massive "Off" switch on this. In fact, even if they do, I might purchase LittleSnitch just so I can keep an eye on what's going on.

 

[hellodon]

I wonder if there will be a full beta of iCloud for devs?

 

[Toine]

Mobile Me Refund

Hey guys,

Appl has posted some info about MobileMe Refunds:

"If you had an active paid or trial MobileMe subscription as of June 6, 2011, your service has been automatically extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. However, if you choose, you can cancel your subscription at any time for a pro-rated refund. For more details, see this article."

So for all those who just paid for their annual subscription (like me), well... Bad for u then. Because you subscribed before June, you won't get the free one-year extension.

Only thing left to do, ask for a refund:
https://ssl.apple.com/support/mobileme/cancel/

Hope this helps

 

[kjr39]

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)

how come I don't hear anyone complaining or at the very least being highly suspicious of a conglomerate who says that they are trying to get rid of your ability to keep your digital everything PRIVATE? we give them ALL our docs, tastes in music, books, and movies, our private mail and text messages, our family and friends photos and contact info, etc. this is ludicrous. it's a complete invasion of privacy that they would have access to at all time for who-knows-what. these companies are targets for hackers EVERY DAY and get hacked into with valuable data stolen ALL THE TIME.

oh - and let's house everything at your 'secure' server cloud and then when we are in a spotty coverage area or no coverage area - we are just screwed. this makes no sense. I had files on storage with Apple in 1999-2000 and they deleted them all. I dunno guys.

The question that I have for anything that gets uploaded to a 'cloud' is who owns it? Apple? Me? Someone else?

 

[rhett7660]

Exactly right. I'm moving operating systems if they don't put a massive "Off" switch on this. In fact, even if they do, I might purchase LittleSnitch just so I can keep an eye on what's going on.

I thought they mentioned in the keynote this could be turned off and on. I don't know if it is per service or all or nothing type thing thou. Still trying to figure this one out myself.

 

[StrikerObi]

This would be nice if it also does podcasts. This would be really nice actually. Interesting they didn't mention podcasts specifically. I am hoping it does. I have been on the fence about Instacast since I first heard of it and then I started to hear rumors about this.

This might be the ticket for me to move away from gmail. Although, I don't think I will do it immediatly. Wait till some of the dust settles.

Instacast is $2 and will save you hours upon hours of frustration.

With iCloud, the cloud copy becomes the master copy and everything (contacts, events, photos, and music if you pay extra) syncs against that. If the master copy of a podcast is still iTunes, it'll be insane. But somehow I think this will be how it shakes out.

If this ends up being the case, I will cross my fingers for an update to Instacast that leverages the iCloud APIs to solve the same problem.

What drives me batty about this is that I know Apple can do this. I have an AppleTV and it lets me keep a list of "favorite" podcasts. They're not quite subscriptions since the AppleTV is streaming only, but that list of "favorites" is tied to my iTunes account. If they are syncing all this other info with my iOS and OS X devices, why not include podcasts? I'm thinking the reason is that syncing podcasts will cost them a whole lot of bandwidth for something that they make no profit from.

 

[baleensavage]

I want to find out if there is an 'on/off' swith for photo sharing. I would hate to up or download some adult photos onto my macbook, and then have them show up on my wife's mini/iphone/ipad, since we share the same itunes account. That would not be a good thing....

Do you seriously use iPhoto for your porn? Photo syncing is only going to sync photos in iPhoto, not every photo on your hard drive. Now if you're taking nude pics of your mistress on your iPhone, then yeah, you're screwed.

 

[blehpunk]

I think I'm having flashbacks from the .mac to mobileme transition which ate all of my mail. Not to mention the recent mobileme calendar "upgrade" which, again, ate all of my info.

 

[amaxware]

I wonder what happens with accounts with extended stuff (like space or family)

What about the other things that you can sync using mobileme, like keychains?
Does that stay? Will there be a keychains app on IOS 5 since I don't "need" a PC?

 

[brezz]

I guess I am a little confused. I was hoping iCloud was going to allow me to take music/photos off of my computer and store it in a "locker" in the cloud. That way I could free up some hard drive space and not need to rely on my MacBook as much for storage.

Am I missing something?

Brian

 

[bushido]

u can already use that "cloud" feature in iTunes, i just redownloaded songs i didnt even knew i owned lol but as expected it only works on my US account

 

[phinsup]

My mobile me was supposed to renew July 12th it now says extended until June 30 2012 at no additional charge.

 

[joemarioz]

I really need time to think about this.

1. If file structure seems to be gone, and we have auto-syncing does that now mean I have to wade through client A, B, C,... while looking for clients X's documents? This seems nice if your a student, your devices are for personal use, or you do not deal with clients. With starting a business that is completely mobile to clients - seems like I could deal with clutter very quickly. May have to resort to iWork for myself and MS OFFICE for my client work?

2. photo sync. Love the idea, but.... On a typical weekend I may take more than 1000 photos. Especially given I am going to start offering photography services. Nice to have an up-to-date-portfolio with me. But as I fill up SD cards, I dump them to my ipad (not sure if ipad can handle raw [.NEF files] - never tried it yet). Does this mean I can start losing pics as I dump more? also, I had major problems with iphoto losing photos on my (even with the last update). I use iphoto as a dumping ground or to order prints/books. Not for storage; ever since I lost 100's of photos only to be left with a 100X300 thumbnail.

3. Ok, if MobileMe is dead and we get Mail, Contacts, and calendar for free - what happens to my website? I use iWeb and have 2 websites. 1 for my business which is hosted with a real domain name; the other is personal and on MobileMe. Will my personal website eventually go away? I like the idea of contact, calendar, and mail sync being instantaneous.

4. Itunes Sync - so this means that since my entire 6000+ song library is ripped; does that mean I must pay $25.00 a year to match? I do not have the original CD's anymore for the most of them; since they got scratched, lost, and some were damaged in a fire. If I do not match - it sounds like I lose my music? What about all those indies or locals who are not on itunes. Also I deal with local artists. I heard something about uploading the song if no match. Working with local artists, copyright would bar me from doing that. Plus Itunes is integrated in many apps.

I would really hate to have to switch back and find Windows Apps for my business, and Linux just is not up to par with what I do.

Like I said; with building a business based on dealing with client documents (writing / documentation services), offering photography, and offering DJ service - I REALLY HAVE TO DIGEST WHAT ALL THIS NOW MEANS.

Especially since I am in a state that is still very rural (lot of edge network - if any connection); and not that much wi-fi.

Also would this mean I now need a mi-fi device?

#4 It will eventually upload them if it doesn't find any copy on their (18000000 songs)database....and yes you must pay 25$

 

[brezz]

I had one more question. Did they say anything about Notes syncing to the cloud? Right now I am using evernote but my wife prefers the Notes application on her iPhone. We have had some issues with her notes not syncing right so it would be nice to have them stored in the Cloud for access.

Brian

 

[baleensavage]

I guess I am a little confused. I was hoping iCloud was going to allow me to take music/photos off of my computer and store it in a "locker" in the cloud. That way I could free up some hard drive space and not need to rely on my MacBook as much for storage.

Am I missing something?

Brian

Nope, you're just going to have to find a different service to do that. Photos are still going to take up hard drive space.

 

[davidwes]

I guess I am a little confused. I was hoping iCloud was going to allow me to take music/photos off of my computer and store it in a "locker" in the cloud. That way I could free up some hard drive space and not need to rely on my MacBook as much for storage.

Am I missing something?

Brian

Yes, you are missing something. Jobs specifically said in his speech that icloud is not a hard drive on the internet.

This of icloud as a free, amazing syncer. All your data stored locally on all your computers, and updated instantly whenever you take a photo, edit a document, etc.

 

[iVoid]

"Apple has been working for 10 years to get rid of the file-storage system. It started with iOS, and has made its way to the Mac."

And it's one of the reasons I can't use iPhone/iPad for serious work. The document handling is ridiculous. Maybe iCloud will help this, but only if you trust apple with your data.

 

[0229876]

[removed by user]

 

[stockscalper]

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?

Been doing all of this on a Droid phone. From the looks of the new notification center, ie a screen that you pull down alal Android, it looks like all Apple is doing is trying to keep up with Google and Android. It would be nice if they would think outside the box and knock something out of the park for once.

 

[fpnc]

Well, no new streaming service from Apple!?!?

These rumors about iTunes-based streaming were really the only thing I was excited about. I already have high-quality rips in iTunes for all of the CDs that I've purchased and I currently do custom syncs to each of my iOS devices using the existing iTunes app. Thus, for me this new wireless syncing capability adds very little over what I can do today.

The free document syncing for iOS devices is nice, but I was really hoping for a cloud-based streaming service for all of my media. I guess my Pogoplug is going to have to remain in service even though it doesn't work very reliably with my iPhone 3GS.

 

[miamialley]

Sorry, but a great big YAWN from me. Apple had a head start on the mobile device market, but is now only neck and neck with the competition.

Remember when copy & paste was a 'great' new feature to iOS?

I'm not leaving for Android or anything, but this is a let down.

 

[chaosbunny]

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)

how come I don't hear anyone complaining or at the very least being highly suspicious of a conglomerate who says that they are trying to get rid of your ability to keep your digital everything PRIVATE? we give them ALL our docs, tastes in music, books, and movies, our private mail and text messages, our family and friends photos and contact info, etc. this is ludicrous. it's a complete invasion of privacy that they would have access to at all time for who-knows-what. these companies are targets for hackers EVERY DAY and get hacked into with valuable data stolen ALL THE TIME.

oh - and let's house everything at your 'secure' server cloud and then when we are in a spotty coverage area or no coverage area - we are just screwed. this makes no sense. I had files on storage with Apple in 1999-2000 and they deleted them all. I dunno guys.

Thank you, I couldn't have said it any better. The only thing that interests me about iCloud is, how do I turn it OFF.

 

[legacyb4]

You can authorize a device (and iTunes) to use applications from multiple accounts; I do this to allow my son to use my purchased apps on his iPod while he has his own account for downloading free games and music.

In our household, we have 2 iPhones and one iPad. We consider all three devices to be owned by the household, and therefore purchase any apps under a "joint" Apple ID so they get downloaded to all devices that want them. Additionally, my wife and I would share calendar and (most) contact data. A shared photo library would make sense for us as well. So iCloud under a joint account sounds about right until you consider...