iCloud – As Simple As It Could Possibly Get..

Apple has released iCloud for Mac OS X Lion as well as iCloud in iOS5. I’m not exactly going to write an article here. I’m going to lay it out as simply as it can be laid out. Screenshots and lists are all you people want to see anyway, so here we go.

iCloud in iOS5 & OS X Lion

iCloud is fully integrated into anything you do on your iDevice that has to do with your Contacts, Calendars, Mail Accounts, Bookmarks and other information. Apple did this right and gave us all of this functionality for the good price of, FREE.

Apple.com/iCloud for MORE

This photo is how I figured out on my own, that iCloud was going to be free for everyone. I was waiting for 10.7.2 Lion to download and install and realized that I couldn’t switch on Mail. I knew I was going to be able to do so when I got iCloud running on my Mac.

Once you have installed Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion and iOS5 on your devices—you’ll never have to use iTunes again.

See? It’s all the same on both platforms. Apple has made it so a 12-year-old could set up iCloud and begin syncing all of their information, and using email right off the bat. They did some good here. And iCloud is amazing. As long as you have space left.. You’re golden.

Next is a screenshot showing the ONLY thing you have to pay for. Then I’ll show you proof that you will never have to pay for anything to be in the iCloud again — iTunes Match is a different story, I consider that separate.

• 5GB — FREE
• 10GB — $20 /year
• 20GB — $40 /year
• 50GB — $100 /year

The only thing I don’t know at this time is whether or not we will be able to ADD 10, 20, or 50GB to your space. These could be static amounts of space, meaning that we will never be able to have more than 50GB of space. I’m sure we will be able to just purchase more. They love our money, so I’m kind of sure of it. Let’s hope. Not that I would EVER need it!

 

Now here’s some proof of their great price of FREE. Prior to this day, we had to pay a yearly fee for a .Me email address. Today, they made me do it. MobileMe is no longer relevant. I cannot clear up all of the MobileMe+iCloud stuff because I don’t pay attention to things I have to pay for if it’s just an email address..

 

It sets this up for you automagically when you open up the iCloud preference pane in OS Lion.

Quite simple I’d say..

 

Now for something quite cool that I don’t believe many other services have taken advantage of. It’s called: “Email Address Aliases.” Here’s how it works.

An email alias is an email address that conceals your actual email address from a recipient. You could create an alias to use when buying items from online stores, signing up for mailing lists, and registering online, and reserve your real email address for use with family and friends. In this way, aliases can help you better manage the email you receive and monitor the sources of unwanted messages.

 

Overall: iCloud is changing my life at this point. Being FREE, I love having me new, simple email address being an @me address. The ability to sync all of my Calendars and Contacts and NEVER ever lose them, blows my mind. They did the cloud right. Better than the others, and now It’s integrated with everything.

 

Readers: What do you think about iCloud? Is it everything and more than you expected? Or are you somehow impossibly disappointed?

Now everyone gets to use Find My iPhone.

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