MacBook Pro Portable Genius, 5th Edition

Chapter 6: How Do I Take Advantage of iCloud?

iCloud is a suite of web-based services that syncs your data across your devices via the Internet and stores data so you can access it from your MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, iPod touches, and even a web browser. This keeps e-mail, contacts, calendars, music, e-books, photos, documents, bookmarks, passwords, and so on in sync on all your devices, so the same information is available to you regardless of the device you’re using. You can store documents on iCloud and work on the same version of them on each device. An iCloud account includes access to a website with applications so you can work with your information from any computer.

Getting Started with iCloud

To use iCloud, you need an iCloud account. The good news is that obtaining an iCloud account is fast, easy, and free. A free account includes access to most of the services described in this chapter, along with 5GB of online storage space. After you obtain an account, you sign into it on your MacBook Pro and iOS devices so iCloud services are available on each of them. Then you access the iCloud website to become familiar with the functions it provides.

You may already have an iCloud account and just don’t realize it. For example, if you have shopped at the iTunes Store, you created an Apple ID. You use this same Apple ID for your iCloud account. If you don’t have an Apple ID, ...