iOS 5 and iCloud - any immediate thoughts

[simongr]

Given that there are a number of Apple product users and detractors here I was wondering what people's reactions were to the announcements regarding iOS5 and iCloud.

I like the iCloud idea - my only concern is how much data it will chew through and the reliability/coverage over 3G.

iOS5 looks great and I am almost tempted to get a dev account to get it earlier

 

[tuppaware]

Currently reporting from WWDC
And I cant only say a little due to non-disclosure agreement but
most elements of the icloud only happen over wireless.

So transfer of your photos/music etc only happen when connected to wifi at this moment.
What is exciting is that is not only for 'Apple Apps' /

 

[opusman]

Love some of the new features of iOS 5, can't wait for that.
iCloud - meh, sounds like mostly techno marketing BS to me

 

[somebol]

iOS 5 sounds really good
* good to remove the dependency on a PC connection in order to activate, sync etc.
* enhanced apple apps (calendar, notifications, messages) look good
* ability to save web pages to read later (without wifi or 3g) is much needed.
* wifi sync... god bless

can't wait for the update.

As a paying mobile me customer, I am happy that I don't have to shell out $$$ once my mobile me subscription expires (not that I was going to renew anyway)

 

[tuppaware]

iOS 5 sounds really good
* good to remove the dependency on a PC connection in order to activate, sync etc.
* enhanced apple apps (calendar, notifications, messages) look good
* ability to save web pages to read later (without wifi or 3g) is much needed.
* wifi sync... god bless

can't wait for the update.

As a paying mobile me customer, I am happy that I don't have to shell out $$$ once my mobile me subscription expires (not that I was going to renew anyway)

Should of heard the laughs when Steve said sorry for mobileme!

 

[SimonM]

The news that you can use the iPhone camera from the unlock screen with the Volume Up button as the shutter button is great for me.

 

[Mal]

iOS 5 will be another iteration in the Apple OS. Plenty of new features. Some that are nice catch-ups to other devices, some that are truly new. Some that are pretty useless (oooh, Twitter integration. And my personal fav "Enhanced photo enhancements." Wow! ), but of course some that are good.

Hopefully it adds better management functions for corporates - Apple is still seriously lacking in this regard. I haven't seen anything about this though ... (Anyone got a link to corporate improvements?)

As for iCloud. Yay, nothing really new or revolutionary there. However, like all cloud services - be VERY careful with uploading corporate data to them. The rules regarding legal discovery and government access to your information may depend on where the data is stored...

 

[Nigelinoz]

Will iCloud mean the end of huge hard drives? I mean if you can upload documents to "The Cloud" is there really any need for terabytes of local storage?
Cheers
N'oz

 

[simongr]

The only problem with documents in the cloud is that my work documents will never be in the apple cloud - for a start we are a microsoft shop. Secondly there will be concerns over security.

I will try to get mrssimongr to migrate to iWork as she has my old iPad 1 that will make her life easier between work and home.

My only concern with the autoupdating through the cloud is that it might flood my iDevice with large amounts of data/music that might reduce capcity on the device.

I am working on using Twitter again - still not quite seeing the point as yet - also a couple of things I follow (AFF being one) completely flood the twitter feed so it is actually hard to follow things.

I will certainly be getting the largest capacity iPhone 5 when it is released.

 

[Mal]

Will iCloud mean the end of huge hard drives? I mean if you can upload documents to "The Cloud" is there really any need for terabytes of local storage?

The answer is both "Yes" and "No". Not really appropriate for the iOS love-fest thread, feel free to PM me or create another thread where I'll express my views (about Cloud technology overall - not just iCloud)

 

[tuppaware]

Hopefully it adds better management functions for corporates - Apple is still seriously lacking in this regard. I haven't seen anything about this though ... (Anyone got a link to corporate improvements?)

As for iCloud. Yay, nothing really new or revolutionary there. However, like all cloud services - be VERY careful with uploading corporate data to them. The rules regarding legal discovery and government access to your information may depend on where the data is stored...

Although on the surface I agree with you Mal. For us developers its much more exciting as IOS generally take what we get given with apple and run with it.

Many of the big changes wont be noticeable until a user loads a webpage or takes a photo. Coming from a demonstration where a html canvas/javascript element had a difference in rendering speed of 7x that of IOS 4 on the same iPad hardware. That might not sound exciting to a layperson but the continuation of improvement in this area is extraordinary!

Fortunately Apple doesn't have the fragmentation that Android seems to be suffering.

 

[Mal]

Many of the big changes wont be noticeable until a user loads a webpage or takes a photo. Coming from a demonstration where a html canvas/javascript element had a difference in rendering speed of 7x that of IOS 4 on the same iPad hardware. That might not sound exciting to a layperson but the continuation of improvement in this area is extraordinary!

Ok, evolution of an OS comes to light. Of course optimisation occurs in various ways (even on the same hardware). But the real question I have is ... Why was the improvement 7x, not 2x on the same hardware? To me, it shows in-maturity with the OS when it was originally designed.

Fortunately Apple doesn't have the fragmentation that Android seems to be suffering.

Yeah, that is an issue for developers. I can't really comment as I enjoy the fruits of their labour.

But Android is the top selling OS at the moment, and Apple are very, very scared.

I'm well known as a non-Apple fan, so I really shouldn't contribute to this thread too much..

 

[opusman]

It's apparently possible to upgrade to iOS 5 now without a developer account, if anyone is keen and game to try!

How To Upgrade To iOS 5 Today, Without Any Developer Account | Lifehacker Australia

 

[Skyring]

The iCloud thing sounds great - my collection of music and videos is straining my Mac, and overflowing my iDevices. I'd really like to be able to store it all offsite, as it were, and be able to ditch a lot of the physical media. One CD or DVD is nothing, but when I've got boxes full of the things, they clutter. and I've got to hunt through them when i want something specific.

I also like the notion of matching, where you don't necessarily have to upload everything. If the song is already filed away in the iCloud, it gives you a ticket to the filed copy.

It's also a nifty way of laundering all those pirated songs my offspring have been diligently collecting.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Should of heard the laughs when Steve said sorry for mobileme!

Not surprised, the Shrek family have been somewhat underwhelmed by it

 

[samh004]

Okay, lots of this affects me so I should probably have a say. Overall, I'm happy with what I've seen, read and heard.

In regards to iOS 5, I've heard that it all runs well on an iPhone 3Gs, my phone (despite it being temporarily away from me) and I can't wait to run the new OS and get into it. As I only have one iOS device, the syncing capabilities of iCloud matter a lot less, however being able to import camera roll photos to iPhoto wirelessly, or potentially having the same message data on an iPad in the future is something I really think would make life easier.

In regards to using non-Apple apps and keeping data in sync, I would hope Microsoft will come to the party, however the only issue I see is they've only recently released Office 2011, so they might wait until the next major release (2014 maybe) to fully support iCloud, and try as I might, iWork just doesn't work for me.

Onto iTunes, my biggest issue these days is having enough space on my computers. I have 13k+ photos and 24k+ music with a few movies in there for good measure (though haven't really got into downloading movies just yet). So if I was able to store my 'digital life' on the cloud for only $25 a year, downloading what I wanted when I wanted it, I might be tempted. Naturally, while download and upload limits here are increasing, that's not the same or as easy in every part of the world I could conceivably travel to, though I expect prior to travel, downloading what I would like to take wouldn't be hard.

And of course, not paying for my email anymore is useful, though what happens to my website? I've known for as long as everyone else that iWeb was discontinued, so it's no surprise I'll have to move my blog again, but it's disappointing it looks like there'll be no hosting anymore. I guess they deemed that area as a failure, wasn't for me, but with the saving of membership I'm sure I can find a home somewhere out there.

So I can't wait to upgrade to iCloud and give everything a go, see how it works, what bandwidth it uses up and if it'll be practical for me. I think it's got a lot of promise... especially if I could be in the city one day and want to play a song I know I have, that's not on my iPod at the time, and just download it from the cloud and listen to it. That'd be cool.

But Android is the top selling OS at the moment, and Apple are very, very scared.

I'm well known as a non-Apple fan, so I really shouldn't contribute to this thread too much..

Troll!

 

[Nigelinoz]

I must be terribly old fashioned,as regards movies well I have over 600 dvd's that are kept in cases in a specially built cabinet,I have them barcoded and have a database that I can access to check the date that I purchased the dvd,how much I paid for it etc,I can't see myself bothering to upload any of these to the cloud,the same goes for my audio cd collection,I don't bother with iTunes and have no tunes on my phone,I don't use a phone with cough speaker to listen to music.
I also keep my photos on cd and in hard copy in an old fashioned album,as regards other documents well I have a 1 terabyte external hard drive that I use for my"mission critical" files,I back up all my files every week and every month I go through the desktop hard drive and delete everything because I have the external hard drive copy,I suppose that means that iCloud could be usefull to me because I would no longer need to delete the desktop files each month if they were synchronised across my devices,but it would mean switching to Apple and I would need a bit of persuading to do that.
Cheers
N'oz

 

[samh004]

I must be terribly old fashioned,as regards movies well I have over 600 dvd's that are kept in cases in a specially built cabinet,I have them barcoded and have a database that I can access to check the date that I purchased the dvd,how much I paid for it etc,I can't see myself bothering to upload any of these to the cloud,the same goes for my audio cd collection,I don't bother with iTunes and have no tunes on my phone,I don't use a phone with cough speaker to listen to music.
I also keep my photos on cd and in hard copy in an old fashioned album,as regards other documents well I have a 1 terabyte external hard drive that I use for my"mission critical" files,I back up all my files every week and every month I go through the desktop hard drive and delete everything because I have the external hard drive copy,I suppose that means that iCloud could be usefull to me because I would no longer need to delete the desktop files each month if they were synchronised across my devices,but it would mean switching to Apple and I would need a bit of persuading to do that.
Cheers
N'oz

I can't recall if you have an iPhone or not, but if you're not an iOS device user, or a mac user, iCloud isn't really targeted at you anyway

I just put iOS 5 on my iPhone. I love the notification centre. Considering the amount of pushed notifications I get, makes my life a lot easier. Even if it was copied from WP7/Android.

When I get my phone back I'll have to give it a try in that case!

iCloud. Well, it had to happen. Apple found another aspect of people's data to control.

I don't look at it as controlling, as it's just MobileMe rebranded, and there's nothing stopping you not using the iTunes iCloud service to store music? No one is forcing you to enable it... yet

 

[nlagalle]

But Android is the top selling OS at the moment, and Apple are very, very scared.

An OS that can operate on different devices is always going to sell more. However I still see more iPhones out and about to Android devices. I don't believe apple will be too scared about that.

 

[LiamR]

An OS that can operate on different devices is always going to sell more. However I still see more iPhones out and about to Android devices. I don't believe apple will be too scared about that.

That would be because in Australia, apple have a tight hold on the market.

In US you see a lot more Androids than iPhones.