Arstechnica on Developers problems with iCloud, and my own personal issues with it.

Arstechnica has an interesting article on problems of working with Apple’s iCloud.

It is really interesting to hear that developers are having so many problems with iCloud, since as a user I have completely given up on iCloud because I have found it to work so incredibly badly.

My first issues were with bookmarks and iCloud. I use X-marks to sync my bookmarks between browsers, since Chrome (and formerly Firefox) is my browser of choice, and I don’t use Safari at all, but since Safari is what syncs to my iPad and iPhone I needed it to have my bookmarks.

And every time X-Marks overwrote them it worked fine and they were correct until they went to the cloud. The cloud ones had become corrupt and would overwrite not only Safari on my mac, but also on my iPhone and iPad. And there is no way to get rid of the bookmarks! Now most companies would create a way to overwrite either on your computer or online, but not Apple. Their simplified iCloud bookmarks have no way to get rid of the bookmarks from iCloud, so I had to turn off iCloud syncing and just do a direct sync via itunes, which directly brings Safari’s bookmarks to my iPad and iPhone.

My Second issue cropped up when I moved from an iPad 1 to an iPad 3. I had been a Mobile Me user, so I got 25GB of space on my iCloud (necessary to backup an iPad, and not enough for both my iPad and iPhone), and had 3 months previously moved to iCloud backup. When I attempted to move everything to my new iPad, it would not work. None of the apps would install. They started to download, and then stopped there, for days! And I could get no help on the issue, so I ended up going to my 3 month old previous backup on my home computer and have been syncing with my computer every since.

Why should I even try putting stuff on iCloud when I have no control over it? And it does seem to get corrupted often! So why not just leave everything on my Mac and use Dropbox or Sugarsync or box.net or even my Synology NAS to sync to. They all actually work and don’t seem to screw up all the time, like iCloud does.

iCloud at the very least needs basic controls to allow overwriting of items on the cloud or on your computer (though they could probably get away with just overwriting iCloud, since that is where the glitches happen!).

MacWorld on why you should use OS X Spaces

A great article on why you should use OS X spaces. I love it personally, though I think you had more control with older versions. And it is especially great for laptops, but I use it to separate power apps on my macpro and couldn’t function without it at this point.

It is now part of Mission Control (though should be it’s own thing). It makes your mac have a virtually bigger space, as if you have a bigger desktop and are only seeing part of it and can set individual apps to different spaces.

Using Compound Clips instead of Projects in FCP X

Dare Dreamer Magazine has an article on using compound clips instead of projects to make new sequences, since new projects take up a lot more hard drive space.

Sounds interesting, though it does just further highlight the continued issues with FCP X. Not being able to share renders between Projects (which are sequences in FXP X) seems ridiculous, and not very power user friendly.

Still just can’t see myself every trying FCP X again, not when Premiere Pro CS6 and AVID Media Composer are out there.

Appleinsider has a rumor of 2GB SSD’s from Apple for the new MacPro

Appleinsider has heard rumors of Apple working on 2 GB SSD’s for the new MacPro with a standard SATA connector.

And while that would be awesome, at least for a boot drive, the cost would be so prohibitively expensive that it would be useless! And the fusion drives scare me as if one drive goes you lose everything (though you should be backing it up anyway). Still the most hopefully thing out of this is that maybe we will be getting a new MacPro soon. I SURE HOP SO!!!

I Am Film Guy on Moving from Mac to HP

I AM FILM GUY has a good article on moving from Mac to HP.

I still worry about articles like this as it seems like they may be payed or getting gear for free (you can never tell), and they never go into the OS differences of moving from Mac to Windows, but you never know. I have been seriously considering the switch because Windows machines are so much newer and CUDA support so much better.

I thought about a Puget Systems custom system though.

Who knows, maybe the next MacPro will change my mind, if it ever comes out.

MacPro no longer available in Europe

As Apple Insider says, the Mac Pro is no longer available in Europe due to recycling regulations.

At this point Apple just needs to announce the next itineration even if it has a while before it comes out, or many people will be moving to windows machines in the near term, and yes the new iMac’s are nice, but they really don’t replace a MacPro!