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Help me understand icloud

I

i-sidd

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 27, 2006
575
0
Hi,

I hope someone can explain this to me. What I understand is that only the photo app will have photo stream service for last 1000 pics for 30days. All other apps books etc will have to be downloaded, so icloud is not going to be a streaming service.

Since I have a 16GB ipad2, I was hoping with icloud I can have additional space, but it doesn't look like it or maybe I did not get the point.

Can someone explain how it all will work.
 
i-sidd said:
Hi,

I hope someone can explain this to me. What I understand is that only the photo app will have photo stream service for last 1000 pics for 30days. All other apps books etc will have to be downloaded, so icloud is not going to be a streaming service.

Since I have a 16GB ipad2, I was hoping with icloud I can have additional space, but it doesn't look like it or maybe I did not get the point.

Can someone explain how it all will work.
Click to expand...

Did you read all the pages on www.apple.com on it?
 
Carouser said:
Did you read all the pages on www.apple.com on it?
Click to expand...

Although Apple's entire website is very thorough, I don't feel they explained iCloud well. I'm a little confused as well.

I think what iCloud is, is this:

-allows pushing to devices for automatic syncing.
-allows storage similar to MobileMe with 5gb free space (I assume you are assigned an email address)
-itunes Match

And other features that focus on a centrally-stored server.

It's basically MobileMe on steroids.
 
Ok then.

iCloud synchronizes your data (music, contacts, calendars, etc.) across all your Apple devices. If it's on one device, it will be on all of them, provided they are in range of Internet access.

All your photos will go to any Mac or PC you have set up. Your iPad, iPod, or iPhone Photo Stream will have the most recent 1000 photos. You can keep pictures on the device for longer by putting them into another album.

Do not think of iCloud as external storage. Don't think of it as a hard drive out there you can put things on. Think of it as something which connects all your devices to each other.

The one exception is iTunes in iCloud. You can access all your iTunes-purchased music through WiFi (all your music if you pay for iTunes Match).
 
Carouser said:
Ok then.

iCloud synchronizes your data (music, contacts, calendars, etc.) across all your Apple devices. If it's on one device, it will be on all of them, provided they are in range of Internet access.

All your photos will go to any Mac or PC you have set up. Your iPad, iPod, or iPhone Photo Stream will have the most recent 1000 photos. You can keep pictures on the device for longer by putting them into another album.

Do not think of iCloud as external storage. Don't think of it as a hard drive out there you can put things on. Think of it as something which connects all your devices to each other.

The one exception is iTunes in iCloud. You can access all your iTunes-purchased music through WiFi (all your music if you pay for iTunes Match).
Click to expand...

OK that makes sense. My wife and I currently have 1 MM account to sync all our contacts and calendars. When we move to iCloud will it work the same? The way I understand it is the only change is that our camera rolls will sync up. Or will it be like MM where you can select what to sync on each device?

Sorry for the hijack
 
MNkid said:
OK that makes sense. My wife and I currently have 1 MM account to sync all our contacts and calendars. When we move to iCloud will it work the same? The way I understand it is the only change is that our camera rolls will sync up. Or will it be like MM where you can select what to sync on each device?

Sorry for the hijack
Click to expand...

I don't know, I'm afraid; I imagine you will be able to manage what synchronizes.
 
MNkid said:
OK that makes sense. My wife and I currently have 1 MM account to sync all our contacts and calendars. When we move to iCloud will it work the same? The way I understand it is the only change is that our camera rolls will sync up. Or will it be like MM where you can select what to sync on each device?

Sorry for the hijack
Click to expand...

I'd be amazed if you couldn't choose what syncs to each device.

The real unknown is how easy shared accounts will be to manage. Currently my wife and I share a MobileMe account (I actually originally paid for a family pack but only use one me.com login). By doing this, our calendar and contacts are in sync. However, my wife doesn't use bookmark syncing or the email as it would mean that hers and mine would all be mixed in.

As iCloud includes more stuff (App data, iBook bookmarks etc), there will be more stuff that would have to be excluded from one of our setups. What I anticipate having to do is set up two different iCloud accounts and do it all separately. I think I heard mention of calendar sharing, so hopefully there will be some way of sharing some things between different accounts.

Basically, there is quite a lot that is still to be clarified.
 
Confused too.
Can anyone tell me how (or if I can?) get back photos that have been uploaded to the cloud? I mean, I took a bunch of test shots, backed up to the cloud and deleted them from the device. The phone says they're still on the cloud - how do I get them back if I wanted to?

Cheers.
 
All sounds a bit 'cloudy' to me. Like a tangled mess.

I guess 'simple is best' is no longer the case.

Also, it sort of looks like Apple disregarded the fact that MobileMe was a flop, and went a head an spent billions on it.

Then they changed it's name thinking that will do the trick.
 
mac jones said:
All sounds a bit 'cloudy' to me. Like a tangled mess.

I guess 'simple is best' is no longer the case.

Also, it sort of looks like Apple disregarded the fact that MobileMe was a flop, and went a head an spent billions on it.

Then they changed it's name thinking that will do the trick.
Click to expand...
Maybe you didn't see the keynote, where Jobs dissed MobileMe with these quotes:
"Why should you believe us. After all, we're the guys who gave you MobileMe!"(huge laughter in the hall).
"MobileMe wasn't our finest hour."
The way I figure it, iCloud will also store your backups and app organisation(home screens & folders).
There's a lot to get your head around, but once you do, you realise that this could be an elegant way of doing it.
Rather than tying your idevices to a local computer, the central hub, is iCloud. You can still sync and backup to the computer, but it won't be essential any more.
 
TangoDown said:
Confused too.
Can anyone tell me how (or if I can?) get back photos that have been uploaded to the cloud? I mean, I took a bunch of test shots, backed up to the cloud and deleted them from the device. The phone says they're still on the cloud - how do I get them back if I wanted to?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

You are thinking of the cloud as an external storage device. It's not really.
Are the pictures on another device? When you took those pictures and were connected to the cloud it should have synchronized them across your devices. Otherwise, if you've deleted your stuff, you've deleted your stuff, AFAIK.
 
I believe, as far as photos are concerned, iCloud will keep the last 1000 photos. When you take photo #1001, photo #1 is deleted.

Of those 1000 photos stored in iCloud you have 30 days to save them to one of your devices. If you do not save them the will eventually be overwritten.

I'm thinking of it more as 1000 placeholders for photos rather than 1000 photos.
 
Carouser said:
You are thinking of the cloud as an external storage device. It's not really.
Are the pictures on another device? When you took those pictures and were connected to the cloud it should have synchronized them across your devices. Otherwise, if you've deleted your stuff, you've deleted your stuff, AFAIK.
Click to expand...

New Guy said:
I believe, as far as photos are concerned, iCloud will keep the last 1000 photos. When you take photo #1001, photo #1 is deleted.

Of those 1000 photos stored in iCloud you have 30 days to save them to one of your devices. If you do not save them the will eventually be overwritten.

I'm thinking of it more as 1000 placeholders for photos rather than 1000 photos.
Click to expand...


Thanks guys. I think I'm a little clearer.
I've only one device with iOS5 so not syncing with other devices yet.

"30 days to save them to a device" - OK, but how/where?
 
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