I have a MacBook Pro with an Intel Core Duo processor, so I won’t be able to upgrade to Lion. Will I be able to use iCloud on my older laptop running Snow Leopard? What’s going to happen to the stuff I have stored on iDisk? And what about webmail?

After Apple’s iCloud announcement, there were lots of rumors swirling around about which current MobileMe features weren’t going to make the cut. Since Apple didn’t mention specific features like web interfaces for Mail and iCal, many assumed that they’d be on the chopping block.

Thankfully, Apple has since then released additional details about which services will and won’t survive the transition from MobileMe to iCloud. According to Apple, “Web access to iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone will be available at icloud.com this fall.”

Since those services are browser-based, you shouldn’t have any trouble with them, and Apple will be providing further instructions on how to migrate most of your data over to iCloud when the service launches.

iCloud: It's free, but a few MobileMe features are getting the axe.

But notice how I said “most?” The iCloud is not all silver lining. Depending on how you use MobileMe, there may be some dark iClouds on the horizon for you. When the sun sets on MobileMe on June 30, 2012, iWeb publishing, Gallery, and iDisk are all getting unplugged. But it’s not really quite as bad as it sounds. iCloud’s new Documents in the Cloud feature is a sort-of replacement for iDisk, and the new Photo Stream isn’t as good at sharing photos, but it’s great for backup. In addition to Apple’s free 5 gigs, paid iCloud plans offering more storage will be available, although details were not available at press time.

If you just can’t live without iTunes Match, which will only work with Lion, check out Amazon’s Cloud Drive or Google Music Beta, both of which can give you at least some online access to your music collection.

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