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Want iCloud With Windows? Ditch the XP
halfEvilTech writes "Microsoft isn't the only company denying equal online footing to Windows XP users. Apple will not give PC users access to iCloud – its great digital locker in the sky – if their machines are running Microsoft's aging but still popular Windows XP. Tucked at the bottom of the iCloud announcement, Apple says you'll need a PC running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to jump into Steve Jobs' version of the interwebs."
This is a bad decision on their part.
Granted XP is ancient and not very supported, but its still heavily used. If we're talking about end-users, its more likely to go:
"Aww, not supported. I guess I'll use something else"
instead of
"Aww, not supported. Let me pay a few hundred euros to upgrade my OS (and maybe need to improve my hardware) to use this product/service."
Is this "Windows 7 or above"? Because I'm 91 versions ahead.
Does it really? If it pushes people to buy a newer PC, it also opens the option of switching to a Mac while they're at it.
If they need iCloud for their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, then it means they're already familiar with how Apple software works, switching to Mac OS X isn't a big leap to do and using VMWare Fusion or Parallels they'll be able to keep using their Windows software.
If you're still on Windows XP (and you're a home user) than you are an idiot. Update and move on for the love of god. The majority of Windows XP users will be corporate sheep anyway -- and they don't need to be using iTunes/iCloud anyway.
Times like these I wish I was more active here and had the points to spend to send your post into troll/flamebait oblivion.
People like you are the embodiment of that "your laptop/phone/tv is already outdated" tv commercial.
We don't need to ditch perfectly working computers simply to be on the latest-and-greatest side of things. I have XP at home, I play some older games on it, some stuff from Steam, and stream Netflix. It does what I want it to do, and I'm quite certain many others would say the same. Why should people spend money that they don't need to, just to appease some twitchy teenager on the internet who does the "OMG OLD" shtick?
From the demos done on stage, it syncs everything in real time. Photos taken on an iPhone were sent immediately to the iPad and the Mac, documents edited on one device were pushed to the other devices, etc.
"It just works" comes to mind.
Well, it doesn't force anybody to do anything. It's actually more of an exchange - *if* you want latest features (and, granted, bug fixes and the like), *then* you have to be willing to move forward.
I'm surprised more software developers aren't chiming in here because it is really, really hard to support older and older versions of stuff /and/ still try to keep adding new features. You can end up spending very large percentages of your time not really innovating at all, just trying to work around old bugs that have long since been fixed, or in aging hardware that just really isn't up to snuff anymore. That stuff kills innovation - from a developer's perspective, it's just not fun. It sucks your creativity.
People want to have their cake and eat it too, but really there's a tradeoff - if you want a device and a feature set then buy it and stick with it. If you want to be always up to date, latest fixes and latest features, then be prepared for some instability and also for change. If you want to ride the wave of innovation and always get all the latest bells and whistles, then you have to keep buying the latest and greatest hardware because the hardware and the software are interconnected - newer hardware enables more bells and whistles in the software.
The fact that there are *any* upgrades at all by any device vendor is remarkable to me. I think we're actually pretty spoiled. Back in the olden days you'd buy an appliance or a device and that was it - it never changed. If it had quirks, that was part of what you got. As newer features came out, they were available only in the newer models of the device or appliance. Nowadays you can buy e.g. a phone or a TV and even after you buy it, the manufacturer can come along and add new value and fix problems. That's incredible! But it's also incredible how much complaining people do when this value adding doesn't happen indefinitely, especially in the realm of computers where the life spans are traditionally very short.
3 years? Sorry buddy, the PowerPC G5 was phased out in August 2006: that makes it 5 years in my book.
And if you really want to the latest stuff, why don't you sell your Mac every 3 to 4 years like I do! This way, i have an actual Cost of Ownership (hardware only) of around 390€ per year!