iCloud is Apples New On-line Service

The Apple iCloud service was announced by Steve Jobs at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2011.

This new on-line service was designed to replace the previous MobileMe service.

The new service went live on the 12 October 2011, and coincided with the release of the new iOS 5 mobile operating system, and the latest update to OS X Lion (version 10.7.2).

Before we delve into the new services let's remind ourselves what services were available as part of the MobileMe on-line service. This will allow us to see what is new and what is missing.

What did MobileMe Offer Before iCloud?

Mac users have been able to use the Apple MobileMe service since 2008, although there had been other services like iTools and .Mac before it.

Apples MobileMe Service

So what did MobileMe offer the Mac User? The main service was the ability to sync mail, contacts, calendar events and bookmarks between your Mac and mobile devices. You also got access to a web based front end that allowed you view mail, contacts and events using any internet connection.

MobileMe offered three other useful, and popular, services which included iWeb, Gallery and iDisk.

The MobileMe iWeb, Gallery & iDisk Services

This service allowed you to create your own web site. Each Mac computer is bundled with the iLife software suite which included the iWeb software. Once you had built your page(s) you could then publish them to your MobileMe account.

The Gallery was a place to keep all of your photos. You could sync them with iPhoto and an App was available to access them on your iPhone or iPad.

This was the service that I used the most. iDisk provided you with a place to store files and documents, you could even have a folder in Finder that allowed you instant access to files. It was a bit slow updating but it was very useful.

Apple also provided iWorks.com

Apple also provided another service that was independent to MobileMe called iWorks.com. This allowed you to share your documents from Apples iWorks office software with colleagues over the Internet. All you had to do was click the Share button in the tool bar, as shown below.

The Pages Share Button

What does iCloud Offer Us?

iCloud is a new service, provided by Apple, that will totally replace MobileMe accounts by the 30 June 2012. Apple realised that their existing on-line services were very dated and didn't fit in with their up and coming mobile device updates.

Apple decided to build a new data centre in North Carolina, and it is not small. At 500,000 square feet, Apple’s $1 billion data centre will be among the largest in the world.

Image courtesy of Apple

At the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) Apple announced that iCloud would offer the following services.

• iTunes in the Cloud
• Photo Stream
• Documents in the Cloud
• Apps, Books and Backups
• Calendar, Mail and Contacts
• Find My Friends
• Find My iPhone

You get a web interface similar to MobileMe for easy access on the move, but even better is the fact that it has been integrated into the Apps on your Mac, iPhone and iPad. Let's take a look at these services in more detail.

iTunes in the Cloud

iTunes is a pretty cool piece of software, it is used everyday by millions of iPod and iPhone users to sync their music libraries with their Mac or Windows PC.

But iTunes in the Cloud ensures that all of your music purchases from iTunes are updated on all of your devices including iPhone and iPad.

You can also sync your previous iTunes purchases. If a tune isn’t on your device you can simply download it.

Image courtesy of Apple

But possibly the most impressive feature is called iTunes Match which allows you to upload your entire CD collection. This includes music you have ripped from CDs or even purchased from elsewhere.

Photo Stream

With Photo Stream you can take a photo with your iOS device or import a photo from a digital camera and have the photo appear on all of your devices.

iCloud uses your WiFi or ethernet network to sync with the photo application on your iPhone or iPad, your Mac computer, or even the Picture Library on your PC.

Photo Stream allows you to have a rolling library of 1000 photos, which are stored for 30 days so you have plenty of time to copy any photos you want to another device.

The Photo Stream has been integrated into both iPhoto and Aperture, giving you instant access to all of your photos.

iPhoto Displaying the Photo Stream

Documents in the Cloud

How often have you edited a document on your Mac and then wished that you could continue editing it whilst out of the office, on your iPhone or iPad?

Recently Apple made this possible by releasing the iWorks office suite for the iPhone and the iPad. But you still need to get the documents synced across to the device you want to work with them on.

Documents in the Cloud is the solution to this problem. If you have an application which is compatible, like iWorks, then you can keep all of your documents in sync across all of your devices.

However, there is one little hiccup with this idea. If you have Pages on your iPhone or iPad it works great. Create a new document, edit it, save it and sure enough it appears in the iWorks part of iClouds shown below.

iWorks in the Cloud

But the problem is these documents don't automatically find there way into Pages. You have to drag and drop them from the web interface. It works well, but is a bit disappointing. I am expecting this to change in the future with a new release of iWorks.

Apps, Books and Backup

One of the announcements made by Apple when they announced iCloud was that Apps would be available on all of your iOS devices for a one-off payment.

The same applies to the Book Store. Purchase a book on one of your devices and it appears on all of your devices, no need for multiple purchases.

Finally, iCloud can back-up all of your devices data to the cloud on a daily basis. The following is a list of all the data that can be backed up;

• Purchased music, apps, and books
• Photos and video in the Camera Roll
• Device settings
• App data
• Home screen and app organisation
• Text and MMS messages
• Ringtones

Contacts, Calendar and Mail

We all rely on our computers to store lists of contacts, with details like name, address, phone number, and email. We keep upcoming events for home and business on our calendars, and download email.

When we owned a single computer all of the above was easy to maintain. But now we roam about and want all of our information with us, on our desktop, our notebook, and our smart phone.

With iCloud you now get full control over your contacts and events. First the web interface, shown below, at www.icloud.com gives you access on the move to your mail, calendar and contacts, with all being updated from your mobile devices. Everything remains in sync.

The iCloud Web Interface

The web interface gives you access to a page for each function. The Calendar is shown below. It has the same look and feel as in OS X Lion, with Day, Week, Month and list views.

The iCloud Calendar Page

If you look at the right-hand side of the page you will see the Reminders list. The new release of iOS, version 5, includes a new App called Reminders. Updating this App from either your iPhone or iPad will update the reminders column. Nice!

The next is your Contacts page which also has its own web page shown below. The look and feel is again very reminiscent of the Address Book in OS X Lion, with the leather theme.

The iCloud Address Book

Next comes the Mail page, where you can see all of your emails. The interesting point here is that only emails to your me.com email address are displayed and synced.

5GB of FREE Data Storage

Finally, iCloud will include 5GB of free data storage. Your purchased music, books, apps, and your Photo Stream, don’t count towards your free storage.

The free storage can be used to store mail, documents, your camera roll, account information, settings, and other application data.

Find My iPhone

This service is really cool. If you enable the functionality on your iPhone or iPad, and you select the 'Find My iPhone' option in the iCloud web interface you will see the exact location of your device on a map as shown below.

The iCloud Find My iPhone

What is Missing from the iCloud Service?

We have now looked at the original MobileMe service and what it offered users. Next we got an overview of the services and features available with iCloud.

You have probably realised that some of the original MobileMe services are missing, including iDisk, iWeb and the Gallery. All three will stop working with MobileMe on the 30 June 2012.

I think that iDisk was omitted because Apple view that the Documents in the Cloud service, and the ability for data to be backed up makes this an unnecessary add-on.

Also, the Gallery is replaced by the Photo Stream, after all it is available from all devices.

But the omission of iWeb was a big surprise. Many people use the powerful iWeb software to create their own web sites. There is no similar function in iCloud so users now have no choice but to seek out new web hosting services.