"At our meetings we've mentioned the benefits of using iCloud to sync all your Macs and iOS devices," Prez Art Gorski reminds us. He goes on to point out, "Here's a tutorial on how to set that up."
iCloud Tip
"Here is a tip for using iCloud that looks handy," writes Jim Hamm. See what you think.
Suggesting Apple Improvements
Jim Hamm's been reading about improvements for Apple.
"If you follow Apple news at all, you've read about one of their senior VPs being fired recently. Along with this announcement was discussions of 'skeuomorphic design.' which apparently this VP liked, but others within Apple didn't. I had no idea what 'skeuomorphic design' even meant. This article gives an explanation. Having read the article, to me 'skeuomorphic design' is no big deal one way or the other. What do you think?"
"Here's an article that suggests an area that Apple needs to take a look at: web interface. I've oftened wondered why Apple must shut their online store down in order to do updates. Presumably old architecture, although Apple might have other reasons. Imagine Amazon saying 'hold it folks, don't order anything for awhile while we shut our web store down and update prices, etc.' Many people would just switch to another web store rather than wait.
"There's been quite a bit of blogging recently about Apple's web services being down often -- iCloud, et al. Now we know why. This surprises me, too. Apple is quite progressive in hardware design, but for some reason apparently has neglected a modern interface with the internet -- at least according to this article." With that, Jim signs off after giving us food for thought.
Problem Solving & Learning More
Three articles caught Jim Hamm's attention, and each deserve at least a quick look. Even if you're not particularly interested in the topic, it might be interesting to note the links on these sites. The first two are from MakeUseOf, and it has links to How To & Tips, Cheats & Guides, Geeky Fun. The third is from the latest Macworld that shows links to What's Hot, Reviews, How-To and Creative.
"If you were a Mobile Me user, you might have additional storage on iCloud. Take a look at this.
"Here's an article describing the difference between the internet and the World Wide Web. For most of us, we probably don't care about the difference, we just appreciate that it all works.
"If you've upgraded to iOS 6 and are experiencing some problems, here's an article with some tips that might help."
iCloud Tale of Woe
Jim Hamm's found something we need to heed. He says, "here is a tale of woe, where a tinkerer got into trouble for messing with his iCloud folder. Looks like it is best to leave the iCloud folder alone, ie, no tinkering, and just use it."
How Photo Stream Works
"If you'd like to understand a bit more about how Photo Stream works, take a look at this article," Jim Hamm informs us.
iCloud Vulnerability, Continued . . .
Here's another story in the saga about iCloud vulnerability, sent to us by Jim Hamm. He comments, "Apple has an article explaining what to do about iCloud if you plan to sell your Mac or other Apple device.
"What is not clear in Apple's article (at least to me) is that your device must be connected to the internet to decommission iCloud. Although, thinking about this, it does make sense. But it's easy to overlook, and it could be made plainer.
"As a side note, one must also de-authorize the device from iTunes as well before selling your Mac or other Apple device. If I recall correctly, only five devices can be authorized to play iTunes under one account.
His final comment, "I imagine we'll learn more about the pros and cons of using iCloud as time goes on."
Hacking Incident Warns Us About Passwords
The latest on this situation is updated 8-5. Read the whole thing. Jim Hamm sent this link about a horrible hacking of a man's iCloud account. This evening John Carter sent a further warning of the need to establish strong passwords to avoid such a terrible thing. Here's the first from Jim: "Here is a scary tale of woe: Mr Honan's iCloud account was hacked. What's even scarier, the hacker was then able to remotely wipe Mr Honan's iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air! Yes, all dead. If you happen to use a Gmail account, a two-step verification process is available to prevent hacking. As far as I know, this feature isn't available for iCloud. So, one should have a very strong password for your iCloud account. Yes, I know, it's probably remote that your iCloud account will be hacked. Mr Honan thought so, too." But Jim, can that really be true? He wrote back with two other sites on the issue. Here and here. John Carter went into more detail on what we should do about our own passwords. ". . . if your passwords are short and simple, be prepared to be hijacked and potentially lose all the money in your bank or all the files on your computer. "A strong password contains a mix of letters and numbers with at least one uppercase letter, and the password should be at least 8 characters long. A very secure password will be 10 or more characters long. The password should never contain a word that can be found in the dictionary or letters or numbers in a sequence or that repeat. "Some of my clients do not even have a password to login to their computer, and this is a grave mistake because it makes all your other passwords in the Keychain Access application accessible to anyone that manages to hack into your computer.
"Do yourself a favor and use passwords that are complete garbage. Write them down where you know you can access them quickly. Protecting yourself will save me a trip to help recover your files — if that's even possible. Smile when you have to type in that long gibberish because you know you're being protected. After a few times of typing it in, it will become second nature.
"One approach is to alternating case, intermix numbers with letters, and where allowed, toss in a symbol. For your different passwords, you only need to make one letter or number different or add one letter or number."
So, consider yourself warned, thanks to Jim and John.
Now, Jim Hamm brings us the update of 8-5. "Here's update three from the guy who was hacked via iCloud and had his iPhone, MacBook Air and iPad wiped clean:
"Update Three: I know how it was done now. Confirmed with both the hacker and Apple. It wasn’t password related. They got in via Apple tech support and some clever social engineering that let them bypass security questions. Apple has my Macbook and is trying to recover the data. I’m back in all my accounts that I know I was locked out of. Still trying to figure out where else they were."
And here's Jim's final comment -- at least for now! "The hacker sure must have been one smooth talker to convince Apple's tech support to let him into Honan's iCloud account, which wasn't his. So much for strong passwords. It seems they can be circumvented. According to another report, the hacker then used Apple's 'Find My Phone' service to remotely wipe the three devices."
iCloud Info Posted on Tips 'N Tricks
To help you sort out the information available about iCloud, our PMUG webmaster John Carter has created a document containing all the info that Jim Hamm and Art Gorski talked about. It's posted here, on Tips 'N Tricks on the PMUG site.
iCloud Conundrum
"I surely don't understand iCloud in Mountain Lion," declares Jim Hamm. He goes on to explain, "To wit: I open TextEdit for the first time (in ML) and what appears first is not a blank page ready to type on, as in the past, but a dialog box of iCloud. It explains that documents can be drug to the box and saved in iCloud.
"So, out of curiosity, I tried that. Instead of actually moving a document from my hard drive to iCloud, I wanted to move a copy of the document, the same concept (in my mind) as Time Machine. I would have a document on my hard drive and in the Cloud.
"Nope! The iCloud dialog box wouldn't let me move a copy of the document to the cloud, only the original. I didn't want to do that.
"After dragging and dropping one document from the Finder to iCloud, just to see what happened, under the document it showed 'Waiting' for a bit, then the title of the document appeared. The document had moved from my hard drive. I assumed this meant it was stored in iCloud. So, in Safari, I log in to iCloud and look at what's in my iCloud. The document is not there. There's not even a heading for documents there. And yes, in the System Preference iCloud pane I have 'Documents & Data' checked."
Jim closes with, "Would the knowledgable luminaries of this forum be so kind as to explain what I'm missing in this scenario? More elucidation very much appreciated. Thanks."
Mountain Lion Installation: Read About It
John Carter jumps right in with Mountain Lion. He tells us, "Like Jim Hamm before me, I dove right in and updated my iMac to 10.8 today.
"The installation was painless. I started it and walked away for the rest of the day.
When I came back, several applications needed attention – mostly updates.
"The first surprise was a new application: Messages. This popped up in the middle of the screen all on its own. Apple's way of telling me it's there. Messages allows me to text anyone with an Apple device or PC with 10.8 for free. Messages is already available on iOS 5.1. So this is just another step toward making all Apple products look and feel the same. I doubt I will ever use Messages – unless there is someone out there who doesn't want to use Mail. Mostly, Messages is for iOS devices to avoid phone charges for text messaging.
"The next surprise was a string of short notices down the right side of the display. These were recent updates to Calendar. And each time Jackie added a new item to the Calendar on her MacBook Air, another notice popped up on my iMac. That's because she is sharing her Calendar with me to make sure I know what she's up to. And I have done the same for her.
"Another that surprised me was that Total Finder – an add-on to Finder – said that it was not tested on 10.8. It worked anyway.
"After performing just a few application updates – one was NeoOffice (3.3 Beta is out, available only to those who donated within the past year), I then discovered that the App Store had a few more updates waiting for me. These were iWork, iPhoto, iMovie, and Xcode.
"The update for iPhoto required a database update, and I haven't seen any obvious changes.
"iMovie thumbnails needed to be created for the project I was currently working on – that took quite a while. And oh, by the way - iMove is LOTS faster.
"When I opened Mail, the database had to be converted for the new 10.8. No problem. Can't see anything new so far.
"I expected some change in Preview. When I opened it, I saw a new window. It was telling me that I could now move my existing documents to iCloud by dragging them to that window from the Finder or other app. Before, what I would see was just a Finder window. Now, in the upper left corner of the Preview window are two new buttons: iCloud and On My Mac. Aside for a complete makeover in the Preview Menu, there is now a brand new Editor toolbar with an enhanced Adjust Color pane and a Smart Lasso.
"Move over, iPhoto! You may never use iPhoto again to make basic changes to a photo – unless, of course, the only way to access the photo is through iPhoto. The bad part of this is, now you have something else to spend time on. As with Lion, any change you make to a photo with Preview creates a version of the file – so you can always retrieve the original. And when you click on the filename, the menu now shows an option to move the image to iCloud. Clicking on Browse all Versions shows them in the same way that Time Machine shows your backups. Wow! I like the changes I just made to that photo.
"Remember what I said about the new buttons in the upper left of the Finder window when I opened Preview? You get the same two buttons (iCloud and On My Mac) with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.
"I have no idea what's new in Xcode, and even if I did, I'm sure you wouldn't be interested.
And here John winds up his report with this, "All in all, it has been a good thing. Nothing really new to learn – except Messages. But then, I haven't read about all the new features in 10.8. I give this 10.8 upgrade a 10. Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion may be like trading Windows for a Mac, but going from Lion to Mountain Lion will be like adding more icing to the cake.
"Where's my MacBook Pro? That's next!" OK, John, keep us posted.
Want Lots More FREE Storage?
Jim Hamm immediately gets our attention with, "Would you like 7GB of free storage?" There's that word FREE. He goes on to suggest, "Take a look at Microsoft's SkyDrive, which is explained in the following article. I just set it up, and it functions just like Dropbox, only with a lot more storage:
"Or, you could consider the new Google Drive, which offers 5GB of free storage. See here.
"Or, set them both up. Coupled with Apple's iCloud free storage of 5GB, you now have 17GB of free 'Cloud' storage available. What's not to like about this? Of course, it might be a bit confusing remembering what you've got stored where....(grin)...." Jim
Back Up iOS to iCloud & iTunes Simultaneously
"Here's a backup tip that appears, at first read-through (to me, anyway), a bit confusing," begins Jim Hamm. He explains, "Upon further cogitation, I think what it's saying is, when you're backing an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.) up to the Cloud, to do a backup to iTunes as well. This requires an extra 'click', but once the data is in iTunes as well as iCloud, the data will also be backed up into Time Machine (from iTunes) the next time you run Time Machine. Pretty neat idea, and I haven't been doing this when backing up to the Cloud -- but I will now."
Questioning iCloud's Future
What are the ramifications of iCloud, and what is its future? David Passell found this and says, "Though this only appears to affect Mac users in Germany, it might be something to consider for iCloud's future. I personally do not like the idea of entrusting my data, etc. to some unknown agency. To me, iCloud reminds me of the time when workstations all were connected to some large central computer. Is this progress, or a way to control and make money, for someone, from your on-line activities?"
Competition for iCloud
This article discusses Microsoft SkyDrive, a competitor to Apple's iCloud. David Passell sends this info for our iPad and iPhone users. He comments, "The closest I get to clouding (I just invented a new word!) is Dropbox."
iCloud Forgets to Keep It Simple!
"Here's an informative article that somewhat explains the complexity of iCloud," states Jim Hamm. "Simple it is not. Complex it is. Convoluted it is. You may want to print this article so you'll have some chance of using iCloud correctly. I think Apple could have done a lot better on iCloud, starting with a detailed set of instructions."
Finding Out More
This is a good resource for info on iCloud and iOS 5, says Jim Hamm. Here's the iLounge home page, and here's the helpful article page Jim recommends.
Making the Transition from MobileMe to iCloud
Have you been reading about the transition to Lion, the move from MobileMe to iCloud and how to deal with some issues? Ward Stanke sends this helpful info.
"This article from Ars Technica talks specifically about the problems some users are having managing the transition from MobileMe to iCloud, specifically problems with multiple or shared AppleIDs.
"This article from Apple User Group Resources includes a handy chart which shows the differences between MobileMe and iCloud and what is supported or not under each. It also show what alternate applications could be substituted for the old familiar ones which won't work under Lion (such as AppleWorks and Quicken). It also lists a number of helpful links to help walk you through some of the issues."
iCloud Info
Here is a series of helpful articles on iCloud from the "Basics4Mac" newsletter sent to us from Jim Hamm. He says, "I've set up iCloud and one use of it I'm impressed with is how it syncs to all your devices. For example, a friend notified me of a new email address while I was reading on my iPad. I changed my contacts list on my iPad and made a mental note that I've got to change the new email address on my two Macs and iPhone. This is easy to forget to do—for me, anyway. When I opened contacts on my MacBook Air to do just that, voila, it had already been changed! For anyone subscribing to MobileMe (I don't), this will be old news. But for me, this syncing process is very helpful.
"Unfortunately, iCloud will only sync certain things—not everything on your Mac. Thus, say, if you've only got one Mac and use Time Machine to backup, then iCloud is probably of limited use to you," Jim concludes.
iCloud Backup
Jim Hamm sends this helpful advice: "Following is a posting (not mine) from a forum I subscribe to on using iCloud for backup. This may be helpful in determining what—and how much—of something you do want to backup to iCloud. Every app you have installed is listed and how much storage is used for that app. Storage can be turned on/off for each app."
"For those of you who will be installing iOS and using iCloud tomorrow -something it took me quite awhile to learn - if you have an app with a lot of content (iBooks for example) make sure you turn it OFF in iCloud backup (iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage > Backups / Devices / Selected Device >; Backup Options > iBooks/other App > Off). I sync a LOT of items to iBooks on both iPhone and iPad (1.9GB > 2.3GB) so I was filling up my 5GB of 'Free' space and was quite annoyed that backups were taking up space but once I realized what was taking up 4.2GB I turned iBooks off on both devices and my backups went down to 400MB & 500MB leaving me 4.1GB free for other storage."