
The killer iOS feature Apple will never add - a4agarwal
http://sachin.posterous.com/the-killer-ios-feature-apple-will-never-add
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jsz0
_Today, no one will choose to use iCloud over Google apps_

I do. The only Google service I actually use anymore personally is GMail but
that simply forwards to my iCloud account. It's easier and more efficient on
battery to just check one mail account. I also ditched Google Calendar /
Contacts for iCloud because they work almost exactly the same. Again easier to
just use/sync one service IMO. I was never a big Google Docs user to start
with but now I use DropBox and native apps. Again I only setup my DropBox once
and it's good to go. I can use different (and more powerful) apps as needed.
Sometimes Numbers on iOS is fine for quick data entry but for building out a
big spreadsheet I'm going to most likely use MS Office on a desktop. I guess
you could do this through Google Drive now but I already have DropBox setup so
why bother? I use FaceBook/Twitter instead of Google+ which are both first
class citizens on iOS/OSX now. FaceBook chat has replaced GTalk just because
everyone I know uses it. A lot of this goes back to Google's period where they
did a very bad job supporting iOS. The path of least resistance was just to
use something else and now I have no need to switch back. From what I've heard
their iOS apps have improved greatly but I'm happy with what I'm using.

~~~
sbuk
So do I. The issue for me is one of trust. I simply do not trust Google with
my personal information. It's how they make their money, which is _why_ I
don't trust them.

~~~
beatgammit
So why do you chose iCloud? It's clearly for lock-in. AFAIK, you can't get
iCloud on anything except Apple devices. Sure, iCloud v2 is supposed to work,
but it's apparently not the same:

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/icloud-for-
windows-2-0-...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/icloud-for-
windows-2-0-an-improvement-but-not-much-has-changed/)

Google Drive, OTOH, works on Windows/Mac OSX/Android/iOS (and probably WP7,
Windows 8, Blackberry, etc, but I haven't done my homework). Dropbox is
another option.

Personally, I would never use iCloud. It's not because of trust, it's because
of portability. What if I have an iPhone, then decide to buy a Samsung phone?
I can't use iCloud on that device (AFAIK), so I'd have to transfer everything
manually. What if I change from Android to Windows 8? AFAIK, Google Drive will
still work.

If you're so bent on trust, then use Dropbox. It's much more portable and they
don't really care about your data, just your monthly investment.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
Your question doesn't make sense. The posters issue wasn't portability, it's
trust.

He's willing to use the iOS ecosystem and it satisfies his requirements and
it's convenient for him.

~~~
jsz0
Even for portability I'm not too concerned about iCloud. You can sync it all
locally and the file formats are nothing too special. At worst I might have to
go through a tedious process of using the native iCloud enabled apps to export
the data brute force. It's all there if I really need it. I feel better about
this arrangement than I do with some of the Google services that require pro-
active data exports. I even backup my local iCloud cache so I could go back 6
months for a snapshot of old data. It's all just sitting here so I can do what
I want with it.

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ryanpetrich
Google could do this now across their suite of apps by using iOS's keychain
APIs.

~~~
jeffehobbs
Right, exactly. Google could do this, if they shared a TeamID UUID. What they
couldn't do is replace the built in Apple apps (Safari, Mail, Messages), which
is a shame. Apple should document the data/API ins and outs of these apps so
replacements could work in the same way. Power users should be able to replace
Safari with Chrome, etc.

~~~
sbuk
Forgive me fo veering off topic, but "power users" is such a horrible notion.
It just makes me think of douchey know-it-alls with massively over inflated
entitlement glands - especially those that consider themselves to be "power
users". Again, apologies, I just really dislike the expression "power user"
and I'm seeing it way too much on here lately.

~~~
tekromancr
I don't think it is douchey at all. 99% of people using these devices don't
give a flying monkey fuck about replacing default apps. There is a very small
segment of the population that uses all of the features of a device. Also,
"Power User" is not a new term by a long shot.

~~~
beatgammit
I don't think that's true at all. I've talked to a lot of people who wonder
when Google will come out with Chrome for iOS. Now that it's out, it's marked
17+ (because it escapes Apple's filter), can't be set as "default browser" and
I imagine that it doesn't use v8 (used to be against the developer agreement;
possible doesn't even use Nitro).

Apple has technical limitations in place to prevent alternatives from being as
good as the default. A simple example is setting the default browser/email
application. I'm not sure if this is still true, but Apple had a policy
preventing 3rd party browsers from being anything more than a skin over
Safari.

Since Apple is in complete control of the App Store and there aren't any 3rd
party app stores, Apple has no incentive to allow alternatives to it's default
applications.

~~~
tekromancr
What would apple gain from allowing that. I have a lot of family members that
have iDevices and some of them can barely use the the basic featureset that is
available on the phones. I also think the bar for a power user is pretty low
as I would consider anyone who knows what a browser is and what it does, let
alone have the thought "Hmm, I wish I could replace the default browser with
Chrome" as a power user. Apple wouldn't have incentive to allow third party
replacements anyway, because it would allow users to change the experience of
using the device. Letting users do that, while giving expert users a lot of
power, raises the complexity of the base device to a level apple doesn’t
approve of.

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hnriot
The vast majority of users don't care if they use Apple of Google apps most of
the time. Even maps which was a big deal among us techies, most of my regular
friends couldn't care less which apps they use. And for many, facebook has
largely replaced email anyway.

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tekgo
iOS has had the ability to share keychain items between apps from the same
developer using 'keychain-access-groups' since iOS3. Google could use a single
login for all their iOS apps, but they probably have a host of reasons why
they do not.

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gte910h
This is already possible if they have the same Bundle Seed ID.

This feature has been around for either the entirety of or damn near the
entirety of iOS programming.

[http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Genera...](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/General/Conceptual/ApplicationDevelopmentOverview/ConfigureYourProject/ConfigureYourProject.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011186-CH6-SW8)

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beloch
Google itself might not want iOS to have this feature. If they can keep their
apps sufficiently far ahead of Apple's, power users will use them in spite of
the extra hassle. Some of those power users will feel like they're getting a
second-rate experience with iOS and might switch to Android. If they could
functionally swap native iOS apps out for Google apps such that there's zero
hassle to using them, iOS power users would feel like they had the best of
both worlds and have zero motivation to switch platforms.

Power users certainly aren't the majority of the market, but they do tend to
steer things. There are, of course, _many_ barriers that keep users from
switching platforms, but every little bit helps.

~~~
defap
Some used this same argument to suggest that Google wouldn't want to ship an
iOS Google Maps app, and yet, lo and behold, it shipped two weeks ago to great
fanfare. To think that Google would not want to participate in an ecosystem as
large as iOS because not doing so might drive some small percentage of those
users to Android is ridiculous.

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chrisringrose
This isn't an issue of Android being more "open". Google baked-in one-sign in
features into Android, sure, just as Apple did with iCloud. But you _can't_ do
this for other 3rd party apps on Android. You can't sign in on one app, and
continue being signed in on another app (at least not in the way that you
complain Apple should allow).

I do like your idea, and agree Apple should allow this. They should also allow
changing the default applications, and allow better access to internet APIs,
so Mozilla can actually make Firefox for iOS. But that aside, what you're
complaining about isn't something Google does either

