“iCloud stores files on your Mac but Apple doesn’t give you easy access to the files from the Finder. Worse, iCloud doesn’t organize files the same way you would,” Jack D. Miller writes for Mac360.
“iCloud hides Photo Stream photos, and splits up your documents by the app that was used to create it in the first place,” Miller writes. “To get back the control you want over your files simply add Cloud Mate to your Mac.”
Miller writes, “This clever and inexpensive [US$6.99] Mac utility uses a Finder-like interface to display all the files that iCloud won’t display.”
Read more in the full article here.
Strange things happen when you cross the streams (of iOS and OSX).
Dr. Egon Spengler: There’s something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don’t cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, “bad”?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That’s bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.
This sounds awesome… But I have no need to second guess apple’s choices on files and iCloud.
That said, the one thing keeping me from really digging saving my files to iCloud is that spotlight on my Mac doesn’t seem to be aware of the files.
… just one of hundreds of reasons why iCloud is unusable for serious productive collaborative work.
iCloud is focused on consumer-grade media and calendar sharing, and even then Apple imposes anti-user limitations.
The lack of a built-in iOS Finder app to navigate and manipulate files on ANY server is a HUGE oversight. On this count alone, MacBooks are the only real portable workstation.
iOS devices, even with all kinds of 3rd party patches, simply make a mess out of what should be very straightforward data sharing. … and no, doodling little art sketches on an iPad that you post to Flickr does not make it a high-efficiency productivity machine.
Oversight means that someone overlooked something. Apple didn’t overlook file management in iOS; they deliberately removed it from the user interface.
Well, even with the lack of file management system, people are using iPad in the enterprise far more than all competing platforms combined.
care to back up your assertion with facts?
Ok, fine, I’ll do the research for you. Since immoderate Apple fanboys love to claim that Safari mobile web browser share “proves” that iGadgets using iOS are used more than any other mobile OS, then likewise TOTAL mobile plus desktop web usage would be a good indicator how many businesses rely on iOS.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/internet-explorer-6-usage-drops-below-5-percent-in-september/
What you conveniently forget is that iOS and Android are in the relatively early stages of growth, which means high sales. They have not even come close to replacing the existing Mac and PC desktop user base. I would argue that, as locked down as iOS is, it may never do so in businesses. Any business who relies on mobile productive work to be done should know that a MacBook is infinitely more powerful for productivity work. Tablets and phones are first & foremost media consumption devices for the masses. Parse the data yourself, it tells the story.
Of course iCloud is consumer orientated; I’ve yet to see any aspect of it aimed at business, businesses would be using the likes of Dropbox. Mike, you repeatedly insist on giving examples of everyday recreational use to show how unsuitable iDevices are to business, while ignoring the uses that they’re being put to in businesses, like health, aviation, etc.
The service engineers who look after the Pitney Bowes enclosing machines at my employer all use iPads as part of their work, with all the necessary ‘paperwork’ and forms for ordering spares on the device.
MacBooks are far too big and cumbersome to be used in many situations; try holding one in one hand, with a diagnostic diagram on the screen, while manipulating something on the machine in question.
When did I ever hint that a tablet isn’t a handy reader for reference information, or a handy way to process forms & such? That is not “productivity work”, that is replacement of paper for hands-on jobs. For companies who already host their manuals on web sites, tablets are perfect.
However, as you seem to agree, the iCloud is business-unfriendly. If Apple wants businesses to adopt its “cloud”, it will have to be platform agnostic and offer legacy file sharing tools — without awkward 3rd party solutions.
Moreover, in businesses where customer data is highly proprietary, copying it to some unknown server in the “cloud” is simply not acceptable. The incessant push to sell customers “iCloud” accounts, and the tailoring of OSes to prioritize this as the most prominent option for data saving, is reprehensible. Apple’s strategy of making their iCloud or the internet the only way to push data from mobile devices to existing computer systems (Mac or otherwise) is a FAIL. If it wasn’t, 3rd party developers and firms like Dropbox wouldn’t be needed, would they?
Un-Trust the cloud! 🙂
The computer should manage the files.
Having to have a “Task Manager” is a failure. 😛
I’ve been using Cloud Mate for months with no problems at all.
It’d be great to hear if it functions under 10.9 as Apple continues to evolve the sandboxing of apps and their data.
Sweet, I like this, thanks.
For $7, I was willing to try. Alas, it’s not on the App Store, you have to buy direct. Sorry Cloud Mate, I’m not paying for an app on your website with a credit card. :0(
Why not? They use a secure website. Just wondering.
Why not, Pirate? Does your username indicate your reluctance to use a credit card online? Have you never, ever, bought a service or product from a website?
You’re already online, posting on here, so what’s the problem?
Use a Virtual Account Number, single use only, $10 credit line, 30 day expiration date. No worries.
For so many that said MobileMe was a disfunct apple service, if you ask me it gave me a lot more control of what I wanted to do with files. This story just shows how much icloud use to function better; especially with idisk which i would use everyday! It functioned just liked dropbox, if not better in some instances. So Apple, please bring back iDISK!
Probably one one of my saddest Mac days. I miss my iDisk…It truely was the easiest and better than all the alternatives available today, for me.
If you are upset with Apple’s iCloud, you should ask yourself if you understand Apple’s purpose for iCloud or if you are wishing for Apple to supply a DropBox-style storage space off your computer. Because if you’re wishing for the latter you are ignoring every positioning statement from Apple and every reality of what they implemented thus far.
For those looking for collaboration, including Spotlight indexing of documents in collaboration, that’s what Apple provides in OS X Server.
Apple claims on its iCloud web page:
“iCloud lets you access your movies, photos, documents, and more from whatever device your’s on [sic]. It’s easy to set up and use. And [sic] with features that give peace of mind and make sharing simple, iCloud is also great with just one Apple device.”
Okay, so what do you do when a client asks you to review and markup a Visio diagram hosted on his server? Hate to break the news to the iOS fanboys, but the correct thing to so is set aside your iPad and pick up your Mac. You don’t recommend to your business associates how “easy it is to set up iCloud”.
I’d like to be able to login to my iCloud account from a different iPad. Sometimes I need to do this. You can’t use an iPad to login to iCloud at all. I also liked iDisk. Oh well, I just hope iCloud keeps improving. I never liked the ridiculously named MobileMe. Right, me.com…
Haha, I agree, MobileMe, I still use and type @mac.com.
Of course, there is also Plain Cloud (http://cookingrobot.de/plaincloud)