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iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

cringely.com

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Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#31

Post by Total_Meltdown »

evilduck wrote: post #24
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what do you use on a Mac to compose documents? Word. No. I use Pages (part of Apple's iWork) for almost everything. If I need Word comparability, I open LibreOffice. Given how seamless the iWork experience is becoming between iDevices (which will be including Macs), how much cheaper iWork is, and how much better the iWork user experience is (they don't have 20 years of feature-cruft littering the interface),…

Google Docs for me on OSX. The no-hassle availability anywhere without an install covers 95% of my document creation needs, the fact that everything's autosaved to the cloud and can be collaborated on, versioned, and exported keeps me coming back, and I don't have to worry about software version compatibility with anyone I share with which is a killer feature. Anything that requires style or aesthetics gets drafted i…

Google Docs is Office's closest competitor, but not outside individuals and small organizations, simply BECAUSE it's all stored on "the cloud". BitBucket and GitHub have the same problem. It's not that they're not good products, it's that there are many, many, many very large companies that want to keep their data to themselves.

And by the way, being "encrypted" on the cloud doesn't usually mean what most people seem to think it means. Example: http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/security/2295006...

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#32

Post by georgieporgie »

cwp wrote: post #30
georgieporgie wrote: post #28

What a load of inflammatory hogwash. iPhone/iPod/iPad + 'Cloud' is so far removed from Microsoft's core market, I can't even imagine how one would come to this conclusion. As for consumer trends leading corporate trends, I guess that means that in five years we'll all be employed as {whatever}ville click-slaves on Facebook.

Speaking of inflammatory hogwash...

A valid criticism, I admit. :-)

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#33

Post by microtonal »

umtrey wrote: post #11

People are worried about the cloud-killing PR mistake or security breach that will cripple the efforts to get data into these controlled data centers, so this makes perfect sense. Start the focus with something everyone will know: Music. If someone breaks into your music collection... oh no? I was keeping my Duran Duran passion a secret. Once this catches on, any mistake won't be a crippling one or a business-critica…

Indeed. To make your point more explicit: My girlfriend has my old iPhone 3G. Given that iCloud will not be supported on the 3G, she will have to buy a new phone once the MobileMe subscription runs out, to continue to use the handy synchronization features of MobileMe.

Now, it's just calendars and contacts, but as documents, "App state", etc. moves into iCloud, people will feel necessary to update to the latest device more often to be able to use iCloud in its fullest.

Every year you do not upgrade your device, you will miss out on more and more improvements, until your device becomes unsupported (the iPhone 3G was obsoleted well within 2.5 years).

iCloud and comparable offerings will make digital life easier for many people. But it will also be a lot harder to get out of the vendor grip. People will dislike these companies as much as they disliked Microsoft, but will be equally tied to their products.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#34

Post by eiji »

dagar wrote: post #14

"Having been shown the way by Apple, I expect Google to shortly do the same thing, adding automated backup, synchronization and migration to Android and Chrome." Doesn't my android phone already do this?

Excuse my ignorance, but NO. Without having read all the details of iCloud, I very much hope the following is possible:

App Foo on my Mac has some data, that it can encrypt into the iCloud, and App Foo on my iPhone get access that data. iCloud is just a storage, but I hope Apps can actually encrypt the data before they load it into the cloud. Now that would be something I would look forward too. Cloud computing is fine, but I want it to be the App developers choice to encrypt the hell out of my data so that iCloud has no idea what I actually own.

Google has cloud storage for all sorts of stuff, but they have access to it.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#35

Post by ugh »

eropple wrote: post #25
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what do you use on a Mac to compose documents? Word. No. I use Pages (part of Apple's iWork) for almost everything. If I need Word comparability, I open LibreOffice. Given how seamless the iWork experience is becoming between iDevices (which will be including Macs), how much cheaper iWork is, and how much better the iWork user experience is (they don't have 20 years of feature-cruft littering the interface),…

No. I use Pages (part of Apple's iWork) for almost everything. If I need Word comparability, I open LibreOffice. And if you need to do something remotely complex, neither works. Pages is decent for the very baseline word processing; OpenOffice is good for very little of anything. The overwhelming majority of people use Office because what you call "cruft" is what other people call "important".

Overwhelming majority? I doubt it.

I have no doubt at all that there is a small minority of people who absolutely cannot do without some feature of Word that no competitor offers. But that’s a minority, not a majority.

The reason why I’m using Word, why my parents use Word, why my friends use Word (despite not needing any feature it has over Pages or OpenOffice) is that everyone else is using it. Importing and exporting from Pages or OpenOffice to Word is just no fun at all but necessary if you live in a world where everyone uses Word. I don’t want to run that particular type of gauntlet.

(I so enjoy all the times when I don’t depend on anyone else and can create a presentation with Keynote. It’s a dream. But an impractical dream if you are working together with people who use PowerPoint.)

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#36

Post by varunsrin »

Having been shown the way by Apple, I expect Google to shortly do the same thing, adding automated backup, synchronization and migration to Android and Chrome

Hmm? Google already does most of this stuff on Android, though there are a few small features like sync of app data that are currently missing

Windows 8 not due until 2013

To the best of my knowledge, no date has been set for Windows 8

Jobs is going to sacrifice the Macintosh in order to kill Windows

No he's not - the Mac (particularly laptops) will continue to grow, as it has been over the past year. This is because, as always, there will be a percentage of the market that still needs a desktop-style computer for getting real work done. That percentage isn't going anywhere soon, though they may also buy an iPad / tablet style device.

You can call it post-PC all you want, but the reality is people still need desktops for getting some tasks done and that is likely to be true at least for a few more years.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#37

Post by blhack »

hnsmurf wrote: post #21

I don't get it. Most of what iCloud does is already being done on smartphones for free. Gmail and Exchange Server both already sync contacts, calendars, and email quite nicely across devices. I haven't had to manually transfer any of that to a new smartphone since long before there was an iPhone. The music thing is nice too, but it's either a paid solution or an incomplete one. Apple once released a stat that only 10…

It's just like when apple invented rsync. Or like when the invented multi-tasking on telephones. Or when they invented the touchscreen telephone. Or when they invented the dock. Or when they invented all of the things that they tout as innovations, but are really just shinier versions of things that already exist.

I'm not saying any of this is bad; time machine is a lot easier to use for a non-techie than rsync is, just saying that taking an existing technology, putting a lowercase i in front of it, and selling it as a game-changer has been Apple's modus operandi for quite some time now.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#39

Post by lukifer »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #10
spenrose wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted b/c I think your rejection of Cringely is right, but the reason is different. Jobs/Apple are not in this for the money. They simply believe that iOS + cloud is a better way to compute.

Your comment feels like it is giving Jobs and Apple a bit more altruism than I think they deserve. They are absolutely in it for the money, but I think you are also right that they see this as a better way of computing: a way that can make computing better and easier for many people (who, in turn will give Apple more money). It is a win-win for Aplle and the consumer, which is a great place for a company to be.

It's also true that even if you ascribe absolute altruism to Jobs and all the other stakeholders at Apple (which is a big leap), large revenues fuel their ability to do more R&D, take big risks, drive down costs to increase adoption of their cool tech, etc.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#40

Post by JonnieCache »

blhack wrote: post #37
hnsmurf wrote: post #21

I don't get it. Most of what iCloud does is already being done on smartphones for free. Gmail and Exchange Server both already sync contacts, calendars, and email quite nicely across devices. I haven't had to manually transfer any of that to a new smartphone since long before there was an iPhone. The music thing is nice too, but it's either a paid solution or an incomplete one. Apple once released a stat that only 10…

It's just like when apple invented rsync. Or like when the invented multi-tasking on telephones. Or when they invented the touchscreen telephone. Or when they invented the dock. Or when they invented all of the things that they tout as innovations, but are really just shinier versions of things that already exist. I'm not saying any of this is bad; time machine is a lot easier to use for a non-techie than rsync is, j…

I think you're broadly right, but you're missing the key point: apple are adding a lot more than a lowercase i to FOSS innovations: they're adding usable interfaces, polish, and the shiny lowercase i.

Time Machine is a lot more than branded rsync. It's usable branded rsync. And the usability is what makes it a "game-changer" in the consumer market where rsync and its algorithmic innovation isn't.

In many ways, it's the same thing that canonical is doing with ubuntu, except they have sweet sweet luxury hardware money backing them up compared to canonical's comparatively meagre support contract money, or whatever else it is that they do for cash.

Oh and let us not forget: isn't it a key part of the point of OSS is that it's OK, nay even encouraged for people to "steal" the ideas? I thought the concept of stealing an idea, especially a software idea, was supposed to be meaningless? Should the Australian National University have patented rsync back in '96?

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