October 2011 - rustyboozer.com

Getting started with iCloud, Apple’s new sync service

October 13, 2011 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

Over the past few years, consumers have become obsessed with the notion of having their documents and data instantly available wherever they are, on whichever device they happen to be using at the time. In the past, Apple experimented with this by offering limited sync services; with iCloud, the company is charging head-first into the digital-sync sphere.

What is iCloud?

In short, iCloud is a catchall phrase that covers Apple’s entire suite of wireless sync and backup services, which aim to keep your devices—both iOS, and desktop computers running OS X Lion, Windows Vista, or Windows 7—on the same page, no matter which one you’re using at any given moment. Broken down, those services cover four areas: document and data sync, mobile backup, location awareness, and purchase management.

Any customer can create a free iCloud account, which provides 5GB of storage for document sync and mobile backup; additional space can be purchased for a yearly fee. (Your purchased content from the iTunes and App Stores do not count toward this storage limit.) Unlike certain third-party services, iCloud isn’t focused on preserving your individual files, or providing a central folder where you can upload documents to access across platforms—Apple wants you to stop worrying about where specific files save to, and instead focus on the information itself.

Document and data sync: This portion of iCloud provides you with an invisible online repository (5GB for free, up to 50GB on a yearly paid plan) for your email, contacts, calendars, documents, and app data. Your iOS devices and computers collectively sync to and pull information from this central server on a regular basis, thus keeping everything up-to-date. Like iCloud’s predecessor, MobileMe, your mail, calendar, and contact accounts will be accessible from all your devices and on the Web. You’ll also be able to access your iWork documents, if you have one of the iWork apps on your iOS device.

Mobile backup: If you’ve owned an iOS device before, you’ll find iCloud backups very similar to tethered iTunes backups. Like iTunes, iCloud backs up information on your purchased content (music, apps, and books), your Camera Roll, device settings, data, home screens, messages, and ringtones, but instead of saving that information in a file on your computer, the service stores it online instead. Your purchases themselves aren’t backed up to your iCloud account; instead, your backup keeps a record of what you own. When you restore your device from a backup, those purchases automatically redownload back in place, aided by your backed-up app data and home screen positioning. This way, you should always be able to restore information without ever needing to plug your device into your Mac or PC.

Location awareness: As part of iCloud, you can locate both your devices (iOS and Mac) and your companions, using the Find My iPhone and Find My Friends app, respectively. Both apps are free and available to download from the App Store; you can also locate your iOS device and your Mac by going to the iCloud website.

Purchase management: The final part of Apple’s iCloud strategy focuses on your past purchases and your iTunes media collection. Using your free iCloud account, you can access a complete record of all your purchased iTunes content; choose to download new music, apps, and books automatically; and redownload anything for free. Pay a yearly fee, and you can access your entire music library (up to 25,000 songs) across multiple devices, whether they be purchased iTunes songs or not.

Set up iCloud

If you don’t have an iCloud account, it’s easy to sign up for one, either on your device, when updating to iOS 5 or through the Settings app, or on your computer if you’re running OS X 10.7.2. If you’re switching from MobileMe, you have to move and merge your account through the iCloud website before you can take advantage the service.

Do you have an Apple ID? If you’ve ever purchased something from the iTunes Store, you’ll have signed up for an Apple ID (which is usually your primary email address). Even if you never used this account to sign up for MobileMe, you can convert it into an iCloud account.

If you’ve converted your old Apple ID, you need to toggle the Mail switch to On in the iCloud pane to get an email address for your account.

To do so from an iOS device, go to the Settings app and tap the iCloud menu. At the top of the screen, enter your Apple ID and password. After a moment of setup time, iCloud will prompt you to merge anything on your device with this newly created account; tap Merge to do so, or Don’t Merge if you don’t want to copy the information currently on your device. From there, just tap the toggles to customize your iCloud account the way you prefer. Note that if you convert an Apple ID into an iCloud account, you won’t have access to iCloud email by default—you’ll have to create a name@me.com address first. To do so, toggle the Mail slider in the iCloud settings pane to On; a pop-up dialog box from the bottom of the screen will prompt you to create a username.

To activate iCloud on your computer, you need to be running OS X 10.7.2. (You can download it from Apple’s website or from Software Update on your computer.) You can set up iCloud online at icloud.comby simply logging in with your Apple ID; you can also set it up from your computer’s System Preferences application by clicking on the iCloud preference pane.

See Full Article (MacWorld): Here

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: apple, cloud, computers, iCloud, iOS 5, technology

A Tribute To Steve Jobs In Salt [Video]

October 12, 2011 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

This is one cool video. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: art, fans, steve jobs, tribute

Steve Jobs, in His Own Words

October 7, 2011 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs was many things — an innovator and visionary, an oracle of consumer behavior, and an insanely great showman. He was also a masterful orator, known for his skill in turning a phrase.

Below, a collection of some the more memorable ones.

“If Apple becomes a place where computers are a commodity item, where the romance is gone, and where people forget that computers are the most incredible invention that man has ever invented, I’ll feel I have lost Apple. But if I’m a million miles away, and all those people still feel those things … then I will feel that my genes are still there.”

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

“My position coming back to Apple was that our industry was in a coma. It reminded me of Detroit in the ’70s, when American cars were boats on wheels.”

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about.”

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

“Innovation … comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

“I grew up in Silicon Valley. My parents moved from San Francisco to Mountain View when I was five. My dad got transferred and that was right in the heart of Silicon Valley so there were engineers all around. Silicon Valley for the most part at that time was still orchards–apricot orchards and prune orchards–and it was really paradise. I remember the air being crystal clear, where you could see from one end of the valley to the other…It was really the most wonderful place in the world to grow up.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”