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I must have misunderstood iCloud, because what is the points of 64GB iPhone?

F

felixen

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 13, 2009
884
113
Hey,

For a while I have been hoping for a 64GB iPhone as my 32GB is full of music and pictures. Yesterday it finally came, but I started thinking if I would really need it. With iCloud couldn't I just have all my photos and music stored in the cloud, removing like 20-25GB of data from my phone? I would only store my favorite music on the device for when I'm out of the country, but that's about it.

Doesn't iCloud eliminate the need for a lot of storage?
 
Maybe I'm missing the point, because that's what I was thinking as well.
 
Nope.

Remember how MobileMe synced all your contacts? You made a new contact on your iPhone, and automatically replicated itself on your iPad, but the iPad was not reading the info from MobileMe, it was begin copied from MobileMe to the iPad.

iCloud is MobileMe in steroids, now not only copy your contact data to all your devices, but also your music and documents. Copy is the key, it's not an hard disk somewhere.

Also, the 30 days is only for Photo Stream.
 
So everytime you want to listen to a song you're going to have to sit there and download it first, rather than just having more on-board storage? Not to mention the fact that my tarriff, like an awful lot of other people, comes with a grand old 512MB of data, and I'm underground with no connectivity whatsoever commuting for two hours a day. What good is iCloud then?

iCloud is a nice to have, but it's by no means even close to a replacement for having the files stored locally. I'm assuming I'll only ever use it in an attempt to get new songs on my phone without having to touch ****ing iTunes.

Heck, most of the storage on my phone is taken up with apps anyway, which have a 20MB download limit over 3G. Not much cop for getting Infinity Blade at 1.4 GB, is it?

Phazer
 
So as for photos, I have a bunch of photo albums on my Mac. Can I upload those to the cloud and access them from my iDevice whenever I want? Or is Photo Stream (the 30 day thing) the only photo feature you get with iCloud?

Edit: Phazer has a point though.. I wonder how long it takes from me clicking a song until it starts playing (when its on iCloud)

Anyway I think I have like 15-20GB of music on my phone. The thing is I have gone through it a few times on iTunes wanting to clear up some space, and much of this music is something I rarely listen to but really like, so I just can't get myself to delete it in case I would wanna listen to it one day. I think where iCloud is gonna shine for me is when I can now delete music I rarely listen to, and if I someday want to listen to it anyway I can just stream it/download it from iCloud
 
Cloud storage is what Apple is moving away from. With iCloud, a 64GB iPhone is needed more than ever before. Because iCloud is a syncing service between all your devices. Personally, I'm hoping Apple will listen to us MobileMe subscribers in the end and preserve those services we have come to rely so much upon.

I've already started transitioning to Drop Box and looking into other replacements to what Apple is taking away when the iCloud move is completed next summer.
 
It's Apple that's missing the point. They've never understood cloud services.

What they have been very clever at concealing is that iCloud is really Microsoft Azure & Amazon EC2, who are the backbone and experts behind iCloud.
 
Is this thread, you trying convince yourself to buy a 32GB iPhone 4S instead of 64GB?

More storage is always a great thing. It's better to have excess storage than limited one.

It's great that Apple introduced a 64GB iPhone 4S, I'd be disappointed if they hadn't.
 
felixen said:
Hey,

For a while I have been hoping for a 64GB iPhone as my 32GB is full of music and pictures. Yesterday it finally came, but I started thinking if I would really need it. With iCloud couldn't I just have all my photos and music stored in the cloud, removing like 20-25GB of data from my phone? I would only store my favorite music on the device for when I'm out of the country, but that's about it.

Doesn't iCloud eliminate the need for a lot of storage?
Click to expand...

Despite what governments and big corporations claim, not everyone is on super fast net. There are many people living outside cities or in countries where its just not practical to live on a daily basis with iCloud. Clearly if you are in a great cover area or have unlimited 3G access etc then you can save money by buying a smaller memory phone.

Equally, I do allot of air travel and I listen to my music on ALAC. More memory is better. I can't access the cloud on flights here in Europe yet...

There are many reasons why its not a bad idea to offer larger memory as well as cheaper iCloud focused phones... Why not offer choice?

Have a nice day,


C
 
Catch said:
Despite what governments and big corporations claim, not everyone is on super fast net. There are many people living outside cities or in countries where its just not practical to live on a daily basis with iCloud. Clearly if you are in a great cover area or have unlimited 3G access etc then you can save money by buying a smaller memory phone.

Equally, I do allot of air travel and I listen to my music on ALAC. More memory is better. I can't access the cloud on flights here in Europe yet...

There are many reasons why its not a bad idea to offer larger memory as well as cheaper iCloud focused phones... Why not offer choice?

Have a nice day,


C
Click to expand...

Another excellent post from someone who "truly understands", obviously the voice of wisdom and experience.

I agree completely.

Apple truly believes only they know what is best for their customers. They believe the customers are too inept to think for themselves. Surprisingly many are. Or if not inept, they choose to turn over their power to Apple, and allow the corporation to do the individuals thinking for them. It's another reason they are viewed by outsiders as blind followers.

Also an international traveler for business and pleasure, I find no comfort in using the cloud exclusively, when it comes to my personal data, access to files when offline, or the simple fact that internet access is still far from omnipresent.

I use a combination of carefully selected cloud services for certain aspects of my digital work / lifestyle, then to augment this basic service I have a full and very robust NAS network at home and work for the mission critical files I have.

With today's exemplary remote control options, having a personal server as well as full access to my business files, I am free to travel the globe being just milliseconds away from any files I need or wish to retrieve.

It's the best of both worlds with none of the risks and dependence one has when putting all their files into someone elses basket like the upcoming iCloud.

iCloud will appeal to those who are basically too lazy or too uneducated to provide the equivalent service for themselves. iCloud is another gold mine for the ever greedy Apple, and that in and of itself is not bad, as it drives my stock through the "Clouds" :)
 
I have a 32GB phone, and I'm sick of having to un-sync certain playlists, delete certain games, or remove certain apps in order to not get an error when the phone syncs about running out of space. A 64GB iPhone 4S should alleviate that problem nicely. Looking forward to getting it.
 
vitzr said:
It's Apple that's missing the point. They've never understood cloud services.
Click to expand...

Either has the general public. If Apple and it's customers have misunderstood it the same way, then they might really have something there!

What they have been very clever at concealing is that iCloud is really Microsoft Azure & Amazon EC2, who are the backbone and experts behind iCloud.
Click to expand...

:D Good one. And the iPhone is really Foxconn! And the iTunes Store is really just akamai!
 
vitzr said:
What they have been very clever at concealing is that iCloud is really Microsoft Azure & Amazon EC2, who are the backbone and experts behind iCloud.
Click to expand...

Do you even understand what those products do? What you are saying is equivalent to saying all desktop computer software makers are very clever at concealing the fact that they are really relying on Western Digital and Seagate to do all of their bit flipping.
 
its still unknown wether or not iTunes match will allow you to stream your music from the cloud...so it could easily still be required for large libraries where people want ALL their music on the phone at once

also, as far as I know, iCloud doesnt allow storing or downloading your personal video collections, so there is that as well
 
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