iCloud beta | Hacker News Reader

iCloud beta

icloud.com

107 pointssahillavingia48 comments

The team involved really spent the time to make the web versions of these apps have an aesthetic unified with the iOS and Mac versions. As someone who does web stuff day in, day out... the difference between working and polished is huge. Apple has pulled out all the stops to make these polished apps. Kudos to them.

They don't preload the images for the three iWork apps. Any, any small hint of web loading breaks the 'app feeling'.

I happen to agree with you here - its almost like the "uncanny valley" for applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

I'm guessing those are placeholders for full fledged web-versions of the iWork suite, and hence they figured it's too much effort to code a preloading mechanism for those images.

'Too much effort' isn't known to perfectionists, which Apple strives to be.

Not everyone with an Apple ID can log in, <strike>only paying developers.</strike> who knows which mysterious rules Apple uses to let people in.

Here are some screenshots:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/01/icloud-com-opens-up-for-develo...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/01/apple-icloud-dot-com-web-ap...

All three apps (Mail, Contacts, Calendar) are very feature rich, responsive and quite shiny. At least Calendar uses local storage (but will ask you before it does). All three apps took no more than five seconds or so to load for the first time, subsequent loads were much, much faster. iCloud saves state, wherever you are when you close the window will be where you are when you go back to iCloud.

I’m not a fan of the re-implemented scrollbars (Mail and Calendar even use pre-Lion and pre-iOS scrollbars). Also, composing a new message opens up a new window which seems very weird.

You should definitely go visit iCloud.com with deactivated Javascript or cookies.

Not everyone with an Apple ID can log in, only paying developers.

I have a free developer account and was able to log in. I don't have a @me.com address so I couldn't check Mail, but the rest worked.

Curious. I edited my comment.

For me:

Access to technical resources such as pre-release software and associated documentation, and information related to distributing iOS or Mac apps on the App Store are benefits offered to Apple Developer Program members.

Either the Apple ID and password you entered is not associated with an Apple Developer Program, or the Program that you are enrolled in does not have access to this resource.

I have a free account as well but it says I do not have access.

Same here. It says that I need to be associated with any of the two developer programs to have access.

And conversely, I have a paid developer account and it would not let me in. I think it might be confused because my Apple ID is an old-school one that isn't an email address.

It might be dependent upon the developer program you are enrolled in: https://developer.apple.com/programs/which-program/

I tried enrolling in the safari dev program, but it returned an error at (probably) the last step: http://gyazo.com/532d0284618b6da84043f2acbfc9184a.png

Just as with MobileMe, iCloud Web seems to be done with SproutCore and a bit of jQuery[1]. Though it feel funny when they recreate the iOS-style scrollbar with JavaScript, despite Lion already has such a thing... (not to mention the scrollbar is inconsistent between Contacts and iCloud Calendar)

I'm honestly surprised at how "complete" these apps are. At least with Calendar and Contacts, they works exactly like its iPad/OSX equivalent.

[1]: https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos/en-us/640/javascript-p...

I'm curious if they are using SC1.6 or some custom build. Maybe even 2.0?

"Your browser is not supported. To use iCloud, we recommend using the latest version of Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer."

Also, there's a cute picture of a sad-face cloud. lol.

I'm using Firefox 3.6.19, since FF4 wasn't working well on my mac when I tried it.

Strange, it doesn't recognize my Apple ID at all. It knows the one I use for iTunes but when I try to use my developer ID it says the login doesn't even exist. It's a paid account and it works fine in the developer portal.

(I would ask for help in the developer forums but I can't login to those either. It just keeps redirecting me to the splash page.)

It's not just you, I'm getting that too.

So I get the skeuomorphic UIs, complete with bits of torn paper at the top of the calendar pad and all, without even the justification of a touchscreen? No, thanks.

Are they going to put a scent generator in my next Mac so my trash starts to stink if I don't empty it?

While many people on hacker news might roll their eyes at the UI design, many novice users seem to like these interfaces- it signifies to novice users that they can stop keeping a paper address book and paper calendar and move to the using their iPad and the web, something they might have previously only thought business or techy types did.

Additionally, I don't think the functionality of these apps suffers at all from this.

John Siracusa makes the case against these kinds of UIs well in his Lion review: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.a...

But he is not quite as outraged and his points are a lot more subtle than your rant.

Disappointed would be a much better word to describe my feelings than outraged.

These are there because Mac is going touch as well (at first only using the macbook and magic trackpads, but I think there will be a stronger merger between OSX and iOS in terms of user input in coming releases.

Guess even a 0-button mouse wasn't enough... the UI hints are all about trackpads and deep touch gestures.

The torn paper effect is in the current MobileMe calendar anyway. But, sadly, there's no gradual increase in the torn bits during the year - by December it should be ragged... A missed opportunity, at least in mobileme. Haven't seen icloud yet.

At some point i fear users are going to start tearing off their screens and throwing them bit by bit in the recycle bin.

Tried, got this: http://postimage.org/image/176470lk4/

Same here. And I'm a paying developer on Lion.

It just let me in. I am a paid member as well. You may have to wait for a couple of hours and try again.

Running Firefox 3.6 at work, unsupported. Chrome omitted from their suggested browsers ("latest version of Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer").

Did I mention the adorable frowny cloud: https://www.icloud.com/static_pages/unsupported_browser/en-u...

Works for Firefox 5 (not terribly surprising). The SadMac Cloud is goddamned adorable (surprising).

It works on OSX Chrome too.

This would be one heck of a phishing scam to get everyone's Apple ids. Has anyone verified that the site is legit?

Yes. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20068165-37.html

It looks good to me, but don't just take my word for it [1].

[1] http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6318/looksgood.png

If it were a phishing scam, I'd still have to give the phisher a thumbs up for using sproutcore & CSS3 techniques on the site. There's a significant amount of javascript for a phishing page.

Indeed. A site asking for my apple.com password that isn't apple.com? No thanks.

You'd think oauth would just be part of implementing logins, and apple wouldn't be encouraging people to give their passwords to other sites.

so easy step 1) so sorry. You are on wrong OS. try again step 2) so sorry. You are on wrong browser. try again step 3) so sorry. You must enable Javascript. try again step 4) so sorry. You must be developer. try again

Tried from Safari and Chrome on OS X Lion and it says I am not on OS X lion...

My guess is that Apple's move into the cloud space will be a pretty big boost for other online backup, sync and share companies; SpiderOak, Dropbox, Wuala etc.

Erm... Okay, so I want to move all my mail (and my address) over from MobileMe. Where's the button?

It’s a beta, open only for developers. Patience.

Ah, that wasn't clear - it just let me log in. Maybe I should have separate Apple IDs for my personal stuff vs. my development stuff...

agreed, right there with you. my main apple id is gmail, but i do already have a me.com account also. would like to merge but it seems the only option on the iPhone is to create a new one, not sign-in with an existing one.

Is your dev account on the same apple id as your mobileme account? My dev and mobileme accounts are different apple ids and I am assuming that is why I can't use mail...

If anything, excellent use of Steve's turtleneck as background texture inspiration.

I think "iForgot" is a nice touch.

Off topic: What are the other sites doing "your browser is not supported" with chrome?

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