iCloud basics

Those of us that have owned Apple devices for more than 3 years may or may not remember a service from Apple called MobileMe.  All you need to know about MobileMe is that it never really provided the functionality on the scale that Apple had hoped.  In 2011, Apple re-branded MobileMe to iCloud.  In the almost three years that it's been up and running, it's been a blessing to iOS users.  Offering a cloud service that syncs and backs up your content, and it works!

Why is having a cloud service important?  Simply put, every other major software/hardware vendor has one, and without it, you'd still be plugging your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch into your Mac (or PC), and muddling through iTunes to sync and back up your content.  That is so early 2000's!  Today it's ease of use we all desire (or demand).  I can tell you, I applauded mightily in October 2011, when my iPhone 4S connected to iCloud and sent my content through iCloud to my Mac and iPad, it was an awesome moment!

So what is iCloud?  In short, it's a cloud based service that syncs your content and it is the best (and easiest)  option to back-up your iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch).  Let' start with syncing.  If you have multiple devices, and I'm not just talking about multiple Apple devices.  You can have an iPhone and a PC, or an iPad and a Mac, or an iPhone, iPad and Mac.  The combinations are endless (well not really but you get where I'm going).  If you have multiple devices iCloud will sync your content seamlessly as long as your iCloud settings are turned on, on the respective devices.

On the two screen captures above (from my iPhone), you'll notice most of the settings are green (or On), however I have a couple (Notes and Reminders) that are off.  The reason I have those two off is because I use other apps for my Notes (Evernote) and Reminders (Wunderlist).  By having Mail, Contacts and Calendar settings all set to on, it allows all content from those apps to be shared amongst any iCloud enabled device that I sign into with my Apple ID and Password.  So if I enter a new contact on my iPhone, iCloud takes that content to the ether, and passes it to my iMac and iPad (without me having to do anything except make sure the same iCloud settings are turned on, on those devices).  Below are the iCloud settings from my iMac.  There is a caveat for the Mail setting.  If your mail address is not an Apple email (@Mac, @Me, @iCloud), in most cases, not all, the mail setting will be grey (Off).  The reason being, if you use another mail host, like Gmail, Yahoo, Comcast or AOL, you don't need Apple to Sync or back up those systems.  Those other systems are supposed to handle that for you.  So if your iCloud account (Apple ID) is "xyz@gmail.com".  There is no need to have that setting on.  Make sense?  Good!

If you looked closely, you'd notice that on my iMac's settings, Notes is checked.  Why would I have it checked on my iMac, and not on my iPhone?  Because prior to using Evernote, I did use the Notes App on my devices, and if I turn the setting off on my iMac, it will erase the notes that are there, and I don't want to do that...:).  I also took screen captures of the Photos setting and the Documents and Data setting.

So as you can see, iCloud handles, or can potentially handle quite a bit of information.  If you chose not to use iCloud, as I mentioned earlier, you'd be stuck in iTunes hell!  

Now iCloud not only syncs your content, but, it also backs up your iOS devices.  Now, what does that mean, and how does that work you ask?  Great questions!  iCloud back ups work like this:  as long as the Backup setting is turned on (see below)

And your device is On, charging to an outlet, and you are in a wireless network, iCloud will ping your device, check when the last backup occurred (in my case 7:22 PM yesterday), and if you are beyond 24 hours since the last backup, iCloud will create a new backup for you.  Or, you can manually backup your iOS device by pressing the "Back Up Now" option if, and only if it is blue, as in the screen capture above (must be in wireless network for this to work).  Please keep this in mind.  iCloud only keeps 1 backup per device.  So you can manually backup as many times as you'd like during the day, but iCloud will only keep the latest.  Reason is because you only need 1 complete backup.  If you are charing your device, and in a wireless network, but your device is off, guess what will not happen, your device will NOT back up!  Any guesses as to why?  If you said "because when your device is off the GPS is disabled, and iCloud can't ping your device", you are 100% correct!  So, don't expect backups to occur when your device is off, because they will not!

Now I wrote about Photo Stream in an earlier blog, so I'm not going to go too much into it here, except to say that you should make sure your Photo Stream settings (below) for My Photo Stream and Photo Sharing are turned on.  The Burst Photos is specific to the iPhone 5S, no other devices currently have that capability.   If Photo Stream and Photo Sharing are off, your pictures will be stuck on your iOS device, until you will manually move them to your Mac (or PC).   

Now if you are a PC users with iOS devices, don't feel left out, you can download the iCloud Control Panel for your PC, and that will allow you to sync content between your iOS devices and your PC, nice move Apple!

Another key element of iCloud, is space.  How much do you get, how much does it cost, what if you run out!  When you create an iCloud account, you get 5GB of free storage.  If you have multiple devices attached to that iCloud account, you'll run out of 5GB quickly.  You can purchase an additional 10GB for $15/yr, 20GB for $40/yr, and 50GB for $100/yr.  Honestly, the additional storage is costly considering what other services offer.  I wonder if and when Apple will lower the prices here.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, if you have an Apple ID for iTunes, should you use that for iCloud?  My best answer here is, it depends.  If you have a family, sharing an Apple ID for iTunes, I recommend each of you having your own Apple ID for iCloud.  An example would be family of four, mom, dad and two kids.  The Apple ID for iTunes has been set up under dad's email.  Now everyone has multiple devices, and if everyone is sharing dad's Apple ID for iCloud, you'll find you have no space to back up.  Not to mention your contacts, calendar events etc, etc, etc are a combination from everyones devices!  Yuck!  So Mom, and kids should create their own iCloud account (Apple ID).  Don't fret, you can still share calendar events and other content, you'll just share what you want to.  

Well I hope this iCloud intro has been helpful.  Until next time, best to you and your devices!

  

How to back up your Computer

What's the most important thing we do with our Mac's?  Any thoughts?  For some of us it's creating documents or presentations that we use regularly for our businesses.  For others its the movies we create using Final Cut or iMovie, or our picture database we've created using Aperture or iPhoto.  Whatever it is you do with your Mac, my guess is that it's got some level of importance to you.  I know my content is of utmost importance to me.  So I ask you, are you prepared if your Macs hard drive fails?  Do you have a back-up option in place now?  If not, please, please, please tell me you are about to implement one.  There are so many great, easy to use options to back-up your computer, from Time Machine, software that actually comes with every Mac that's sold, to various online back-up options like Backblaze, CrashPlan and Carbonite.  Do yourself a favor, if you are not using Time Machine, check out one of these online backup options.  Hopefully you never need it and your hard drive keeps on ticking!

Let's start with Backblaze.  Backblaze offers only a single backup option.  Most others have multiple, some even offer ten or more.  That said, I like Backblaze's KISS strategy (keep it simple stupid).
The folks at Backblase let you backup an unlimited amount of data from a single computer, no restrictions on file size or file type.  There pricing is pretty straight forward:  $5/month; $50/year; $95/2 years.  They offer a nice discount for signing up for multiple years.  Other things offered include External Drive Support, Military-Grade Encryption (nice!), Continuous backup, iPhone Mobile App (very nice!), ability to restore to either a USB hard drive, or other Flash drive, and it's available in 11 languages!  So as you can see, you get quite a bit for not a lot of money!  All in all, a fantastic option!

Next online option, Carbonite.  Carbonite has three online options, sadly only one available to Mac users.  You pay $59.99 a year for unlimited backups.  Not much else to talk about here with Carbonite, as their website doesn't offer much...:(.

Another online option is called Mozy.  Mozy is a service offered by EMC, a company that has been involved in storage for years.  Mozy has a couple of options, starting at $5.99 a month for one computer, which gives you up to 50GB of storage (not so much).  For $2/mo you can add additional computers, and for another $2/mo you can add 20GB of storage.  I appreciate the fact that Mozy offers military grade security for my files, not that I need it, but it's nice to know its there.   Your files are readily available via your mobile device, or online, another very nice feature.

The fourth option, is not so strangely called SOS.  SOS has single user plans starting at $9.99/mo, which gives you 100GB of storage.  Or for unlimited users, you'll shell out $99.99 a month, which is quite costly for the consumer, but is a pretty good option for small business.  SOS is unique in that it will also backup your mobile device, something the other options here are yet to offer.  SOS offers military grade encryption, similar to the other services listed above, has online chat support, all in all, a nice rather pricey option.

The final online option I'm going to cover in this blog is CrashPlan.  CrashPlan has two options, both can be discounted substantially if you were to prepay for up to four years of service.  As you might imagine, the unlimited  plan lets you backup unlimited amounts of data, no restrictions (allows backup only from a single computer).  Pricing is like so.  If you decide to go month to month, you are looking at $5.99.  If you pay for 1 year of service, you price is lowered to the equivalent of $5/mo, so you'd pay $59.99.  If you prepay for 2 years, your total comes to $114.99, or $4.79/mo.  3 years upfront payment will cost you $164.99 or $4.58/mo.  Finally if you want 4 years prepaid, you are looking at $189.99 upfront, or only $3.96 a month.  The last option is absolutely fantastic.  It's easily my favorite option listed in this blog.  CrashPlan has military grade encryption, you can access your files from you mobile device, quite frankly, CrashPlan is a fantastic way to go.

Lastly, I'll talk about Time Machine.  Time Machine is a great tool available on all Macs, at no extra cost.  You will have to pay for an external drive to store your backups.  The beauty here, is that purchasing an external drive is a one-time fee, unlike our online brethren which you pay either monthly or yearly.  Time Machine is easy to use.  When you plug an external drive into your Mac, you are asked whether or not you'd like to use that device for backing up via Time Machine.  To get started, you can either enter the Time Machine setting via System Preferences, or there's an icon on the top menu bar of your Mac, that has about 80% of a circle, with an arrow on the left end.  You can right click on that to open Time Machine as well.  Time Machine keeps hourly backups for a 24 hour period, and daily backups for the past month.   One downside to Time Machine is that you need to monitor it to make sure it's backing up.  However, on a positive note, if you loose internet connection at your house, you can still backup, as Time Machine doesn't need internet connection, the online options do.

So I hope I've given you some resources to get yourself motivated to do your backups.  Don't wait till its too late, get a head start, you'll be so happy you did.

Backing up your Mac shouldn't be an option, rather a priority!

Good luck with your backups, till next time, best to you and your devices!