iOS 5 and iCloud - any immediate thoughts

[Nigelinoz]

I can't recall if you have an iPhone or not, but if you're not an iOS device user, or a mac user, iCloud isn't really targeted at you anyway

Yep,bought an iPhone 3GS on a plan from Telstra a few weeks ago,have to say that at the moment I really can't see what the fuss is about ,I find the phone quite disappointing and would not be in a hurry to update it.
Cheers
N'oz

 

[tuppaware]

But Android is the top selling OS at the moment, and Apple are very, very scared.

I'm well known as a non-Apple fan, so I really shouldn't contribute to this thread too much..

Not to reply to the troll. But it maybe top-selling, but thats easy when the software can come on anything from a $70 cheapie to a $900 monster.

Number of users doesn't equal great user experience in my mind. Again from the developer point of view why should I program an app for android when I'm not sure how my app is going to run on a screen 100x100px ? I could program for all sizes of different screen but then I would dilute the quality of the programming. Plus add a LOT of dev time just to support a platform where most users are most likely not to even pay for an app in the first place. Its a great model if I was creating a free app to support an existing physical product but not a standalone product.

Apple has never been about the number of sales, user experience is more important. Its why iPods and iTunes music and content works because its is so easy.

 

[Skyring]

iCloud. Well, it had to happen. Apple found another aspect of people's data to control.

This thread is starting to turn into a kind of religious warfare. My two cents:
Competition is good and healthy. In the consumer electronics world, a small player with a good product can become a market leader very quickly. So the big players are always on their toes making their stuff better. Some stuff works, some doesn't, but the trend is more convenience, more power, cheaper cost. We've got to the stage where mobile phones can be used to run a successful revolution.

But, as noted, the big players like to control your lives. Once they get a customer, they like to keep them, and the more they know about you, the better chance they have of pressing your loyalty buttons. Amazon looks at what you click on and recommends books or movies for you, based on what similar buyers bought. Loyalty cards are another way of tracking you. Some benefits, some downsides.

I'm busy decluttering now, and one theme in my life has been the march of technology. I've got boxes of cassette and video tapes, floppy disks, zip drives and cables for forgotten devices. Hard disks in different formats. Most of this stuff is hard to access now - in another five years, how the hell am I going to watch a movie on a VCR? In another five, all those DVDs will be garage sale junk. My grandchildren will look at a USB cable and wonder what it is.

So I'm keenish on iCloud and the others. A way for me to store my stuff and let other people worry about the media. I can't see bandwidth going down in the future.

 

[medhead]

Wow. I read a statement of fact and suddenly there is a troll? was that statement designed to provoke - I don't think so.

Yes, we can all agree that apple is about user experience but it is naive to think that sales are less important. Without sales, there is no apple and there is no user experience. Of course, it remains the fact that user experience is apple's main sales strategy and it works well. But the way they hype updates and times them as well is all targeted at sales, IMO. Helps that they have a good produce to sell.

But icloud is not for me I don't believe in giving a company control over my information and me by extension. They can start charging for it again at any time once people are committed. Personal storage is cheap, even acknowledging the difficulties of technology/format changes.

 

[samh004]

Wow. I read a statement of fact and suddenly there is a troll? was that statement designed to provoke - I don't think so.

I was just poking a little bit of fun, hence the I'm sure Mal isn't a troll, though he does like playing devil's advocate in Apple threads a lot

 

[drewbles]

It's apparently possible to upgrade to iOS 5 now without a developer account, if anyone is keen and game to try!

How To Upgrade To iOS 5 Today, Without Any Developer Account | Lifehacker Australia

Note that if you try this, you have to do this *Every time* you reset your phone (and whilst I too am under NDA as a developer, I can safely say you'll be doing this at least twice a day).

iOS 5 is going to be great... emphasis on 'is going to be'. It's nowhere near ready for prime time just yet, hence it being a very very early beta (and not designed to be run on devices that are operating as a primary handset; it's for developers to test Apps etc).

I just put iOS 5 on my iPhone. I love the notification centre. Considering the amount of pushed notifications I get, makes my life a lot easier. Even if it was copied from WP7/Android.

iCloud. Well, it had to happen. Apple found another aspect of people's data to control.

Careful, the Apple pixies may be lurking and they take their NDA's pretty seriously

 

[awilcockson]

Well I just finished installing ios5 on my iPhone 3GS. What a debacle.

Make sure you have the PIN lock removed from your SIM card before attempting the update, else you will be spending hours scratching your head like me.

Also under an NDA so can't really comment on the contents, but I am definitely looking forward to the eventual release version

 

[drewbles]

Well I just finished installing ios5 on my iPhone 3GS. What a debacle.

Make sure you have the PIN lock removed from your SIM card before attempting the update, else you will be spending hours scratching your head like me.

Also under an NDA so can't really comment on the contents, but I am definitely looking forward to the eventual release version

Yes I found that out too (fortunately I'm surround by dozens of SIM cards and my phone is unlocked, else it's a PITA as you mention).

Some of the 4.x beta's had the same issues with not being able to enter PIN whilst in the activation process, so hopefully that gets sorted

 

[tuppaware]

Yes I found that out too (fortunately I'm surround by dozens of SIM cards and my phone is unlocked, else it's a PITA as you mention).

Some of the 4.x beta's had the same issues with not being able to enter PIN whilst in the activation process, so hopefully that gets sorted

What you think?

I like it, although battery doesn't last as long.
The speed up in javascript and webkit processing engine is exciting to me as a developer !
Its has a lot less bugs then Lion!!

 

[LiamR]

What you think?

I like it, although battery doesn't last as long.

I'm assuming your talking about iOS5 ?

Turn off location services for the weather app. It seems to have some sort of bug (Or what Apple indended) that constantly updates the weather for the notification centre.

 

[Mal]

Could someone playing with iOS5 check something for me?

Under iOS4, you can set the internet proxy (host/port) for a standard data connection. Has this been improved in iOS5 to allow the use of a PAC file or other methods? (under iOS4, you could set a pac file in the VPN settings, but wouldn't apply to a direct data connection).

 

[tuppaware]

Could someone playing with iOS5 check something for me?

Under iOS4, you can set the internet proxy (host/port) for a standard data connection. Has this been improved in iOS5 to allow the use of a PAC file or other methods? (under iOS4, you could set a pac file in the VPN settings, but wouldn't apply to a direct data connection).

Doesn't look like any difference in VPN settings between the two versions atm mal.

 

[Mal]

Doesn't look like any difference in VPN settings between the two versions atm mal.

Ta for looking. It's something that many corporates are screaming out for (mine included), so it will be a PITA if they don't implement it.

 

[simongr]

But icloud is not for me I don't believe in giving a company control over my information and me by extension. They can start charging for it again at any time once people are committed. Personal storage is cheap, even acknowledging the difficulties of technology/format changes.

The way I think about this is that if i buy a tune from iTunes then it is downloaded to every device I have. I can easily export that tune to a non-itunes based area so that I have my own copy including my copies on devices and the copies on iCloud. If Apple charge more in the future then I can just cease dealing with them and use my existing locally stored media.

 

[tuppaware]

The way I think about this is that if i buy a tune from iTunes then it is downloaded to every device I have. I can easily export that tune to a non-itunes based area so that I have my own copy including my copies on devices and the copies on iCloud. If Apple charge more in the future then I can just cease dealing with them and use my existing locally stored media.

There are two areas of iCloud to remember.

One is just a backup of your purchased music and apps from iTunes - which is really only a database of what you have purchased.

The second part is storage of your photos and documents which is really the the cloud part. I worry about storage of sensitive information on devices that are not part of our corporate system. But I get the feeling IT needs to move away from a closed minded approach to dealing with data as users are join' to be users.

 

[drewbles]

Could someone playing with iOS5 check something for me?

Under iOS4, you can set the internet proxy (host/port) for a standard data connection. Has this been improved in iOS5 to allow the use of a PAC file or other methods? (under iOS4, you could set a pac file in the VPN settings, but wouldn't apply to a direct data connection).

Solution for this is to use Cisco AnyConnect on an ASA and use that. It's by far the best solution for mobile devices (and will load profiles directly on authentication, meaning it's 'click and connect' for the user, no pac files or the like. When you disconnect, it'll just delete it all and leave your phone as-is (that applies to iOS 4 also).

 

[djfuzz]

There are two areas of iCloud to remember.

One is just a backup of your purchased music and apps from iTunes - which is really only a database of what you have purchased.

The second part is storage of your photos and documents which is really the the cloud part. I worry about storage of sensitive information on devices that are not part of our corporate system. But I get the feeling IT needs to move away from a closed minded approach to dealing with data as users are join' to be users.

Cloud computing in any form is going to require devolving responsibility for security to a cloud service provider - I know recent events demonstrate that there are inherent risks with that, but I would have thought that there will be a tipping point in the not too distant future when the numbers stack up and such services really take off. I agree that iCloud won't necessarily be it for many corporates though; consumers on the other hand may find it very useful.

As a profuse Dropbox user, I'm a little annoyed by the lack of data storage, but it's simply another reason not to move from Dropbox.

 

[Mal]

Cloud computing in any form is going to require devolving responsibility for security to a cloud service provider - I know recent events demonstrate that there are inherent risks with that, but I would have thought that there will be a tipping point in the not too distant future when the numbers stack up and such services really take off. I agree that iCloud won't necessarily be it for many corporates though; consumers on the other hand may find it very useful.

Consumers generally love cloud computing/storage. I'm iffy about it, but do use it for some purposes.

Corporates (large) have a long way to go. For example, Microsoft is desperately pushing "the cloud" in Australia, but are feeling a lot of pushback from large corporate and government clients. Why? There's no cloud data centre in Australia (Singapore, Hong Kong and Chicago I believe are the ones for MS Cloud), and even if there was one in Australia there is no guarantee your data is hosted there.

There are significant regulatory and legal issues with storing data in "the cloud" for certain organisations. MS and other partners not being able to guarantee the data will not leave Australian shores is a huge issue for many big corporates.

Then, there is the security of the data in the cloud, what SLAs exist around uptime, restoration of data accidentally deleted etc etc etc.

So short term - there won't be much movement in Cloud Computing at a large corporate level.

From an iOS5 perspective, this is concerning as well due to the proliferation of fruit in the corporate environment. Corporate data should not be uploaded to the cloud.

 

[simongr]

From an iOS5 perspective, this is concerning as well due to the proliferation of fruit in the corporate environment. Corporate data should not be uploaded to the cloud.

The data is going to get out. People work differently to how IT departments made them work in the past. It functions are still working on how to control rather than how to securely enable. The battle to control is lost. People want to consumerise their corporate information management even if that means giving up their corporate funded phones (I have already given up my blackberry). Too often I see IT people just saying no rather than saying how?

There is more sensitive information in my hands when reading board reports on my flights than on my iPad and I can't remotely destroy those board papers if they are left on a plane - unlike the data on my iPad.

 

[djfuzz]

Dropbox Security Bug Made Passwords Optional For Four Hours

Not good. Pity others haven't quite got the user experience as right as Dropbox had, but now is the prime opportunity for them to step in and clean up, because I suspect the fallout from this is not going to be pretty. Certainly reinforces what Mal said.