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Apple announces iCloud Drive, one location to store and sync all documents between Mac, iOS and Windows

iOS Simulator Screen shot 2 Jun 2014 18.25.06

Apple has just announced iCloud Drive, a central location for all iCloud documents, whether attached to an app sandbox or not. This is very similar to Dropbox. Files can be viewed and sync between Mac, iOS and even Windows.

An iOS document picker will enable you to access these files from within iOS apps, seamlessly.

This should allow much better project management, which spans multiple filetypes and applications. Documents appear in the Finder, with folders representing app sandbox’s as well as a freeform area to drop any other documents that users want to sync between their devices. This seems to makeup part of Apple’s new focus on “continuity”.

Screenshot 2014-06-02 13.25.24

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Comments

  1. terrycross1940 - 10 years ago

    I hope it will improve the Mail and Calendar apps!

  2. Edison Wrzosek - 10 years ago

    For users of iOS and OS X, this could be the death nail for Dropbox…

  3. If it worlds, Im moving from dropbox into here, and Im paying for higher data rack of course….I wish the cloud backup will be cumulative with it….

  4. Amen, at least this time they listened. That’s what iCloud should have been right from the start. Bravo Apple :)

  5. Ken Collins - 10 years ago

    My Dropbox folder has no files in it, only symlinks to folders. One symlink is to ~/documents/files where I keep all the files I create. Other symlinks are to folders that contain configuration settings and templates. I don’t have to rearrange my files for Dropbox, and I sync things that normally can’t be synced.

    iCloud and its predecessors MobileMe, .Mac, and iTools have a long history of tripping over their own their own feet by being too restrictive, too elaborate, and too constraining. For that reason alone, iCloud Drive needs a skeptical test drive before committing to it. Will it force me to reorganize my disks? Will it have paternalistic restrictions on what I can sync? Is it flexible enough to let us all work the different ways we want to work, or will it force us to work the way it wants to work? I want iCloud Drive to work for me, I don’t much care to work for iCloud Drive. I’m going to take a test drive before I “buy,” I am skeptical for four reasons:

    1) Apple’s recent vandalism of iWork, downsizing it to fit through iCloud’s keyhole
    2) The iOSsification of OS X.
    3) The danger of files with apps, which takes away our control over the location of our files.
    4) The history of iCloud’s progenitors.

    Summing it up, the question I’ll bring to my test drive is whether iCloud frees me to work the way that comes most natural to me.

    If I have to retain Dropbox to fill any gaps in iCloud Drive’s functionality, I see no reason to complicate things by adding iCloud Drive.

  6. I use documents app to manage files on iCloud its pretty good you can edit files and create new files on the go too.

    https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/documents-free-mobile-office/id306273816?mt=8

  7. Lee (@leewestdesigner) - 10 years ago

    I love this Cloud Drive idea, but since I don’t have all Apple devices, I will probably continue using GoodSync to sync across. I also am not very trusting, especially with all the hacks lately, of any commercial business having access to my files.

  8. Definitely interesting but I still just don’t trust cloud storage services with my sensitive data, I still use GoodSync to sync all of my files between various local storage devices. The addition of GoodSync Connect in their current version even allows me to sync an encrypted copy of my files over the cloud to my local storage devices without ever actually having to store my data on the internet.

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.