Apple Reportedly Open to Restoring MobileMe Features Lost in iCloud Transition

[sambaman1]

Keep iDisk and iWeb hosting

Apple, please keep an iCloud equivalent for iDisk and iWeb hosting!

Users have fundamental needs for hosting simple web sites and exchanging files with other platforms.
After iWeb hosting and iDisk are discontinued in 2012, such needs will NOT disappear.

Furthermore, uses have already published/advertised links to content in iDisk and iWeb sites.
If Apple does not offer such basic functionality in iCloud, transition from MobileMe would NOT be a "It Just Works" experience!

As with transitions from HomePage and Final Cut, potential new users would learn to fear Apple would eventually screw them (leave them in the dust) if they adopt Apple technologies.
That would discourage users from adopting, or recommending, Apple technologies in the future.

Apple did such a great job with much more complex transitions (from System 9 to OSX, from PPC to Intel).
Please don't screw the (much simpler?) MobileMe to iCloud transition.

Apple doesn't have to be specific about exactly "how" cross-platform file sharing or web hosting will be done
(so Apple can maintain secrecy of future products and strategies if you want).
But it should reassure us right away it will be done, so users have an smooth Apple path forward (for their iDisk and iWeb hosting).
That way, users are not going through the pain of changing platforms or chasing non-Apple solutions (Drop Box, external hosting, etc).

 

[zapnyc]

... what I want to know, is what makes dropbox not a better (and free up to 2 gigs) alternative? ... It's sync service its very intuitive.

Neither DropBox nor Google sync iOS devices easily and reliably (or even...at all). It's a clusterf**k.

My two computers, iPhone, and two iPads all sync contacts and calendars automatically via MobileMe...and it's integrated and reliable. I tried Google for that... fail.

I'd rather pay for reliable ad-free service for sync, plus a little disc space, than surrender my pearls for "free".

Now if only Apple had been able to buy DropBox....we'd *all* be happy.

 

[edoates]

Neither DropBox nor Google sync iOS devices easily and reliably (or even...at all). It's a clusterf**k.

My two computers, iPhone, and two iPads all sync contacts and calendars automatically via MobileMe...and it's integrated and reliable. I tried Google for that... fail.

I'd rather pay for reliable ad-free service for sync, plus a little disc space, than surrender my pearls for "free".

Now if only Apple had been able to buy DropBox....we'd *all* be happy.

Re. Dropbox: biggest issue is that when you share a folder, every user can modify / delete files. No such thing as "read only" or other access rights control. So, if a user decides to just drag some files from the Dropbox folder on his desktop to his local hard drive, it gets MOVED, not copied. So it disappears from Dropbox. The unknowing user says, "ah, don't want it here locally" and just deletes it from his hard drive. Bang: it's gone.

What moron thought that was the right model?

 

[jamcouto]

Apple, please keep an iCloud equivalent for iDisk and iWeb hosting!

Users have fundamental needs for hosting simple web sites and exchanging files with other platforms.
After iWeb hosting and iDisk are discontinued in 2012, such needs will NOT disappear.

Furthermore, uses have already published/advertised links to content in iDisk and iWeb sites.
If Apple does not offer such basic functionality in iCloud, transition from MobileMe would NOT be a "It Just Works" experience!

As with transitions from HomePage and Final Cut, potential new users would learn to fear Apple would eventually screw them (leave them in the dust) if they adopt Apple technologies.
That would discourage users from adopting, or recommending, Apple technologies in the future.

Apple did such a great job with much more complex transitions (from System 9 to OSX, from PPC to Intel).
Please don't screw the (much simpler?) MobileMe to iCloud transition.

Apple doesn't have to be specific about exactly "how" cross-platform file sharing or web hosting will be done
(so Apple can maintain secrecy of future products and strategies if you want).
But it should reassure us right away it will be done, so users have an smooth Apple path forward (for their iDisk and iWeb hosting).
That way, users are not going through the pain of changing platforms or chasing non-Apple solutions (Drop Box, external hosting, etc).

I agree 100%.
IMHO, Apple must make the entire transition of iDisk, iWeb and Gallery to the iCloud services, for the same annual price of the actual MobileMe.
Regards from
José Couto
Porto
Portugal

 

[ct2k7]

Gallery... come back

----------

Neither DropBox nor Google sync iOS devices easily and reliably (or even...at all). It's a clusterf**k.

My two computers, iPhone, and two iPads all sync contacts and calendars automatically via MobileMe...and it's integrated and reliable. I tried Google for that... fail.

I'd rather pay for reliable ad-free service for sync, plus a little disc space, than surrender my pearls for "free".

Now if only Apple had been able to buy DropBox....we'd *all* be happy.

Thousands if not millions of users would disagree with you.

DropBox is reliable, more reliable than iCloud. I've not used Google so I can't comment on it.

 

[jimoase]

Gallery..

iCloud has me concerned.. my family uses the dot Mac email addresses and the gallery.

Of course we can switch to gmail and there are lots of commercial gallery sites... most are a pain because they require visitors to sign in

 

[ct2k7]

iCloud has me concerned.. my family uses the dot Mac email addresses and the gallery.

Of course we can switch to gmail and there are lots of commercial gallery sites... most are a pain because they require visitors to sign in

Mail / @me.com is staying with the transition.

 

[j800r]

Not happy about this. Apple aren't usually ones to break promises but if they DO bring MobileMe features back then the iCloud service will no longer be free. I could never afford the charge for MobileMe plus I could only really use around 1% of the services. iDisk, the Email and web hosting. Everything else was useless to me as I don't as of yet own an iPhone.

The smart idea would be to offer an additional premium service which resurrects some of the old features from MobileMe along with the newer/revamped iCloud services. If they just started charging for iCloud I would be very annoyed.

I'm mostly interested in Apple's own email. I've flitted between providers before and never been completely satisfied.

 

[carboncow]

idisk is a train wreck...always has been until they get away from that webdav core. Apple needs to buy DropBox and steal their syncing functionality!

keep webgallery for sure!

 

[ct2k7]

idisk is a train wreck...always has been until they get away from that webdav core. Apple needs to buy DropBox and steal their syncing functionality!

keep webgallery for sure!

I would prefer it that Apple not buy DropBox and ruin it for everyone using it.

 

[JimAtLaw]

Keep keychain syncing, for the love of all that is holy! Many multi-device users totally love and rely on this - pulling much loved features does not win hearts.

 

[FireFish]

Read Between The Lines

You do know why they've chosen to go this route, don't you.

Think about it; . . . They're not 'giving' us anything, rather, they know that by dropping those services, a high percentage of paying MobileMe customers will go elsewhere.

This is all about retaining paid MobileMe customers.

I for one am a Family Member and was going to switch until I heard this.

Don't let the 'optimistic attitude' fool you. Remember: It's all about the Benjamins!

 

[mjtomlin]

And don't say it's an OS issue when Dropbox seems to work just fine. Surely Apple could figure out their OS as well as the Dropbox team did.

iDisk is based on an open standard, webdav, and needs to remain compatible with the standard. Dropbox is proprietary and as such can be optimized for whichever platform it is running on... it's also a single purpose service - storage.

Apple went with WebDAV because it allows for file access over standard web protocols. This allows the use of things such as CalDAV for calendar synching, and direct access to live web sites, which isn't possible through something like Dropbox.

 

[mjtomlin]

LOL @ all the downvotes.

Seems like you got everyone mad that they're paying $99/yr for nothing.

No, he got down voted for being narrow-minded... for not being able to understand that there are some people who do think the service is very useful and very much worth a mere $8.25 / month.

No one has to think the service is useful to themselves, but they don't have to remain ignorant of the fact that others might.

 

[Ruahrc]

For some reason my experience with MM seems to be contrary to those of the complainers. I have not had any significant issue with it so far.

I actually tried using Google first, because it was "free", but encountered nothing but problems. Getting syncing on my ipod touch was problematic, and ical never had a reliable connection to google's servers. Every day I'd get at least 5 or 6 warnings that ical couldn't connect to google's servers (I still get these messages, because there is one last work-related calendar I have to use google for). Contact syncing was a joke. It would either not sync at all, or give me 3-4x copies of each contact. I eventually had to disable it and use fruux instead because it was so unreliable.

Also, google does not support bookmark syncing between computers. Often times I will browse on a mac, and put interesting links in my bookmarks bar. Later if I'm browsing on my ipod touch, those bookmarks are already there so I can continue my browsing on the portable device with no interruption or having to re-find the articles I was reading before.

All of this was "okay" since I wasn't paying money for google- but I also wasn't getting any value from it either so I moved on.

Finally I started a mobileme trial. Only paid $50 to get a year sub off of ebay, and a week before my year sub ended, they announced icloud and gave me another free year- so really I will have had 2 years of MM for $50 total- that's a pretty good price to me! Never had a problem with syncing again. And I totally agree about preference syncing- last time I reinstalled SL on my laptop, I just logged into mobileme, enabled all my syncs again, and all my preferences were set up just like I wanted. Saved me hours of tweaking every application back to how I had it before. More recently, I bought a computer with Lion, and the preference syncing didn't work so well (probably because of SL/Lion compatibility)- I really missed having that feature since I had to manually set up all my application preferences again.

iDisk is also useful since- contrary to SJ's opinion- some of us DO want "just a big hard disk in the sky". It's useful to throw files on, that you can get back anywhere. It's especially useful for sending large files to others- particularly since you can password-protect the share and they don't need to be a MM member to be able to download. I have sent files several hundred MB to others over the internet and this would not have been practical over email. I would rather have control over the files that live in the cloud, rather than have them hide behind some abstract application interface where I have little control over the files. I want the computer/service facilitate what I tell it to do, not have it tell me what it thinks I should be doing (and this is the basis for much of my criticism of Lion).

Also don't forget about files that are used by >1 application. By shoeboxing every application's cloud content separately, it just makes it hard to access files from multiple different programs. It must be a nightmare for devs to be able to code for this properly- if they even bother to put in the effort.

The only real complaint I have about iDisk is the slow speed. I don't use it for anything particularly big since it's slow as molasses. If the speed were improved my satisfaction with MM would increase even more.

Ruahrc

 

[heisetax]

iWorks for Mac updates?????

Slow updates? You have that right.

Will we ever see an iWork update? I like Pages a lot but could use a little refresh and other things.

I'm like you in that Pages seem to be anice program as far as it has gone. Numbers just started but has been left at the iPad/iPod/iPhone level for too long.

At first I thought that having an iOS version would help it out. But after the way things are now it appears that it will become just an iOS program with little continued direct connection to the Mac. Maybe once the iOS version is better than the Mac version then maybe we'll see an upgrade or even an update. Until then it may just work as a connection for MS Office to the iPad.

Programs when first written need more frequent updates. Programs as old as Word & Excel having their beginnings in 1984 & 1985 have long ago gone through that phase. It seems as if Apple believes that iWork for the Mac is either that far along in its process or it has been turned into an iOS app. I'd like Apple to prove me wrong at this point.

Even iLife had an update after 2 years. But the number of programs in iLife has been greatly cut. It seems that with the big rush & push to the iOS that the Mac software has been largely forgotten. No wonder some believe that Intel processors will be removed from the lower end Mac Laptops.

 

[mijail]

DropBox is reliable, more reliable than iCloud. I've not used Google so I can't comment on it.

Are you comparing the unfinished iCloud to DropBox? (and, if so, which part of the functionality of iCloud?)

Or you simply have no idea what you're talking about?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

why do people even pay for MobileMe?

The same reason people pay extra for a color that is not black or white when buying a car or appliances, or not polished chrome when buying bathroom fixtures. It's the same reason some people pay to upgrade to the extra legroom section of coach or Heiniken instead of Old Milwaukee, or a Canali suit instead of a Jos. A. Banks. I could go on and on. Bottom line there is something that gives the buyer a value for his/her money. That's how the marketplace works.

Me personally, I buy it because it's the most convenient way to sync a decent chunk of data inexpensively between all my Macs and iOS devices. Also when you look at the price of, say, Drop Box data Mobile Me is (was) a bargain at $50 or so (I always bought on Amazon or eBay). I will miss iDisk, but hoping it's saved. I've also used iWeb for ad hoc sites when renting my condo or selling a car and Back To My Mac in a pinch.

 

[haravikk]

Since the technology behind iCloud must be based on a fairly normal syncing and file-storing mechanisms, it seems reasonable that many of the MobileMe services could easily be replicated.

All that's really needed is a robust set of permissions for handling synced files you want to make public or share within groups.

Gallery for example is just image syncing, with a special interface for viewing the images selected for sharing. Likewise, iWeb is just sharing of synced HTML and other web files. iDisk could easily be added as a virtual disk that simply provides a few of the currently synced files in your account, or part of your account if shared.


It seems silly that Apple wouldn't retain the features when the bulk of the infrastructure is already there. Considering the disastrous reputation of previous versions, particularly MobileMe, axing a ton of features in the change of iCloud could easily result in the same kind of issues.

 

[ptchristy]

Facebook Page to Keep MobileMe Features in iCloud

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-MobileMe-Features-in-iCloud/165371700211982?sk=wall

 

[Eric S.]

The smart idea would be to offer an additional premium service which resurrects some of the old features from MobileMe along with the newer/revamped iCloud services.

Exactly.

If they just started charging for iCloud I would be very annoyed.

No need to charge for basic iCloud sync service. They have already added a premium service in iTunes Match; just extend it to other services.

 

[SeaFox]

According to Cook's people, while there are no plans to add those particular services to iCloud at this time, "Apple is open to it if there's enough feedback on the subject."

YAWN. That's classic PR-speak for "no".