General iCloud experience is meh

[Glennster]

I was thinking of completely making a clean break from Google with regards to my email, contacts, etc & going completely with iCloud online for everything. HOWEVER, Apple’s iCloud online is a complete joke! Its very slow & definitely not smooth.


Is there any hope on the horizon that Apple will upgrade iCloud online to at least make it somewhat better? I guess if someone is using a Mac or Macbook the entire iCloud user experience is smoother/faster…?

 

[djcingular]

I currently use both, Apple & Google icloud services, and Google is definitely the better of the 2.

 

[maka344]

I currently use both, Apple & Google icloud services, and Google is definitely the better of the 2.

How do you use both? which platform for what?

 

[1050792]

Where are you from? I always had issues with Apple services being slow, iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud etc.
I got a good connection and compared to Google services the upload/download time of Apple's is just too long and it always happened in all of my devices. I think Apple has an US datacenter for the West territory and in China for the East, I'm sure that's what makes Apple services slow since the latency/ping is way to high for those outside the US.

 

[djcingular]

How do you use both? which platform for what?

I use Google Photos, Dropbox & Contacts & other Google services. With Apple, I still use Photos, Messages, Calendar (shared), Keychain & iTunes. I love Apple, just not sold on being all vested into one ecosystem.

 

[maka344]

I use Google Photos, Dropbox & Contacts & other Google services. With Apple, I still use Photos, Messages, Calendar (shared), Keychain & iTunes. I love Apple, just not sold on being all vested into one ecosystem.

what about email?

 

[djcingular]

what about email?

Email I prefer the clean look of Apple.

 

[eyoungren]

Email I prefer the clean look of Apple.

??????

'the clean look of Apple'?

I'm confused. My Gmail accout was added to the stock Mail app a long time ago. I get the same look inside the Mail app for every account I have, Gmail. iCloud or otherwise.

Can you explain?

 

[tbayrgs]

I use Google Photos, Dropbox & Contacts & other Google services. With Apple, I still use Photos, Messages, Calendar (shared), Keychain & iTunes. I love Apple, just not sold on being all vested into one ecosystem.

I use them both as well. My Google account is my primary email, and how I sync contacts and calendars (sharing as well). Our family also subscribes to Google Play Music/YouTube Red and my account is primary for all of our Google Home devices. I also use Google Photos as a secondary backup for my entire photo/video library while Google Drive is my primary cloud storage. My iCloud account is used to messages, to synchronize Safari (primary browser), notes, photos, and reminders. I also use it as a secondary email (rarely used), secondary cloud storage, while the keychain serves as secondary password and credit card vault after 1Password.

This combo works best for me. All things being equal however, if I had to choose only one to use, it would be Google. Some are put off by possible privacy limitations when using Google services, but I actually love how Google can customize a more useful overall experience across all their services because of the data I provide in my day to day use.

 

[djcingular]

??????

'the clean look of Apple'?

I'm confused. My Gmail accout was added to the stock Mail app a long time ago. I get the same look inside the Mail app for every account I have, Gmail. iCloud or otherwise.

Can you explain?

My primary email is gmail. I was referring to the clean look using the Apple stock app vs gmail.

 

[dk001]

I was thinking of completely making a clean break from Google with regards to my email, contacts, etc & going completely with iCloud online for everything. HOWEVER, Apple’s iCloud online is a complete joke! Its very slow & definitely not smooth.


Is there any hope on the horizon that Apple will upgrade iCloud online to at least make it somewhat better? I guess if someone is using a Mac or Macbook the entire iCloud user experience is smoother/faster…?

Until Apple can stabilize iCloud and basic functions like email / contacts / calendar / etc ... I would recommend sticking with Google.

 

[eyoungren]

My primary email is gmail. I was referring to the clean look using the Apple stock app vs gmail.

Ah, ok.

Yeah, I don't use the Gmail app. Every email account I have is loaded into the stock Mail app.

 

[Glennster]

Until Apple can stabilize iCloud and basic functions like email / contacts / calendar / etc ... I would recommend sticking with Google.

And who knows if/when that will be as I’m sure it isn’t the top of Apples list.

As a side point I was VERY impressed with Google last week as they were able to retrieve a large number of pics I mistakenly deleted from Drive within less than 5 mins.

 

[dk001]

And who knows if/when that will be as I’m sure it isn’t the top of Apples list.

As a side point I was VERY impressed with Google last week as they were able to retrieve a large number of pics I mistakenly deleted from Drive within less than 5 mins.

With Apple moving farther into services, you would expect they would emphasize this.

I continue to be impressed with the services I use from Google.

 

[madeirabhoy]

the one thing about google services is they are cheaper. I was exclusively apple before, but my good experience with google home is dragging me to the dark side.

I pay for iTunes match €30 a year or so. google music will store as much for free. plus I can then play it through my google home and cancel the €6 a month I'm paying just coz I like asking google to play music.

I pay 99c a month, I know its not much, for 50gb space for my photos. google will do this for free.

 

[tbayrgs]

the one thing about google services is they are cheaper. I was exclusively apple before, but my good experience with google home is dragging me to the dark side.

I pay for iTunes match €30 a year or so. google music will store as much for free. plus I can then play it through my google home and cancel the €6 a month I'm paying just coz I like asking google to play music.

I pay 99c a month, I know its not much, for 50gb space for my photos. google will do this for free.

Not entirely accurate but overall, you can spend less using Google.

Google will store your photos and videos for free but not in their original form--there is a reduction in quality in photo and videos are limited to full HD (1080). If you want to store your photos/videos in their native format using Google, you either have to buy a Pixel or pay for additional Google Drive space. Pricing is similar to iCloud but is actually better on the latter if you need more than 100 GB.

Google Drive:
15 GB - Free
100 GB - $1.99/mo
1 TB - $9.99/mo

Apple iCloud:
5 GB - Free
50 GB - $0.99/mo
200 GB - $2.99/mo
2 TB - $9.99/mo

The option to upload your entire music library to Google Play Music for free is awesome though. And while the cost for Apple Music or Google Play Music streaming services is the same, with Google Play Music, you also get YouTube Red here in the States and when using an iOS device, can either stream to speakers using AirPlay or Cast while you're limited to just AirPlaying Apple Music.

 

[The Game 161]

Depends on the amount of devices you have. Could never use google as my home storage for everything now. iCloud works too well for me

 

[mrex]

first time i hear someone saying that icloud works too well. usually i hear it is slow and unreliable...

i chose GDrive for a cloud service. never let me down... reliable and working like a charm whatever device you use.

 

[madeirabhoy]

Not entirely accurate but overall, you can spend less using Google.

Google will store your photos and videos for free but not in their original form--there is a reduction in quality in photo and videos are limited to full HD (1080). If you want to store your photos/videos in their native format using Google, you either have to buy a Pixel or pay for additional Google Drive space. Pricing is similar to iCloud but is actually better on the latter if you need more than 100 GB.

Google Drive:
15 GB - Free
100 GB - $1.99/mo
1 TB - $9.99/mo

Apple iCloud:
5 GB - Free
50 GB - $0.99/mo
200 GB - $2.99/mo
2 TB - $9.99/mo

The option to upload your entire music library to Google Play Music for free is awesome though. And while the cost for Apple Music or Google Play Music streaming services is the same, with Google Play Music, you also get YouTube Red here in the States and when using an iOS device, can either stream to speakers using AirPlay or Cast while you're limited to just AirPlaying Apple Music.

only surely if you have a camera better than 16mp. I know many will but I don't, just a 16mp camera and an iPhone6.