What Is the iCloud?
iCloud is Apple’s cloud computing technology. The term cloud computing conjures up images of giant hard drives in the sky, but the term originally comes from illustrations that depict the Internet as a cloud in computer network diagrams. So, in essence, cloud computing is a reference to using the Internet as a means of delivering computing and storage capacity as a service to a large number of users.
To use cloud computing, you must entrust your data to the service that provides the computer network (in this case, Apple), and the service provider has to store that data somewhere. Because every Apple iCloud account includes a free webmail address (that doesn’t bombard you with advertising) and 5 gigabytes (GB) of free storage space, Apple needs an almost unfathomable amount of data storage space for hundreds of millions of potential users. To support the iCloud, Apple has invested at least $1 billion in one of the world’s largest data centers and is in the process of building even more data centers in other locations.
What Does It Do?
The iCloud stores certain types of data that you generate from your Apple devices. This data includes email, notes, reminders, calendars, messages, photos, music, Safari bookmarks, web pages you have open in Safari in real time, certain types of applications, and certain types of data files.
As the iCloud stores data that you have generated from a device, it also pushes that data to the other qualifying devices you have. For example, suppose you have an iPhone and a Mac. If you take a photo with your iPhone, the photo is stored on the iCloud, and then the iCloud downloads it to iPhoto on your Mac. The downloading process is referred to as pushing because it happens automatically. You don’t have to go to your Mac and tell it to download anything from the iCloud. Now suppose you loaded some photos from your camera into iPhoto on your Mac. Those photos go automatically to the iCloud and then automatically to your iPhone.
Why Do I Want It?
Life is complicated at best. So much to remember and do-so little time! How can you keep up with everything? iCloud can help! Now all the applications you use to organize your life-Notes, Reminders, Calendar, and Mail-can be synchronized across all your devices. This means that you can carry the most up-to-date details of your personal and business life wherever you go if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You can make changes while you’re on the go-check items off your reminder list, add notes as you think of them, send emails-and the iCloud will push that information back to your Mac automatically.
iCloud saves you time by eliminating the need to enter the same information on all your devices or even take the time to cable your devices together and synchronize them. iCloud performs all its functions several times a day without a single keystroke or screen tap from you! It’s the ultimate organizing tool that runs on autopilot. This is why you want it!
How Can I Get It?
To take advantage of iCloud, you must have an Apple ID. Then it’s just a simple matter of turning on iCloud. If you already had a paid MobileMe account with Apple, you already have an Apple ID. If you didn’t, you can get one free when you turn on the iCloud services.
How Does It Work?
Of course, all this automatic storage and synchronization doesn’t just happen by magic. There are a couple of things you have to put in place to make all this work. After that, though, everything else is pretty much magic. First and foremost, you must have iCloud enabled on your devices. Second, your devices need to have a WiFi Internet connection to be able to send data to iCloud and synchronize the data with your other devices.
Turning On iCloud
When you turn on a new Mac for the first time, the Setup Assistant guides you through a short process of setting up your computer. At that time, it requests your Apple ID so it can turn on iCloud for you. If you did not turn on iCloud during setup, you can turn it on at any time by following these steps:
1. Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock or open Launchpad and click the icon there.
2. Click iCloud.
3. If you have an Apple ID, enter it and your password; then click Sign In.
TIP If you don’t have an Apple ID, click Create an Apple ID. Select your location, enter your birth date, and click Next. Continue entering information and following the prompts.
4. Enter an administrative name and password in the dialog box (shown in Figure 5.2) and click Modify Configuration. The two options in the iCloud window are selected for you by default.
5. Click Next. All services that can be turned on are enabled.
6. Close the System Preferences window.
At this point, you have turned on iCloud, but you still need to take some additional steps to be able to synchronize your iTunes purchases. Follow these steps to turn on iTunes synchronization:
1. Launch iTunes by clicking its icon on the Dock or in the Launchpad.
2. Click iTunes (in the menu bar), Preferences, Store.
3. Click each of the options for Automatic Downloads that you want to keep synchronized (Music, Apps, and Books). Selecting any of these options means that iTunes will download all files to all devices. This option does not, however, take care of previously purchased files. To download these files, sign into the iTunes store and click the link in the sidebar for Purchases. There you can see everything you’ve purchased before and decide which ones you want to download to the current computer.
NOTE The only books iTunes will keep in sync are those you purchase through iTunes for the iBooks app.
4. Click OK.
NOTE If you have a different Apple ID for iTunes than you do for your iCloud account, you cannot merge the two Apple IDs, but you can continue to use both of the IDs for their separate purposes. In other words, you can use one Apple ID for store purchases and use your iCloud Apple ID for your mail, contacts, calendars, and other services.
Accessing iCloud Data Without Your Apple Devices
Even if you don’t have access to your Mac, your iPhone, your iPad, or your iPod touch, if you can get on the Internet, you can access your information. Just go to icloud.com and log in to your account. Figure 5.4 shows my iCloud account.
From your iCloud account online, you can use any of the applications you are synchronizing. You can read and send email, look up or edit a contact, and so on. Additionally, if one of your devices is lost or stolen, you can find out where it is by clicking the Find My iPhone icon on the home screen. (Even if you don’t have an iPhone, this is the icon you see when you want to find one of your devices.)
NOTE If you do not have an Apple ID with a me.com email address, you cannot synchronize email.
iCloud uses GPS to locate your device on a map for you. If the map shows your current location, your device is probably just covered up by something. If that’s the case, you can make the device play a sound so you can find it. Or if the location is somewhere else, and it is a location you recognize and trust, you might want to send a message to your device for whoever finds it. If you feel the location of your device is not secure, you can lock the device remotely, or, in dire circumstances, you can even wipe the device remotely. Of course, your device must be turned on and connected to a Wi Fi source for this to work.
Stopping iCloud Services
If you want to stop synchronizing a particular application, you can open the iCloud System Preferences window and uncheck the application. When you do that, the data for that application will be deleted from your Mac.
If you want to stop using iCloud on your Mac completely, you can open the iCloud System Preferences window and click Sign Out. This deletes all iCloud data on your Mac but doesn’t delete the data on the iCloud.
How Can I Get More of It?
At some point, you may start getting close to the limit of your free 5GB of storage space. Before you buy more space, you can try to reduce the space you are using. For example, you can delete your unneeded emails and then erase the deleted items in the Trash.
If you do need to purchase more space (or reduce your amount of additional space), follow these steps:
1. Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock or open Launchpad and click the icon there.
2. Click iCloud and click Manage.
3. Click Buy More Storage.
4. Select the amount of space you want, click Next, and follow the prompts.
Or
If you want to downgrade your storage amount, click Downgrade Options instead and select the amount you want.
5. When finished, close the System Preferences window.
Content is taken from Yvonne Johnson’s new book, Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Mac OS X Mountain Lion, with Que Publishing.
