Last week, my wife had her iPhone stolen. Now, I know what you are thinking, “he is a big techie, he’s got it covered”. Unfortunately, the reality is the cobblers children have no shoes.
Let me start by saying, the reason I don’t have Find My Phone, etc. is that it used to be a part of MobileMe which is probably the worst product Apple has ever put on the market. I knew about the transition to iCloud and my first assumption was that it was MobileMe with a new name. Well, it’s not. It’s actually pretty cool.
What is It?
iCloud does not replace local storage on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. What it does is keep your data in sync between any Apple device or PC that you own. For example, if you’re writing a document in Pages on an iPad, that document will automatically be available for editing on your iPhone or a PC, with no need to transfer files by e-mail or USB.
iCloud also remembers your device’s settings, apps, home screen layouts, ring tones and text messages, so all of that information is available if you upgrade or replace your iPhone or iPad.
Think of it like the backup function in iTunes, but through the Internet instead.
What’s included for free, and what costs extra?
Apple will provide 5 GB of iCloud storage for free, but iTunes music, apps, books and Photo Stream don’t count against that total. iCloud storage is consumed by documents, mail, app data, your full camera roll, settings and other device information. Additional storage costs $20 per year for 10 GB, $40 per year for 20 GB and $100 per year for 50 GB.
Who is this for?
People who own multiple iOS devices will get the most out of iCloud, because it saves the hassle of manually transferring data between iPhones, iPads and so on. Owners of a single Apple device may still appreciate iCloud’s automatic backup function, which makes replacing hardware easier.
What Would Have Saved Me?
First, Find My Phone. This used to be a part of MobileMe which cost $99/year. This is now a free app that runs on all of your 3g enabled iDevices.
If you click on the blue arrow, you get this screen which allows you to send a message, remote lock or remote wipe the phone.
Since she had an Exchange Account on the phone, I wasn’t worried too much about the remote wipe, but it would have been nice to track it and play a sound so we knew who stole it.
Although, not super accurate, it will tell you where your phone is.
Pictures!
The real killer though is that my wife uses her phone like a camera. It’s not a great camera, but she always has it with her, so all of the pics of the kids for the past few months were on there. I am pretty good at backing up pictures, but in this case it had been several months. If we had the iCloud, we could have at least gotten back the past 30 days from the photo stream service.
It will backup all of your other stuff too (except Music, that’s a separate $25/year bill from Apple) but I have Exchange so I really only worry about the pictures. I could jailbreak it (and probably will) to run the wireless photo backup shown here, or I could pay for a service like iDrive Photo Backup, or use an app like WiFiPhoto (in the app store), but the reality is that I need to take the time and back it up.
Since this incident, I have been playing with iCloud, and while still not perfect, it’s pretty good. And unlike MobileMe, it actually works.