Apple Reveals iCloud Drive: Store, Sync, Access Up to 200 GB Worth of Data (For $4/Mo)
There were a lot of exciting announcements coming out of Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) today, like the new features in OS X 10:10 Yosemite and iOS 8, but the unveiling of the new iCloud Drive is definitely something filmmakers will want to take a look at. Being described as a "Dropbox-esque" file system, iCloud Drive, of course, stores your stuff on the Cloud for free, but not only has Apple included pay options for upping the amount of data you can store, but they've made that data much more accessible to you when away from the Cloud.
Here's a quick video from today's announcement, courtesy of The Verge:
iCloud Drive is designed for integration -- to make using your computer in tandem with your phone and other devices a better, more useful experience. Part of this means that all of your devices (using OS, iOS, and Windows) can be synced, so getting your hands on files on the Cloud is easier -- files stored in iCloud, even your iOS app files, can now be accessed via Finder on your computer.
You can even add your own tags and folders to iCloud by simply dragging and dropping them in. And cross-app editing is made more seamless, too, because you'll be able to share files and access projects between different apps (as long as they're iCloud-enabled). This is helpful for those collaborating on a project to be able to share and edit without having to make tons of copies of a document of file. Plus, everything will be in one place.
The Verge weighed in on the new accessibility features iCloud will be rolling out with:
Accessing these files on other devices isn't as simple as it is on Mac, however. iCloud Drive adds a Finder-esque file browser to iOS for the first time, which is valuable, but Apple doesn't offer an iCloud Drive app for iOS. In order to find files you've stored in iCloud Drive, you'll need to open an app that uses iCloud Drive storage. But, at least now there's one place to store documents, photos, and files that's agnostic of which apps you're using.
Until now, Apple has only offered 5 GB worth of storage for free on iCloud, but now they'll give users the opportunity to purchase more real estate: 20 GB of storage for $0.99 per month, 200 GB for $3.99 per month, however for storage of up to 1 TB (or more?) we're still waiting to hear about a price.
It's difficult to be convinced that Apple will be attracting many Dropbox users, especially since we know that at one point in this Cloud storage game, Apple said, nay -- vowed, to destroy Dropbox back in 2011, but failed. It'll be interesting to see how users respond to the new features -- if they're really as intuitive as they seem to be (the features, not the users).
In your opinion, do the new features of iCloud make it a real contender with Dropbox or Google Drive? Let us now in the comments below.
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