11 ms·

Everything about icloud - from the terrible design to the clunky interface - is as Steve Jobs liked to say, "shit". I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it'

by rm999 14y ago

Everything about icloud - from the terrible design to the clunky interface - is as Steve Jobs liked to say, "shit". I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for; is it a backup service, an e-mail provider, or a way to find my phone? None of these have much in common, so the fact that they're all bundled together really confuses me. And its name is a bit of a misnomer, you can't even do standard cloud stuff like share photos (like you could with mobileme). I don't mean to stray off-topic, but this article just confirms my intuition to avoid anything with icloud in the name.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
iCloud is a collection of services which includes all of things you mentioned. The web interface is horrible but it works pretty well for me syncing between the desktop and mobile apps. >> "you can't even do standard cloud stuff like share photos" You can, shared photo streams which came with iOS 6 I think. You can also create shared photo journals in iPhoto (on iOS) which I presume work through iCloud.
- rm999 14y ago
  >You can, shared photo streams which came with iOS 6 I think. You can also create shared photo journals in iPhoto (on iOS) which I presume work through iCloud. Thanks for letting me know. I tried to do a mobileme style photo album about six months ago and was amazed that they had removed such a useful feature. Glad to hear it's back, even if it's in a slightly different form.
vvhn 14y ago
> I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for It's a syncing service first (and you can optionally opt in to get an email-id). The website provides you webapps for your synced iCloud contacts, calendars, notes, reminders and iWork documents and for "Find your iDevice". For other applications it serves as cloud "storage" but there's no web interface for those. The app icons are equivalent to iOS app grid and the little cloud button serves as the home button for the "Apps"
roc 14y ago
iCloud is first and foremost just a bit of service glue to make the native email/calendar/etc apps 'work' without sending people to Google or assuming they have a work Exchange account. In that capacity, it's as good as it needs to be. [1] Similarly the file sharing is just to set a third-party baseline so that file/save sync'ing between Apps on the mobile devices 'works' without sending people off to Dropbox. And in that capacity it also works just fine. Sure, it resists power-user use. But that's just because, in true Apple fashion, it's not built for it and doesn't care too much about it. But that only makes it 'shit' inasmuch as about 90% of Apple's services are 'shit' and places it distinctly outside the way Jobs defined 'shit'. [1] Though filtering this crude is cause to reassess that.
- mikeash 14y ago
  "True Apple fashion" has only recently been about resisting power users. Before about five years ago, they were all about enabling power users while still being friendly to regular people. This was much more compelling than their current direction. Remember, this is the company that built their OS on top of UNIX and shipped a terminal app with it standard. It all changed around when the iPhone came out, though.
  - roc 14y ago
    While we're keeping history in context, let's also not forget this is also the company that was borderline irrelevant prior to their current direction.
    - mikeash 14y ago
      I won't dispute that they're far more relevant today, but I disagree that they were borderline irrelevant circa 2005. They were quite successful selling Macs and had a credible alternative to the Windows monopoly. The iOS stuff certainly moved them to a whole new plane of success, but I don't have to like it.
      - roc 14y ago
jonknee 14y ago
Cloud is a hip word. Amazon's got a cloud. Google's got a cloud. Apple couldn't be left with just an iTools/.Mac/MobileMe now could they? I think Apple's inability to run web services is going to really come to pass in the near future. Everything is moving towards that way and Apple is still left in the "just sync with iTunes" world.
- taligent 14y ago
  Apple does actually know how to run web services. They run the world's largest media store and one of the world's busiest online stores in addition to iCloud. Just because MobileMe was a piece of junk doesn't mean they are completely clueless.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    For most of its existence it was the only store compatible with the far and away market leader for audio players. The store did not win because of its technical chops. To boot their media store is still almost completely cut off from the web (they did try and juice some SEO and have landing pages, but iTunes likes to pop up most of the time). They sure love relying on iTunes... iTools/.Mac/MobileMe and iCloud were all pieces of junk. As was Ping. As is GameCenter. And iMessage. They have a lot of work to do.
    - taligent 14y ago
      Sorry but do you understand technology at all ? iTunes Music Store is a web service. Whether it delivers HTML or XML to a thick client is irrelevant. It still needs to deliver a tremendous volume of them in addition to managing the downloads. And by and large it has worked tremendously well. iTools/.Mac etc are all the same thing just rebranding. Ping was a product failure not a technological one. And GameCenter/iMessage use iCloud so not sure why you listed them.
      - jonknee 14y ago
        I'm sorry, but successfully running a digital download store in a desktop app does not impress me. Apple's innovations with the store were not technical but contractual (originally getting record labels to agree to flat per song pricing). iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud are all the same thing, but signify the number of reboots they have had over the years. Each time they say "it's fixed!" and then yea, it's not. Be my guest if you want to believe Apple is great at the web. Meanwhile Google will be feasting.
CamperBob2 14y ago
I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for As far as I can tell, you pay $99 or whatever, and it periodically sends a text to your iPhone telling you it hasn't actually backed up anything in XX weeks. Kind of a weird business model but then they didn't ask me.
- chris24 14y ago
  iCloud's free* now, actually. It became a free service when they transitioned away from the MobileMe branding. * You need a Mac or iOS device to join, though. And you can pay for additional storage if you want ($20, $40, or $100 per year), but that's not necessary.
  - josteink 14y ago
    Free for a year. If you register it from an iDevice or some hardware bought from Apple. And then next year to keep iCloud "free", you need to buy more overpriced goods from Apple.
    - YooLi 14y ago
      100% false. Always free unless you pay for additional storage.
    - mhjacobson 14y ago
      Oh OK. Hey, just out of curiosity, could you link me to the page that lists the iCloud pricing scheme?
      - josteink 14y ago
        Well. What do you know? Maybe they've actually, for once in their lives, created a product not exclusively designed to suck money out of your wallet. (1) Must have been a pretty recent change though. (1) http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4874 http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4874
        14y ago
meaty 14y ago
On this topic, Microsoft actually provide an awesome platform in the form of windows live. It does everything and actually works
bpatrianakos 14y ago
I'm with you. I have a total love-hate relationship with it. I love how it keeps me in sync across all my iStuff (4 total) but when something goes wrong, even as a developer, I have no clue what it's trying to tell me. And when it comes to email I've really seen absolutely no use for it beyond keeping my Google, Exchange, and other calendars/email accounts in sync. And no, I don't want to save anything to iCloud, I'd prefer it on my hard drive until iCloud gives me the same level of convenience in managing my files as Dropbox thank you very much.
kybernetyk 14y ago
Back then I had a paid me.com account - just for syncing the OS X keychain and preferences between my Macs. Ironically with iCloud they removed that one feature that made the whole service worthwhile for me.

by rm999 14y ago

k-mcgrady 14y ago

iCloud is a collection of services which includes all of things you mentioned. The web interface is horrible but it works pretty well for me syncing between the desktop and mobile apps. >> "you can't even do standard cloud stuff like share photos" You can, shared photo streams which came with iOS 6 I think. You can also create shared photo journals in iPhoto (on iOS) which I presume work through iCloud.

rm999 14y ago
>You can, shared photo streams which came with iOS 6 I think. You can also create shared photo journals in iPhoto (on iOS) which I presume work through iCloud. Thanks for letting me know. I tried to do a mobileme style photo album about six months ago and was amazed that they had removed such a useful feature. Glad to hear it's back, even if it's in a slightly different form.

vvhn 14y ago

> I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for It's a syncing service first (and you can optionally opt in to get an email-id). The website provides you webapps for your synced iCloud contacts, calendars, notes, reminders and iWork documents and for "Find your iDevice". For other applications it serves as cloud "storage" but there's no web interface for those. The app icons are equivalent to iOS app grid and the little cloud button serves as the home button for the "Apps"

roc 14y ago

iCloud is first and foremost just a bit of service glue to make the native email/calendar/etc apps 'work' without sending people to Google or assuming they have a work Exchange account. In that capacity, it's as good as it needs to be. [1] Similarly the file sharing is just to set a third-party baseline so that file/save sync'ing between Apps on the mobile devices 'works' without sending people off to Dropbox. And in that capacity it also works just fine. Sure, it resists power-user use. But that's just because, in true Apple fashion, it's not built for it and doesn't care too much about it. But that only makes it 'shit' inasmuch as about 90% of Apple's services are 'shit' and places it distinctly outside the way Jobs defined 'shit'. [1] Though filtering this crude is cause to reassess that.

mikeash 14y ago
"True Apple fashion" has only recently been about resisting power users. Before about five years ago, they were all about enabling power users while still being friendly to regular people. This was much more compelling than their current direction. Remember, this is the company that built their OS on top of UNIX and shipped a terminal app with it standard. It all changed around when the iPhone came out, though.
- roc 14y ago
  While we're keeping history in context, let's also not forget this is also the company that was borderline irrelevant prior to their current direction.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    I won't dispute that they're far more relevant today, but I disagree that they were borderline irrelevant circa 2005. They were quite successful selling Macs and had a credible alternative to the Windows monopoly. The iOS stuff certainly moved them to a whole new plane of success, but I don't have to like it.
    - roc 14y ago

jonknee 14y ago

Cloud is a hip word. Amazon's got a cloud. Google's got a cloud. Apple couldn't be left with just an iTools/.Mac/MobileMe now could they? I think Apple's inability to run web services is going to really come to pass in the near future. Everything is moving towards that way and Apple is still left in the "just sync with iTunes" world.

taligent 14y ago
Apple does actually know how to run web services. They run the world's largest media store and one of the world's busiest online stores in addition to iCloud. Just because MobileMe was a piece of junk doesn't mean they are completely clueless.
- jonknee 14y ago
  For most of its existence it was the only store compatible with the far and away market leader for audio players. The store did not win because of its technical chops. To boot their media store is still almost completely cut off from the web (they did try and juice some SEO and have landing pages, but iTunes likes to pop up most of the time). They sure love relying on iTunes... iTools/.Mac/MobileMe and iCloud were all pieces of junk. As was Ping. As is GameCenter. And iMessage. They have a lot of work to do.
  - taligent 14y ago
    Sorry but do you understand technology at all ? iTunes Music Store is a web service. Whether it delivers HTML or XML to a thick client is irrelevant. It still needs to deliver a tremendous volume of them in addition to managing the downloads. And by and large it has worked tremendously well. iTools/.Mac etc are all the same thing just rebranding. Ping was a product failure not a technological one. And GameCenter/iMessage use iCloud so not sure why you listed them.
    - jonknee 14y ago
      I'm sorry, but successfully running a digital download store in a desktop app does not impress me. Apple's innovations with the store were not technical but contractual (originally getting record labels to agree to flat per song pricing). iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud are all the same thing, but signify the number of reboots they have had over the years. Each time they say "it's fixed!" and then yea, it's not. Be my guest if you want to believe Apple is great at the web. Meanwhile Google will be feasting.

CamperBob2 14y ago

I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for As far as I can tell, you pay $99 or whatever, and it periodically sends a text to your iPhone telling you it hasn't actually backed up anything in XX weeks. Kind of a weird business model but then they didn't ask me.

chris24 14y ago
iCloud's free* now, actually. It became a free service when they transitioned away from the MobileMe branding. * You need a Mac or iOS device to join, though. And you can pay for additional storage if you want ($20, $40, or $100 per year), but that's not necessary.
- josteink 14y ago
  Free for a year. If you register it from an iDevice or some hardware bought from Apple. And then next year to keep iCloud "free", you need to buy more overpriced goods from Apple.
  - YooLi 14y ago
    100% false. Always free unless you pay for additional storage.
  - mhjacobson 14y ago
    Oh OK. Hey, just out of curiosity, could you link me to the page that lists the iCloud pricing scheme?
    - josteink 14y ago
      Well. What do you know? Maybe they've actually, for once in their lives, created a product not exclusively designed to suck money out of your wallet. (1) Must have been a pretty recent change though. (1) http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4874 http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4874
      - 14y ago

meaty 14y ago

On this topic, Microsoft actually provide an awesome platform in the form of windows live. It does everything and actually works

bpatrianakos 14y ago

I'm with you. I have a total love-hate relationship with it. I love how it keeps me in sync across all my iStuff (4 total) but when something goes wrong, even as a developer, I have no clue what it's trying to tell me. And when it comes to email I've really seen absolutely no use for it beyond keeping my Google, Exchange, and other calendars/email accounts in sync. And no, I don't want to save anything to iCloud, I'd prefer it on my hard drive until iCloud gives me the same level of convenience in managing my files as Dropbox thank you very much.

kybernetyk 14y ago

Back then I had a paid me.com account - just for syncing the OS X keychain and preferences between my Macs. Ironically with iCloud they removed that one feature that made the whole service worthwhile for me.