iCloud
Everything you need to know about Apple's iCloud -- PC-free, iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, Find my iPhone, Find my Friends, and more!
iCloud is Apple’s online service designed to make managing your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV, and your iTunes content easier and more automatic than ever. iCloud currently consists of PC-free set up, back up, and restore features, mail, contacts, and calendar sync, iTunes in the Cloud for apps, books, music, movies, and TV shows, Documents in the Cloud, Photo Stream, Find my iPhone, and Find my Friends. Basic iCloud service is completely free. Extra storage can be purchased for an additional charge, and there's an optional iTunes Match services that runs $24.99 a year.
A stolen iPhone is helping its owner close the net on the thief thanks to Apple's iCloud Photo Stream. We assume that Find My iPhone was either not enabled, or was disabled by the thief, but it seems the thief was unaware that Photo Stream was running and cataloging every photograph
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For a couple of years now, before every major release of iOS, I've begged and pleaded for a native iOS documents repository. Not a file system like OS X, but something that would do for documents what Photos.app and the photo picker do for images.
Right now, even absent a file system and hierarchy, it's still too complex, confusing, and unwieldy for users to remember, find, and attach documents in iOS. iOS 6 is a chance for Apple to change that, and a Files app and documents picker are simple, consistent, convenient ways to do it.
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I get to use most of the newest devices and test out all the platforms in my job. My "go-to" phone is the iPhone 4S, but there are features I see on other devices that I really wish were present in iOS. At the top of the list of wants is rich contact integration with my social networks.
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Apple might just be ready to add photo and video sharing and commenting to iCloud.
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It's been almost a week since Apple released iOS 5.1.1 but not everyone seems to have heard about it right away. Some may not have received or noticed the popup notification or badge on the Settings app to advise them it was available. Others may have been waiting to see what, if anything, iOS 5.1.1. did to battery life and performance before updating. Still others aren't updating until a nicely packaged, unthethered jailbreak is available for iOS 5.1.1.
If you're in the first two groups, however, our latest reader survey shows that iOS 5.1.1. is about the same, if not a little better, when it comes to battery life and performance, so you can go ahead and update without any worries. If you still haven't received your update alert, or you missed it, or simply haven't gotten around to it yet, it's really easy, and really fast, to manually start the updating process using iCloud.
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Earlier today a beta version of iCloud.com accidentally leaked 2 new web apps, Notes and Reminders, presumably coming to iCloud web-portal. These apps make perfect sense to be on iCloud.com,
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Apple appears to be in the early -- yet strangely public -- stages of testing Notification Center-style banner alerts on iCloud.com, the web portal they provide for remote email, calendar, and contact access.
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When Apple announced their free iCloud service at WWDC 2011, users of the previous, paid, MobileMe service were given a temporary boost in storage. The extra storage was previously set to expire in June of 2012. According to a recent change in Apple's MobileMe to iCloud transition FAQ, however, that's now been extended until September.
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While Apple never meant iCloud to work like Dropbox or Google Drive, if you don't mind polishing up your ninja-skills you can get it to do just that!
There's no shortage of online storage solutions -- Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync, Microsoft SkyDrive, Apple's soon-to-be end-of-lifed iDisk, and now, Google Drive. Apple's new iCloud isn't meant to be online storage at all; it's designed to abstract away messy concepts like file systems and folders and tuck everything away neatly behind apps. Did you know, however, that you can also (with a little tweaking) upload movies, audio files and pictures to store in iCloud for safe keeping?
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June 11. That's the date we've long suspected but just this week had confirmed. Apple's 2012 World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now official hurtling towards us (or us towards it). But it's not the only things going on this week, so let's get to it.
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Everything you need to know about setting up, backing up, restoring, and updating your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and managing your iTunes apps, books, music, TV shows, movies, Match, and Photo Stream in the cloud
iCloud is Apple's online service designed to make managing your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV, and your iTunes content easier and more automatic than ever. Like the name implies, iCloud is based in the "cloud", which is a trendy way of saying giant data centers filled with servers that you can access from your device over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G internet, wherever you are, whenever you want. It consists of several services that work with the apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and with iTunes and a handful of desktop apps on Mac and Windows. Most iCloud services are completely free, although additional storage and services are available for purchase.
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Everything you need to know about setting up and using iCloud's location-basded meet-up service, Find my Friends
Find My Friends lets you easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Whether you're on a family trip to a theme park or just want to meet up with some acquaintances for a drink, Find my Friends can make sure everyone knows where everyone else is.
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Everything you need to know about setting up, tracking, messaging, locking, and wiping a lost or stolen iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with Find my iPhone
Find my iPhone -- or Find my iPod or Find my iPad -- keeps track of your iCloud enabled devices so you can track them down if they're lost or stolen, and even remotely message, lock, and erase it to keep your data secure.
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Everything you need to know about setting up, creating, importing, editing, and using Documents in the Cloud
With iCloud you no longer have to fuss with traditional computer files and folders or worry about forgetting where you put a document when you go back to look for it later. For apps that support Documents in the Cloud, all you have to remember is which app (or apps) opens the type of file you want to work on. From then on, iCloud manages everything, storing any changes you make back up to the server, and pushing down those updates to every device you have logged into your account. Create a Keynote presentation on your iPad at home, get to work and it's ready and waiting for you on your iPhone.
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Everything you need to know about setting up and using Apple's picture backup and distribution service, Photo Stream
Photo Stream is iCloud image backup and distribution component. Take a picture (or screen shot) on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, and -- when you're on Wi-Fi -- iCloud will store a copy of that picture on Apple's servers and push copies down to all your other iOS devices, as well as your Mac and/or Windows PC. On iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, iCloud will store up to 1000 photos, or 30 days of photos. On your Mac and/or Windows PC, iCloud will store all your photos. Photo Stream will also let you view your photos on the Apple TV.
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Apple is trying to encourage users of its MobileMe service to switch over to iCloud by offering a free Snow Leopard upgrade DVD. Snow Leopard usually costs $29 from the Apple Store. In order to use iCloud on your Mac, it has to be running Lion. Apparently, some percentage of MobileMe users are still running on Leopard and haven’t upgraded to Snow Leopard which is needed before you can upgrade to Lion.
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Everything you need to know about subscribing to, setting up, and using Apple's digital music locker service, iTunes Match
iTunes Match is Apple's "music locker" service that allows you to store copies of all your music on Apple's servers and re-download it from any of your devices, at any time.
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Greenpeace recently released a report detailing how ecologically friendly different cloud service providers were in their data center operations, and Apple ranked 15.3% on their clean energy index. The index is built on criteria such as reliance on coal and nuclear energy, transparency in energy usage, and use of renewable sources.
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Everything you need to know about re-downloading apps, games, iBooks, music, TV shows, and movies from the iTunes Store and iCloud
iTunes in the Cloud lets you access content you've bought from Apple's iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, re-download it to your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and to iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC, and stream your music, movies, and TV shows to your Apple TV.
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Everything you need to know to get your mail, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, notes, and reminders syncing with iCloud
iCloud includes push email, calendaring, and contact services. That means whenever you get an email, it's immediately made available on all your devices. Whenever you make or change an appointment it shows up in your calendar on all your devices. Whenever you add or change contact information, its reflected in the contacts on all of your devices. You can access these services via the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, via the iCloud.com website from any desktop browser, or through popular mail, calendar, and contacts apps on your Mac or Windows PC.
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Everything you need to know about setting up, backing up, restoring, and updating your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iCloud
With iCloud, you no longer need to plug your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC to set it up for the first time, to keep it backed up, or to upgrade the software. Now you can do all of that, and more, faster and more easily, over-the-air (OTA) on your local Wi-Fi network. Because routine tasks, like backups, happen automatically, you don't have to worry about forgetting them and then finding out you don't have one when you need it most.
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Apple is going to owe Motorola damages for infringing on push e-mail patents currently being used by iCloud and Mobile, so sayeth the Mannheim, Germany regional court.
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According to numerous iMore readers, Universal Studies movies are now showing as available to re-download via iTunes Movies in the Cloud. Part of Apple's iCloud offering, apps, iBooks, and music were available at launch, with TV Shows following soon thereafter. Movies in the Cloud were added shortly after the new iPad but only in the US and only from a few studies.
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If you've been looking for a way to keep your Twitter timeline synced between your iPhone and iPad, you'll be happy to know that Tweetbot has been updated with the ability to do just that with the help of iCloud sync.
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iCloud has been called Apple's key to the next decade, an online hub in the clouds to replace the outdated Mac hub in your home -- but are you using it? Introduced alongside iOS 5, iCloud was the subject of Steve Jobs' final keynote appearance and the way Apple finally "cut-the-cord" to iTunes and kicked off their Post-PC era.
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