iCloud (1 Viewer)

[Otis]

My wife yesterday mentioned she paid 20 bucks for the year for extra iCloud storage. I'm trying to figure out what iCloud really is, what are the advantages, and is it a good solution for someone like us.

My main concern is that we use our iPhones to take the vast majority of our pictures and videos of the baby and family these days. Our phones have limited storage space, and we don't always sync them to our computers all that frequently. So in the event our phones go on us, or in the event our computers in the house fail, my main concern is that we'll lose all the pictures/videos.

Am I right in understanding that iCloud is constantly backing this stuff up? Can we back up everything on our phones and then, when our phone memories fill up, delete some things without deleting what is in the cloud? Is this a good storage solution for photos/videos? Or should we instead be looking at Shutterfly or one of those sites? (Which seem like a lot more work, and will require us to sync and upload stuff all the time; though I guess the upside is that, for those limited times we use an actual digital camera, we would be more likely to back up stuff from the camera and upload it to the site).

I note that I DO have iCloud, since we have iOS5 on our phones, and I can go to iCloud.com and login using my Apple ID, and from that website I can see my contacts, my iWork documents on my phone, and my calendar, but I can't see anything relating to photos etc.

TIA

 

[Otis]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

 

[johnnycakes]

Under settings, go to photos, and make sure Photo Stream is turned on. If it is, new photos automatically go to iCloud.

 

[TheWalkmen]

My brother is an iCloud expert. I am not. I know that in your settings there's an iCloud selection; go in there and see what's turned on/off. Yes it's a good solution.

 

[Otis]

Under settings, go to photos, and make sure Photo Stream is turned on. If it is, new photos automatically go to iCloud.

Thanks.

 

[Chimp Magnet]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

Photostream is not a backup solution. It's a way to view the most recent 1000 pictures or last 30 days of pictures. It is not a permanent backup solution. You'll want to keep backing them all up to whatever service you use. Also, I'm pretty sure there isn't a web interface for photo stream. But if you look in iPhoto or on any other iOS device that is linked to that same iTunes account you will see photos automatically pulled in. Also works great if you have a relative that you want to share photos with but who isn't very tech savvy. But be careful if you're taking photos that they probably shouldn't see. Photostream will pull all of it, regardless of content. I only use iCloud to sync bookmarks between my iMac and iPad, backup my iPhone's settings, contacts, and documents and data. The documents and data will be nice eventually when more applications for your iPhone start to take advantage of that feature. For example, if you play a lot of Angry Birds but for some reason had to do a full reinstall of iOS 5, Angry Birds make keep your scores and how far you've gotten in the iCloud. That way when you reinstall Angry Birds you won't have to start completely over. iCloud would have retained your settings and Angry Birds will just pull that info down to the app and get you back to where you were before the fresh install. That's just one example but any app can store settings and other things in the iCloud so if you have to reinstall the iOS or app you won't have to redo all of your settings. Get used to iCloud. It's going to be a big part of all Apple stuff going forward.

 

[kaso]

I'm looking at finally making the jump and buying an iPad. To this point I've only owned one Apple product. Will iCloud allow me to sync to non-apple products? Sorry I'm a noob at this!

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

What about the free portion of icloud? How doea that work. Can i sync to both icloud and pc at same time?

 

[Otis]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

Photostream is not a backup solution. It's a way to view the most recent 1000 pictures or last 30 days of pictures. It is not a permanent backup solution. You'll want to keep backing them all up to whatever service you use. Also, I'm pretty sure there isn't a web interface for photo stream. But if you look in iPhoto or on any other iOS device that is linked to that same iTunes account you will see photos automatically pulled in. Also works great if you have a relative that you want to share photos with but who isn't very tech savvy. But be careful if you're taking photos that they probably shouldn't see. Photostream will pull all of it, regardless of content. I only use iCloud to sync bookmarks between my iMac and iPad, backup my iPhone's settings, contacts, and documents and data. The documents and data will be nice eventually when more applications for your iPhone start to take advantage of that feature. For example, if you play a lot of Angry Birds but for some reason had to do a full reinstall of iOS 5, Angry Birds make keep your scores and how far you've gotten in the iCloud. That way when you reinstall Angry Birds you won't have to start completely over. iCloud would have retained your settings and Angry Birds will just pull that info down to the app and get you back to where you were before the fresh install. That's just one example but any app can store settings and other things in the iCloud so if you have to reinstall the iOS or app you won't have to redo all of your settings. Get used to iCloud. It's going to be a big part of all Apple stuff going forward.

Helpful, thanks. Yeah, I noticed I can't view photo stream from iCloud. I suppose now that I've enabled it on my Macbook, hopefully overnight it will backup and get all my recent photos.But it's a bummer that it's not a real backup solution. Why doesn't Apple give me an easy way to store/backup my photos permanently? I suppose maybe this does that -- if my photos from my phone are eventually sent to my Macbook over iCloud, and then my Macbook is backed up to an external hard drive connected to my iMac (through Time Machine), then I suppose we'll be all backed up. Although even then, Time Machine isn't backing up historical photos -- it's just a failsafe of what we've currently got (I think).This seems like one of those things that Apple should handle pretty easily and without me intervening. Why are they forcing me to look to one of these external hosting services to save all our photos somewhere on the web? Is there an Apple solution that will easily integrate with the rest of our Apple products (2 iPhones, 2 Macbook Airs, an iMac, iPad2, AppleTV) so that all the photos and videos my wife and I take will be compiled and safely stored somewhere?

 

[Otis]

I'm looking at finally making the jump and buying an iPad. To this point I've only owned one Apple product. Will iCloud allow me to sync to non-apple products? Sorry I'm a noob at this!

I think iCloud only syncs all your Apple products. You would have to install iTunes (PC version) onto one of your PCs and sync your iPad to that. I think.

 

[Otis]

What about the free portion of icloud? How doea that work. Can i sync to both icloud and pc at same time?

You get 5GB free. I must have enabled mine at some point and didn't even realize it, because I only have 1.5GB left. Try going to www.icloud.com and logging in with your Apple ID. You'll see what is stored. Though as mentioned above, it doesn't seem to sweep in photos on that web interface.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I take dumps bigger than 5gb.

 

[johnnycakes]

Might want to read iCloud FAQs hereto clarify things.

 

[Chimp Magnet]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

Photostream is not a backup solution. It's a way to view the most recent 1000 pictures or last 30 days of pictures. It is not a permanent backup solution. You'll want to keep backing them all up to whatever service you use. Also, I'm pretty sure there isn't a web interface for photo stream. But if you look in iPhoto or on any other iOS device that is linked to that same iTunes account you will see photos automatically pulled in. Also works great if you have a relative that you want to share photos with but who isn't very tech savvy. But be careful if you're taking photos that they probably shouldn't see. Photostream will pull all of it, regardless of content. I only use iCloud to sync bookmarks between my iMac and iPad, backup my iPhone's settings, contacts, and documents and data. The documents and data will be nice eventually when more applications for your iPhone start to take advantage of that feature. For example, if you play a lot of Angry Birds but for some reason had to do a full reinstall of iOS 5, Angry Birds make keep your scores and how far you've gotten in the iCloud. That way when you reinstall Angry Birds you won't have to start completely over. iCloud would have retained your settings and Angry Birds will just pull that info down to the app and get you back to where you were before the fresh install. That's just one example but any app can store settings and other things in the iCloud so if you have to reinstall the iOS or app you won't have to redo all of your settings. Get used to iCloud. It's going to be a big part of all Apple stuff going forward.

Helpful, thanks. Yeah, I noticed I can't view photo stream from iCloud. I suppose now that I've enabled it on my Macbook, hopefully overnight it will backup and get all my recent photos.But it's a bummer that it's not a real backup solution. Why doesn't Apple give me an easy way to store/backup my photos permanently? I suppose maybe this does that -- if my photos from my phone are eventually sent to my Macbook over iCloud, and then my Macbook is backed up to an external hard drive connected to my iMac (through Time Machine), then I suppose we'll be all backed up. Although even then, Time Machine isn't backing up historical photos -- it's just a failsafe of what we've currently got (I think).This seems like one of those things that Apple should handle pretty easily and without me intervening. Why are they forcing me to look to one of these external hosting services to save all our photos somewhere on the web? Is there an Apple solution that will easily integrate with the rest of our Apple products (2 iPhones, 2 Macbook Airs, an iMac, iPad2, AppleTV) so that all the photos and videos my wife and I take will be compiled and safely stored somewhere?

If you're looking to find something where you can store all of your photos and be able to view them on all of your products, that's probably going to be Drop Box. Won't work with Apple TV though. iCloud is in it's infancy though. They may well have plans to roll out exactly what you're asking for. In fact I'd bet they do. But you know apple. They aren't going to release something to the public unless they're pretty sure it'll work flawlessly. They're not always right about that last point. But that's their goal. Having a seamless storage solution isn't as easy as we must be thinking it is otherwise other companies would be doing it too. But Drop Box is as close as you're' going to get right now. I think...

 

[Pick]

I like how it saves playlists. It's very similar to dropbox it seems.

 

[Otis]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

Photostream is not a backup solution. It's a way to view the most recent 1000 pictures or last 30 days of pictures. It is not a permanent backup solution. You'll want to keep backing them all up to whatever service you use. Also, I'm pretty sure there isn't a web interface for photo stream. But if you look in iPhoto or on any other iOS device that is linked to that same iTunes account you will see photos automatically pulled in. Also works great if you have a relative that you want to share photos with but who isn't very tech savvy. But be careful if you're taking photos that they probably shouldn't see. Photostream will pull all of it, regardless of content. I only use iCloud to sync bookmarks between my iMac and iPad, backup my iPhone's settings, contacts, and documents and data. The documents and data will be nice eventually when more applications for your iPhone start to take advantage of that feature. For example, if you play a lot of Angry Birds but for some reason had to do a full reinstall of iOS 5, Angry Birds make keep your scores and how far you've gotten in the iCloud. That way when you reinstall Angry Birds you won't have to start completely over. iCloud would have retained your settings and Angry Birds will just pull that info down to the app and get you back to where you were before the fresh install. That's just one example but any app can store settings and other things in the iCloud so if you have to reinstall the iOS or app you won't have to redo all of your settings. Get used to iCloud. It's going to be a big part of all Apple stuff going forward.

Helpful, thanks. Yeah, I noticed I can't view photo stream from iCloud. I suppose now that I've enabled it on my Macbook, hopefully overnight it will backup and get all my recent photos.But it's a bummer that it's not a real backup solution. Why doesn't Apple give me an easy way to store/backup my photos permanently? I suppose maybe this does that -- if my photos from my phone are eventually sent to my Macbook over iCloud, and then my Macbook is backed up to an external hard drive connected to my iMac (through Time Machine), then I suppose we'll be all backed up. Although even then, Time Machine isn't backing up historical photos -- it's just a failsafe of what we've currently got (I think).This seems like one of those things that Apple should handle pretty easily and without me intervening. Why are they forcing me to look to one of these external hosting services to save all our photos somewhere on the web? Is there an Apple solution that will easily integrate with the rest of our Apple products (2 iPhones, 2 Macbook Airs, an iMac, iPad2, AppleTV) so that all the photos and videos my wife and I take will be compiled and safely stored somewhere?

If you're looking to find something where you can store all of your photos and be able to view them on all of your products, that's probably going to be Drop Box. Won't work with Apple TV though. iCloud is in it's infancy though. They may well have plans to roll out exactly what you're asking for. In fact I'd bet they do. But you know apple. They aren't going to release something to the public unless they're pretty sure it'll work flawlessly. They're not always right about that last point. But that's their goal. Having a seamless storage solution isn't as easy as we must be thinking it is otherwise other companies would be doing it too. But Drop Box is as close as you're' going to get right now. I think...

Weird. Seems like such an obvious problem and obvious hole in the product offerings. Everyone takes photos/videos and it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to add this. I'd pay a monthly fee if I had to, but I'd want it to work, and work well, and like most other Apple services (including at least the things iCloud already does seem to do) be seamless and not require me to do something more.Just surprised this wasn't addressed years ago. I've never had MobileMe -- would that provide these services?

 

[Otis]

Might want to read iCloud FAQs hereto clarify things.

Helpful and worth a read.Had to specifically select the "Photostream" view in iPhoto on my macbook to see my iPhone photos, but it worked near instantly after that. One huge flaw -- Photostream doesn't work with videos...

 

[Chimp Magnet]

The "Find my Device" app in iCloud is pretty neat. I can go to the website and it will tell me where my iPhone and Macbook Air are, and it will even let me do things like lock or wipe my iPhone. Pretty cool.

Photostream is not a backup solution. It's a way to view the most recent 1000 pictures or last 30 days of pictures. It is not a permanent backup solution. You'll want to keep backing them all up to whatever service you use. Also, I'm pretty sure there isn't a web interface for photo stream. But if you look in iPhoto or on any other iOS device that is linked to that same iTunes account you will see photos automatically pulled in. Also works great if you have a relative that you want to share photos with but who isn't very tech savvy. But be careful if you're taking photos that they probably shouldn't see. Photostream will pull all of it, regardless of content. I only use iCloud to sync bookmarks between my iMac and iPad, backup my iPhone's settings, contacts, and documents and data. The documents and data will be nice eventually when more applications for your iPhone start to take advantage of that feature. For example, if you play a lot of Angry Birds but for some reason had to do a full reinstall of iOS 5, Angry Birds make keep your scores and how far you've gotten in the iCloud. That way when you reinstall Angry Birds you won't have to start completely over. iCloud would have retained your settings and Angry Birds will just pull that info down to the app and get you back to where you were before the fresh install. That's just one example but any app can store settings and other things in the iCloud so if you have to reinstall the iOS or app you won't have to redo all of your settings. Get used to iCloud. It's going to be a big part of all Apple stuff going forward.

Helpful, thanks. Yeah, I noticed I can't view photo stream from iCloud. I suppose now that I've enabled it on my Macbook, hopefully overnight it will backup and get all my recent photos.But it's a bummer that it's not a real backup solution. Why doesn't Apple give me an easy way to store/backup my photos permanently? I suppose maybe this does that -- if my photos from my phone are eventually sent to my Macbook over iCloud, and then my Macbook is backed up to an external hard drive connected to my iMac (through Time Machine), then I suppose we'll be all backed up. Although even then, Time Machine isn't backing up historical photos -- it's just a failsafe of what we've currently got (I think).This seems like one of those things that Apple should handle pretty easily and without me intervening. Why are they forcing me to look to one of these external hosting services to save all our photos somewhere on the web? Is there an Apple solution that will easily integrate with the rest of our Apple products (2 iPhones, 2 Macbook Airs, an iMac, iPad2, AppleTV) so that all the photos and videos my wife and I take will be compiled and safely stored somewhere?

If you're looking to find something where you can store all of your photos and be able to view them on all of your products, that's probably going to be Drop Box. Won't work with Apple TV though. iCloud is in it's infancy though. They may well have plans to roll out exactly what you're asking for. In fact I'd bet they do. But you know apple. They aren't going to release something to the public unless they're pretty sure it'll work flawlessly. They're not always right about that last point. But that's their goal. Having a seamless storage solution isn't as easy as we must be thinking it is otherwise other companies would be doing it too. But Drop Box is as close as you're' going to get right now. I think...

Weird. Seems like such an obvious problem and obvious hole in the product offerings. Everyone takes photos/videos and it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to add this. I'd pay a monthly fee if I had to, but I'd want it to work, and work well, and like most other Apple services (including at least the things iCloud already does seem to do) be seamless and not require me to do something more.Just surprised this wasn't addressed years ago. I've never had MobileMe -- would that provide these services?

MobileMe wouldn't have provided those services and is being phased out because of iCloud anyway. I can almost guarantee you that it's coming. Apple built a massive server farm for storage and I can't imagine that is only for the last 30 days of Photostream storage. They're probably just working the kinks out. But I agree. I'd love to have some sort of service that just automatically grabs all of my photos and keeps them for me. But then again I don't have unlimited date on my plan so I wouldn't want them pulled at any time. And if I'm at home on my wifi when it could pull it, I might as well just plug my phone into my iMac and store them there. And I think the reason Photostream only works with photos is due to bandwidth issues. Not necessarily that it can't. But they decided that videos are too large of a file to keep and let people stream at will.

 

[OC Zed]

 

[Nick Vermeil]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

 

[Pick]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

That would suck but I could see the need for it. We have one account everyone uses (Wife, 4 kids, and myself).

 

[Chimp Magnet]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

I don't believe at the moment that there is a way to combine multiple iTunes accounts. But I think I remember reading that Apple is working on that as well.

 

[Abraham]

That sucks. I thought it was truly backing up all the photos.

I use Dropbox - is there a way to get my photos to sync to Dropbox as I take them so I don't have to load them one at a time by hand?

 

[Otis]

What's a little annoying is that Apple will roll this out as some amazing new feature, when it's not all that imaginative and should have been here two years ago.

And by the way -- they can charge money for it. I'd gladly pay a monthly subscription fee (10$? more?) for a service that will keep all this stuff together and safe in cloud storage, automatically.

 

[squidrope]

 

[Bonzai]

I take dumps bigger than 5gb.

Yeah, and I don't think it's worth the extra money for what you get either. At least not yet.I ended up getting this guy. We store all our movies, music, and photos on it and just stream from there. We haven't figured out how to access our movies or music outside the house yet, but they're supposed to be working out the kinks. It works great for pics, though. All of our pics are stored on this guy at the house, but we can access them anywhere. It was kind of a pain in the ### the set up, but it ended up being totally worth it.

 

[Pick]

I take dumps bigger than 5gb.

Yeah, and I don't think it's worth the extra money for what you get either. At least not yet.I ended up getting this guy. We store all our movies, music, and photos on it and just stream from there. We haven't figured out how to access our movies or music outside the house yet, but they're supposed to be working out the kinks. It works great for pics, though. All of our pics are stored on this guy at the house, but we can access them anywhere. It was kind of a pain in the ### the set up, but it ended up being totally worth it.

I used to do that but dropbox has been way better IMO but probably not for everyone. With dropbox (or similar program I'm sure) I can access/load from any PC and it has an iphone app I can use. The key for me is that it updates on all the PCs and iphone. So if I make changes on one PC it's changed on all PCs and I can access it from anywhere with a connection. This has been big for me as I work on stuff from several locations.It's mostly good for data and pictures. With icloud now I don't need it for music. But I doubt it'd be good for movies. Storage maybe but I don't think you can play the movies from it.

 

[Chimp Magnet]

What's a little annoying is that Apple will roll this out as some amazing new feature, when it's not all that imaginative and should have been here two years ago.

And by the way -- they can charge money for it. I'd gladly pay a monthly subscription fee (10$? more?) for a service that will keep all this stuff together and safe in cloud storage, automatically.

Here's the thing though, what you're asking for doesn't exist yet, anywhere. So it's hard to get annoyed that Apple isn't offering it yet when no one else does either. Now if tons of companies were providing what you were asking for and then Apple rolled it out and bragged about it, then sure, get mad. But I think right now it's a technology issue and not an Apple issues.

 

[Abraham]

Dropphox costs 2$ and automatically syncs your photos to your Dropbox account as soon as you take them.

 

[Chimp Magnet]

Dropphox costs 2$ and automatically syncs your photos to your Dropbox account as soon as you take them.

Will it run in the background of an iPhone and automatically send them up?

 

[Abraham]

Dropphox costs 2$ and automatically syncs your photos to your Dropbox account as soon as you take them.

Will it run in the background of an iPhone and automatically send them up?

Not sure.

 

[jhib]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

My wife (iPhone 4s), kids (Touch 1G & 4G), and I (iPhone 4) all share one iTunes and app store account so that we can share apps and stuff. But it makes iCloud and iMessage pretty much unusable. My wife's phone is through her work, and she needs iCloud set up for that, but we don't want our schedules and contacts merged, so I just have it turned off on mine. And neither one of us wants to see every one of the other's texts come up on their phone through iMessage, so we have that turned off as well. You can turn off iCloud for individual things (like turn it off for mail, contacts, and calendars but leave it on for photo stream), but it's just easier for me right now not to use it at all, other than for Find My iPhone.

 

[Mixlflick1]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

My wife (iPhone 4s), kids (Touch 1G & 4G), and I (iPhone 4) all share one iTunes and app store account so that we can share apps and stuff. But it makes iCloud and iMessage pretty much unusable. My wife's phone is through her work, and she needs iCloud set up for that, but we don't want our schedules and contacts merged, so I just have it turned off on mine. And neither one of us wants to see every one of the other's texts come up on their phone through iMessage, so we have that turned off as well. You can turn off iCloud for individual things (like turn it off for mail, contacts, and calendars but leave it on for photo stream), but it's just easier for me right now not to use it at all, other than for Find My iPhone.

Do you know that on one device, you can use a separate Apple ID for the App Store than you use for iCloud and iMessage? Go to Settings and select the App. You have the option of changing the Apple ID for each App individually.

 

[Pick]

What if the wife and I currently have different iTunes accounts? Can we combine those in the cloud so we can both share music and have access to the same photos? Is there maybe a way to combine our existing accounts into one new one that we both share? Probably not a good idea because we want to keep separate contacts and email accounts. Managing digital data is a pain in the ###.

My wife (iPhone 4s), kids (Touch 1G & 4G), and I (iPhone 4) all share one iTunes and app store account so that we can share apps and stuff. But it makes iCloud and iMessage pretty much unusable. My wife's phone is through her work, and she needs iCloud set up for that, but we don't want our schedules and contacts merged, so I just have it turned off on mine. And neither one of us wants to see every one of the other's texts come up on their phone through iMessage, so we have that turned off as well. You can turn off iCloud for individual things (like turn it off for mail, contacts, and calendars but leave it on for photo stream), but it's just easier for me right now not to use it at all, other than for Find My iPhone.

We don't do iMessage but iCloud is pretty big for all 6 of us. But none of us sync contacts or calendars.

 

[jhib]

My wife (iPhone 4s), kids (Touch 1G & 4G), and I (iPhone 4) all share one iTunes and app store account so that we can share apps and stuff. But it makes iCloud and iMessage pretty much unusable. My wife's phone is through her work, and she needs iCloud set up for that, but we don't want our schedules and contacts merged, so I just have it turned off on mine. And neither one of us wants to see every one of the other's texts come up on their phone through iMessage, so we have that turned off as well. You can turn off iCloud for individual things (like turn it off for mail, contacts, and calendars but leave it on for photo stream), but it's just easier for me right now not to use it at all, other than for Find My iPhone.

Do you know that on one device, you can use a separate Apple ID for the App Store than you use for iCloud and iMessage? Go to Settings and select the App. You have the option of changing the Apple ID for each App individually.

Cool. Thanks. Didn't realize that since the account name was greyed out on my iCloud settings. Turned out I had to delete the old account off the phone first. I still doubt I'll use it much, but it might come in handy. Thanks again.

 

[Hear-the-Footsteps]

While on this topic, I have a somewhat related question.

Someone I know buys iphone several months ago. Loses it soon thereafter. He goes to buy a new one. A couple weeks later his wife finds his first one under his car seat. He goes back to store - they won't let him return either at this point. So he offers it to me for free.

All of his itunes songs are on it. I have been careful not to replace his songs with my itunes songs (when I connect to my computer) b/c I like having a whole additional collection of music. We have some overlap, but tons of different songs. So on my ipod - I have my collection of songs. And on my iphone (formerly someone else's) - I have his collections of songs.

This thread has made me want to back up all my stuff. Plus, I would love to have the ability to find my iphone (in the event I lose it). However, one needs to be running ios5 in order to setup icloud account. When I go to settings on my iphone, I do not see the icloud choice, so I am guessing I am probably not running ios5. (I am not savvy at all this stuff.) When I went to the icloud account and plugged in my username and password, it indicated I need to set up an account. But in order to do so, it indicated that I need to plug my iphone into my laptop and update to ios5. So I plugged it in and it automatically opened my itunes. As soon as it did, the following message popped up: A new iPhone software version (5.0.1) is available for the iPhone "Blah Blah's iPhone". Would you like to download it and update your iPhone now?

Choices: Cancel -- Download and Update -- Download Only

Here's my question: If I do that, then obviously I will get the ios5 version referred to above, which will allow me to back up my iphone stuff, as well as locate it if I cannot find it. HOWEVER, will it replace the songs on my iphone (the other guy's songs) with my own? (Which is what I do NOT want to happen.)

So before I Download and Update to the software version 5.0.1 - I wanted to make sure it would not wipe out his songs with my own.

Hope that made sense and thanks for the help!!!

 

[Pick]

Finally nearing my 5GB. $20 for the extra 5 worth it? Maybe I could go back and cleanup some storage and free stuff up.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Is there some way to sort photos in a iCloud PhotoStream? I'd like to have them sorted by the date that the photo was taken. Right now they are listed by the date they were taken, but are grouped by when they were added to the PhotoStream. (If I have 10 photos from March, and add a group with 10 from May and 10 from January, they are listed March, January then May.)

TIA,

 

[Johnny Rock]

Apple should give me 64GB of iCloud for my 64GB device. Add an iPad? You get more. 5 GB is a joke.

 

[Ursa M]

Not a fan of iCloud at all. I want it to be a synch mechanism as well as a storage mechanism, making sure that all my music (or what I choose for each device) is physically present on the devices I opt to have attached to iCloud, not just accessible. Doesn't work that way. I use iTunes for all that instead.

Also, I have about 10,000 songs and it refused to upload half of them for no apparent reason. Turns out that it wouldn't upload the songs that were digitized with Apple's own lossless codec. Kinda odd, their own codec not being compatible with iCloud.