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Replacements for Apple’s iDisk, Gallery, and iWeb publishing

Monday, June 27, 2011 · 12:33 pm · 45 Comments

“Apple will introduce iCloud services this fall, and will kill its popular iDisk Gallery and iWeb services in 2012, leaving many searching for an alternative,” Jonny Evans writes fro Computerworld. “Apple hasn’t clarified if iCloud document sharing will offer iDisk’s features, and most don’t expect it to. Gallery and iWeb are also being cut — how will you replace them?”

Replacing iDisk:
• Dropbox
• Box.net
• SugarSync
• Carbonite

Replacing iWeb:
• Sandvox
• Rapidweaver
• Freeway

Replacing Gallery:
• Apple’s Photo STream
• flickr
• Facebook

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Comment Feed

45 Comments

1 2 Next »

Jubei

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:40 pm · Reply

iWeb app is not going away, as far as I understand. Just hosting. As far as Apple updating iWeb app itself after 2011, I’m still unsure about that one.
- Synth
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:13 pm · Reply
  
  That was my question. I was hoping Apple would continue developing iWeb and sell it for $9.99 on the app store.
  - RastaMouse
    
    Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:59 pm · Reply
    
    I really love iWeb, and will be sad if it does get left behind…
    
    My intranet in work has got me so much praise (made in iWeb), people constantly ask me how I’m able to create such great pages and publish them so quickly!
    - agreed, and ditto ...
      
      Monday, June 27, 2011 - 2:43 pm · Reply
      
      … I’ve used iWeb to post some … frivolous … web sites with photos or videos (see http://web.me.com/davidmeyer/MouthOffs/MouthOffs.html for an example) that would be too big to send via e-mail. RapidWeaver is a solid product, be not nearly as quick and easy as iWeb for these fairly complex sites … complex especially for the limited amount of input required of the user! RapidWeaver can let the user – especially a modestly-skilled user – do a lot more, but they have to work a bit more for it.
      - Brau
        
        Monday, June 27, 2011 - 5:34 pm · Reply
        
        iWeb is dead, dead, dead! Don’t believe the hopeful who suggest Apple will continue supporting it; they are merely rationalizing their vain hopes.
        
        Apple will not continue updating iWeb, any more than MS is going to invest in FrontPage. There’s absolutely no profit in it. iWeb and Frontpage were created during the “create your own website” boom which has been totally undercut by *free* alternatives such as FaceBook, MySpace, Flicker, etc, which include other benefits such as social networking and picture galleries as well.
        
        Now I have to figure out how to break this to my 74 year old uncle who bought his Mac because of the “easy factor”, spent 2 years learning iWeb to build our family site, now has no option but to learn another way. He can’t fathom thing like FTP or hosting. He just wants a button that says “Upload this to .Mac”. I’m betting he’ll just give up. Can’t blame him.
        
        74-year-old? why would ...
        
        Monday, June 27, 2011 - 8:14 pm · Reply
        
        … he need to learn another piece of software? If he was going to “become” a serious web designer, most certainly. It seems to me, though, that he will continue on in his current mode. His current software should be just fine for him, unless “someone” updates his OS beyond the support level. So … DON’T.
Ballmer's left nut

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:42 pm · Reply

Is this a joke? Replacing photos on Gallery is to post them on Facebook? Next I suppose the writer will propose replacing the going to be phased out MacBook with the Google Chromebook. Will my photos be subjected to pokes now?
Jesus

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:43 pm · Reply

But I love iDisk!!!
- Bill H
  
  Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 1:12 am · Reply
  
  Same here.
jimG

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:48 pm · Reply

One of the reasons I have used Macs is the generally complete integration of features. MobileMe provided that integration for the three features that apparently will no longer be supported. I had no problem paying a measly $100 a year for those features. I have no desire to have to find individual support for these three features. I have no idea why they are being discontinued. All that storage capacity in NC should be able to handle these features without a problem. Are you listening Apple?
- Brau
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 5:46 pm · Reply
  
  Just posting in total agreement. Got no reason to continue to use Macs if I have to use the same software and systems as Windows users. I may as well save some money on hardware and go Windows. I also liked having *one* place to host a site, gallery, and iDisk, as it kept my personal data more secure than having multiple accounts at FaceBook, Flicker, MySpace, Gooogle, YouTube, etc, where it’s being sold and subject to hackers.
- Ivar
  
  Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 3:09 am · Reply
  
  Yes! Clean mail account, clean diskspace, 100% control. I trust Apple more that the others mentioned.
  iWeb is a cool little thing that we use to build and maintain a small website the we host elsewhere. iWeb is integrated with the Mac and sure we can take the html and use it with something else…..but we’d rather not….
DWY

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:49 pm · Reply

This really sucks for me… I had the family pack for MobileMe and used iDisk extensively for my wife, daughter, mother backups and remote storage and hosted 3 web sites using the same space. Now I have to go and gett (and pay) for services all over the place instead of having them in a nice, neat location all in one place. Apple is losing that revenue from me, but apparently, it’s not sound business or enough of it to keep those services going. Bummer.
MacTrust

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 12:57 pm · Reply

The problem with Apple dropping these services from my perspective is that I don’t feel I can trust my data/services to Apple. It’s good that they are quick in adopting new technologies, but the downfall is that they sometimes cut what users are still using. So, I have subscribed to a standard web hosting provider and am in the process of moving all my sites over there. But do you think I’m going to continue using Apple software (iWeb) or Apple services (iCloud or anything else they come up with) to manage my digital life going forward? No. I don’t like having to drop it all and start over when it was working fine. I’ll stick with managing my own data now and will rely on third party tools and third party services other than Apple. I’ll keep using my Mac and iPhone for now, but am not sure about going forward. I’ll just have to play it by ear and see what else they drop from future versions of iOS or Mac OS X.
Spark

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:07 pm · Reply

…and I am never going back to New York City, because the hoagy diner they once had there is now closed.

There is an entire year before these mobile.me features go away. Apple didn’t stop these because they wanted to hurt you, they stopped them because they are unsupportable. The last 50 years of technology is littered with the carcasses of hardware and software that people loved, yet still came to an end. This is the world we live in. There is no permanence.
- Cubert
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:35 pm · Reply
  
  “…and I am never going back to New York City, because the hoagy diner they once had there is now closed. ”
- qka
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 2:02 pm · Reply
  
  How do you figure these are “unsupportable”?
  
  They are no longer in Apple’s interest to offer, especially for free. Period. End of discussion.
  
  Though it would be nice of Apple to admit that.
- Now, Now...
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 2:04 pm · Reply
  
  “There is no permanence.”
  
  Au contraire mon ami…
  
  Death and Taxes… Death and Taxes!
John

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:10 pm · Reply

I’m very upset for losing iDisk, and somewhat upset for losing Gallery.

I purchased Mobile.Me for the last three to four years, and it’s been great. Losing features for me is NOT moving forward!
Fatal

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:15 pm · Reply

iWeb has needed an update for a year. I see Apple leaving it as is forever. I want to find a replacement for iWeb. I don’t want to learn to code. What is out there to replace the easy web creation and upload that iWeb is?
- dmc
  
  Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 10:13 pm · Reply
  
  squarespace.com might be an option for you.
David F.

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:17 pm · Reply

Ok, can someone who understands this explain it for me. iDisk will no longer be available and storage of music, calendar items etc will not subtract from the 5GB storage limit Apple will provide. At the same time, I heard Apple will sell additional storage. What will be the need for that additional storage if you simply can’t drop any file into it as you do with iDisk?
- FTB
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:23 pm · Reply
  
  One question.
  
  Can someone show me where apple says that the icloud stuff like documents in the cloud etc, can NOT be shared?
  And where the 5GB of storage can’t either?
  
  Yes apple is killing iDisk, which if you were to scan MDN… You would see a ton of posters here bask iDisk all day long.
  But until icloud goes live, I’m not going to toss apple under the bus. I didn’t see where apple said that nothing in icloud cam be shared…
  - David
    
    Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 10:54 am · Reply
    
    iCloud data can only be accessed by apps with special permission, on devices logged into a particular account. There’s no provision for sharing, it’s not a web service.
    - David
      
      Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 7:33 am · Reply
      
      Actually I was wrong about that… sorry.
- DRMSSDB
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:35 pm · Reply
  
  “Your purchased music, apps, and books, as well as your Photo Stream, don’t count against your free storage. That leaves your mail, documents, Camera Roll, account information, settings, and other app data.”
  
  In short, at least a portion of what you would have stored on iDisk can be stored on iCloud, but just managed differently.
  - David F.
    
    Monday, June 27, 2011 - 4:31 pm · Reply
    
    Thanks, DRMSSDB. I just thought I read somewhere that only applications (like iWork) that have compatibility with iCloud can save documents. I do not mind paying additional money for more storage. I am paying $150 per year now for a MobileMe family plan anyway. So, I don’t mind paying extra for more space as long as I can store all file types – or at least most file types.
    
    Again, thanks for the clarification.
MEES

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:36 pm · Reply

I agree with most that MibileMe worked very well for what it did. I like being able to post my iWeb site for free and made me a happy Mac user. I will sorely miss being able to use iDisk and the public feature if these features are really going away and not being equally replaced. I’m giving iCloud a chance tho.

Also, there is no replacement for iWeb. iWeb isn’t perfect but I think it is much better than the alternatives.
aking0002

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:37 pm · Reply

I have been using Blogger instead of iWeb and hosting my site on GoDaddy. Seems to work fine. Also good iPad app Blogpress integrates well.
D0c

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:53 pm · Reply

I am using:
1. For iDisk: DropBox
2. For web design: RapidWeaver and Freeway Pro
3. For web hosting: http://www.towersnetwork.com
4. For Gallery: my web hosting and flikr
Ron

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 1:59 pm · Reply

I will miss several of those services. It was great getting all the things I got with MobileMe, with Apple hosting a domain I own, the ease of posting galleries from iPhoto, automatic backup in the cloud of my Quickbooks files, etc. Those were things I felt made MobileMe a bargain, not to mention the other parts they’re keeping, like sync, mail, etc.

I do wish Apple would reconsider. I’m happy to keep paying the $99 per year for what I was getting. It was well worth it.
TheConfuzed1

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 2:52 pm · Reply

Photobucket works well for as a replacement for gallery.
alanaudio

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 3:11 pm · Reply

I am very uncomfortable about four issues with Apple’s recent announcements.

Essentially Apple have taken to unilaterally declaring that what you have previously done is not going to happen any more.

First of all, Web hosting on Mobile Me was such a great feature that bought iLife specifically for iWeb and have subscribed to Mobile Me ever since. It was everything I wanted as it allowed me to make impressive sites and frequently update them without hassle. Apple decided that they would no longer allow me to do that.

The second issue is with regard to Rosetta not being part of Lion. I rely on Rosetta to allow me to access legacy files that were created in apps that have since been orphaned by their authors. I don’t use those apps for creative work any more, but being able to access legacy files is important. Apple decided that they would no longer allow me to do that.

Thirdly there is the fuss over Final Cut pro. Again Apple decided that all which has gone before is to be swept away and replaced with something that might prove to be better. Again it means that users will not be able to continue with workflows that they previously used. Apple decided that they would no longer allow me to do that.

Lastly there was the change to iCal on Mobile Me. I can’t honestly see that it’s much different to before, but the key difference is that it demands a very recent version of the OS, otherwise it will not work. I have used iCal to maintain and sync a number of calendars on a number of Macs. Some of those Macs are a few years old and will not run newer versions of the OS. I keep those Macs because they allow me to run the legacy apps that I mentioned in point two, but now cannot use iCal with them.

FFS, it’s only a calendar !!!! What is it about a calendar that requires a state of the art operating system ? iCal works with ancient versions of Windows, but nothing older than Leopard 10.5 on a Mac. Apple decided that they would no longer allow me to do that.

I can see that Apple needs to move forward and can’t support every legacy standard for ever more, but Apple also needs to understand that in the real world, we also invest in equipment and software that does not get updated by the manufacturers. We still need to be able to access those old files, continue with our current workflows and keep our hardware working for longer than one OS upgrade cycle.

It’s hard to see how I can trust Apple to look after my documents on iCloud for a few years when they can be so cavalier about so much other old stuff. What is to stop Apple suddenly declaring that they will no longer support an aspect of iCloud that I have begun to rely on ?
- jmmx
  
  Monday, June 27, 2011 - 6:58 pm · Reply
  
  Bravo alanaudio!
  
  I think you hit the nail on the head – it is about trust! I am a longtime Mac fan (say 1985) but I am really hurt by this. Who the hell wants to invest their time in Apple technology when all the effort might get pulled out from under your feet at any time??
  
  I am supposed to spend 80 hours moving all my stuff to something else because Apple wants to change things??? HEY *I* stuck with – and promoted – MobileMe throughout the .Mac -> Me fiasco just a few years ago – and this is the thanks I get: “Sorry dude” just take 2 or 3 weeks of your life to redo everything.”
  
  Sheeeee-it!
J. Scott

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 3:36 pm · Reply

I have built and manage over half a dozen websites with Freeway Pro and highly recommend it. Yes, it has a somewhat longer learning curve than the simplistic iWeb, but it is tremendously flexible and I haven’t found anything yet that I couldn’t accomplish with it. I build more sophisticated sites than I ever could with iWeb.

The best part is that I don’t have to know anything about HTML coding!

The other apps mentioned might be great too. I just can’t compare them.
Jubei

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 4:08 pm · Reply

I do not like the idea of so called experts suggesting to people/business to use Facebook for their web presence! That’s just stupid!
Derek Currie

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 4:09 pm · Reply

Thank You MDN! Another useful article for soon-to-be Ex-MobileMe users. Much appreciated!

A couple further points:

1) Replacing a website formerly on your iDisk: What are the best and least expensive options? (I know what I’m doing: Using my own server. But how about Joe and Jane Blow?)

2) DropBox:
(A) Only has encryption at THEIR END. That means they can access all your data. That means they can hand off your data to anyone, including our unconstitutionally nosey US government.
(B) They also severely damaged their reputation by allowing ANYONE to log into ANYONE’S account for over 4 hours last week. That means their IT staff SUCKS BAD.

–>The solution to the DropBox problem is this (as suggested by Steve Gibson of GRC.com): ENCRYPT everything AT YOUR END FIRST. That way it makes no difference how bad DropBox IT sucks or how totalitarian the US government becomes. Only YOU can read your data, forever, so there!

I use an encrypted sparseimage file for all my DropBox data. It is always encrypted and password protected. It also grows in size as I add more to it, which is ideal. Here are Apple’s instructions:

How to create a password-protected (encrypted) disk image in Mac OS X 10.3 or later
Whatever4real

Monday, June 27, 2011 - 4:19 pm · Reply

What people are failing to note is iWeb was not just website creation it was ad-free hosting with the price of admission. Now you have to find a hosting site. Many sites cost anywhere from 6/month to 20/month and is not as seamless as iWeb. For the price hosting and publishing along with iDisk and galleries was worth the price especially if you were a family pack user, like me. Apple violated my trust and I am out in the cold. They should have offered better support or alternatives not just another year until EOL. I’m sorry devotees. I supported and advertised this suite to coworkers and now I look like an ass. I would love to know how many IWeb sites were out there? How many galleries are in use? How many MobileMe subscribers are screwed? S what will we do when iCloud is gone or photo stream is gone , or when calendars are gone? Oh go to picasa, dropbox, outlook? It’s ashamed that apple is letting competitors take devoted customers. Who know maybe the competitors have a halo effect of their own? We will find out. But I have learned my lesson, I’m not putting all of my eggs in Apples basket again. iWork goodbye hello old but rude friend Office. Goodbye aperture, hello abusive relationship Photoshop. At least these products have proven they won’t just disappear. Sorry but I have to do it.