Technology

The lawsuit isn't really about the 5 GB free tier, but about being able to use system services like device backups with other cloud providers.

Poorly written headline.

Sometimes it's hard to feel sorry for Apple users given the amount of repeated nickeling and diming they go through,yet make excuses for (as seen in the comments). Definitely shades of battered woman syndrome

What!? the company that weaponizes vendor-lockin the most is overcharging for their service!?!?!

I read this article, because it's absurd to make a class action lawsuit about the free tier remaining at only 5GB. Apple has the right to give as much or little away for free.

Instead, the lawsuit is about something a lot more lawsuit worthy: The fact that you cannot backup your iPhone with other cloud service providers, providing an unfair advantage to iCloud. This should definitely be illegal.

Additionally, can we have a lawsuit over excessive storage markups (that are over ~2x the gross margin of the device)? This is also basically pure profit.

“There is no technological or security justification for Apple mandating the use of iCloud for Restricted Files,” the lawsuit reads.

Wouldn't this argument also be true for everything else Apple restricts you from doing? Texting app, browser, Apple music on a home pod, etc? (I don't have a lot of good examples because I don't have an i thing but I'm sure there are more)

I hope they loose this lawsuit and set a precedent that Samsung also has to follow. At least Samsung gives you the choice between onedrive and Google, but still no choice for generic WebDav...

How are you guys reading this article? It took me 5-10mins of unchecking each cookie vendor one by one before I gave up.

Modern internet is a shit show

I hope this forces their hand in having to allow other actual e2e cloud services, its legititmately bullshit we even need to have this convo :(

This is an extra service they don’t have to offer. If they wanted to they could just drop the free tier altogether. You have space on your phone and you can back it up to your computer as well. I do t see the point of this lawsuit except “wah, they’re not giving me enough stuff for free!”

I hate this the most about my iPhone. I’m currently on my 3rd Apple device, but you don’t get more storage every time you buy one. So if you have an iPhone and an iPad you’re still stuck with 5gb, and it’s shared with you backups and your cloud-based apps like photo sync, message sync. That 5gb is gone pretty quick.

It’s easy enough to sync photos elsewhere, but not messages. So the $1/mo storage upgrade becomes really attractive.

I hope this opens up their backup service but I doubt it.

This is a stupid lawsuit. You can back up your phone locally using iTunes and Finder and the new device app on Windows. You can also back it up using third party software. No one is forcing you to use iCloud.

Apple does let you use any cloud backup service you want… just not for the OS and app preference files. Those go to iCloud, but those are also highly unlikely to hit 5gb.

When you cloud restore with your media backed up to something like Dropbox, this is what happens.

1. After logging into iCloud, iOS checks iCloud for the apps you had installed, and it downloads the latest compatible versions from the store. Then, iOS pulls down OS and app preferences from iCloud

2. Launch Dropbox, or similar, to pull down your backed up media and files.

Apple gets no money for storage, but Dropbox gets a check.

So they seem to be arguing that Apple isn't spending enough money to offer a free service it never had to offer because reasons.