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iWork for iCloud beta now open to everyone (with an Apple ID)
Apple has opened the iWork for iCloud beta to everyone with an Apple ID. Previously, the beta was only open to developers and select users, but today's release means everyone get access, even those without iWork for iOS or OS X. There are indications that iWork might go free for iOS and OS X later this year, and the fact that the iWork for iCloud beta is open to all lends support to that. However, Apple could have just chosen to open the iWork for iCloud beta to all for a limited time to test for bugs on a large scale. Apple has not issued any statement regarding the iWork for iCloud beta availability. To access the iWork for iCloud beta, simply go to www.icloud.com and log in. You'll then see the three icons for Pages, Keynote and Numbers appear.
iWork for iCloud beta now open to anyone with an Apple ID
First it was available to developers, then a select few who received invitations, and now the beta of iWork for iCloud is available for all. Apple's made no official announcement, but point your browser to icloud.com, punch in your Apple ID details, and there you have it: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Seeming as you normally have to pay for the iWork software suite, this could be a time-sensitive public beta that'll be pulled once you've found all the bugs (this editor has full access without owning any of the iWork programs). So, you might as well have a go at being productive in the cloud before it's too late.
Some of Apple's online services down this morning
No, it's not your imagination. Some of Apple's online services have been down this morning. A quick look at the Apple System Status page shows that the iTunes Store was down for 16.6 percent of all users between 8:57 and 9:42 AM ET, and that continuing outages affecting less than 1 percent of all users are making life difficult: "Users may be unable to use iCloud Documents, Photo Stream, iPhoto Journals, or Backup & Restore. Users may also be unable to send or download attachments in iMessage." If you're one of the affected users, be sure to keep a close eye on the status page to see when services reappear for you.
How to avoid iCloud email spam
It's nice to know that Makayla, Taylor, Olivia and Madeline are all thinking nice thoughts and letting me order my pills online. They're part of a rush of spam emails that showed up in my iCloud email last week. Apparently I'm not the only person who received those oddly written spam missives, since Chris Breen at Macworld ran a post today on how to report spam emails to Apple so that the next wave is caught by the company's spam filters. There are two ways to go about this, according to Breen. First, any emails that are marked as junk or dragged into the Junk folder are automatically reported to Apple. This is true whether you are using Mail.app on your Mac or iCloud webmail. It's rather easy to accomplish -- in Mail.app you can just click on the message and then click that thumbs-down button to mark it as spam. For iCloud webmail, just select the message, click the Mark As pop-up menu (or the "flag" in iCloud beta) and choose Junk Mail. Another method is to forward your junk email as attachments to spam@icloud.com. To do this, select the message in Mail.app and then choose Message > Forward as Attachment. Type the above email address in the "To:" field, and send the message on its merry way to Apple, which will use the information to filter future missives from the spammer. In case you're wondering, iOS 7 allegedly provides a way to mark email as spam from your iOS devices. At this time, there's no way to do so.
BusyCal adds long-anticipated Exchange compatibility
It's a big day for Exchange users; one of the best Mac calendar applications, BusyCal, has just been updated to support Microsoft's enterprise collaboration technology. Version 2.5 is available in the Mac App Store now, as a free upgrade for existing users or US$29.99 for new licensees. The new version supports Office 365, full sharing privileges, public calendars, free / busy time, tasks and more. Of course, the new build is still compatible with both iCloud and Google Calendar hosted scheduling. Mac users who work with Microsoft Exchange calendars may sometimes feel like they just have to make the best of a challenging situation. Microsoft's own Office client, Outlook 2011, works well, but doesn't necessarily deliver that "born on Mac" experience we crave; Apple's Calendar (formerly iCal) may feel right, but compatibility hiccups can drag down your calendar productivity. Even the popular Fantastical app relies on one of those full-featured calendars for syncing. Back in the day, the original BusyCal application (up through version 1.6) worked with Sync Services and iCal / Calendar to deliver Exchange functionality to happy users. Unfortunately, as Apple's underlying synchronization technology was deprecated (not to mention being creaky and buggy for quite a while), BusyMac founders John Chaffee and Dave Riggle made the tough choice in BusyCal 2 to abandon Sync Services and restructure the app around the supportable cloud calendaring technologies. A number of features had to be left on the editing floor in that change, including publishing calendars local-to-Google and crossover LAN sync with cloud calendars. (I was personally irked about that shift, as I was apparently one of a small number of BusyCal 1.x customers successfully using the product to replicate my work Exchange calendar to a Google calendar so that my spouse would be able to track my comings and goings.) Chaffee and Riggle have been working on Mac calendar apps for a long time; they were behind the remarkably capable Now Up-to-Date networked scheduling app that debuted on Mac OS 7 in the early 1990s. It's great to see their current product still evolving and responding to the needs of the Mac community. You can read more about BusyCal, and get a full rundown of using the app for sharing and collaboration, in the free BusyCal Take Control e-book by Joe Kissel.
iCloud.com beta gets iOS 7-like redesign
Apple has redesigned the iCloud.com beta website to match the look and feel of iOS 7. Now, when users navigate to beta.icloud.com they are greeted with new icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders and Find My iPhone, plus a new animated, blurred background. All the web apps listed have also received a redesign inspired by iOS 7, which may give some hint to what OS X would look like if Apple decided to port iOS 7's design influence to the desktop. iOS 7 and the new OS X, which so far has not been previewed with any new design UI changes, are expected to ship this fall. It is likely that the design changes being seen in the beta iCloud.com site will be rolled out to the normal site around the same time.
Yojimbo 4 brings syncing, highlights iCloud woes
Good news for Yojimbo fans: version 4 is now available, and it syncs across Macs. (Pause and wait for for chorus of 'hallelujahs' to subside.) I've been a Yojimbo user for years, but in case some of you don't know what it is, I'll start by quoting Bare Bones' own website which describes it this way: "Yojimbo makes keeping all the small (or even large) bits of information that pour in every day organized and accessible. It's so simple, there is no learning curve. Yojimbo's mechanism for collecting, storing and finding information is so natural and effortless, it will change your life, without changing the way you work." Yojimbo is not meant to hold your entire PDF collection, or all of your images, or all of your bookmarks. It isn't meant to replace Google or the Finder or even Spotlight. It's meant to be that place which is always in reach where you can put something, anything, when you don't want to lose it but you can't (or don't want to) deal with it right now. It's easy to get things into Yojimbo, it's easy to get them out again, and it's easy to search and categorize what you have there. Yojimbo is often referred to as a "digital junk drawer" but to me it's more like the stuff I keep piled on or around my desk but don't put away because I don't want to lose or forget about it. It's that digital 'inbox' where you can throw anything that you might need to sort through later without thinking too much about it now. This is an important role which is easily underestimated. The reason I know that is because I have become aware of the fact that I don't have one now – which means that I have several. See if this sounds familiar: I have a text file with some quick notes that I've jotted down. I have some 'flagged' emails which I hope I will remember means I need to followup on them next time I see them. I have some articles that I saved to Pinboard and some PDFs that I saved to my "To Read" folder and some files on the Desktop, not to mention a few things I tossed into OmniFocus. Too often things go into one of those 'buckets' and I forget about it, mostly because there are too many of them. More than likely I waste time trying to decide where to save them, and I know I waste time trying to find them, if I even remember to look. One of the great things about Yojimbo was that it did syncing of a variety of different kinds of information. Unfortunately, that's also been a major thorn in its side lately. Sync, sank, stunk When Yojimbo was introduced, it used MobileMe syncing to bring your data across your Macs. Way back in 2006 Yojimbo was described as having "Seamless .Mac syncing" and that syncing was always an essential part of the app. Unfortunately, it relied on MobileMe, which Apple eventually shut down. It seems to be a pattern with Apple that web services don't have a very long life and never really get the attention and "polish" that people hope for when a new product comes along. By the time Apple finally killed off MobileMe and the loathsome, atrocious iDisk, few people were sad to see it go, and we were all encouraged to see Apple's new efforts towards iCloud. Until it arrived. What iCloud does extremely well is file syncing. You save a document in Pages on your Mac and a few seconds later it will show up on your iPad or your other Macs. It's fast and easy, not to mention free for the first 5 gigabytes. What iCloud does not do well is database syncing, or in technical terms: "Core Data" syncing. Now, I'm not a developer and I won't pretend to be here, but if you have been paying any attention at all, you have probably heard Mac and iOS developers complaining about iCloud. If you missed it, allow me to direct your attention to Ars Technica which featured this issue in an article almost six months ago Frustrated with iCloud, Apple's developer community speaks up en masse. Bare Bones Software's Rich Siegel is featured prominently in that article, but he also echoes many other developer complaints about the way that iCloud works. He also explained why Dropbox is not an viable option (again, Dropbox does file syncing very well, but not database syncing). If after all that you want an even more thorough, yet easy-to-understand explanation, you can read Rich's Tumblr post The Gathering Storm: Our Travails With iCloud Sync from earlier this year as well. He also links to several other developers who spoke about the problems they faced with iCloud syncing. The bottom line is this: Dropbox doesn't have the necessary tools (yet?) to sync databases, and iCloud is supposed to have the necessary tools, but it doesn't work. Which left Bare Bones with only one viable option: a 3rd-party sync solution. Sync Rises If you are familiar with Evernote, you know that it syncs via its own service, not iCloud and not Dropbox. The same is also true for OmniFocus and several other applications. DEVONThink can sync to Dropbox, sort of, but it requires that you go into Dropbox and turn off automatic syncing and sync things manually. (I tried when they first introduced it, and quickly abandoned the idea as more trouble than it was worth. You'd get roughly the same effect if you just copied your data to Dropbox when you quit the app.) Bare Bones has decided to offer a syncing solution which will cost US$3 a month. The syncing is handled through Wasabi Sync which describes itself as "Core Data cloud syncing done right" (as opposed to, say, the way that iCloud currently wörks). The first 30 days are free so you can try it and see if it works for you. You can also try Yojimbo 4 free for 30 days by downloading the demo from BareBones.com. Before anyone complains about Yojimbo syncing, let me remind you that it is still cheaper than Evernote. Also note that Yojimbo for iPad still happens over your local Wi-Fi network, so you do not need a sync subscription for that. (Before you ask, no, you cannot directly sync Yojimbo for iPad from your Wasabi sync account. When I asked Rich Siegel whether that would be added, he politely declined to make any 'forward looking statements' but certainly left the door open for that possibility. One thing at a time.) Final words, for now In a perfect world, Yojimbo would have been able to sync via iCloud and the BareBones folks would not have had to spend the past year of their lives trying to make it work before eventually giving up and implementing their own solution. But right now iCloud just does not work for database syncing, and you don't have to take my word for that, there are lots of developers who will (and have) shared their frustrations. Again I would refer you to both Frustrated with iCloud, Apple's developer community speaks up en masse and The Gathering Storm: Our Travails With iCloud Sync and remember that syncing files is a lot easier than syncing databases. Yojimbo is a great Mac app by a great Mac development team who sweat the details to make something excellent. That's why BBEdit has been around for over 20 years and still growing strong. Yojimbo is not DEVONThink or Evernote, nor are they Yojimbo. They do different, if similar, things. If you have been frustrated by having little bits of your digital life spread out in several different places, I would strongly encourage you to check out Yojimbo. I'm very happy to have it back in my dock.
Bradley Chambers: 'Regular people have no idea how to manage photos on their iPhone'
Bradley Chambers wrote a poignant article that argues Apple needs to beef up its photos app with an offline storage option because most people don't backup their photos. These shutterbugs just snap photos and assume the pictures will always be there because the iPhone is keeping the images safe somewhere in "the cloud." Unfortunately, that is not the case, and many people are disappointed when they accidentally delete a group of cherished photos and discover they can't get them back easily. Chambers sees this as an opportunity for Apple and proposes several things the company could do to make it easier for people to save their precious memories. First, Apple should switch around PhotoStream and move all the photos to the cloud, while keeping only the most recent photos on the device. He also posits that Apple should bump up the free iCloud storage to 1TB to accommodate these larger photo and video files. I have to agree with Chambers as these changes would be relatively easy for Apple to do and would go a long way to help consumers. Chambers has a few other suggestions for Apple that you can read about in his post at Chambers Daily.
Outages affect App Store, iBookstore, Mac App Store, and iTunes for some users today
Users of Apple's various online stores including the App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes and iBookstore saw outages today from 11:23 AM to 1:54 PM ET. According to Apple, the outages only affected "some users," but those users were unable to download previously purchased content or restore apps from iCloud. The company has faced a wide range of outages this year across various services for users and developers alike. As Apple and other companies begin to require more and more online connectivity from customers to use the apps, content and services they pay for, these outages will begin to impact more users ability to get what they've paid for. Thankfully these outages have been short-term, lasting only a number of hours in each case. As of this posting, all services are back online except FaceTime, for which "some users" are still seeing issues.
PSA: Free iCloud storage for MobileMe users to end on September 30th
All good things come to an end, and for ex-MobileMe users, that end is fast approaching: Apple's complimentary 20GB of iCloud storage for former users expires on September 30th -- this time for good. The promotion, launched to assuage user sorrow over the death of MobileMe and to entice them to try out iCloud, was only meant to last until September 2012 before receiving a year-long extension. Users who want to keep their storage after the kill-date will need to pony up $40 per year for a 20GB subscription, or risk being bumped down to the free 5GB plan. Unfortunately, iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud and iCloud Mail will stop working if a user's data goes over that limit, undoubtedly forcing many to shell out for additional storage. Of course, digital hoarders could always opt to do a little housekeeping.
Complimentary iCloud storage upgrades are expiring soon
If you were a former MobileMe user who got a nice 20 GB chunk of free storage last year when iCloud came to life, the happy days are almost over. A number of the TUAW staff members have received an email similar to the one seen above, noting that we'll have to either buy a storage plan by September 30, 2013 or have the plan drop down to the free 5 GB iCloud plan. The link on the email goes to this support page, which explains how to sign up for a plan. In my case, the 20 GB plan is going to take US$40 out of my wallet for the next year. How about you, TUAW readers? Are you going to renew your iCloud plan or just make do with your Dropbox or Google Drive accounts?
iWork for iCloud beta invites expand the pool of access
As work continues on Apple's newest cloud application suite, iWork for iCloud, the circle of access for non-developers appears to be widening. We reported back on July 3 that some iCloud users were already seeing the beta versions of the web productivity apps in their iCloud dashboards, although Apple hadn't made any noticeable announcements about expanding the beta pool. Yesterday, however, MacRumors noted that some readers were getting actual email invitations to join the iWork for iCloud beta. The email encourages users to log into iCloud and try the apps, and to provide Apple with feedback on them. Given that there are still a few key features yet to be implemented (printing, for instance) you won't want to turn to the beta web versions for day-to-day use, but it's certainly nice to see the early editions getting some expanded exposure. I was surprised to see the beta versions showing up in my own iCloud dashboard this morning, but it's possible they've been there for a while. Sure enough, all my iPad-based Keynote presentations are present and editable -- and since most of those are long out of date, I might as well delete them and free up some storage space. Thanks for the reminder, iCloud!
Apple sends iWork for iCloud beta invitations to everyday users
Apple was quick to invite developers to the iWork for iCloud beta in the aftermath of WWDC, but us commoners have had to settle for watching from afar. The company is quickly opening things up, however -- it just started sending out beta invitations to ordinary iCloud users, including some Engadget readers. While this isn't likely to represent Apple's promised public beta, it's clear that we're now much closer to the day when everyone can give the web-based iWork a try. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Whatsapp for iOS updated with multiple photo support, iCloud chat history backup
We here at Engadget love app updates, especially when new features and functionality are involved. WhatsApp is doing this very thing with version 2.10.1, which was released today. The refresh offers a few pleasant additions, such as the ability to send multiple photos to someone at the same time, as well as the option to backup and restore your iCloud chat history. Lastly, it also includes URL schema support for third-party apps and is currently being offered for free. Head below to grab the link to an iTunes App Store near you.
Dropbox announces iCloud-like data-sync service for apps
Dropbox held its first Dropbox developer conference yesterday. To start things off, CEO Drew Houston announced that Dropbox now has a whopping 175 million users. That's up from "only" 100 million users in November 2012, but still adding 75 million users in only nine months is impressive. However the biggest news for developers, and eventually users, to come out of the conference is the new Datastore API. As explained in a blog posting on the company site: Today, we're excited for you try out the beta release of the Datastore API - simple databases for your apps with Dropbox sync built-in! Use datastores to save your app's data - settings, contacts, or any other content that users create - and Dropbox will take care of all the syncing for you. People who use your Datastore-enabled app can be sure their information will always be up-to-date and available, no matter what device or platform they use. Developers will now be able to use Dropbox's Datastore sync databases to sync any number of different types of data across devices on multiple platforms. This not only includes contacts and files, but also things like game saves and app settings. The Datastore sync also works when a user does not have an internet connection. Changes are saved locally and the next time a connection is made the changes are synced across devices. If Dropbox's Datastore sounds a lot like Apple's iCloud, that's because it is. But the advantage of Datastore is that it works across myriad devices running multiple OSes. As for whether the stability and consistency of Dropbox's Datastore will be better than Apple's iCloud is yet to be seen.
Web versions of iWork available on iCloud beta site for some users
Apple launched the developer beta for the new online iCloud-based iWork tools this past June, including Numbers, Pages and Keynote. Today, we've noticed that some users have been able to login to the system and try out the new features. Access seems to be randomly available with some people, such as myself, still being told they need a developer ID to gain access. The new iCloud versions of these apps take aim at other cloud-based office tools like Google Docs and Microsoft's new Office 365, and can be used on a Mac or PC. Even if you're not a developer, it might be worth trying your luck. You might be pleasantly surprised to find yourself with access -- but do keep in mind it is a beta.
Mac 101: How to retire a Mac with an iCloud account
When you want to retire, sell or give away a Mac, you should never just pass it on to someone else as-is. There are many apps that only allow you to use your serial numbers a limited time, most notably from Adobe and Microsoft. You should deactivate the software so that you can reuse your serial numbers on a new Mac. There's other data you should save and remove also. In his article "iCloud services can make decommissioning your Mac more complicated," our good friend David Morgenstern at The Apple Core on ZDNet alerts us to an update to an Apple support article that deals with just that issue. The first critical issue, as noted on The Apple Core, is to not manually delete any of your data while signed into your iCloud account. Your iCloud account stores your files that sync with all of your devices and removing anything while signed in means your other devices will also have that information wiped. The safe steps to take are: Open iTunes and deauthorize the Mac from your iTunes account. Next, Apple recommends you back up your data. The Mac Basics: Time Machine support article, covers how to backup your Mac. You can also use other backup software, such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!. Both programs are used religiously by TUAW staff members. No matter what you use, the point is to make sure you have a copy of all of the data on your computer, so that you experience no surprises when you add a new Macintosh into your hardware mix. Open iCloud from your System Preferences. Uncheck the Find My Mac preference (the last one in the list), and then click the sign out button on the left side of the iCloud preference window. Your system automatically removes all of your iCloud data at this point. If you've backed up your data though, you still have it all neatly stored away on your backup drive. The balance of the information on Apple's support article covers reformatting your hard drive and how to return it to its original "out-of-the-box" state. This is especially useful for the recipient of your old and their new Mac. I recently had a relatively new iMac go belly-up on me and can say that having a current backup is the only thing that saved me from weeks of frustration trying to resurrect files. For my iTunes account, I just had to deauthorize all my machines and reauthorize them one by one. If I had not activated my iCloud account, I would have lost all my contacts, calendars and years of carefully organized Safari bookmarks. In addition, I found that Microsoft's phone support and Adobe's chat support were most helpful in returning my lost activations for their software. TUAW Stories Related to Backing Up Your Data Getting ready for Mountain Lion: Backups World Backup Day 2013: Don't be an April Fool!
SignMyPad faces Apple's ban hammer over iCloud integration
The App Store has always been Apple's playground -- you get to play there if you adhere to the rules. Sometimes the rules are straight forward; other times the rules are malleable and determined by Apple on a seemingly case-by-case basis. The latest rejection controversy involving Autriv and its SignMyPad app definitely falls into the latter scenario. SignMyPad was recently updated to version 5 and added iCloud so users could sync their PDF files across iOS devices. Apple rejected this latest version because it will not allow iOS applications to use iCloud to sync "non-user-generated" data between devices. Even though the app adds a signature to a document and saves it as a new file, Apple does not consider this to be user-generated content. The developers pleaded their case with Apple, and the company would not budge. Apple's answer to the team was to drop iCloud and use a third-party service instead. Though it seems unreasonable to push developers away from its own service, there may be justification for Apple's rejection that lay outside this "user-generated" clause. First, iCloud is a limited resource that users have to pay to use. Yes, you get 5 GB of free storage space, but your allotment could quickly fill up with beefy PDF files uploaded by single-purpose apps like SignMyPad that add only a signature to the document. One little signature on a handful of these documents, and a user is calling Apple to complain that their iCloud storage is full. They don't understand why they are maxed out because they only added a signature, how could that take up so much space? Other apps like PDFpen use iCloud, but PDFPen is a full-scale editor that lets you annotate, correct and sign PDF files. Apple may be looking at an app like PDFpen and giving it the thumbs up because of its broad editing capabilities, while rejecting SignMyPad because it only adds a signature. This signature is apparently not significant enough to be considered user-generated content by Apple. Plus, iCloud has been experiencing significant growing pains since it launched, and there are other services like Dropbox or even email that are better equipped to share large files.
Reflow: A music composition and notation app for Mac and iOS with iCloud sync
Reflow for Mac (US$19) and iOS ($5.99) is a tool that makes composition and practice of music easier. A few weeks ago you may have seen TUAW's Editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, Jr. interview Sébastien Bourgeois, creator of Reflow, in our Origin Stories series. The interview spiked my curiosity about the app, so I took a closer look. While there are some great music notation apps out there for Mac (Tabular) and iOS (Weezic), what caught my attention about Reflow is that it supports both Mac and iOS. Plus, Reflow takes advantage of the latest Mac OS X and iCloud sync features. Let's say you're composing a song in Reflow on the Mac. Reflow (which supports fullscreen mode) will automatically save your work as you progress with autosave. And if things take an unsurprising turn, simply engage versions (just like you would in Pages, for example) and go back to the last iteration of your work that suits you best to carry on from. Finally, Reflow takes advantage of iCloud support, meaning you can be working on the Mac one minute and switch over to your iPhone or iPad and carry on where you left off the next. These simple features make a huge difference to the creative process by letting you focus on the music. But all of these great features would be meaningless if Reflow didn't have the basics to make a fantastic music notation app. Fortunately, it does. The app's beautifully simple interface lets you build multi-track (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums) compositions with musical notation or tablature. It's as easy as clicking or typing in a note or beat, playing on a MIDI keyboard or, for guitarists, dragging and dropping chords in from the extensive chord diagram database. Of course, you can create your own chords, too. Furthermore, Reflow gives you an audio representation of your work using a lightweight audio engine, so you have a great idea of what your composition will sound like before the real players step in. And you can modify and edit your work during playback. Reflow also lets you build and re-arrange your own song structures, so if you suddenly decide the intro sounds better as a middle-eight, just drag it over. Finally, Reflow also supports Guitar Pro and Power Tab files for import. Export your compositions in Guitar Pro, PDF, Wave and MIDI files, or share by email. For songwriters and composers looking to write for a typical band, Reflow has all the tools you'll need. But where Reflow stands above the rest is in its creative process and workflow. With iCloud support, Reflow allows you to transition work seamlessly between Mac or iOS and takes the worry out of saving your work as well as going back through previous versions.
Apple opens iWork for iCloud beta to registered developers
One part of Monday's WWDC 2013 keynote that seems to have received short shrift in the discussions of updated products is iWork. During the keynote, iWork for iCloud -- a browser-based version of Apple's office suite -- was discussed along with comments about the iOS versions of the suite. Now Apple has followed up the announcement by opening a beta of iWork for iCloud to registered developers. While the browser-based iWork for iCloud is meant to work on Mac or PC in just about any browser, developers opening the beta web apps in Chrome are greeted with a message saying "Your browser isn't fully supported. For the best Pages/Keynote/Numbers for iCloud experience, use the latest version of Safari." For those who have been using the current version of iWork and saving documents to iCloud, all of the saved documents are immediately available for test. The web suite will be released to the world later this year; at the present time, developers can try out the apps by logging in at beta.icloud.com.
