

iCloud beta - sahillavingia
https://www.icloud.com/

======
sudonim
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.

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

~~~
threepointone
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.

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

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ugh
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://9to5mac.com/2011/08/01/icloud-com-opens-up-for-developers-
features-ipad-like-mail-contacts-calendar-apps/)

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/01/apple-icloud-dot-com-web-
ap...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/01/apple-icloud-dot-com-web-apps/)

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.

~~~
Timothee
_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.

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

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

------
sirn
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...](https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos/en-
us/640/javascript-packed.js)

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

------
dooq
"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.

------
extension
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.)

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

------
cageface
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?

~~~
radicaldreamer
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.

~~~
cageface
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...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-
os-x-10-7.ars/5)

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

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

------
adammichaelc
Tried, got this: <http://postimage.org/image/176470lk4/>

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

~~~
ireadzalot
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.

------
Steko
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...](https://www.icloud.com/static_pages/unsupported_browser/en-
us/640/source/images/200x150_Unavailable.png)

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

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

~~~
catch23
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.

------
nomdeplume
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

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

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SODaniel
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.

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bengl3rt
Erm... Okay, so I want to move all my mail (and my address) over from
MobileMe. Where's the button?

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

~~~
bengl3rt
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...

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

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mikecaron
I think "iForgot" is a nice touch.

------
uast23
Off topic: What are the other sites doing "your browser is not supported" with
chrome?

