iCloud Reviews: Critics Take On Apple's New Service

Apple on Monday took the wraps off its iCloud online storage and synching service, which lets users move up to 5GB of personal documents (as well as 20,000 iTunes-purchased songs) to the cloud for free.

Coupled with Apple's $24.99-per-year iTunes Match service, which allows users to store music purchased (or ripped) outside Apple's iTunes store, the new system may be a blow to competing media storage and streaming services.

After an early look at the service, critics are weighing with their first impressions of the iCloud. Check out our roundup of opinions from Engadget, the Times, Fast Company, Wired and Read Write Web.

Read on for more details about how Apple's iCloud stacks up against its biggest competitors. Then, view our slideshow of Apple's other major announcements from the WWDC 2011 keynote event.

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Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired

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"Apple's music iCloud is nice, not revolutionary," according to Buskirk's early review of Apple's big announcement. Furthermore, he wrote, the lack of a streaming service "leaves the full promise of cloud-based music up in the air," though he appreciates that this also means users can listen to their music anytime--even without WiFi. Buskirk admits, however, that iTunes Match is the system's silver lining. "$25 isn't much to pay, considering that it means you can download nice, clean, 256 Kbps AAC versions of even your dodgy bit-torrent-downloaded MP3s from iCloud to any iDevice or iTunes-running computer for a year," he wrote.

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"Apple's music iCloud is nice, not revolutionary," according to Buskirk's early review of Apple's big announcement. Furthermore, he wrote, the lack of a streaming service "leaves the full promise of cloud-based music up in the air," though he appreciates that this also means users can listen to their music anytime--even without WiFi.

Buskirk admits, however, that iTunes Match is the system's silver lining. "$25 isn't much to pay, considering that it means you can download nice, clean, 256 Kbps AAC versions of even your dodgy bit-torrent-downloaded MP3s from iCloud to any iDevice or iTunes-running computer for a year," he wrote.

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Comments

[Axis Logan]

07:16 PM on 06/13/2011

Steve Jobs should consider investing in bringing this game to the Mac.
HEAVEN ...http://www.heaventhegame.com

They are also trying to get funding to bring to the big screen!

It would be an awesome thing!

[joeyfoto]

10:20 PM on 06/09/2011

DropBox works very well; it's free (up to 8 gigs — if you invite your friends)‚ and it doesn't kick-out your photos after 30 days...

I have an all Mac office and have lived in an all Mac environment since the first Macintosh 512; I've admired Steve since my first Apple II, but he is capable of making control-freak mistakes...

[onlythetruthcounts]

04:06 PM on 06/08/2011

I've had Dropbox forever now and never use it. So I don't suppose I need iCloud either.

[onlythetruthcounts]

03:59 PM on 06/08/2011

"it means you can download nice, clean, 256 Kbps AAC versions of even your dodgy bit-torrent-downloaded MP3s from iCloud."

Hahahahahahahah! This quote is just a bridge too far. It tickles me to no end when I think about ppl buying (or downloading elsewhere, whatever) lossy, low-quality music and most don't realize it apparently. Maybe they never listen to their music in a quiet room with good speakers, I dunno, maybe they only listen in the car where it's harder to hear the difference. CD-quality or just keep it. lol

[image18301]

04:42 PM on 06/08/2011

Sadly, about 90% of listening at home is done through computer speakers. Yeah I know - ouch.

[Paw1]

03:17 PM on 06/08/2011

Must be my advanced age, but I fail to see the value paying Apple $25 to manage digital audio I’ve already paid for. A thousand gigs of external hard drive space can be had for as little as $65 and will surely come down further over time. Further, I’m a music nut and I can’t imagine a point in time where I’d need more music choices at any given time than are available on a 8 gig iPod. I personally find it enjoyable to change up the iPod at home every now and then. Have we become so enslaved to convenience and instant gratification that the mere act of plugging a external device into a computer is unmanageable?

Plus, as an extra added attraction, Apple now knows which songs you buy (not so many) and which ones you steal (most of them). They can turn that information over to their label partners for litigation. Thanks, Apple!

[Mitchman57]

02:54 PM on 06/08/2011

The structure is now in place to make IPODS with 4G connections and no hard drive. An iphone plus ipod in one case with icloud storage. Download the tune, dump it when done listening. Listen on the ipad too. No need to clog the pad with 32 gigs either. Brilliant.

Ipod as we know them are history, buy and use an iphone or ipad instead.

ipod without the need to carry the tunes in the device.

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

03:15 PM on 06/08/2011

Except it doesn't have streaming.

[SFMichael]

03:46 PM on 06/08/2011

Have you not ever tried to download a video with At&t service? It is not possible. And with everyone trying to download and stream every song, no one will be able to listen to anything!!
This is a very bad idea.

[johnwwwatson]

02:52 PM on 06/08/2011

I love my Mac products. I have them all and they get used everyday. But let's face it, Apple didn't come up with this idea because they love us. They want 100+ million suckers to send them $25 a year. Then you need to always be connected to to wi-fi or have an unlimited data plan, another 1K a year. And lastly, all of your business is somewhere else. I'm all for having back-up storage on-line but this is just capital or App(le)-ital.

[David Landry]

04:14 PM on 06/08/2011

Apple (all corporations in fact) would love to have all their products move to a subscription/annual (or shorter) licensing model.

The job of the consumer is to prevent this from happening by not subscribing to any service that does not absolutely have to be subscription based. Subscription based services will always cost you more money in the long (or shorter) run.

[terry90]

10:43 AM on 06/08/2011

why are so many internet cos. so adamant in wanting users to store their personal files on their servers??? I don't like the idea at all.. (my personal documents? personal letters? stored in a remote server somewhere??? I don't think so...) thanks but no thanks...

[Mitchman57]

11:39 AM on 06/08/2011

Price point. The iphone is a $700.00 item without a contract. Cut the memory for thousands of tunes and stored movies... the price could be close to $49.00... or free!

Cloud-load and play the tune when you select it, 2 minutes at a time of a movie from the cloud and you don't need 32 gigs on board anymore.

Makes Androids with 32 gigs seem expensive as heck.

[jgeurian21]

12:40 PM on 06/08/2011

I would disagree that the memory storage in an iPhone costs $650 especially for 16GB of flash storage. A 32GB SDHC card costs $50 at Newegg and I would imagine that Apple can get 32GB SDHC cards for far less than $50. Also iCloud requires you to download the song, video or picture, so reduced storage would not help you. iCloud can't stream.

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

03:18 PM on 06/08/2011

1) As I said above, there's no streaming. So you still need SSD.

2) Androids (usually) use MicroSD cards and not internal storage, so you can just buy a bigger card, which is cheap.

3)Have you ever looked at the cost breakdown of an iphone? I'm assuming you just ripped this out of your rear. Mainly because of Apple's price gouging for storage. (IE: twice the storage is usually almost twice the price) except it's not.

[Mitchman57]

11:40 AM on 06/08/2011

Meant to add, ....$299.00 with a contract....

[Mitchman57]

10:26 AM on 06/08/2011

Wait for it.... the next iphone will drop in price for lack of on-board memory making cloud storage a MUST if you want to play a tune that you already own.

The phase-out of the full size ipods has begun.

[jgeurian21]

12:41 PM on 06/08/2011

You do realize that iCloud can't stream anything and that it has to download the music, video or picture to each physical device? In their current model reduced storage size would cripple the new iPhone.

[Mitchman57]

02:40 PM on 06/08/2011

Not stream, send packets. A short tune isn't 32 gigs. iphone/ipod won't need on-board any more than a tune's worth of memory... a few hundred megs at best. Remember, it won't need to store your 3,000 tune library, just have access to the cloud.

[Mitchman57]

10:23 AM on 06/08/2011

So... We now have an ipod killer built into the iphone that has no ability to store tunes, but will play them over the air via a radio transmitter. Have I got that right? Didn't we have radios way back in the 30's?

Radio On Demand..... As long as you buy the tunes first.

Holy Cr*pola! Steve's got you all by the shorts, and you don't know how far backwards he's taking you.

[jgeurian21]

12:42 PM on 06/08/2011

Again, iCloud doesn't play or stream anything. It just downloads the file to each iDevice or your Mac PC.

[icilisi]

01:23 PM on 06/08/2011

mitchman no comprende

[Mitchman57]

02:45 PM on 06/08/2011

THAT'S MY POINT - yes, you get it.

Send only the tune you ask for. Sync the selection list, download the tune as you need it. Dump it when finished playing.

Yes, no streaming needed. No 32 gigs on-board needed. Cheaper devices to compete with cheap Androids.

Yikes, this is like pulling teeth.

Steve has the structure in place to make IPODS with 4G connections and NO MEMORY. An iphone and ipod with icloud storage. Brilliant.

[European1919]

05:27 AM on 06/08/2011

Got an email yesterday about joining iCloud. They'd keep my iWeb account open for free till 2012 when the service would be stopped anyway. They already stopped my iCal synching cos I refuse to buy on of these crappy Intel Macs. Way to go suckers: alienate people who have bought your products for over a decade and only stopped because the quality and relevance of your products is declining.
There's always Linux to run on a cheap wintel machine ;-))

[DrReve]

12:52 AM on 06/08/2011

FREE!!! What is not to like? H E L L O O O ? Who cares about the $25 a year iTunes Match thing which is crazy cheap if you have a lot of your own music, doesn't matter where you got it from ;) ..It's like amnesty for music criminals. In any case, free for all the other iCloud services, which is pretty much what MobileMe was sans the $99/year fee, just amazing, magical, and I'll through in an Awesome too.

[Mister Grumpy]

11:41 PM on 06/07/2011

Yeah....... That's what I want to do....... Pay $25 per year for the right to listen to music from "The Cloud" that I already purchased once before.............

I swear........ you fanboys will buy anything Steve Jobs cranks out of his butt won't you...........

[AmigaMan]

11:45 PM on 06/07/2011

I never buy any electronic format of music. I prefer buying CDs and making my own Apple Lossless Encoder files for my Mac Pro and AAC files from those for my MacBook and iPhone.

[SanityForOnce]

01:03 AM on 06/08/2011

By "electronic", I assume you meant digital. ;-)

CDs are digital files, no different than the digital files available for downloading. In fact, the highest quality files are 24-bit FLAC, which is a higher quality than commercial CDs.

[FDRbyGodDemocrat]

01:19 AM on 06/08/2011

Ditto. I rip the CD in FLAC lossless and mp3, then store the CD. The only thing I buy from iTunes is music that I just can't find on CD or DVD.

[Mitchman57]

11:24 PM on 06/07/2011

One of the reviewer's comments says the cloud will hold photos for 30 days.

Question: If I buy a tune, at what point do I get to play the tune on my ipad.... As soon as it's turned on, or when I ask that it be played? When is the tune sync?

[Mister Grumpy]

11:44 PM on 06/07/2011

Isn't it just great that you'll you able to access your music, pictures, and video that you already own anytime you want....... that is so as long as their servers or your internet connection doesn't fail.............

[terry90]

10:45 AM on 06/08/2011

photos? and what about the rights to these photos? there's been a lot of reporting recently about the fact that many photo-sharing sites feel they OWN your photos, and keep them even after you supposedly remove them.. my photos on Apple's servers? I don't think so...

[billso]

10:52 PM on 06/07/2011

I'm sure iCloud will support documents created by almost any software. Steve showed off iWork documents because he was in full-on branding mode.

[menschmaschine5]

10:17 AM on 06/08/2011

Hopefully this is the case, but with Apple, I really wouldn't be surprised if non-Apple formats weren't supported.

[phase4]

02:39 PM on 06/08/2011

The way Apple forces proprietary everything down your throat, it's believably possible that iCloud may only support Apple-based formats.

It'd be stupid for them to do that, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.