Entering a Post-iDisk World With iCloud.

Now before I start, I know that I could look for alternatives to iCloud , but I won't do this here. The aim is to compare how iCloud uses a Mac's local storage with how MobileMe services uses iDisk.

With iDisk leaving the cloud next year, what would iCloud offer that is synonymous with what iDisk used to offer?

Taking a look at some of the lightweight MobileMe services—BCC syncing, Find My iPhone—iCloud would be able to, and has been announced that it will, continue to operate as it did with MobileMe, albeit without a notion of an iDisk. Instinctively, these features do not require globs of mass storage at Apple's end to implement, so there is no need to observe a remote filesystem which stores the data required for these MobileMe services to exploit.

However, the remaining MobileMe features, such as MobileMe Mail, MobileMe Gallery and iWeb hosting all require mass storage to hold your mails, your photos and your Web pages, and this is all exposed to users as iDisk. Interestingly, the use of iDisk amongst these three services have been integrated somewhat, so that media incorporated in incoming e-mails and in Web pages are kept at the same place, as is media presented by MobileMe Gallery.

Thus, without iDisk, iWeb hosting and Gallery are no longer in iCloud. It is surprising that MobileMe Mail will continue to be offered as a service, since this will require some storage in order to store people's e-mails, so while iDisk will not be offered as an iCloud service, some remote storage capacity will still be there.

One service that hasn't been mentioned yet is Backup. It first appeared in .Mac, where it was possible to use iDisk to remotely store people's files as backup archives. This is going to be lost, too, once iDisk disappears, but it is expected that, as long as Backup's preferences are themselves backed up, Backup can still be used to back up files to local storage. To replace it, though, is iCloud Backup, which may be used to back up iOS devices and user documents. (Question: does iCloud Backup be used to remotely back up documents from Mac OS X applications, too?)

So iCloud is not interested in publishing people's media—your better bet is Flickr! and YouTube. With Gallery and iWeb hosting disappearing, ways to show people your photos and movies from on the Web are to disappear. Photo Streaming, the remaining new capability of iCloud, appears to operate only between registered devices, so it is no good for showing people your movies and pictures from on the Web.

The iCloud Photo Streaming copy on Apple's Web site says:

"Your photos everywhere. In a flash.

Take a photo on an iOS device or import a photo from your digital camera to your computer, and iCloud automatically sends a copy of the photo over any available Wi-Fi network (or Ethernet) to the Photos app on your iOS devices, iPhoto on your Mac, the Pictures Library on your PC, and the Photo Stream album on your Apple TV. So you can show off your shots to friends and family from whichever device you’re using at the time."

So, how are friends and family going to see your photos (what, no movies?!) without you giving them your devices?! Is this going to be useful to people at all, particularly if you want to show them, who may be much farther away than the length of your arm, your pictures? I don't think Photo Sharing is going to be as useful as Apple thinks.

The MobileMe iWeb hosting feature of iDisk could have been used to work around that problem, but Gallery already did this for you, and both features are about to disappear. A third-party solution will have to be sought in order to publish your movies and photos.

I think while iCloud takes two steps forward, it also takes one step back. iCloud would benefit people who have more than one iOS device in the household, and want to entertain oneselves. For sharing with friends or family, iCloud is not going to serve these needs.

—tonza