iPhone: The Missing Manual, 9th Edition

Chapter 15. iCloud

The free iCloud service stems from Apple’s brainstorm that, since it controls both ends of the connection between a Mac and the Apple website, it should be able to create some pretty clever Internet-based features.

This chapter concerns what iCloud can do for you, the iPhone owner.

Note

To get a free iCloud account if you don’t already have one, sign up in Settings→iCloud.

What iCloud Giveth

So what is iCloud? Mainly, it’s these things:

• A synchronizing service. It keeps your calendar, address book, and documents updated and identical on all your gadgets: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. Also your web passwords and credit card numbers. That’s a huge convenience—almost magical.

• Find My iPhone. Find My iPhone pinpoints the current location of your iPhone on a map. In other words, it’s great for helping you find your phone if it’s been stolen or lost.

  You can also make your lost gadget start making a loud pinging sound for a couple of minutes by remote control—even if it was silenced. That’s brilliantly effective when your phone has slipped under the couch cushions.

• An email account. Handy, really: An iCloud account gives you a new email address. If you already have an email address, great! This new one can be a backup account, one you never enter on websites so that it never gets overrun with spam. Or vice versa: Let this be your junk account, the address you use for online forms. Either way, it’s great to have a second account.

• An online locker. Anything you buy from Apple—music, ...