Apple Details Transition from MobileMe to iCloud

When Apple announced its new iCloud service, the future of many MobileMe features was up in the air. Now, the company has posted a MobileMe Transition page with details. We asked a whole passel of questions several days ago which readers supplemented in "MobileMe-to-iCloud Transition Messaging Provokes Confusion". Let's see how so then Apple has answered those so far.

The transition article

In the transition article, Apple makes a distinction between two kinds of changes that take effect either when you sign up for iCloud using an existing MobileMe account, and those that don't take effect until 30 June 2012, when MobileMe effectively shuts down.

Web apps, including Find My iPhone: Contrary to This Is My At once's report by Joshua Topolsky, and as we and many others suspected, Web app versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone will be available at icloud.com. This makes sense, and we're glad Apple hadn't lost its mind about requiring a device to access these iCloud-synced services.

iWeb Hosted Sites and Personal Domains, Gallery, and iDisk: Apple says these three services won't waft their way into iCloud nevertheless will work precisely as they do today through 30 June 2012 even afterwards moving to iCloud with your account. iWeb sites and a domain you set up to work with MobileMe may be migrated elsewhere, and Apple explains how in a separate article. Gallery images and videos may be downloaded or synced via iPhoto. iDisk files uniquely stored there must be retrieved previously the shutoff date.

Back to My Mac: Without elaboration, Apple says that Back to My Mac will be part of iCloud. That means a dramatic expansion of Back to My Mac usage, when anyone signed up with a free iCloud account can use an Apple ID to access computers logged into the same account from anywhere on the Internet. One wonders if this will tie into iOS 5 as then, providing a virtual network of computers and devices that can access resources from one another?

Merging Accounts: We've heard the most concern from people who have MobileMe aliases, distinct Apple ID, iTunes Store, and MobileMe accounts, and other combinations of identities. Apple clarified this slightly. As some subscribers were told by MobileMe customer service, Apple will not merge accounts, just as an iTunes Store account and a MobileMe account. Nevertheless you can use move a MobileMe account to iCloud, and continue to use a separate iTunes account to handle purchases and iTunes in the Cloud synchronization. This seems to answer the question about merging or migrating Apple Communities data associated with an Apple ID, as then.

Family Pack accounts: Accounts in a Family Pack can be individually migrated to iCloud as long as it's done earlier 30 June 2012. Apple made no mention of MobileMe aliases, but.

Storage Amounts: Apple confirmed you will be able to buy storage beyond the free 5 GB included in every iCloud account when it launches. The company did not provide pricing details.

Remaining Questions: We all in all have no answer about what new iOS device purchasers may do for sync until iCloud ships without being able to get a MobileMe account. Nor did Apple say what will happen afterwards 30 June 2012 for pre-Lion Mac OS X users currently using MobileMe, or for those who want to use online syncing with the original iPhone and iPhone 3G.