IA Writer brings iCloud to life

IA Writer, which was already one of the better writing apps for the iPad, has been updated to support iCloud support across the iPad and Mac.

This is the first app I have used which works across these two platforms rather than just multiple iOS devices (apart from the official Apple ones like Address Book and Calendar) and it is really slick.

Does it add anything to Dropbox? On the face of it the basic functionality isn't that different, but the tighter integration with iOS means it is worth delving a bit deeper.

The obvious benefit is the simplicity of setting it all up. There is no linking of accounts, logins etc. to worry about.

However, this is really only the tip of the iceberg.

When it encompasses the Mac and iOS devices, iCloud is the best implementation I have seen of the “create a document on one device, then finish it on another" concept. DropBox does let you do this, but iCloud is a whole other level of seamless.

As a test I inserted this paragraph into this post on my Macbook Pro (leaving the document open on the iPad). I then hit “save a version” on the Mac.

By the time I walked to the kitchen table and picked up the iPad the new paragraph had inserted itself into the open iPad document.

I could see edits to the paragraph which I made on the iPad popping into the Mac document on the other side of the room.

Try this on DropBox (I did using a couple of apps) and you just end up with "conflicting" copies of the document on DropBox. So far as I an see you have to close and reload a DropBox saved document in an iPad app to see changes made on another device.

This really does come as close as I have seen to demonstrating Clarke's law that:-

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

The downside is the lack of support for folders in iCloud. Whilst GoodReader which has supported iCloud for some time does allow folders, its implementation is a bit different and requires you to download documents from iCloud onto your device manually.

So far as I know this flat file structure is a "feature" of iCloud, but it will mean some pretty cumbersome document lists if you are a heavy user.

Having used iCloud "cross platform" I can see why Apple were excited about it (although why you can't do this with own iWork apps I really don't know).

The one app I am really itching to see implement iCloud like this is OmniFocus. They already have a limited iCloud tie-in to allow you to create actions using Siri on the iPhone 4S, but full iCloud implementation with seamless sync across all your Apple devices would take an already awesome app to another level.

Interestingly, Appigo have today announced iCloud integration on the latest version of their task management app. Maybe this will spur on OmniGroup to do likewise?