If you use a MobileMe account here's info from Apple on the transition to iCloud. Thanks, Jim Hamm, for this link.
New Features of iOS5 and iCloud
"Here is a summary of the new features in iOS 5 and iCloud available starting tomorrow, Oct 12, as reported in the 'Cult of Mac' newsletter," reports Jim Hamm. He goes on to quote from it, "Want to know what Apple retail employees can tell you about iOS 5 and iCloud? These images are of leaked internal Apple documents which are provided to retail store employees to help them sell iOS 5 and iCloud.
"The documents were obtained by 9to5Mac, and describe all of the major new features in iOS 5, such as Notification Center, iMessage, and Twitter integration; in addition to the key features of iCloud, such as Photo Stream, iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, and Documents in the Cloud."
iCloud on Snow Leopard?
Prez Art Gorski clarifies questions about Lion, Leopard and the iCloud. "I've got Lion installed on my new MacBook Air, but my 4 year old Mac Mini still runs Snow Leopard. Rather than upgrade the memory (which I think will be required for good performance with Lion), I've decided to leave Snow Leopard on the Mini until I replace it within a year or so.
"In Apple's announcements today, the iCloud presentation only mentioned Lion, and not Snow Leopard, and there is no solid information on the Apple web site. However, over on the MobileMe discussion forum (Apple Communities), there is a thread with a screenshot that's interesting. A developer testing iCloud opened up the old .Mac system preference on a Mac running 10.4 and the dialog said he couldn't activate .Mac (remember, this is 10.4, so it wasn't called MobileMe yet) because he had upgraded to iCloud. The interesting part of the dialog said he needed to upgrade to 10.6.9 to use iCloud."
Art summarizes, "So it looks like Snow Leopard may very well be supported, and that there will be a 10.6.9 update coming out before iCloud goes live this month."
Avoid the MobileMe/iCloud Email Scam
If you use MobileMe or .Mac here's an important article forwarded from Jim Hamm. He explains the problem, "If anyone, or any company, or any bank, sends you an authenticate-looking email asking for a credit card #, delete that email and move on is my recommendation."
Security Concerns
Keep up with the latest information on computer security problems. The recent Black Hat conference underscores how vital computer security is, and how much Apple is at risk. Jim Hamm found two articles from InfoWorld that we need to read. This one and this other one.
Here's the parts Jim wants to emphasize, "The author—who, interestingly, is a full-time principal security analyst at Microsoft— observes the following: 'So when I'm asked if Microsoft or Apple's security is better than the other, it's not a question even worth answering. Overall, computer security is pretty bad. Nearly any company can be hacked, with just a little research and know-how.'"
And here's Jim's emphasis: "OS X or Windows—it doesn't matter—one should just use common sense and caution on the internet. As for 'Cloud' computing or storage, I personally would never store anything of a personal or critical nature on a server somewhere. I prefer to have my 'offsite' storage on an external hard drive that I can store where I want."
With all the new devices, iPhone, iPad, etc. along with our personal computers the personal information floating around, available for any hacker is astounding. Thanks, Jim, for sharing your viewpoint.
What iCloud Won't Do After Transition from MobileMe
The headline reads, "Apple officially killing MobileMe sync for keychains, widgets, accounts, preferences." Jim Hamm sends this link to the AppleInsider page, with his comment, "Here's more info on what iCloud won't be doing after the transition from MobileMe."
Happy About the iCloud?
"Here's one author's opinion of the new iCloud. He's not too happy about the features," states Jim Hamm.
The Latest and the Greatest
"Well, the big announcements at WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) happened this morning," begins Art Gorski. Here's his take on the latest and greatest. First, here's a summary from Macworld.
"Mac OS X Lion will be out next month for $30 but is available only through the App Store. If you haven't updated to the latest version of Snow Leopard I have no idea how you can get it. There are many changes designed to make Mac OS X look and act much more like iOS: Full screen apps (we've already seen this with the new iPhoto), the Launchpad feature, and support for multi-touch gestures everywhere (if you have an Apple touchpad).
"iOS 5 will be out in the Fall with 200 new features. The most interesting thing is that Apple has decided that syncing data amongst all your devices is a royal pain, so all syncing, including iOS updates, apps, and all data will sync wirelessly over 3G or wireless. Most of this syncing happens automatically without you even noticing. For example, if you take a picture with your iPhone camera, the next time you fire up your iPad or Mac that photo will be on that device. Along with iCloud (below), it will be possible to own an iOS device standalone for the first time, without ever attaching it to a computer at all!
"Remember Apple's Digital Hub idea? Where your Mac was your digital hub for all of your data and media? That's now over. Apple has demoted the Mac to just another device, like the iOS devices. Your digital hub is now in the iCloud. Also available in the Fall, iCloud is a FREE service that replaces MobileMe (well, kinda, see below). It will provide a me.com email account and sync that, along with contacts and calendars. Documents in the Cloud is a new app to facilitate automatically syncing iWork documents (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) amongst all your devices. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download any iTunes-purchased media to up to 10 different devices. A total of 5GB of space, shared between documents and email is available in addition to however much space is needed to sync your last 1000 photos and your iTunes-purchased media. An optional service called iTunes Match will be available for $25/year that will scan your complete iTunes library, including stuff you ripped yourself, try to figure out what it is, and then make very high quality versions available for download to your devices.
Art concludes, "Interestingly enough, Apple did not mention iCloud replacements for iDisk and web hosting. It's possible these are going away. However, Apple just extended all MobileMe subscriptions to June 6, 2012 to give you a year to figure out what to do."
Also, take a look at the Apple site here and the Apple HotNews site here for more descriptions of the latest and greatest!