DocumentsInTheCloud
Latest
A friendly reminder to former MobileMe customers: Free storage upgrade ends September 30
I knew something was up this morning when my wife sent me a message saying that she had received an email from Apple about exceeding 5 GB of storage and functions would stop working after September 30, 2013, if she continued to exceed that amount. There's a reason for this: former MobileMe customers (those who may have a .mac or .me email account) received a 20 GB complimentary storage upgrade when they moved to iCloud. That upgrade expires next Monday -- September 30, 2013. To keep things running the way they have since 2011 when the migration from MobileMe to iCloud occurred, you'll need to either reduce the amount of storage you're using or buy one of Apple's storage plans. Those plans include 20 GB more space (25 GB total iCloud storage) for US$40 per year, or 50 GB additional storage (55 GB of iCloud storage) for $100.00. Want to find out what's eating up all of that storage in the cloud? From an iOS device, go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup, and then tap on Manage Storage. You'll uncover which devices are using the most storage, and you can choose to turn off certain items so that they're no longer being backed up on iCloud. This is also possible from the OS X System Preferences application -- click on iCloud and you'll see how much storage is available. There's a Manage... button that provides the same functionality as Manage Storage in iOS. Good luck -- and take care of this immediately. If you don't, Apple will shut down iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud and iCloud mail until such time that you either go back below the 5 GB limit or add more storage space.
Mountain Lion 101: The iCloud Document Library
One of my favorite features of Mountain Lion to demonstrate so far has been the iCloud Document Library. This is a way to store your iWork, TextEdit, and Preview documents in iCloud so that they are immediately accessible from other Macs on the same iCloud account as well as on connected iOS devices. TUAW blogger and developer Erica Sadun told me the secret behind this on Wednesday. If you go to your Library folder and open the "Mobile Documents" folder, you'll notice that the name of the folder changes to iCloud (see screenshot below). That's where all of those documents are saved, and it's even possible to just drag items into the folder to add them to your iCloud Document Library. In compatible apps, you'll find that selecting "Open" from the File menu displays a new Finder Open dialog with buttons for iCloud and "On My Mac". Selecting iCloud displays a very iOS-like dialog showing all compatible documents. Drag one document onto another, and you can create a folder -- another iOS feature. Likewise, selecting "Save As" from the File menu gives you the choice of saving a file to your iCloud Document Library. The updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on the morning of July 25, 2012 added these capabilities to iWork '09. As an example, the same Open dialog with buttons for both iCloud and On Your Mac appears (see below). Users of the iWork.com beta will find that documents that they saved to that service magically appear in iCloud without requiring any work on their part. Is iCloud turning into a replacement for Dropbox? With the present pricing plans and capacities available for both services, I'd say the answer is "no". But for those who have minimal cloud storage requirements and who are using the handful of apps that currently take advantage of iCloud Document Library, iCloud and Mountain Lion are a well-designed and implemented alternative. Check out all our Mountain Lion 101 articles for more tips and features from the latest version of OS X.
New iCloud FAQ: Yes, there will be webmail
Since iCloud was announced by Apple on June 6, the TUAW inbox has been filled to capacity with questions about the many features of Apple's cloud computing platform of the future. Unfortunately, we have been just as much in the fog as you have about what features are moving from MobileMe to iCloud, and how the transition between the two services will take place. Today, Apple published an online document titled "Frequently asked questions about the MobileMe transition and iCloud" to clear away the confusion. As it turns out, I was wrong in my speculation that Apple was going to be getting rid of web-based versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone (as was our friend and former Engadget colleague Josh Topolsky, who apparently got some bad intel from a misinformed or confused Apple PR staffer). Fellow TUAW editor Chris Rawson disagreed with me on that speculation, and it turns out that he was correct. Apple has publicly stated on the FAQ page that "Web access to iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone will be available at icloud.com this fall." Apple notes that "The core services provided by MobileMe have been rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud." That being said, the FAQ shows that three services of MobileMe aren't going to make the transition -- iWeb hosting, Gallery, and iDisk. If you use MobileMe to host your iWeb-created site, be sure to read our posts on replacements for MobileMe hosting and WYSIWYG HTML editors for Mac. Apple has also posted a knowledge base article about transitioning your iWeb sites to another host. Of course, new features -- iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, auto-downloads and purchase history for apps and books, and backup and restore of mobile devices -- are to be added with iCloud. That may be cold comfort if you're a longtime iWeb user, have complex iDisk workflows or extensive MobileMe galleries... but it's something. For those of you with .mac or .me email addresses, Apple is going to let you keep that address into the future. The company states that you can "move your MobileMe mail, contacts, and calendars, as well as your bookmarks, to the new service. When iCloud becomes available this fall, Apple will provide details and instructions on how to make the move." Apple also provides knowledge base articles on how to save MobileMe Gallery photos and iDisk files. Other highlights of the document include info on merging MobileMe accounts (not possible), using multiple iTunes account for store purchases and iTunes in the Cloud (possible), what to do if you will be using more than the free 5 GB of iCloud storage (you can buy more), and submitting a refund request for unused or partially used MobileMe licenses. Be sure to take a look at the Apple document and associated knowledge base articles as they're sure to ease your mind about some iCloud questions -- and possibly raise other questions about your life in the cloud.
