Apple's iCloud.
It's what Jesus uses.
Well.
As with all things Apple, maybe it's not quite as good as the hype.
I'm Brian Cooley with the Top 5 things iCloud needs before it can part waters.
Number five, it works with Windows, but not for you.
iCloud doesn't work with Windows XP, just Vista and 7. The problem is according to most surveys,
XP is still the most popular Windows version out there.
Whoops.
Number four, Photo Stream.
This feature promises to be...complicated.
A thousand of your latest pictures are synced on all your devices, but that can be made broader if you manually add them to albums except for the device that took the image originally which always has it and meanwhile, 30 days' worth of photos will be stored on the iCloud servers but all your photos will be kept on the desktop you sync to.
Really?
Number three, no sharing.
I'm an only child and this one bothers me.
iCloud is largely a syncing thing, not a sharing service like a Dropbox.
That means this isn't a big hard drive in the sky and you sorta gotta keep your hands off it.
Most users will be okay with this, but a lot of sophisticated users won't be.
Couldn't support both?
Number two, installed applications, you still need them.
Hi, welcome to the 90s, I'm Brian, I'll be your server tonight.
iTunes and iWork are still not cloud apps, only their data made that move.
And apparently, MobileMe is losing its web interface as well.
That means you can't just plop yourself down in front of any browser and get your stuff.
Google may not be losing a ton of sleep.
But the number one thing we think iCloud needs or we at least were hoping it was gonna get, is streaming.
It's not there.
iCloud syncs your music on all your devices, but the files all still live on your devices.
You're never streaming your stuff from the cloud purely the way Pandora, Rhapsody, Amazon, Google, MOG, and just about everybody else is doing.
Now, I get it, Apple's in the business of selling you devices that hold stuff but this one's starting to feel a little stale.
Thanks to CNET's Josh Lowensohn for his help putting this list together, and make sure you check out his piece on making the move from MobileMe to iCloud.
We've got a link to that at Top5.cnet.com where you'll find more episodes like this.
I'm Brian Cooley, thanks for watching.
