The latest incarnation of Apple’

iCloud is the latest incarnation of Apple’s online services, replacing MobileMe which is due to be killed off in the middle of 2012. iCloud is a free service which replicates most of MobileMe’s functionality, just as syncing email, contacts, calendars, bookmarks and notes between multiple desktops and gadgets.

Other existing Apple features just as Back to My Mac, and Find my iPhone have as well been brought across to iCloud. On top of this, Apple has added a range of new features just as document storage and sync, photo syncing, and iTunes Music for accessing your music in the cloud.

The iOS5 upgrade isn’t available for the iPhone 2G or 3G. I as well know people who’ve run into overheating trouble running iOS5 on their 3G S. In the meantime you can’t upgrade to Lion if you’re running a pre-Intel Mac, or even some of the earliest Intel Macs. If you’re not running iOS5 and Lion it looks like you’ll lose access to many of your old MobileMe features then year.

If your phone or computer as a matter of fact is this old at that time it’s worth in all seriousness considering upgrading to new hardware. You’ve got another 9 months earlier MobileMe gets the chop, so you could wait until at once year previously making any purchases. 

Of course I understand why you’d be reluctant to upgrade if your current gear is meeting your needs, and you don’t see why you should be forced to replace something that on the whole works just because Apple has chosen to discontinue features. We live in a throwaway society these days where people are all too quick to throw away perfectly good gear just because a newer model comes along.

Finally there are the people who don’t want to upgrade to Lion because their old Mac is just fine as things now stand. My mid-2009 MacBook Pro isn’t as happy running Lion as it was running Snow Leopard. My 2007 MacBook has never been as happy running Snow Leopard as it was running Leopard, and I’ve held off upgrading it to Lion. In the meantime my wife’s 2007 MacBook is all in all happily running Leopard. She’s more than happy with it and I’ve no intention of forcing her to upgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion if it’s not thoroughly necessary. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it - especially when it’s not yours. But we need to sync data between all three computers and a few iPhones, plus I anyway you look at it deal with other platforms for work, so I need to think carefully about which services we rely on.

Long preamble

That’s quite a long preamble, however I wanted to make the case that there are plenty of reasons why someone might not want to, or be able to, upgrade every Apple gadget in their life to the latest OS. The problem is that Apple is killing off MobileMe at once year, which means if you’re not on iOS5 and Lion you’ll lose some of your syncing features. Windows users need to be running Vista or 7 if they want to install the iCloud control panel.

There’s a rumour that Apple might bring iCloud to Snow Leopard henceforth, maybe after letting people sweat for a during and encouraging them to upgrade. There are as well workarounds for accessing iCloud email accounts from Snow Leopard, nevertheless who is to say how long such workarounds will last. Apple has made it clear that you’ll be left behind in the long run.

I'd say this is crunch time for Apple users - either hand your life over to iCloud or turn your back on Apple and look for other ways to sync your data. You can’t have a foot in each camp, which is awkward for people like me to try to remain as platform agnostic as possible. Think of it as an Apple loyalty test - you’re either one of us or one of them.

For some people Apple forced the issue a few months ago when it changed the way MobileMe’s calendar sync worked in preparation for iCloud. Before you could sync calendars on your computer to MobileMe and vice versa. With the new changes, now the primary source of your calendar must be hosted in Apple’s cloud, so you can’t sync existing calendars on your computer into MobileMe. This is a major hassle if you’ve been syncing your calendar to both MobileMe and Google, maybe in order to share calendars with non-Apple users. The only way to do this now is to bring your non-Apple users into the Apple fold, or to abandon MobileMe for calendar sync.

When MobileMe introduced these changes I weighed up my options and choose to abandon MobileMe’s calendar sync for Google or rather than reconfigure my household’s syncing systems and at the time forever be held to ransom by Apple. The iCloud restrictions have now encouraged me to make the same decision for email, contacts and notes, switching to the flexibility of Google in other words than locking my household into the Apple upgrade cycle.

Yes, I know, Apple’s ecosystem tends to “just work”. I ran into a few issues syncing my contacts via Google, because Google doesn’t let you specify that an entry is a business. So if you import a contact just as Harry’s Automotive Repairs it treats it like person’s name - breaking it into first, middle and surname so it’s as a matter of fact filed in accordance with R for Repairs. For now the best workaround I could find is to enter businesses in my address book using underscores, just as Harry’s_Automotive_Repairs, so it’s treated as one word. It’s not an elegant solution, nevertheless for me it’s better than sticking with iCloud and trading liberty for convenience.

The advanced features

None of these services are going to offer all the advanced features and tight integration of iCloud, however they’re as well less likely to hold you to ransom every time Apple feels like denying new functionality to old devices. Even if I was prepared to jump through Apple’s hoops this time, who is to say I won’t get burned again the then and there time Apple feels like introducing a new service and killing off an old one. It’s time to cut the cord.

I’m not saying that iCloud is rubbish, or that I’ll never use it. I’m not criticising iCloud, however rather Apple’s habit of forcing users to play by its rules. I’ll truly dabble in iCloud for some of its other features just as accessing photos and music. I just don’t intend to hand my entire digital life over to iCloud and forever lock myself into Apple’s iWay of doing things.

I'm curious as to why you describe switching to Google as being "flexible", whereas sticking with Apple forces you to into being "locked" into Apple's upgrade cycle?

Not arguing with your decision, however aren't you just swapping one ecosystem for another? That is, you are now "locked" into Google's upgrade cycle to put it more exactly than Apple's. I don't see how this is an improvement.

Android's features are *much* more flexible than IOS/Lion's, it has to be, using so many different handsets, etc. There are as well a *lot* more android handsets out there than iPhones, these days...

When we buy tech, we are all agreeing to an unwritten law that states once we jump on the bandwagon, there is no getting off. Apple is probably a bit worse than the others, nevertheless Apple is all about looming forward, and not being shackled by the past. Look at where that got Microsoft...

People only agree to that "unwritten law" if they don't know any better. Apple is more than a bit worse than the others. I like Apple products however that doesn't mean I wanted to be forced to live in accordance with Apple's benevolent dictatorship.

I think I'll be dragging the chain, although my iPhone is signed up to iCloud. My laptop is an old black MacBook that works just fine and one of Apple's selling for me has been that their products continue to work long afterwards other people have had to dump their PCs. BTW, are you able to select which files are uploaded to iCloud? Considering the problems Sony has had with its account holders info, I don't think I'd like all my data to eb in someone else's hands.

"Look at where that got Microsoft..."The upside down compatible nature of Windows is the main reason it is so successful. The reason why there are so many windows computers as opposed to macs is that a person can continue to use the full functionality of their computer even when they decide not to upgrade or install certain updates. Where as Apple has a brutal upgrade cycle for hardware if you want to run their new software, a windows user might only need to upgrade a graphics card or add more RAM every now and again, leading to the popularity of windows.

Now I don't want to start a flame war, I'm just saying why its naive to over look wrong side out compatibility, as Apple often does.

been flexible and accommodating is fine in theory - nevertheless that is what makes windows the virus ridden mess that it is, its that mantra 'being everything to everyone" that makes mediocre sound so good. lets hope android doesnt go the same path.

The good with the bad

No you don't have to "take the good with the bad". That's my point. Just because you want to use Apple products doesn't mean you always have to do things Apple's way.

I'd say this is crunch time for Apple users - either hand your life over to iCloud or turn your back on Apple and look for other ways to sync your data.