Finder for iOS?

[JoEw]

I think the answer to the finder dilemma in IOS is iCloud Drive

Developers of apps will save all content to it, similar to how office for iPad saves to sky drive.


The universal filesystem between ios,mac will be iCloud Drive.
I expect apple to have an app for it too. Remember mobileme's? At least TextEdit or Preview.

Also Remember the default save in OS X is iCloud in Preview.. Big hint.

 

[jonnyb098]

Wouldn't it be cool if iOS had Finder? Being able to access all files on your device from one File Manager. I think it would be really helpful for a lot of us. What do you guys think?

Yeah that would be great!!!! NOT! You are just asking for lots of problems. If you want to be that big of a dork go get a Android phone or carry around a MacBook Air. 99.9999999 percent of people have absolutely ZERO need for a finder like OS.

That's why apple announced icloud drive. It will be a simple safe way of letting files work between apps.

 

[Small White Car]

Apple seems to be using plenty of folders in iCloud Drive. They also exclusively use folders in their document-based iOS apps such as iWork.

Perhaps we're having a difference of definitions here because I see all of this as an example of them "moving away from Finder."

I'm not using "Finder" as the literal application, I guess. Whenever I see people ask for it I take it to not mean that specific program but rather the concept of "the user is responsible for every document and the computer has no clue what's going on and no say in how it's done."

It's that idea that I'm responding to.

By that definition something like iPhoto is the exact opposite of "Finder" and stuff like iCloud Drive (with its app-centric folder) is a new idea that's, yes, moving away from the traditional you-manage-everything system of the past.

Even if there are folders.

 

[CutterSlade]

Finder (on the Mac) is built on the idea of a bunch of floppies sitting on your desk waiting for the computer to ask for them. ... Seriously it's time to stick a fork in it, it's done.

A file manager, Finder or another one, as the name suggests is used for managing files. As long as you have files on your disk, you'll need it organize them and share them between apps efficiently.

I don't know what to say to ridiculous comments such as "file managers are a thing of the past", or that "they're only requested by geeks". These type of things can be said only by the most basic users who can't/don't use their devices for anything but media consumption or social networking.

I am sick of the argument that iOS is for stupid people so it should not add normal features of normal operating systems that stupid people have been using since the 1950's.

Couldn't agree more. I'm sick of the argument that there shouldn't be a file manager in iOS because then idiots wouldn't be able to use it. If you can't use it, then don't use it. It's not something that gets in the way.

I can not count the number of times I've had this conversation over the past 20 years:
Me: Where did you save the file?
Other Person: [blank stare]

An example to that "iOS is designed fro stupid people" argument, to which I'm starting to get convinced, after reading all the comments here. Unfortunately this is the user base of iOS and hence the lack of features. I once saw someone saying that iPhone doesn't have sms/call blocking features because Apple does not (and shouldn't) copy features from cheap, older phones which have them.

That mentality, and the lack of file share between apps is one of iOS's biggest strengths. It helps make the system very secure.

If this is a joke, it isn't funny. You don't make a system secure by limiting its features. You make it secure by designing it properly. If not having some features is iOS's biggest strength, then why aren't you using a Nokia 3310, which is even better.

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That's why apple announced icloud drive. It will be a simple safe way of letting files work between apps.

iCloud drive cannot be a replacement for a file manager because it forces you to store everything on a remote server. Why would I want to store everything I'm gonna use locally on a remote server?

Apple's solution to the file manager problem is app extensions, which won't be very useful until iOS 8 becomes widespread and devs start adopting it. Apple's making the lives of the devs very difficult just to make sure that its idiot users continue to be happy with their devices that do a lot of things in a non-conventinal, weirder and harder way. But to their users these all seem better and easier. Why? Because Apple said so.

I'm pretty sure that if iOS had a file manager right from the start, and this topic was about removing the file manager from the OS, people who seem to hate file managers right now would be the first people to defend it.

 

[Planey28]

Assuming people are too stupid to understand the Finder is a little insulting to the average person... People are not as stupid as you think, most people know what a file manager is and how to use it. The reason most people shove files on to the desktop is because they are lazy, not stupid.

Apple aren't ever going to include a Finder app for iOS, but surely if an app can now elect itself as a document storage app then third parties can now write their own file manager apps instead?

 

[Armen]

As others have stated the iCloud drive would be the proper solution. A user should not be bothered with organizing files/documents. Let the app do its own managing of files/documents and be accessible in iCloud drive via Mac or Windows.

 

[FSMBP]

As others have stated the iCloud drive would be the proper solution. A user should not be bothered with organizing files/documents. Let the app do its own managing of files/documents and be accessible in iCloud drive via Mac or Windows.

What if you want to delete an App but want to keep the files created by that app (ex. see when Apple made Pages free)? Plus if you have a project that is using mixed media from several apps, you couldn't get a bird's eye view of your entire project. This is a legit problem my little sister had in college when working on a paper with slide-show on her iPad.

I agree that users shouldn't have to manage their documents, but having them live in apps isn't the best solution...Especially since you're forcing a user to remember which app they created something in (ex. Did I create my song "Composition 2014" in Garageband or FL Studio?)