Apple's Services Teams to Start Working Together to Improve Siri, Maps, iCloud, and iTunes

[Johnny907]

Except the dynamic of the devices has completely changed. The iPod without a computer was nothing more than a paperweight. You buy an iPhone or an iPad today and you can open it up and never attach it to a computer and fill it with content.

Calling it a necessary to me seems a stretch. This is not 2003 and things are very different. Besides I said they could keep an iTunes legacy version around on Windows. Which means for Windows users it would be just as it is today. Meanwhile Apple gave it's base a better experience.

Yeah but we all know how Apple treats "Legacy" software, so I don't trust them to not EOL it a year or two afterwards.
And again, just because you don't use your device a certain way doesn't mean others don't and your way is the majority. A lot of people I know (including myself) still use a wired connection when transferring, backing up or restoring our devices. Continuing support for those users doesn't hurt you in the slightest, so where is your beef?

 

[Carlanga]

It only took them 10 iOS versions to figure it out.

 

[mi7chy]

Other companies use telepresence. The real issue is complacency and not utilizing the abundant funds to hire talent.

 

[Xgm541]

So the "services team" gets relegated to the old campus. It's great they're unifying in one place. Now they just need a leader to run this. Eddy Cue is not the guy. Cook should add another SVP level position for cloud/internet services and poach someone from Amazon, Google or Microsoft to run it.
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Outside of Apple Music and iTunes/App Store downloads and what Apple charges for cloud storage where are they making money off services? And on the storage side Apple is going to be under a lot of pressure to offer more storage at cheaper prices. They have to stay competitive with Google. I just don't see where all this new services revenue is going to come from.

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/07/26/apple-services-revenue-up-19-percent-in-q3-2016/

During today's third quarter earnings call, Apple announced its second consecutive year-over-year revenue drop, but amid the decline, the company's services category saw significant growth based on strong App Store performance.

Over the course of the last 12 months, Apple's services revenue is up $23.1 billion, and next year, the company expects revenue from services to "be the size of a Fortune 100 company."

While small compared to hardware sales, hardware sales are bound to plateau in the near future.

 

[skitidetdu]

So are they saying that these teams haven't worked together at all until now?

 

[Shirasaki]

This is one part of the business I would rather see Apple rely on AWS/GCE/Azure. Why? They're behind, and I don't see them them catching up anytime soon. They're going to be reinventing the wheel the next few years, trying to replicate designs that those other companies perfected years ago.

I'll believe they've caught up when they're publishing papers on data center/server design innovation, and it's on the mark with with the Big 3 are doing.

Also, Swift has been an open source success, but if Apple is serious about backend architecture, they should also be open sourcing part of their work there as well. This (infrastructure) is where Google is quite a bit ahead.

However as a billion level company, one tech giant, Apple just don't want competitors taking away their secret sauce by any means necessary. This is too natural when two people are equally strong in every way, they will fight between each other until one of them is dead. "One mountain cannot maintain two tigers", like this.
It is highly unlikely those giants will work together unless there is a far greater threat from outside forcing them to forge alliance to protect themselves.
Human nature, and so does Mother Nature.

 

[ErikGrim]

Bring back the old iTunes.

People keep saying this like you can't configure iTunes to look and work exactly like old iTunes.

 

[Tech198]

So, they haven't been working together ? Ya, I believe that part.

...and as long as they keep as one they'll never work together...

Hopefully there gotta be some "magic" happening when they move into the Campus 2.. and suddenly we can put all this crap behind us. (hopefully)

As people say in the biz "that's the magic start up day"

 

[sehix]

"You're standing up wrong."

Wow.

Setting the tray down first before sitting at the table was something I learned 50+ years ago in high school.

Guess what? It still works.

 

[2010mini]

It's mind blowing that they have not been working together from the start.

Came in here to say this. Apple has gotten so compartmentalized it seems.

 

[mango316]

So you want new hardware to run the same software that needs improvement????

Others and myself are so desperate for new MacbookPro/MacPro refreshs that existing MacOS would be ok as long we getting new hardwares now!!!

 

[Porco]

People keep saying this like you can't configure iTunes to look and work exactly like old iTunes.

I wish that were as possible as you seem to think it is!

 

[SkippyThorson]

Awesome. The 4 most lackluster bits of software Apple is responsible for.

iCloud has managed to nuke my music ibrary across devices pretty good, Maps is the only thing replaced by Google on my iPhone, Siri is the most worthless pile of infuriating garbage I deal with on the iPhone, and iTunes has become bloat ware.

I hope they roll in fixing the advertisement that the iPhone's Music app has become. I remember when it focused on my Library that I paid money for; not Apple's cheap rental car service.

 

[PBRsg]

Have you tried Apple support? I'm sure it's something simple.

My three desktop Macs, my MBA, my iPhone, and iPad all synch together fine. It's not something I even think about anymore, it just works as expected. Handoff and AirDrop work great too.

In fact, Notes works so well across all platforms I stopped using Evernote a year or two ago.

It's a mixed bag - you can see that these systems are all separate. Notes works perfectly, Safari bookmarks synch now works but I had to stuff around with it to trigger it manually, reminders have never worked regardless of what I do, iMessage can be hit and miss... I will try Apple support.
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It works like a dream for me. Sorry you're having issues though.

You can see that they are all separate systems, because some things work perfectly and others do not work at all.
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Your anecdote makes me feel pity. I am sorry for your loss.

I did not express myself properly. I meant that it has not worked in its entirety for ONE DAY (and by that I mean all services across all devices). I would say that 80-90% of the things work between the iPhone and the Mac, with the iPad being the one where things do not synch. The irony is that the iPhone 5S and the iPad Air were purchased at the same time, are basically the same hardware and are running the same exact version of iOS.

 

[Otaviano]

Yeah but we all know how Apple treats "Legacy" software, so I don't trust them to not EOL it a year or two afterwards.
And again, just because you don't use your device a certain way doesn't mean others don't and your way is the majority. A lot of people I know (including myself) still use a wired connection when transferring, backing up or restoring our devices. Continuing support for those users doesn't hurt you in the slightest, so where is your beef?

My beef is with the notion that I as a Mac user should have a lesser experience because iTunes is being dragged down by the Windows version.

The notion that iTunes has not be broken into pieces because they would have to do something to the Windows version.

That is what I replied to. That is why I made the case that iTunes for Windows today is not as relevant as it once was. I remained convinced of that as I have not seen a compelling case stating otherwise.

Having thought on it further they could kill iTunes for Windows. Make a sync and backup utility. Then introduce web versions of all their storefronts. Apple Music, iBooks, Movies, and so on.

And out of curiosity how did Apple handle iBooks on Windows when they pulled it out of iTunes? Did they make a dedicated iBooks app? Is it still in iTunes for Windows? Or are they ignoring that market?

 

[SeaFox]

• If you ever turn iCloud off, you will lose all your contacts and all your calendar events. You can't even really restore them from Time Machine, because doing that will turn iCloud back on.

You don't want to hear it, but here's the solution:

You have your iCloud account set up with all your stuff, I take it.
Set up a Gmail account, and turn on Calendar and Contacts syncing.
There's only one Address book. By syncing with two different services, iCloud will sync with both -- in effect bridging the two.
Check your Google account address book, etc. on the Gmail website. Confirm the addresses and such are there now.
Go to the iCloud account settings in the Mail app, and turn off the address book and calendar syncing. You only need to disable these two services.
You will still get the warning saying you're going to lose those items, but you wont lose anything because those items still exist on the Gmail side.

Ta-da. Your stuff will sync from now on with a Gmail and their more reliable cloud service.

 

[baryon]

Sounds like you have something wrong with your system. I don't have any of those problems. Even when turning off iCloud I get a message asking if I want to delete my contacts, or leave them.

The contacts issue seems to have been fixed, but just try turning off your Calendar syncing (no, don't actually do it it will mess things up).

You don't want to hear it, but here's the solution:

You have your iCloud account set up with all your stuff, I take it.
Set up a Gmail account, and turn on Calendar and Contacts syncing.
There's only one Address book. By syncing with two different services, iCloud will sync with both -- in effect bridging the two.
Check your Google account address book, etc. on the Gmail website. Confirm the addresses and such are there now.
Go to the iCloud account settings in the Mail app, and turn off the address book and calendar syncing. You only need to disable these two services.
You will still get the warning saying you're going to lose those items, but you wont lose anything because those items still exist on the Gmail side.

Ta-da. Your stuff will sync from now on with a Gmail and their more reliable cloud service.

Wow, I never thought I could just use Gmail instead of iCloud like that. That's pretty cool actually, thanks!

 

[Mark.]

About time they started improving these because they're seriously behind everyone. My experience with these services so far:

• The photos from my iPhone take hours or days to sync to my Mac, and about half of them never make it across with no progress bar, no error message, no explanation at all.
• Because of iCloud, there is a duplicate of every single photo I take stored on my iPhone which already hardly has any free storage. Each photo takes up double the storage space for no reason at all.
• If you ever have issues with iCloud, God help you. There are no settings or anything you can fix.
• If you ever turn iCloud off, you will lose all your contacts and all your calendar events. You can't even really restore them from Time Machine, because doing that will turn iCloud back on.
• Maps just can't figure out addresses, simple as that. While Google Maps can solve almost any badly written, incomplete, misspelt address you throw at it, Maps can't even figure out the simplest ones where you made sure everything is correct. Since I can't find most addresses I search for, the whole thing is totally useless.
• Notes take ages to sync, doesn't sync, or creates numerous duplicates across Mac and iPhone.
• Siri is great when it works. But often it takes more time to respond than just doing it manually.]
• The new iTunes is a horror in UI design. Brings back memories from when Skype was redesigned a few years ago.

I think you need to get your stuff fixed. I have literally none of these issues.

 

[Otaviano]

I think you need to get your stuff fixed. I have literally none of these issues.

Amazing he has not jumped ship with all those issues.

 

[SeaFox]

The contacts issue seems to have been fixed, but just try turning off your Calendar syncing (no, don't actually do it it will mess things up).

I don't know why you keep saying it will "mess things up". Turning off syncing only turns off the syncing between the devices. You're not deleting anything -- the calendar and contacts still exist on the iCloud website, just not on your device. The warning you're talking about even says this, it specifically says that you are removing the contacts from your device. If you turn them back on they should come back.

 

[baryon]

I don't know why you keep saying it will "mess things up". Turning off syncing only turns off the syncing between the devices. You're not deleting anything -- the calendar and contacts still exist on the iCloud website, just not on your device. The warning you're talking about even says this, it specifically says that you are removing the contacts from your device. If you turn them back on they should come back.

Exactly. But you can't have iCloud OFF and keep your contacts on your device. So if you have issues with iCloud and you want to turn it off and keep it off, then you also have to accept that it will remove contacts/calendars/other data from your devices with no official way of copying them back except re-enabling iCloud. In my case, I had to turn iCloud calendar off a while ago due to some issues, and it removed everything from my Calendar. Then I restored from Time Machine, and it re-enabled iCloud. So I re-disabled it and it re-deleted everything from my Mac. There was a hacky way to get things back but holy hell, I'm not doing that again.

The point is, if iCloud works fine, all is well. If it doesn't, you're screwed, even if you have a backup.

 

[cgsnipinva]

Every company has to start somewhere. Apple is the "new kid on the block" and have a long way to catch up with Google Maps and perhaps others as well.. But they got to start somewhere. They will always be lacking, compared to Google Maps, even in future.

If you have bought into the Apple ecosystem, as I have, then even with deficiency, I would be quite happy to be used as a guinea pig by Apple Maps so that it can be improved over time.

In August, I was on holiday in States and Canada. I made a journey which started in NY, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Rhode Island, New Haven and back to NY. Did almost 2500 miles in 3 weeks and used only APPLE MAPS. I was checking local restaurants, on Yelp, etc and then using Apple Maps to get there, without getting lost once ! I was a bit worried, reading all the negative comments I had read about Apple Maps on these forums, but was glad it was much much better then what I had thought it would be.

I think with time & a lot of improvement it will be a good addition to other iOS apps. If you believe in a brand, you got to support it as well.

So yes, I am mildly excited.

Actually the accuracy and utility of Apple maps has increased quite nicely. In fact when my wife and I were looking at new homes in new developments in Northern Virginia - Google maps actually took us to the wrong place twice and couldn't find one of the developments at all. Apple Maps did. So to say they will never "catch up" is a bit strong of a statement.

 

[robertosh]

Please Apple, stop wasting money on Siri, it's useless for the 90% of people. With this saved money you can for example improve MAIL in Spain.

 

[thewitt]

Please Apple, stop wasting money on Siri, it's useless for the 90% of people. With this saved money you can for example improve MAIL in Spain.

I love Siri. Use it all day. Much faster finding apps on my phone than using the search. "Hey Siri open IBP" will find and open my blood pressure recording app much faster than me trying to remember where I put it or type in the search field.

On my watch, it's the bomb.

I probably dictate 80% of my typing now, including this message.

 

[SeaFox]

Exactly. But you can't have iCloud OFF and keep your contacts on your device. So if you have issues with iCloud and you want to turn it off and keep it off, then you also have to accept that it will remove contacts/calendars/other data from your devices with no official way of copying them back except re-enabling iCloud.

You don't have to use iCloud to have those services. If you don't turn them on to begin with. the contacts and calendar events you add to your device will go on and stay on your device. You have to retype them all yourself, though. Unless they are saved on your phone SIM card -- then they would be available when you put your SIM in a new phone (at least that's how it works with my dumbphone). How did you get all those contacts on the phone originally? Did you actually hand-type them yourself? I imagine they came over iCloud. So in a somewhat hippacritical fashion, you want iCloud to fill in your address book for you but you want to take it off afterwards.

The point is, if iCloud works fine, all is well. If it doesn't, you're screwed, even if you have a backup.

Once upon a time, iTunes did calendar and contact syncing (for the iPod Nano models that supported that feature). Have you tried using iTunes to restore the information on the device after you turned off iCloud?

Keep in mind iCloud syncing is a copy-to-local sync service. If syncing fails, the data on your device already is still there. It's not a truly remote address book calendar where if you're offline you can't access it. So I have to ask what these issues are with iCloud and how they actually impact you? If you want to use your device as a stand alone planner/address book, there should be no issue having iCloud sync turned on if it fails -- I mean, you're not going to be trying to access the contacts you enter on the iPhone on another device right? And you're not going to be entering contacts on a Mac and expecting them to appear elsewhere, since you don't want to use sync anyway. So what does it matter if the iCloud is ON and not working properly then?