mbps scampi: WWDC 2013 wish-list: iMore's top iCloud wants!

WWDC 2013 preview: iCloud wish list!

To the internet! That's what everyone is doing these days, and for Apple, that means iCloud. The rebirth of MobileMe, which was the rebirth of .Mac, iCloud has been praised for its effortless backup and restore, easy app and media re-downloads, and it's $0 price tag for the basic level. But it's also caught flack for outages, for iMessage, and for Core Data sync, which has bedeviled developers. So what do the staff and friends of iMore most want to see in iCloud next?

Let's see!

Peter Cohen, managing editor of iMore

iCloud needs better reliability. I frequently have problems with services going down (even though Apple says they're online on its iCloud status page), and even momentary outages are nervewracking. I also have issues with getting calendars, contact lists and other content synchronized through iCloud, so I strongly suspect Apple's got some work to do there.

Ally Kazmucha, how-to editor of iMore

From iCloud, I want a better way to manage files and documents. Whether that's a document browser available across Mac and iOS or another way, I don't know. It just needs to happen.

I'd also like to see more settings when it comes to managing iCloud backups. More specifically, I'd like the ability to delete things from backups and to manage device backups without actually being on that device.

Oh yeah, a much more reliable iMessage. It's a bag of hurt half the time, and that makes it a not so reliable option.

Richard Devine, senior editor of iMore

Some form of file browser for iCloud, even better a web portal and a way to split iCloud files away from being exclusive to the apps you use them with. I appreciate the 'invisible' nature of iCloud syncing, but the thing that stops me using it more is that I can't just go and get the files as I can on Dropbox.

Marc Edwards, co-host of Iterate

What I want from iCloud this year is predictability and stability. Nothing more.

Seth Clifford, co-host of Iterate

What do I want to see from iCloud? I want to see it work.

I don't mean to be so glib, but I can't trust it. And lots of people (both nerds and non-nerds alike) can't either. Apple's own integrations are actually very good (Photo Stream, calendar/contact sync, iCloud backup/restore, etc.) but what's provided to developers for their own integration points is laughable at best. Apple's never been exemplary at web services, but to continue delivering on its own promises - and to compete in the market as things move the way that they are - they've got to stop waving their hands and using hyperbole and actually deliver bulletproof APIs for that stuff.

iCloud has got such potential, but it's so far from being realized in its current state.

Chris Parsons, editor-at-large of Mobile Nations

I'm quite pleased with iCloud as is, it's just a shame it always seem to go down. Improved reliability there would be great.

Anthony, videographer

I want to see device granularity in terms of being able to control what kind/size/age of thing to sync.

Nick Arnott, security columnist

iCloud is an interesting feature in that it improves lives by staying out of the way. Whether it?s restoring a new iPhone to a backup of your old iPhone after dropping it in a river, or making sure that when your iPad dies you can keep playing Real Racing HD on your iPhone, iCloud has done wonders for user experience, while requiring very little adjustment by users.

The problem is that developers have not been able to enjoy the same painless integration as users on their side of things. Despite a number of prominent developers becoming vocal of a broken iCloud, no news has come from Apple about fixing the system. As a user this means there are not as many developers writing apps that make use of iCloud as there could be. Even those that are using iCloud have come to rely on hacky implementations that are potentially unreliable and could easily break. Before Apple goes looking to expand upon iCloud, they need to fix it. Once they do, developers and users alike should be able to enjoy the results.

Rene Ritchie, editor-in-chief of iMore

iCloud was meant to be ubiquitous. All our stuff, on all our devices, where ever we are, when ever we want it. For the most part, for many things, iCloud now does just that. Sure, Core Data sync probably has to be ripped out and replaced with something less impossible, but for mail, backups, and re-downloads, it works.

What I'd really like to see is for iCloud to become even more ubiquitous and for more things. I'd like to become aware of and to preserve state. From notifications to game levels, when I leave one device I want my state stored up on the iCloud and pushed down to all the rest. If I'm using one device, send all my notifications there, and nowhere else. If I'm not using any particular device, blast them everywhere to find me, until I dismiss them somewhere, then kill them everywhere.

If I exit an app, save its current state to iCloud, so if I go back to the same app on another device, I'm in exactly the same spot, Angry Birds or Fantastical, Elements or Infinity Blade.

Sure, it'll be slow at first. And the potential for collisions will be huge. This is a wish list, though, not a reality list, and if you shoot for the moon, sometimes you can still leap mountains.

What's your number one iCloud wish?

So that's what everyone here at iMore wants to see! Well, almost everyone. You're the most important part of the site, so your opinion matters to us the most! Tell me, what's your number one wish come iCloud and WWDC?