![]() This has resulted not just in headaches for developers, but also in inconvenience, confusion, and even anger on the part of end users, who go on to rate applications poorly because of these symptoms. Siegel described scenarios in which iCloud simply declares that a file upload has timed out ("Apart from not being semantically relevant, the message is also unhelpful because it doesn't provide any information that either the user or developer can apply to diagnose and resolve the problem"), or says that corrupted baselines are causing sync problems without making the problem visible, or just plain barfs up an opaque, internal error. Indeed, there are multiple ways in which iCloud enables the syncing of data, though both users and developers are kept in the dark when things go wrong. What we casually refer to as iCloud is many parts, each with a role to play." "In order for this to work, though, a lot has to happen behind the scenes. ![]() As the user manipulates an app's data, iCloud tracks and reconciles the changes into the central truth and makes sure that all copies of the data, on each computer, are brought up to date," Siegel told Ars. A central iCloud server holds the truth: the canonical version of the user's data for an app. "In concept, the service is pretty simple. What's the big problem, exactly? According to Bare Bones Software's Rich Siegel, there are a number of moving parts to iCloud that all affect how things come out on the other end. From data loss and corruption to unexpected Apple ID use cases, developers have seen it all-but are stymied by the persistence of problems that prevent them from shipping products with working iCloud support. A piece published at The Verge this week highlights many of those complaints, with quotes coming from well-known developers and anonymous sources alike about the challenges faced by the developer community. Almost a year after Apple shut down MobileMe for good in favor of iCloud, third-party developers have begun to speak out about the difficulty involved in working with Apple's cloud service. The last item, syncing of documents and data, is one of the least glossy features of iCloud, but it is one of the most important, and it should be among the most straightforward. Apple's iCloud is marketed to us end users as a convenient and centralized way to manage data on all of our Macs and iOS devices: sync contacts and bookmarks, re-download music and apps, back up iOS devices, and sync documents and data for third-party apps as MobileMe did.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |