“Those who are interested in the state of Apple as a company will know that online services are not its forte,” Max Slater-Robins writes for TechRadar.
“The primary problem with iCloud is that it doesn’t ‘just work’ and this creates problems for Apple’s overall image,” Slater-Robins writes. “Each failure on Apple’s part detracts from its credibility and image, eroding the loyalty of its customer base and damaging Cupertino’s reputation in terms of reliability.”
Slater-Robins writes, “Apple still has a chance to fix the damage that its tardiness is causing – it is unlikely that consumers are going to boycott iPhones on a large-scale because iMessage occasionally goes down – but each little incident chips away at the company’s credibility.”
Read more in the full article here.
What nonsense! If iMessage goes down it gets sent as an SMS. Most people don’t notice. iCloud Drive works as advertised. This is just a FUD piece.
Not FUD at all, whether the writer got his facts straight or not. I am hearing more complaints than ever before from ordinary folks who are having various iCloud-related problems. Apple is in such a frenzy to keep adding new frills to its iCloud-reliant services that it is no longer focusing on the fundamentals.
If you’re repeating anecdotes instead of your first hand experiences, you’re spreading FUD. My iCloud services all work fine. Bugs are bugs, not systemic failure.
My iCloud Drive has been running very smooth since its implementation. As of yet “0” none, No issues.
Not denying there are problems though apart from iMessage not always delivering a while back having noticed any, however I hear similar stories about Dropbox and as for Microsofts cloud competitor what looked easy at first I just could not make work or if it did I had no understanding of how. That indeed seems to be the new MS philosophy, complicated things now look superficially straightforward but Is any thing but in use. Let’s just say I went back to Dropbox immediately which may not look so pretty but is predictable and easy to understand.
Can you name a cloud multifaceted cloud service that does work? Adobe’s creative cloud: way more buggy than iCloud. DropBox: more stable but limited functionality. Google: better in some areas worse in others. I know it is in-fashion to bash Apple, but most people either 1) don’t know how things work and doing things wrong only to blame the service 2) expect products labeled as BETA to work as good as final products 3) just like to bitch or 4) don’t accept the trade-off that cloud services provide (you can’t have everything).
DropBox: more stable but limited functionality.
WHAT??? For many people, the real complaint about iCloud Drive is that it doesn’t do what Dropbox does either as easily or in some cases at all. I was so excited about iCloud Drive when it was announced, as I had been using my own personal cloud and a free account on Dropbox for small needs but with full app support on iOS.
After iCloud Drive was launched, it convinced me to go ahead and buy into Dropbox at 1TB.
I had the opposite experience- switched to iCloud drive and closed my Dropbox account about a month ago after I outgrew free Dropbox and for the next tier they wanted $10 a month. So far iCloud Drive seems to do just what I need (seamless cloud backup of key files, and extra room for storing photos) and at a much lower price (at least at my current tier of 200 GB).
Well the pricing is different for iCloud versus Dropbox. At lower levels iCloud is cheaper, but at higher levels, Dropbox is half the cost (or double the capacity).
But pricing aside, what does this have to do with the point of the comment in terms of functionality?
You may have limited needs, and therefore iCloud meets them, but iCloud is nowhere near the functionality of Dropbox and is missing so much that people are often quite confused. Specifically, in terms of why there’s no app from Apple that provides an identical Finder view of iCloud, why some files placed in iCloud on the Mac are inaccessible on the iPhone, lack of nested folders on iOS, inability to selective sync, etc…
The list of what you can’t do with iCloud Drive is pretty long, and if you have capacity needs that are above Free to minimum, Dropbox is a better deal.
Apple has every opportunity to make iCloud Drive a platform advantage, but they seem hell-bent on making it unusable for many people.
Not always. It doesn’t get sent as an SMS if you’re in a different country from the receiver, for example. Nor do pictures or voice.
And it really sucks if you are texting from the moon! /s
Why would that comment get voted down? Not everyone stays in the same place forever. I use iMessage all the time with my family back in the US. It’s a fairly common thing. And obviously pictures don’t get sent that way, and we send pictures frequently.
No problems here either! Works fine for me!
An article chock full of regurgitated nonsense. I have to think MDN chooses to post FUD like this for a reason…
Huh? It’s been working really good for me and my family members. The writer is a goofball looking for hits.
I myself have never seen iMessage go down. I just wish iCloud Drive was just a little better, maybe allowing the uploading of a folder and accessing that on the iPhone. The folder could automatically sync when new content is added too. That’d be a nice music folder
Sent from my iPhone
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iCloud is intrusive and unintuitive. It is very un-Apple-like. And Apple keeps shoving down our throats whether we want it or not.
When you take a Mac or any iOS device out of the box and power it on, it prompts you to sign in to an iCloud account. You simply select “skip this step” and it does just that, and then the device will never ask you about iCloud again. Can you explain to me how that is “shoving it down our throats?
Of course, if you choose not to use iCloud and then drop your iPhone in the sink or toilet and lose all of your contacts, calendar events, notes, photos, and other app data – well, you would be the first one to cry like a baby about it because you had failed to back up to iTunes.
Wah, wah, wah, poor little baby Georgy.
Bull. Nobody is forcing you to use iCloud.
BS. Buy a Mac, and the very first thing you have to do is create/log in to an Apple account, where Apple will push the cloud in front of you.
Those of us who understand the hidden costs of ubscription-based computing are repulsed. When Apple does pull the plug on standalone Macs that can actually be operated without a monthly subscription, then we’ll go elsewhere. That clearly is the direction that Apple, MS, and Google want to shove down users’ throats. Why? Because it extracts more cash from users faster.
If you hate Apple, then use something else. Nobody is shoving anything down your throat. Grow up!
I thought I was going to drop Dropbox after Apple introduced iCloud Drive but iCD still has some catching up to do.
“In the summer of 2014, iCloud got hacked, releasing high-profile celebrity nudes onto the internet.”
I’ve yet to see a definitive answer to what really happened. Seems the starlets whose tushes were revealed enjoyed the free advertising. Also seems they either were phished or got phished on purpose for the free advertising. I don’t buy “iCloud got hacked” – who other than those few starlets was damaged? Certainly not me.
What happened with the celebrity photo scandal was the celebrities in question used very weak passwords that were easily guessed. It’s very interesting to note that some of the affected celebrities didn’t even use iPhones / iCloud, but were using Android devices and Windows.
There was a problem with iCloud authentication that allowed script kiddies to continuously ask for authentication with different easily-guessed passwords over and over, but Apple plugged that hole within the first day of being notified about it.
Those passwords were cracked elsewhere, like through their Google mail accounts. Many people use the same password on all their accounts.
Why is it that when I work a Numbers document on my iPad, and then I go to my Mac to work the same, and they become out of sync, that now I have to choose which one to keep with NO record to find how these two docs differ. Who knows what I put in either document. Many times I have had to re-enter data that wound up disappearing. iCloud with Contacts and Calendar wasn’t that way.
I could be doing something wrong, but…
This sort of confusion with syncing is what indicates the need for a better cloud experience, one that matches the “it just works” Apple ethos.
Can someone please explain exactly what’s not working, so I can get upset about it? Um, I am having trouble finding a problem.
Back to My Mac works for a while and then drops for a long time. I had a great tech support experience with Apple about my issue with Back to My Mac. We did not get the problem fixed, but the Apple tech guy tried his best (we tried 7 or 8 approaches). He acknowledges that anything involving so many parts–internet provider, modems and routers, wi-fi, and then the Apple device–make Back to My Mac problematic
I, for reasons of sanity, did not try Back to My Mac. So I will commiserate with you, but concede that I am most likely not experiencing problems because I do not use the services that cause them. I didn’t use Ping either.
Another set of Messages problems this weekend. It’s so frustrating. My iPhone and MacBook no longer show the same messages.
I just can’t trust Apple like I use to be able to. I have supported Apple since my first Classit II.
At work I am having problems with Sever and permission/temp file issues.
We have some problems, but the wallet of Slater need Apple be slapped.
Answer: FUD writing, instead of analysis.
If you guys were to focus on the salient points, and not nerdvana minutiae, you’d have read that first sentence:
““Each failure on Apple’s part detracts from its credibility and image, eroding the loyalty of its customer base and damaging Cupertino’s reputation in terms of reliability.”
… and he’s spot on about that – and there have been far too many avoidable failures from Apple over the past 3 years, and so far they are increasing. It’s really just a matter of adequate QC, which is being done improperly.
So, if you apologists (and that includes MDN) could maybe pipe down and take a long, hard look at what’s going on, you’d see that all’s not well in Cupertino.
Someone else said it well by pointing out that “while the balance sheet on Apple’s trust account is far from bankrupt, the balance is trending in the wrong direction” (paraphrased)
Icloud is apples weakest link ..
Its idiosyncratic for no good reason and extreamly limiting .. Not just for syncs but file managemnet and overall orginization of things .
It makes couple things smooth and transparent at the cost of messing up way more!
Its a half backed idea..
Needs some fundimental rethinking .
Apple software all together need some seriouse attention !
Those who deny it are in denial themselves !
Ok as always .. Im ready.. Go ahead ..SHOOT !
iCloud never got hacked. Only people with silly weak passwords which were easily guessed. The servers were never compromised. iMessage may go down once and a while but I have not seen much problems from it. And all companies not just Apple have services go down occasionally. So this guy’s article is full of it. Next.
Lets talk pricing.
Why do I still only get 5GB free if I have three iDevices?
Good question. I’ve had many iDevices, spent lots o’ dough, but still get only that one 5GB slice. Seems they out to give some amount per active device. Take one slice away when a device is reset.
Well, iCloud just works for me. And I depend on it every day for my work.
I’m not saying everyone has the same experience as me, just that there are a lot of “me s” as well. 🙂
iCloud as it is is a JOKE! A company with money to burn can’t get it right? Dropbox (though I am not necessarily comparing the two) came out of nowhere and did exactly what it said it would. Apple needs to FOCUS, not on staying the richest company but on making the best products and the best customer experience. I am not saying I could do better, but Apple needs to act before it resembles MS too much…..
iCloud work fine for me.
It just works, sometimes, like everything else apple, so what’s the big deal? This is normal apple.