“With today’s reveal of the next version of OS X – OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion – Apple is more deeply integrating its iCloud service into the operating system itself,” Sarah Perez reports for TechCrunch.
“No longer will storing your documents in the cloud feel like an extra, value-added feature – it will feel like part of the OS itself,” Perez reports “The cloud is just another drive, Apple seems to say, and saving to the cloud should look and feel no different than saving to your Documents folder or your Desktop.”
“While on the surface, it’s easy to dub iCloud ‘Apple’s version of Dropbox,’ the truth is actually more complex: it’s about building a new computing paradigm,” Perez reports. “In testing the new iCloud integration in Mountain Lion, a file could be open in multiple locations – say, your Mac, iPad and iPhone – and when a change was made, it would appear almost instantly across all three devices in real time. You don’t have to wait for a notification, or reload the file. It just appears. While the immediate thought is that iCloud is rapidly turning into Apple’s own, improved version of Dropbox, it’s also a fierce competitor to Google Docs, and the long-rumored Google Drive.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Gruber’s hands on with Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion – February 16, 2012
My experience with Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview – February 16, 2012
Apple’s Phil Schiller talks rapid speed of OS X Mountain Lion release; mere 7 months after Lion – February 16, 2012
Hands on with Apple’s new OS X Mountain Lion – February 16, 2012
Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview; public release coming in late summer 2012 – February 16, 2012
Dropbox still wins IMO. As great as having everything on all my Apple Devices is, having everything on ALL devices is better.
I’m with you. I rarely use iCloud but my Dropbox account gets heavy use daily – I can be working on 4 computers simultaneously on different subnets with multiple large Photoshop and other graphic/video files. The 12GB I have at this point is more useful to me than the 5GB iCloud. The apps I use most work
perfectly with Dropbox. But I’m not saying “no” to utilizing iCloud more in the future, but for now Dropbox wins.
…in hindsight, IMO iCloud is “passive” backup compared to Dropbox’s “active” capabilities. fwiw.
http://minus.com/
I prefer over DROPBOX
Dropbox’s key feature is the ability to share with other users, which will always give it an advantage over iCloud in its current state. Sure, Apple could add it in the future, but that’s obviously not their goal at this point. They want you to be able to access specifically your files from all your Apple devices without hassle.
Dropbox will still be there for when you have to work on a project with multiple people and need a secure way to stay in sync.
I’m not sure what you mean by “…ALL devices…” I access iCloud everyday from my Windows Internet Explorer to update spreadsheets and documents. Yes I like DropBox for things like sharing subsets of photos with others, I think iCloud is great at sharing my Office Documents on all my Apple and Windows devices.
I would still like to be able to move things in and out of there like iDisk. It was great for giving clients test video or audio files
I feel a new iWork in the near future.
YES!!! With collaboration features, please! We need to be able to share with OTHERS too, not just between our own devices.
That’s what I was just thinking about. That’d be great with group projects and such. It’d be neat to have read/write options too.
… I really do. But it isn’t DropBox. Or any of several other “cloud” devices. Not until I can store – and ACCESS! – web pages out there. I don’t need BIG ones. Small is just fine. And I’d like to (any of several things my MobileMe account would do that iCloud doesn’t) as well. iCloud is fine, but I need more. Along with it.
Well duh, Dropbox wins because iCloud on Mountain Lion isn’t here yet. Let’s all make a judgement on a service that isn’t even going to be ready until the end of summer. WOW!!
excellent point
http://minus.com/
for me is far better then DropBox
Can I have more than 1 iCloud account on my Mac? The one iCloud per iOS device is one thing, but I’m not gonna buy a Mac for every family member. That’s getting silly.
Create different accounts on the mac for each person. Then each account can have a different iCloud account.
The main differentiator for me is that iCloud groups docs by app whereas DropBox permits the user to group docs from various apps in a single folder/subfolder. So, if I’m planning a trip, I can group a spreadsheet for costs, some pdfs of my boarding passes, etc.
“Apple’s iCloud is no Dropbox killer – it’s much, much more”
Phrased that way, the writer seems to mean “better”. But so far it’s just “different”. iCloud does not currently match even Dropbox BASICS. It does different things. And I don’t see that is, necessarily, going to change.
If iCloud could work more granular; I would love to be able for my wife’s iPhone to use the same iCloud account as mine for the photo stream, to share pics on one stream. But then have the calendar and other apps work with our own iCloud account. Right now it’s all one account per person, no sharing iClouds.
Hopefully there will be a way to share files from iCloud like there was in iDisk.
It’s all blocked in my big corp. So… no Clouds for me ;-/…
AirDrop = DropBox
iCloud is way bigger..