Day: 5 October 2016

iCloud Storage Pricing

Yesterday’s hardware announcements from Google came with some pretty intriguing updates to their software, as well. Chief among them: Google says that Pixel owners will be able to back up their entire photo and video library in full resolution, for free. As far as I’m concerned, that’s huge. Regardless of the misgivings someone — me — may have about giving my entire photo collection to Google, it’s probably one of the most precious libraries of data I have. I never want to lose my photos.

Among all of Apple’s iCloud offerings, iCloud Photo Library has been the most successful for me, and I generally trust that it will remain more secure than Google Photos. It’s one of the few iCloud products that I actually trust, the others being iCloud Keychain and Contacts syncing. However, this peace of mind comes at a price: a price.

Thomas Ricker wrote about iCloud’s storage and pricing for the Verge:

Most of the time I’m happy to have gone all-in on Apple. But I feel backed into a corner when it comes to paying for even more iCloud storage when it’s necessitated by Apple’s increasingly cloud-centric app bundles. See, the best way to live inside of the Apple ecosystem is to use the company’s free (as it loves to remind us) apps. But Apple caps its free iCloud storage tier at a paltry 5GB — capacity that’s quickly filled with Live Photos, iOS app data, 4k video, GIFs everyone’s sending you in the new iMessages; and critically, iOS device backups. So in reality, Apple’s apps are not free — Apple charges you for them indirectly by requiring you to purchase more and more storage over time.

I don’t agree with Ricker’s assertion that iCloud storage fees make these apps not free, nor that Apple is being deceptive by marketing them that way — nobody ever complains that free computer programs are not actually free because their data takes up hard drive space, and it’s possible to use many of these apps without touching iCloud.

I do think that the iCloud storage tiers become increasingly stingy with every passing year. iCloud launched with 5GB of free storage, and it has remained so for five years. Over that same time period, Apple has introduced tiered storage upgrades that are priced more competitively than they used to be, but I bet most Apple users are still on the free tier and simply tolerate the messages that say “iCloud Storage Full”, particularly when Apple’s online services efforts occasionally feel half-assed.

There are, I think, a few things Apple could do to make iCloud feel like a serious commitment: increase the space allotted at the free tier, exclude iOS device backups from iCloud storage limits, and improve its reliability to Google or Amazon levels. Apple’s executives may put on a brave face when speaking to the press, but if they’re not concerned about iCloud internally, I find that deeply worrying.

Dash App Removed From Mac App Store ⇥ blog.kapeli.com

It’s high time that Apple made up for a recent dearth of dumb App Store rejections and removals.

Bogdan Popescu:

Yesterday I sent Apple a request to migrate my account from an individual one to a company one. Once I verified my company with its D-U-N-S Number, they notified me that some features in iTunes Connect won’t be available during account migration.

A while later my iTunes Connect account started showing as “CLOSED” and my apps were removed from sale. I thought this was normal and part of the migration.

Today I called them and they confirmed my account migration went through and that everything is okay as far as they can tell. A few hours ago I received a “Notice of Termination” email, saying that my account was terminated due to fraudulent conduct. I called them again and they said they can’t provide more information.

This is clearly a mistake, but it’s causing real impact to Popescu’s livelihood, as he’s the sole developer of Dash. To make matters worse, poor communication from Apple’s developer relations team — something we’ve discussed many times before — is preventing him from understanding what happened or what he can do to fix it.

Update: Popescu just updated the post with some followup from Apple developer relations:

Apple contacted me and told me they found evidence of App Store review manipulation. This is something I’ve never done.

Apple’s decision is final and can’t be appealed.

Either something is awry with Apple’s automated processes for detecting fraudulent reviews, or someone is screwing with Popescu. Regardless, a final decision from Apple with no opportunity for recourse is indefensible, as far as I’m concerned. The Mac App Store has been an awful place for developers for a long time; this is not making it better.

Phil Schiller, in an email to 9to5Mac reader Matthew Els:

I did look into this situation when I read about it today. I am told this app was removed due to repeated fraudulent activity.

We often terminate developer accounts for ratings and review fraud, including actions designed to hurt other developers. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously, on behalf of all of our customers and developers.

I don’t see why Popescu would lie about his alleged involvement in manipulating reviews. Dash is a widely-used and highly-regarded developer resource.

Joel Cieplinski:

The accusation from Apple of “repeated fraudulent activity” is a pretty serious one. Not sure we’re getting close to the whole story here.

Not OK, Google ⇥ techcrunch.com

Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch:

The scope of Alphabet’s ambition for the Google brand is clear: It wants Google’s information organizing brain to be embedded right at the domestic center — i.e. where it’s all but impossible for consumers not to feed it with a steady stream of highly personal data. (Sure, there’s a mute button on the Google Home, but the fact you have to push a button to shut off the ear speaks volumes… )

In other words, your daily business is Google’s business.

This is not a new argument, but it is astonishing to reflect on how far the goalposts have been moved for what is considered a reasonable expectation of privacy.