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What do you guys think of iCloud?

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dylo22

Android Enthusiast
What do you guys think of iCloud? I like how you can keep all your devices synchronized but I can imagine it will use up a lot data for mobile. For people who are on tiered plans, this might suck. A lot of the other services google already have. So nothing new there. What are your thoughts?
 
dylo22 said:
What do you guys think of iCloud? I like how you can keep all your devices synchronized but I can imagine it will use up a lot data for mobile. For people who are on tiered plans, this might suck. A lot of the other services google already have. So nothing new there. What are your thoughts?
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I'm not sure what i think of the iCloud because i don't own an iDevice.

But i have used the cloud with Google music, not very much but that's because all of the low data caps and high prices on most carriers, i find cloud features pretty useless. I can easily use 1gb of data in a couple weeks. And that's just listening to Pandora, and watching some Youtube videos.

In the future it may become very useful, but as it sits now I'm afraid of using cloud services since i know i will hit my data cap and get throttled before the end of the month.
 
I use MobileMe at the moment for posting a few pictures, mainly because it's about the only photo hosting service which is freely available in China. I'll probably use iCloud for the same purposes. Apple officially has a presence in China, so iCloud should be available here.

So far most of the other so called cloud services have been a complete fail, e.g. Google Docs, Picasa, various cloud music services. Would be a complete waste of time for me to have a Chromebook. I do use Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar, as they appear to work just fine here and I do have an Android phone.

I have a Macbook Pro, but no iOS devices.
 
Roze said:
if iCloud means no more iTune, than good for the iPeople!!!
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I think that's the idea of the forthcoming iOS 5, The iDevices no longer have to be plugged into the iTunes to sync and activate them, it's all done through the iCloud. That should keep the iPeople happy.



An iEnglishman in the iPeople's iRepublic of iChina.
overlook fing screenshot.jpg
One can bet iCloud will work in iChina. It's an iWorld that some of us live in.
 
mikedt said:
So far most of the other so called cloud services have been a complete fail, e.g. Google Docs, Picasa, various cloud music services.
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Really how so? I think google docs is great. In college I composed all my papers in google docs. It's not quite as robust as word, but for most cases it gets the job done. It's also not platform specific. All you need is a device with a browser to access your documents. It's great for collaborative papers with team members.

I can't say much about picasa because I don't use it, but I like how they are integrating it with google plus.

I've heard great things about google and amazon music service. The fact that they store and stream music is big plus.
 
I think that the concept of cloud storage is sound. If you can access any data that you have from anywhere on any device, it makes finding your data that much easier. It also takes some maintenance tasks like backups out of the users' hands. Many people probably don't do timely backups. If cloud storage manages that and can ensure that backups are made in case of some catastrophic hardware failures, it makes things just more convenient to the user.

I think that some people will be wary of having their data stored and managed by someone else. There is the possibility that a data breach in the company that manages the cloud results in private or sensitive information being revealed inappropriately. I think that over time, the convenience factor will win over the security concerns for most people.
 
Stuntman said:
I think that the concept of cloud storage is sound. If you can access any data that you have from anywhere on any device, it makes finding your data that much easier. It also takes some maintenance tasks like backups out of the users' hands. Many people probably don't do timely backups. If cloud storage manages that and can ensure that backups are made in case of some catastrophic hardware failures, it makes things just more convenient to the user.
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That's me :) I use look out to back up my photos and contacts. Life saver when I lost my Nexus One and the pictures were all there. I just wish that it could also upload videos as well. Lookout and dropbox meets my storage needs, lol.

I think that some people will be wary of having their data stored and managed by someone else. There is the possibility that a data breach in the company that manages the cloud results in private or sensitive information being revealed inappropriately. I think that over time, the convenience factor will win over the security concerns for most people.
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The security is more of an issue for companies than individuals imo. Unless you are a pedophile or naked pictures of yourself, I don't think people would care much for your music, e-journal or pictures of your kids and family vacations, lol.
 
Roze said:
The security is more of an issue for companies than individuals imo. Unless you are a pedophile or naked pictures of yourself, I don't think people would care much for your music, e-journal or pictures of your kids and family vacations, lol.
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:eek: Roze!

I use Amazon's Cloud service. I bought the 20GB/year plan for $20 so I can put all of my music up there without using any GB.
 
Don't use apple. No thoughts about apple cloud. I don't like anything automatic. First thing I do with any device is look for automatic stuff and disable it. I don't sync I transfer to and from, upload and download. Besides I have way more data than any of these cloud solutions can help me with.
 
MS is already causing problems with the EU with MS cloud storage. Apparently DHS or some other government agency has the privileges of vetting cloud data for the Patriot Act, and that includes European data.

While I don't have anything outlandish to hide, just on GP I think I'll use portable hard drives etc, to back up. If I want a pic, I can always use email to get it from one device to another.
 
Roze said:
The security is more of an issue for companies than individuals imo. Unless you are a pedophile or naked pictures of yourself, I don't think people would care much for your music, e-journal or pictures of your kids and family vacations, lol.
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Even individuals have sensitive information like financial data, passwords, personal diaries, etc. that they do not want leaked out.

zuben el genub said:
MS is already causing problems with the EU with MS cloud storage. Apparently DHS or some other government agency has the privileges of vetting cloud data for the Patriot Act, and that includes European data.
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The US Patriot Act also affects Canadian companies because it conflicts with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada. Companies are prohibited from using any services that may be subject to the US Patriot Act that can result in data revealed to a third party. In this case the third party is the US Government. I know that the Patriot Act and PIPEDA has made the company I work in change certain vendors. Also while we do have US vendors provide some services to us, we have stipulations that prohibit any data from crossing the border.

Even with these stipulations, there has been some concern where it may be possible for the US government require US businesses that have a presence internationally to have to provide the US government with required data. I heard this in a new item some years ago and can't remember exactly. If someone can confirm this, I'd appreciate it. If this is true, then the business is then caught in a tough position where they cannot comply with these conflicting laws unless they break one of them.
 
I will know more when I test it. Right now, it seems good on paper. 5GB of storage for files not purchased on iTunes. Unlimited storage for those that are. Clearly they are pushing for people to buy their media on iTunes, but I suppose that is fair. I probably won't end up using it much since I don't buy anything on iTunes when other (legitimate) stores are generally cheaper.
 
dylo22 said:
Really how so? I think google docs is great. In college I composed all my papers in google docs. It's not quite as robust as word, but for most cases it gets the job done. It's also not platform specific. All you need is a device with a browser to access your documents. It's great for collaborative papers with team members.
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Google Docs is just unavailable here, due to the GFW censoring. I do use a proxy sometimes to watch BBC iPlayer, but if I try and log into Google through the proxy. Google gets rather cranky about it, and thinks my account is being used improperly and has been compromised. Maybe because it thinks I'm in China and the UK simultaneously, or because of the proxy.

Also I wouldn't be particularly happy about the United States Government having free access to my confidential stuff under the US PATRIOT Act. I'm British and living in China, so it's non of their business anyway. I've got nothing to hide and I'm not a terrorist, it's just the principle of this.

dylo22 said:
I can't say much about picasa because I don't use it, but I like how they are integrating it with google plus.

I've heard great things about google and amazon music service. The fact that they store and stream music is big plus.
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Those are US only, travel outside of the US and you no longer have access to your music. I did try Mougg which works here, uploaded a few songs, but found in the end it wasn't worth the hassle. I just keep the songs I want on an SD card in my phone.
 
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