It was not clear to me that to move from MobileMe to iCloud (as a Mac user) I must have OS X 10.7 Lion installed on all Desktop and MacBook computers. Windows users need Vista or Windows 7. If the Mac computer is older than a few years, it will need a memory upgrade (especially if going from 32-bit to 64-bit processing) and even then, if the computer uses a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor, expect the system to feel sluggish compared to that of the previous OS. The experience comes to mind of iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G; the OS upgrade made that phone an obsolete device because it became unusably slow and constantly crashed. An iPhone 3G with iOS 3 was great.
I hate these hidden little realities that don't manage to find their way into the sales pitch.
I hate too how this change to iCloud means that my MobileMe mail account has started to say my password is incorrect; then it's ok again; then it's refused; then it's ok again; just to be rejected once more. No doubt, if I were only to upgrade to iCloud everything would work again how it did previously.
I respect Steve Jobs. I respect the pursuit of consumer buyers rather than 'confused' enterprise corporate buyers ('confused' being a phrase heard in one of the Jobs interviews on All Things D). I respect that consumers don't necessarily know what they want until shown it by a visionary. I understand that technology moves on and not every technology can be supported but isn't it time that consumers are respected regarding their investment, their time and their personally created data. Is it respectful to consumers to treat them as an out-of-date component to be discarded if they don't upgrade? If I don't upgrade to iCloud by June 2012, it is my understanding that my MobileMe email and data will disappear along with anything on my iDisk. The iDisk, associated websites and photo galleries will be deleted even if I do move to iCloud. Like a fool, I have paid for this email and storage for eight years and I've got eight months to get out.
I'm sure that hassle and upset from constant change are not emotions on the consumer's 'Wish List'. Again, more fool consumer me, for not realising that hassle, upset and hours of wasted time trying to recover, recoup and convert data, are always on the unwritten wish list of technological development.
This list of change is always growing. Hardware or software, it is personal data that is the thread that ties them together. It is personal data that takes the time and the struggle to keep and maintain. The loss of 'scuzzy' drives and the abandonment of floppy disks meant that the new place to store personal data was the CD-ROM. The dropping of the Mac OS to OS X and personally created data must be converted from the an old format into one suitable for the new and re-purchased apps, to run on the new and re-purchased OS. The removal of FireWire makes my new storage devices join the scrapped, old SCSI collection of working hardware no longer supported. It is now the turn of optical drives to join the obsolete list, so long DVD, hello 'streaming'. Ever onwards, the personal data must be moved into the 'cloud' or a local storage device of which the connection method will soon be changed.
Not all personal data is plain text and JPGs. There are the digital personal connections made with email, comments and photosharing. With the change of iTools to dotMac to MobileMe and the ensuing pain of inaccessible email and the abandonment of iWeb and what is now the wasted hours spent creating websites with it, the loss of comments on those blog posts and the photo galleries that need to find a new home, it is not just hardware but the digital history of one's life that is being erased. It seems that there is no room for my iLife in iCloud iBelieve.
If I don't move I have the prospect of all the software I have registered with an obsolete email; all the contacts that need to be informed of a changed email address; all the forums that need their login details changing; all the hassle and it makes Chromebook and Google look enticing.
It concerns me that having my life in the cloud makes all that ethereal data just one password away from someone smarter than I who breaks into what I thought was secure, to leave me h/a< |< ed and defaced with the offer of do you want to buy your data back?
With a Family MobileMe account, to keep those email addresses which have been used as main addresses from the iTools era, will mean all five family members need to update their hardware to be OS X Lion compatible then buy OS X Lion and move to iCloud or lose their familiar email address and email archives and personal connectivity. This is potentially a big expense or a big loss. What ever the outcome it will involve time to sort and foresight about the best way forward, which technologies to use, which formats to store in, which hardware to buy.
I find it demoralising and disillusioning that one commits to a technology path just to have the whole thing dropped in the name of iProgress. At times like this I wish that I had stuck with pen, notebook and paper.
