I don't get it. I was really excited about this feature when it first was announced, but apps hardly use it! The only app I know that uses it, is SoundHound. It would be awesome to play GTA3 on my iPad and the continue to play where I left off on my iPhone, but alas, not gonna happen. Can anyone tell me? Is there some kind of technical limitation?
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Why do so little apps use iCloud to save their data?
- Thread starter Merkie
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New apps rarely use it. It's been 6 months since the first beta. No excuse. I doubt it requires a lot of effort to implement it.
Apple seeded beta software to developers before the launch of iCloud so that they could implement the iCloud feature to store data created by their apps. The fault should not be placed on Apple for the failure of many developer to add this feature. My guess would be that their apps never made the developer as much money as they hoped or expected and they don't want to invest the time to add the necessary code?
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I expect the reason been that iCloud is still relatively new. I can see in a few months time there will be more apps that use it.
When can we expect your first app that uses iCloud to be available in the App Store?
The main reason is the API is still massively unstable. Apple have repeatedly changed how it works, and it's as buggy as all hell.
What developer wants to follow Infinity Blade 2's example and find itself stuck with thousands of 1 star reviews over iCloud corrupting data on the device?
Phazer
What developer wants to follow Infinity Blade 2's example and find itself stuck with thousands of 1 star reviews over iCloud corrupting data on the device?
Phazer
How many servers do you want to log onto to sync your app data back to your iDevice? I would rather go to only one: iCloud.
It's like multitasking and Retina Display graphics. Some devs are always quick to implement, some take a few months and some never bother.
That's a general issue with iOS, especially with Google Accounts, since so many apps are built on Google services. Android has a leg up there.
Unless you're a developer I don't think you should assume how easy/hard it is to produce something. Might not be as simple as it sounds.
I read somewhere that the reason behind it is that Apple might not have supplied enough documentation yet for developers to know what they're really working with.
I know Tweetbot just recently updated their iPhone and iPad apps to sync via iCloud which is a pretty neat feature. It's just a matter of time before more developers start taking use of the service for new features.
How long does it have to take before people accept it isn't working? It's been what, eight months now?
The only non-Apple app that has implemented iCloud on my device is Infinity Blade 2 (which was a disaster that deleted every savegame for the first three weeks).
Meanwhile, there's still a hundred apps on my device where I can't delete them without losing all the data, without resorting to digging through system files via iExplorer.
Phazer
Working perfectly on Tweetbot, Pages, Numbers and Garageband for me.
To anyone who asks, "why don't developers just store it on their own servers?": server infrastructure, bandwidth and the human resources to maintain them are not free. Small and/or indie developers might not be able to afford them initially, or ever. What Apple is offering to developers with iCloud is actually pretty amazing. Just another step toward democratizing apps development and distribution.
To anyone who asks, "why don't developers just store it on their own servers?": server infrastructure, bandwidth and the human resources to maintain them are not free. Small and/or indie developers might not be able to afford them initially, or ever. What Apple is offering to developers with iCloud is actually pretty amazing. Just another step toward democratizing apps development and distribution.
Speak of the devil, a new article about this today:
http://www.macstories.net/stories/iclouds-first-six-months-the-developers-weigh-in/
Short answer: It's not as easy as you think.
http://www.macstories.net/stories/iclouds-first-six-months-the-developers-weigh-in/
Short answer: It's not as easy as you think.
You have to discount Pages, Numbers, and Garageband because those are Apple created apps, and we all know that internal developers have access to API that us 3rd parties do not. (Exactly what they accused Microsoft of many years ago).
Am moving one of my apps over to support the iCloud right now - its definitely a lot more work than you would think, especially if you use CoreData to store your data. I am already seeing that lots of testing is going to be needed to avoid data corruption issues.
Agreed. I have been experimenting with iCloud and I am surprised at how complicated it is to get up and running. The documentation is poor too, especially for Core Data apps. I have a database app for OS X and Apple's documentation basically says "you are out of luck using this with iCloud".