Apple’s first cloud service, iTools, was introduced in 2000 and was available for free. Then came MobileMe, which added powerful features like data syncing and online storage, so Apple bumped the price to $99 a year. But now Apple has reverted a bit, delivering MobileMe’s most useful services at no charge and rebranding it all as iCloud. And that’s not all—this new service links all of your devices with Apple’s North Carolina data centers to keep both your vital files and your iTunes Store purchases at your fingertips whenever you want them.
To use iCloud, you’ll need iOS 5 on an iPhone 3GS or later, a third-gen or later iPod touch, either model of the iPad, or a Mac running OS X Lion. You can sign up for the service with your Apple ID on your iOS device in Settings > iCloud, or on your Mac in System Preferences > iCloud. You can then turn on the features you want to sync, like your complementary Me.com email address, contacts and calendars, Safari bookmarks, and more. Once the services are active on all your devices, Apple’s servers should do the heavy lifting, pushing changed data on one device out to the rest automatically.
You can change your iCloud storage plan from any device.
All iCloud accounts get a free 5GB of storage to save and sync personal data and other documents. That may not sound like much, but given the tiny size of most of those files, it should be enough for most people’s needs. But if you find 5GB cramps your style, you can buy an additional 10GB, 20GB, or 50GB of storage for an annual subscription of $20, $40, or $100 right from your device’s iCloud settings.
One iDevice backup, hold the USB cables.
One feature that might dent your allotted storage is iOS Backup. That’s right: with iCloud you now have the option of backing up your iOS devices over Wi-Fi to Apple’s servers instead of to your Mac over USB. But iCloud backups use as little disk space as possible, thanks to judicious data juggling on Apple’s part. Backups include data like photos and video in the Camera Roll, mail, contacts, and calendar account settings, Home screen organization, and more. To turn them on, go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup. There you can also tap Manage Storage and choose your device to fine-tune what app data gets copied. Just remember that media not purchased from the iTunes Store—including music, movies, and podcasts—isn’t included in the process.
Come on, how can you go back to Gmail after seeing that?
When you can’t get to your Mac or iOS device, iCloud.com has you covered. It’s your Me.com mail, contacts, and calendars just as they look in iOS 5. The site also offers the conspicuously misnamed Find My iPhone service, which brings Apple’s Mac and iOS device locator to any computer with internet access. It can even remotely lock or wipe your wayward devices to keep their data from prying eyes. You can also control how you share your iWork files with other Macs and iOS devices from iCloud.com, but we’ll cover that in more depth on the next page.
Pick your purchases and whether they sync over your cellular network.
iTunes in the Cloud syncs purchases on one device across all your devices and lets you re-download purchases as often as you like. To set it up, go to Settings > Store, then turn on Automatic Downloads for the media you want. On your Mac, launch iTunes, then click iTunes > Preferences > Store. To re-download purchases on your Mac, log in to the iTunes Store, then click the Purchased link in the Quick Links sidebar. In iOS, tap iTunes > Purchased to get your music and TV shows. Apps and books can be found in App Store and the Purchased section of the iBooks store, respectively. Movies and audiobooks, alas, aren’t eligible yet.
If you’re a MobileMe user considering iCloud, we have good news. You’ll still get to use many of the features you rely on, like data syncing and your MobileMe email, after signing up. You can even continue using MobileMe-specific features like your iDisk side-by-side with the new iCloud services.
But you will lose some features. You’ll no longer be able to sync OS X’s keychains, Dock items, System Preferences, and Dashboard widgets across your Macs. And if you’re the administrator of a family account, make any changes to subaccounts before moving to iCloud (you won’t be able to edit them later). Those subaccounts will keep working, however, and can be moved to iCloud individually after you switch.
If you’re still on the fence, you have time to decide…but the clock is ticking. On June 30, 2012 Apple will pull the plug on all MobileMe services for good, and features like iWeb publishing, iDisk, photo galleries, and your MobileMe iOS apps will no longer work (expect plenty of activity in Software Update as apps are updated). For more information about how you’ll be affected, visit Apple’s MobileMe transition page.
redbeard45
January 11, 2012 at 2:22am
Wasn't there .Mac in there somewhere? I still have to log in as .Mac to access my iDisk - huge problems when it went over to Mobile Me and despited an hour on line with an Apple expert, managed to solve it myself - I had to log in with a rubbish name which Mobile rejected, then put in the correct details using .mac instead of me, and it would finally allow me access to my iDisk? Weird!
I find the recent changes are incredibly frustrating as because of the software I have and use, I don't want to change to Lion - like so many others, and before the recent changes, I had my iCal public calendar publishing to my website so people could click on a link on my homepage and find where I am on my public calendar - I work in schools doing PD work. Now the only way of doing this is sending everyone who MIGHT like to contact me, a link so they can subscribe to my public calendar. WHAATTTT - that's crazy!!!
Sorry, off to use Google Calendar like so many - waited in anticipation for Apple to sort this or at least give us iCloud on Snow Leopard.
susanmcm
January 09, 2012 at 4:50pm
Use caution when switching to iCloud if you have shared calendars in iCal. My spouse and I shared several calendars (household and biz projects), both of us on MobileMe. It worked flawlessly.
My new computer came with Lion, so I switched to iCloud. Ooops. We can no longer share calendars until he switches from Snow Leopard to iCloud (we're holding off because we need at least one computer on Snow Leopard because of Quicken debacle, but I digress).
I like iCloud fine. I just wish I had been warned in advance that I would lose access to all of our shared calendars. I didn't realize how much we relied on them until they were gone. t asked at the Apple Store before switching to iCloud, but was told there was no reason to hesitate. Even THEY were unaware there was a problem with shared calendars (but they certainly are now!). They were very apologetic, and I don't mean to take a dig at the Apple Store folks--they've saved my skin countless times. I guess it's a learning curve for everybody.
Just hope to save someone else from this problem since it's so avoidable. If you have shared calendars, you have to keep all parties on the same system--either MobileMe or iCloud.
xABD
January 09, 2012 at 10:37am
I have four people in our house using my iTunes/Apple ID. I obviously do NOT want them all to have access to my data and I certainly don't want access to their music purchases! I have yet to read a comprehensive explanation on how to set up accounts for these four other people, two of who are teenagers.
And, since I don't have an iOS 5 capable iPhone, I'm not sure iCloud really has any incentives for me to even use it. I'm perfectly happy with DropBox (I now have 6.5 GBs FREE).
I may end up setting up accounts for three of these residents, assuming they can arrange some kind of credit card/pay scheme. Franky, the whole inconsistent evolution of iTools/MobileMe/iCloud is leading me further away from Apple's 'plan' for my life. Whatever happened to their "it just works" philosophy? iCloud seems designed for a single person with multiple devices (3, at least!). That may be the new standard but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
chirpity
January 07, 2012 at 3:14pm
Photostream sucks big time. It won't let you delete or choose anything. Everything gets uploaded. FAIL!
I want my iCloud drive to appear right on my desktop and act like an external drive. I want to sync ANY type of file I want. Basically, I want Dropbox, which I already use, but better.
macstarter
January 07, 2012 at 1:28pm
A great article, which kind of summarised a few things. I'm a little disappointed at the lack of 'good' iCloud integration in Mac Apps. Going from an iPhone to an iPad is great when your Docs are being saved automatically in iCloud. But let's say you're going from Pages on your iPad to Pages on your Mac, the result is not very Apple like at all. Having to grab your Docs from the iCloud.com page, and then having to re-upload it afterwards just doesn't do it for me. I'm very much hoping that iLife '12 and iWork '12 will have this just built in and ready to go.
For anyone who's interested, there's a series of iCloud articles I've done as well.... goo.gl/ygdsl
Mr. Happypants
January 06, 2012 at 7:46pm
What's the deal with Photostream & controlling what does & doesn't get pushed to my iCloud storage? I really don't want every single image from my phone being arbitrarily pushed to online storage. Anybody have a better solution?
