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

[ozlow]

Hun?

This is just great... Now I get the following message when I update anything on my iPad with the Apple Store!

You've already purchased this but it hasn't been downloaded. If you're having trouble downloading it, select Check for Available Downloads from iTunes on your computer, then sync with your device.

Ok - ok - ok - ok - ok - ok! Sigh. Why mess with something that seemed to work fine before? So far not a fan of iCloud.

 

[bilbo--baggins]

I'm not yet convinced that I'll be able to do without my 50GB Dropbox account. With bad past experiences with iDisk, I'm not sure I'd entrust it all to Apple anyway.

 

[ZipZapRap]

LOL

http://wmpoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/belfiore2.png

 

[jadot]

Aperture Galleries

I can't find any info on galleries. I publish thousands of pictures over the year for individual clients as proofing galleries. At any one time I have probably got anything up to 10,000 photographs online with Aperture and MobileMe.

So what happens there then?

 

[miografico]

Pure speculation here but I think iDisk will continue as a paid upgrade - which is why we are all getting extensions to our purchased MobileMe services. If they were going away and being replaced by a more basic "free" service - why would we be getting extensions?

The alternative would be that Apple is decommissioning iDisk and we have an extended period of time to get used to it and find alternative services.

I would prefer the idea that Apple is keeping iDisk - because a mountable drive in the sky is still useful to some people and it might be useful to future apps that take advantage of the iCloud API.

If you use iDisk I would go ahead and find a new service if you need that type of feature. (pure mobile any filetype storage)

I very much doubt it will be a paid upgrade. The reason they are baking all these features for us developers into the SDK is not just to make use of the iCloud service, but to guarantee control of files in the cloud. I have not had a chance as of yet to get ahold of or look at the new SDK, but I would be utterly shocked if there were no filetype restrictions.

 

[pubwvj]

Bad

"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. iCloud entirely removes the concept of file-storage."

This is so bad. Apps are not what is important. My DATA is what matters. I really don't like the App centric model of the iOS devices. It's fine for games and simple applications but my work is data, not applications. Steve has it all backwards.

 

[pubwvj]

Having the data in the cloud means the government can get it. They don't have to get a court order.

 

[Fast Shadow]

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.

The photo sync offering is definitely not geared towards pros or semi-pros. I also shoot anywhere from 1,000 - 4,000 photos per week. Once I delete the rejects I'm usually left with somewhere between 500 to 1,000 keepers, each week. I use Lightroom to sort and organize my RAW files and an agent based cloud service (Carbonite) to back them up, along with my Lightroom catalogs. That's all I need, really. I manually sync my Lightroom catalog between my Mac Pro and my Macbook Pro. If I were to ever lose a hard drive I would be able to recover my original RAW files and all of my changes/edits (as stored in the LR catalog) via Carbonite.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

"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. iCloud entirely removes the concept of file-storage."

This is so bad. Apps are not what is important. My DATA is what matters. I really don't like the App centric model of the iOS devices. It's fine for games and simple applications but my work is data, not applications. Steve has it all backwards.

The the hell are you talking about?
Everyone is moving away from the file system for YEARS.

Do you really think that these services (like drop box) actually have "physical" files and folders structure on their servers?

Companies are moving to the "cloud" in one form or another.
Check out Alfresco as a perfect example.
Most medium to large companies are moving to storage via applications.

 

[miografico]

I can't find any info on galleries. I publish thousands of pictures over the year for individual clients as proofing galleries. At any one time I have probably got anything up to 10,000 photographs online with Aperture and MobileMe.

So what happens there then?

Make sure you have hard backups. (hard as in on your machine(s)) Cupertino is great for releasing new products, but even better at killing old ones that still have a decent customer-base and with no ample warning on what will happen when they reach end of life.

Anyone here who relies on galleries from Apple for business purposes needs a reality check, and I am an Apple developer, move to a site whose sole purpose is photo sharing: flickr, Picasa or if you are a photographer by trade SmugMug or DeviantArt.

When money/business is involved you choose a service that specifies in your area - not a jack of all trades like iCloud.

 

[jdbr]

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)

Apple cheated its most loyal customers today: mobile me customers; in particular those with a mac.com e-mail address. We have been promised a free extension to service, that we continue to pay for until our subscription runs out. A service that is basically free to every one else. What a reward for sticking with .mac and then MobileMe through all the crap service and broken promises through the years of exciting new features and extra freebies that never ever materialised. Apple should be ashamed, they are just a bunch of shameless
money grabbers!

 

[miografico]

The the hell are you talking about?
Everyone is moving away from the file system for YEARS.

Do you really think that these services (like drop box) actually have "physical" files and folders structure on their servers?

Companies are moving to the "cloud" in one form or another.
Check out Alfresco as a perfect example.
Most medium to large companies are moving to storage via applications.

You are the one who has absolutely no idea what the hell you are talking about.

Yes, these services like dropbox have physical files and folder structures on their servers. You obviously have a very, very basic understanding of how computers, operating systems and filesystems work in general.

Please don't yell at someone else when you come off as a complete DoDoBird yourself. What is happening is that users such as YOU will eventually be in a world where the filesystem is easier to to access such as through iCloud and storage initiated via Applications. However, no one reinvented the wheel your files will still be stored as files, in directories and on servers: makes no difference whether that filesystem is HSF, NTSF, EXT, ReiserFS, ext3 or whatever.

We are going back to the idea of the 90's except this time its coming true. Power users such as developers, designers, engineers etc. will have workstations (me) and regular users will have dumb terminals (grandma).
This is one of Larry Ellison's dreams coming true. (Get in touch with history)

You can even go back to the 80's and 70's and see the same concept played out in terms of terminals accessing mainframes over LAN and WAN. We are coming full circle.

 

[irish15eagle]

anyone noticed that mirroring iPad screen wirelessly to TV, basically kills google tv...that is absolutely SICK!! no need for other boxes, just need an appletv, iPad...you can run everything Hulu Plus, Netflix, EyeTV, Plex...can't wait for this!!

Finally someone said something about AppleTV.
When rumors first started about iCloud, I was very excited. I had just been given an AppleTV as a gift, and my first iPhone will follow soon.
Moving forward, the rumored iCloud seemed to be the perfect idea: I could get a small hd on the iphone and just use cloud technology to stream my media, the same way i do on my AppleTV. Not only this, but I would no longer have to leave my laptop on, open, and in iTunes to use my library on my AppTV.
Perfect, right? Wrong. I'm hoping I don't understand apple because, to me, they seem to have taken a step back. Instead of moving to the cloud where I could more easily integrate my media while reducing the memory space that it takes up, Apple is now pushing technology that pushes EXTRA downloads of files on local memory in the name of faster, automatic syncing.
I hope I'm wrong, but this just seems like a huge disappointment.

 

[0229876]

[removed by user]

 

[Eric S.]

With the iCloud API, I'm sure virtually every Mac application of any note will eventually be updated to hook into it.

If I read correctly, there are dev APIs for iCloud that can be incorporated into any app. So, if MS chooses they can have Office docs sync automatically to the cloud just like Pages, etc.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered already, but what about just plain old files? Like if I open a terminal window and create a text file using vi? Can I store that on iCloud like I do on iDisk? Or data files I want to share between my Mac and a PC? Or documents created by existing apps that don't have an iCloud hook?

The the hell are you talking about?
Everyone is moving away from the file system for YEARS.

Do you really think that these services (like drop box) actually have "physical" files and folders structure on their servers?

Of course there's an underlying file system. Jobs just wants to remove the details from users, like in many other areas, but some of us would rather not go that direction.

 

[jmull]

Can I use this to listen to my big 16-bit AIFF (CD Audio) files anywhere? If not it's useless for me since I don't listen to lossy music (read: itunes downloads), certainly wouldn't pay for sub-par quality music, and I suggest you do the same. Your ears will thank you.

 

[ZipZapRap]

So does this mean Google can sue Apple for copying notifications?

Or is only Apple allowed to do that to Samsung?

 

[mofunk]

Really looking forward to info about:

-iDisk
-Pricing on Additional Storage
-MobileMe refunds
-E-mail addresses

Please Apple, iCloud sounds really cool, but please don't screw over the folks who have grown to love all of the features dating back to .Mac.

Yes !!! please

So basically we are loosing 20GB of storage. iCloud won't work for my other 2 Macs. And besides what happens when you don't wi-fi available?


A lot of musicians and photographers use iDisk. I love it cause of the security and space you have moving your stuff to clients. Heavy users who moved over to Macs, who used .Mac and MobileMe have to find a "Apple" alternative that has to work with all their Apple stuff..

this is so not good.

 

[Eric S.]

iCloud won't work for my other 2 Macs.

Hey that's a good question too: did they say there's a minimum required OS version for iCloud? Because I have no intention of updating my two Macbooks from 10.5.8.

 

[andiwm2003]

Not to be an a$$, but I've got no sympathy for anyone who bought or updated their Mobileme in the last 2 months. iCloud has been discussed on CNN, Fox Cnet, Fortune, NYtimes and obviously on the Mac sites. For you to update or buy it in that time, don't be pissed at apple. It's neat to have a @mac.com or @mobileme, but what'd you expect? Also, SJ didn't comment about Mobile Me at all today except to make a joke at his own expense about trusting the guys who did Mobile Me being able to pull iCloud off. My guess, you keep your email and apparently most of the other stuff you were paying for is now free.

Coachingguy

Well, people didn't have a choice. They had to renew or they lose their email address for good and they also couldn't let their websites go down.

It's not a big deal anyway because MobileMe was about 60 bucks through amazon and paying it for a few month without need is then only 20-30bucks.

I wonder more about storage. I have now 15 GB on iDisk and will get only 5GB in the future? Others mentioned family accounts. To me this transition starts already as as borked up as the .Mac to .me transition.

 

[thefourthpope]

No MobileMe will stay intact until June 2012. Everything will work, mail idisk etc. There was nothing announced today that said MobileMe will cease its services with the launch of iCloud. Yes, the service will expire in June 2012, but that is a long way away. Whether you want to port your information to iCloud when it comes out is your decision. I personally will use the full features of MobileMe for the next year as I have paid for that.

Sure, but that doesn't say anything about iDisk. I'm happy agreeing with you that MobileMe will continue, and though iDisk presumably will as well, there's nothing specific out yet.

 

[thefourthpope]

Well, people didn't have a choice. They had to renew or they lose their email address for good and they also couldn't let their websites go down.

It's not a big deal anyway because MobileMe was about 60 bucks through amazon and paying it for a few month without need is then only 20-30bucks.

I wonder more about storage. I have now 15 GB on iDisk and will get only 5GB in the future? Others mentioned family accounts. To me this transition starts already as as borked up as the .Mac to .me transition.

My main wonder as well.

And you're spot on about the effective requirement to renew if you want to maintain consistency.

 

[thefourthpope]

The the hell are you talking about?
Everyone is moving away from the file system for YEARS.

Do you really think that these services (like drop box) actually have "physical" files and folders structure on their servers?

Companies are moving to the "cloud" in one form or another.
Check out Alfresco as a perfect example.
Most medium to large companies are moving to storage via applications.

I guess I get your point, but--without knowing much about this stuff--I still prefer having a file on my desktop, even if it is linked with Dropbox. That's the main thing I do like about iDisk: my file is still on my HD, and not dependent on Internet access. iDisk/Dropbox might not have that type of visual file system on their end, but I want it on my end.

 

[trixiesirisheye]

No cloud, no file system heave-ho

I am not at all pleased with the little I've heard about Lion and iCloud today. Jobs wants to do away with the file system. This is a work computer. File systems are the equivalent of a filing cabinet. If I need to burn a disk of graphics files for a client, it's all in the clients' file, I burn the disk, I'm good. I don't want to have to look all over my computer for every last one of a client's files. I'm not working on an iPad or iPhone, I'm on a Mac Pro, fer dang sake!! This is no fluffy iPad, this is the big Bertha of working computers.

I have seen the cloud servers go down or get hacked way too many times (especially where Apple is concerned) to trust my info to be kept there! I use DropBox, I use Evernote, but I don't keep anything important on them, and I make sure that my FILES are being backed up to my two external hard drives and my offsite backup, BackBlaze. If one of them gets hosed, I'm still okay. If the cloud server goes down, that's okay. I can still get work done because I'm not counting on a server. Look at what happened recently to Amazon's EC2 servers, to Sony's servers, and heck, the DOD's servers!!! Even Intuit's servers went down recently. Too bad for the people doing their bookkeeping on Intuit's servers.

Did Jobs mention anything about the redundancy of the servers? Um, Cupertino is in earthquake county. BIG earthquake country. No, I much prefer keeping the info resident on my device, backed up to my backup devices, and not trust ANYTHING to the cloud, especially with Apple's penchant for ignoring problems and giving out as little info as possible. It's like saying, "There's been a little accident (no, it was a really big accident), only a few people were hurt (no, thousands of people were hurt), and it shouldn't impact you at all (except all my iCal, address book, and email data is now in the ether). You don't need to know anything more than that." Because that's what Apple would do.

I don't bundle my TV, cable, and phone for the very same reasons. I use different providers. If my TV goes out, I can probably still go online or make a call. If my internet goes down, I can still watch TV or make a call. And so on.

When my MobileMe subscription expires, buh-bye Apple servers for syncing my MBP, MP, and iPhone. Heck, I might as well replace my iPhone with an Android.

Will I be able to back up to Big Bertha and my other backups??

After 28 years of using Apple products, I'm about to defect.

 

[caspersoong]

I just love the integration with iWork documents. The importing was really a pain.