[Macworld]

Post your comments for Why the key to Apple's future is in the clouds here

[mrobertson]

And where we used to transfer data between devices manually we will now have to constantly pay to access it. Corporations have got to love this given how limited data plans are - how quickly will they be used up accessing your own data before you have $10.00 over charges mounting up.
Welcome to the post-PC world. Ka ching!

[Robert Bolin]

mrobertson, on 31 March 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

And where we used to transfer data between devices manually we will now have to constantly pay to access it. Corporations have got to love this given how limited data plans are - how quickly will they be used up accessing your own data before you have $10.00 over charges mounting up.
Welcome to the post-PC world. Ka ching!

A bit of hyperbole there, no? The majority of these services are still optimized (and often limited to) wi-fi connections. Unless you are massively careless it should be easy to avoid overages on your data plan until the marketplace kicks in and levels that playing field as well.

[spiderbat]

Just my 2 cents:

- This trend has its unquestionable advantages, but it goes in the direction of a larger dependency of the final user on services that are totally outside her/his grasp and control.

- The previous service offered by Apple, Mobile Me, had features that are not available in iCloud. Ok, iCloud is (for the time being) free, while MM was a paid service, but nothing would have forbidden the proposal of, say, an iCloud+...

- If you are a windows user you can use iCloud with 3 different versions of the os(-wannabe). Mac users are forced tu upgrade to the last version of OS X, lion. Doesn't look like a friendly move at all.

[hagen]

Robert Bolin, on 31 March 2012 - 08:49 AM, said:

mrobertson, on 31 March 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

And where we used to transfer data between devices manually we will now have to constantly pay to access it. Corporations have got to love this given how limited data plans are - how quickly will they be used up accessing your own data before you have $10.00 over charges mounting up.
Welcome to the post-PC world. Ka ching!

A bit of hyperbole there, no? The majority of these services are still optimized (and often limited to) wi-fi connections. Unless you are massively careless it should be easy to avoid overages on your data plan until the marketplace kicks in and levels that playing field as well.

Hyperbole no. Our data plan (dsl) is 'capped' at 40 GB. That gets gobbled fast with any sort of streaming, or cloud storage. iphone, 2 macs and a pc. sync those through the cloud? even on our wireless network, it makes zero sense and quadruples the bandwidth necessary for sharing of a single item. hard connect the devices and sync locally.

Plus, exactly what data needs to be sync'd every second? While away on holiday or biz trip as a file backup? Perhaps, but you certainly don't need those 1000 photos you took. Syncing them is a waste.

[likethepear]

My Ma is not a device, thank you very much!

[Stewsburntmonkey]

hagen, on 31 March 2012 - 09:59 AM, said:

Plus, exactly what data needs to be sync'd every second? While away on holiday or biz trip as a file backup? Perhaps, but you certainly don't need those 1000 photos you took. Syncing them is a waste.

Fortunately Apple provides decent controls for users to be able to disable the services they don't want or need. If you don't want to sync photos, you don't have to.

[klahanas]

Though I logically agree with the aguments the author raises, there is absolutely no "PC" in any of this cloud business. This is IT and the mainframe all over again. It's the antithesis of the PC. The personal computer is truly personal because you

1) Own it.
2) Have TOTAL control over it.
3) It houses your data (Okay sometimes it hoses your data )

Now you buy something analogous to a dumb terminal, tied to a mainframe (the cloud). All you really own, is your data (maybe). There is a place for this IT/Mainframe function, but "personal", it's not.

[Robert Bolin]

hagen, on 31 March 2012 - 09:59 AM, said:

Robert Bolin, on 31 March 2012 - 08:49 AM, said:

mrobertson, on 31 March 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

And where we used to transfer data between devices manually we will now have to constantly pay to access it. Corporations have got to love this given how limited data plans are - how quickly will they be used up accessing your own data before you have $10.00 over charges mounting up.
Welcome to the post-PC world. Ka ching!

A bit of hyperbole there, no? The majority of these services are still optimized (and often limited to) wi-fi connections. Unless you are massively careless it should be easy to avoid overages on your data plan until the marketplace kicks in and levels that playing field as well.

Hyperbole no. Our data plan (dsl) is 'capped' at 40 GB. That gets gobbled fast with any sort of streaming, or cloud storage. iphone, 2 macs and a pc. sync those through the cloud? even on our wireless network, it makes zero sense and quadruples the bandwidth necessary for sharing of a single item. hard connect the devices and sync locally.

Plus, exactly what data needs to be sync'd every second? While away on holiday or biz trip as a file backup? Perhaps, but you certainly don't need those 1000 photos you took. Syncing them is a waste.

And what you sync is entirely under your control, so it's still hyperbole. And 40Gb is a lot more than you think.

[Robert Bolin]

klahanas, on 31 March 2012 - 11:29 AM, said:

Though I logically agree with the aguments the author raises, there is absolutely no "PC" in any of this cloud business. This is IT and the mainframe all over again. It's the antithesis of the PC. The personal computer is truly personal because you

1) Own it.
2) Have TOTAL control over it.
3) It houses your data (Okay sometimes it hoses your data )

Now you buy something analogous to a dumb terminal, tied to a mainframe (the cloud). All you really own, is your data (maybe). There is a place for this IT/Mainframe function, but "personal", it's not.

Sorry, even if we ignore the Mac and focus on iOS devices, they are not even close to 'dumb' devices, this analogy you are straining to make just doesn't hold up.

[NanaMasuda]

Robert Bolin, on 31 March 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

klahanas, on 31 March 2012 - 11:29 AM, said:

Though I logically agree with the aguments the author raises, there is absolutely no "PC" in any of this cloud business. This is IT and the mainframe all over again. It's the antithesis of the PC. The personal computer is truly personal because you

1) Own it.
2) Have TOTAL control over it.
3) It houses your data (Okay sometimes it hoses your data )

Now you buy something analogous to a dumb terminal, tied to a mainframe (the cloud). All you really own, is your data (maybe). There is a place for this IT/Mainframe function, but "personal", it's not.

Sorry, even if we ignore the Mac and focus on iOS devices, they are not even close to 'dumb' devices, this analogy you are straining to make just doesn't hold up.

Rather than this being an either/or, there is a new paradigm now, don't you think, that merges and transcends the concepts of smart/local and dumb/terminal? We now have increasing smarter devices but with perhaps less local storage (at less some of them) that are increasingly cloud network terminals as well. It's the best of both worlds. And while it is true that it may take a bit of getting used to navigating the new settings options to determine what should sync and what should not, it can be done. And external storage, vast amounts of it at cheap prices, is also still available to those who want it.

[Wierdninja]

When data and broadband are cheaper and also unlimited (uncapped), then, maybe this can be true. But, until then the "Cloud" will never be what companies like Apple are betting their futures on. The "Cloud" as it is now, is, too expensive, too unreliable, too unsecure, and in most places in this country, too slow. So when Corporate America makes the "Cloud", cheap, and unlimited, the "Cloud" will become everyone's indispensable tool.

[ChrisLJ]

I just wish Amazon's Kindle synchronization worked as well as Apple's. Downloading eBooks directly from Amazon works great, but integrating from other sources can be a major effort in frustration. And then, syncing between the Kindle, their storage and my Mac can simply be futile. It's a darn shame such a useful product can't have a system that simply works.

[klahanas]

Robert Bolin, on 31 March 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

klahanas, on 31 March 2012 - 11:29 AM, said:

Though I logically agree with the aguments the author raises, there is absolutely no "PC" in any of this cloud business. This is IT and the mainframe all over again. It's the antithesis of the PC. The personal computer is truly personal because you

1) Own it.
2) Have TOTAL control over it.
3) It houses your data (Okay sometimes it hoses your data )

Now you buy something analogous to a dumb terminal, tied to a mainframe (the cloud). All you really own, is your data (maybe). There is a place for this IT/Mainframe function, but "personal", it's not.

Sorry, even if we ignore the Mac and focus on iOS devices, they are not even close to 'dumb' devices, this analogy you are straining to make just doesn't hold up.

This "cloud" business isn't Apple specific. The analogy even holds for Wintel, Unix, or Linux computer's. It's the "cloud" parts I'm refering to. Managed applications, data, storage, etc., all from the cloud provider. I maintain that that's not "personal", not that these services don't have value. If you want to offload your IT duties (everyone has IT duties), then it's great. It does have IT type drawbacks though.

This post has been edited by klahanas: 31 March 2012 - 04:09 PM