Apple has published the following FAQ about the MobileMe transition and iCloud:
iCloud is Apple’s new cloud service, which stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, and documents and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. iCloud integrates seamlessly with your apps, so everything happens automatically. iCloud will be free for iOS 5 and OS X Lion users. More information is available at www.apple.com/icloud.
MobileMe Services
What’s happening to MobileMe?
The core services provided by MobileMe have been rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. MobileMe will no longer be available as a paid sync service. If you had an active MobileMe account as of June 6, 2011, your service has been extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. After that date, the MobileMe service will no longer be available.
Following is a list of MobileMe services and whether they will be available or not in iCloud this fall:
In addition, the following new services will be available in iCloud:
• iTunes in the Cloud
• Photo Stream
• Documents in the Cloud
• Automatic downloads and purchase history for apps and books
• Backup and restore
Will I be able to keep my MobileMe email address when I move to iCloud?
Yes. If you have an active MobileMe account when you sign up for iCloud, you’ll be able to keep your me.com or mac.com email address and move your MobileMe mail, contacts, and calendars, as well as your bookmarks, to the new service. When iCloud becomes available this fall, Apple will provide details and instructions on how to make the move.
Will I be able to access iCloud services on the web?
Yes. Web access to iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone will be available at icloud.com this fall.
What happens to the iWeb sites that I’ve published to MobileMe?
You will be able to continue publishing iWeb sites to MobileMe through June 30, 2012, even after moving to iCloud. With iWeb you can easily move a site published to MobileMe to another web hosting service and you should do so before that date. Please read this article for details.
What happens to the pictures that I’ve posted to my MobileMe Gallery?
You will be able to continue using MobileMe Gallery through June 30, 2012, even after moving to iCloud. You should save copies of all photos published to your Gallery before that date. If you have a Mac, it is likely that most of your Gallery photos are already in iPhoto. If not, you can sync the Gallery photos to your iPhoto library. You can also download your photos and movies from the web. Please read this article for details.
What happens to the files on my MobileMe iDisk?
You will be able to continue using MobileMe iDisk through June 30, 2012, even after moving to iCloud. You should save copies of all files stored on iDisk before that date. Please read this article for details.
What happens to the other sync services I use for my Mac?
Syncing of Mac Dashboard widgets, keychains, Dock items, and System Preferences will not be part of iCloud, but will continue to be available for you to use until you move to iCloud. After you move to iCloud or after June 30, 2012, whichever comes first, those sync services will no longer be available. Other MobileMe services that are not transitioning to iCloud (iWeb publishing, Gallery, and iDisk) will continue to be available through June 30, 2012, even after you move to iCloud.
MobileMe Accounts
If I use different accounts for iTunes and MobileMe, can I merge them into a single account and use it with iCloud?
No. You cannot merge two accounts into one. However, you will be able to move your MobileMe account (yourname@me.com) to iCloud and, if you choose, you can continue to use a different iTunes account for store purchases and iTunes in the Cloud.
I currently use more than 5GB of storage in MobileMe. Will I be able to buy more storage for iCloud?
Yes. iCloud includes 5GB of free storage for mail, documents, and backup, which should be enough for most users. Purchased music, apps, and books do not count against this 5GB of storage, nor do the photos in your Photo Stream. If you still need more storage, you will be able to buy it. Details will be provided when iCloud is available this fall.
Can I upgrade my MobileMe account to a Family Pack or buy more MobileMe storage?
You can no longer upgrade your individual account to a Family Pack account or buy additional MobileMe storage. However, if you already have a Family Pack subscription, you can still create new family member accounts.
Can Family Pack members move their MobileMe accounts separately to iCloud?
Yes. The master account holder and each family member can move their individual accounts whenever they like, as long as they do so before June 30, 2012.
I purchased a MobileMe box and have not used the activation code inside. How do I get a refund for it?
If you have an unused activation code from a MobileMe box, you can submit a a href=”http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4445″ target=”_blank”>refund request.
Can I cancel my MobileMe subscription and receive a refund?
You can cancel your service at any time and receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of your paid subscription. The free extension will not be included in the proration. When you cancel, all MobileMe services, including mail and syncing of contacts and calendars, will stop working, and your data will be removed from MobileMe.
Source: Apple Inc.
The one thing apple still gets wrong…
“If I use different accounts for iTunes and MobileMe, can I merge them into a single account and use it with iCloud?”
This just ticks many of us off, now I STILL have to have an email address I use ONLY for iTunes. I want to switch to the me.com email so I can just have the one email… But nope apple wants me to still use competitors email services.
Same here, i don’t want my gmail address anymore. I have a .me account but my iTunes account is gmail. Strange that I can’t change my iTunes to .me.
Anyone know why?
Because. 🙂 It’ll eventually be done, but after a successful transition and when they’ve worked in a way to prevent possible scams.
Ok. Hope that’s true. Down with gmail!
You do not need to keep your GMail account. You can change your iTunes account information to whatever contact address you like (for receipts and so on)—BUT the “account name” for your iTunes will still be XXX@gmail.com
all true, EXCEPT you can’t add your MobileMe email to the account. Cause by default the @me email is tied to an existing AppleID.
That’s the problem.
Well, I have some songs in my iTunes library that have an old Apple ID of mine, before I started using (what was then) .Mac. Since then, I have used my .Mac/MobileMe as my Apple ID for iTunes.
All that happens is that when I get a new computer (for example), and I go to play one of those older songs, I have to authorize that machine using the old credentials. Once I do that, all of those older tracks play just fine, right alongside the newer ones I obtained with my current Apple ID.
It’s not that much of a hassle, as you only have to do it once, and only then after a clean install or the receipt of a new machine.
Yes. But in terms of using iOS devices with icloud it seems as though it is designed to hold one AppleID per device.
I mean, I am going to have one AppleID for all my purchased content and a different one for photostream and iMessage?
One really should be able to change their AppleID to a .me address, no?
Authorization isn’t the problem, the problem is having multiple Apple IDs on one iOS device.
My old iTunes account pre dates MobileMe/.Mac/app store. I have lots of money invested in the old account, and zero in the MobileMe account.
If apple would have just never automatically created an iTunes account with the creation of MobileMe account… The user could easily switch the email over.
I can’t even add the MobileMe email to the main account as an optional email… Cause it’s tied to an appleid I have never logged to use on iTunes.
And you can’t even delete the MobileMe appleid… Even tried that route.
It’s annoying, and I’m notthe only one that think apple has really screwed that part up.
Huh, wonder what this means for programs like OmniFocus which uses iDisk to publish iCal reminders…..
iTools, .mac, MobileMe, iCloud…
Used them all, but not much in a long time.
Wonder what will replace iCloud.
iGalaxy… then followed by iUniverse… or maybe iCosmos…. with the ultimate goal being iJobs which will be omnipotent and take care of all our worldly needs without even having to blink.
Bit annoyed by the syncing of keychains etc, one of the few things I actually used mobile me for
When I bought my iPhone I was asked by the retail assistant if I would like to subscribe to MobileMe. I asked him how much it cost and when he replied $99 a year, I took out $100 and said that I’d rather roll that into a stogie and smoke it instead. What a waste of good money it would have been. Atrocious would be too kind to it.
Now that it’s going free Apple’s servers in NC will be seeing some abuse from me. I wonder what Steve-O would say if I uploaded 1,000 pictures of Ballmer’s sweaty rear end to the cloud. That ought to guarantee I’d be the first user to be booted off a free service.
I HIGHLY doubt Apple is going to peruse your private photos.
I rather wish you would have smoked that hundo. The resulting effect the toxins would have had on your lungs would have spared us all of your hot air.
Oh well – C’est la vie. iWeb was a cool idea and I’ve had a published site for many years but haven’t updated it for a while. Same with Gallery.
I seen comments before that alternate site hosting is very cheap and as long as users can switch to those seemlessly then it won’t be such a big deal.
Apple probably have looked at how much these services are accessed and used. My guess is that a small percentage found them useful and the majority never touch them.
I for one agree with the SJ comment at the Keynote that handling multiple devices is a PITA and getting them to sync up is tricky even with MobileMe.
iDisk also was a good idea but ended up not using it much. I prefer the cloud approach.
Still hoping for some sort of direct replacement from Apple for iWeb and hosting. My wife is very comfortable running her website for her corporation on her own with the current setup and I dread having to help her switch to something less simple and intuitive.
Daner,
its no different. You just enter your FTP information in the designated spot. Publishing will be just as easy.
Not entirely. I looked at the Knowledge Base article they refer to for iWeb, and if you move your site to another service then blog and photo comments don’t work, nor setting a website password, doing a blog search, or the hit counter. Kind of annoying for me, as I use almost all of those features.
Damn, I use iDisk file sharing all the time, it’s a great way to share files with clients.
The only thing I use iWeb for is our internal intranet, so luckily I won’t lose that functionality.
Does anyone know of any similar file sharing sites that I could use instead of iDisk sharing?
Keychain syncing is a real bad thing to lose. It’s so handy having all your passwords, certificates and secure notes synced across my MacBook Pro and iMac.
Onwards and upwards…
Dropbox is what I use. Very slick, replaces iDisk very well.
Ya, dropbox is a nice service. I think you might like it more actually. It integrates with OS X and WIndows very nicely.
Does dropbox work with iPhone/ iPad like iDisk does? It’s one of the best and easiest ways of reading PDFs and other non iWork files…
Yes it does.
But 2gb limit. (free)
It’s free, so sign up now and give it a shot and see for yourself.
Perhaps the new Documents service on iCloud will let us share them with others like we do now on MobileMe.
The interesting thing here is that iDisk (a “hard drive in the sky” storing ALL of your data) is what most people think of when they hear the word “cloud” (as it related to computing). That’s essentially what the competitors offers.
Apple is now intentionally avoiding that aspect and using iCloud as a way to continuously keep data in sync among the customer’s Apple devices, while those device continue to work mostly with data stored locally (not online).
To clarify, it doesn’t say iWeb is gone but rather iWeb publishing
The MM model was a mixture of synchronization of personal data and sharing of personal data (Gallery, iWeb, “Groups”, iCal publishing, etc.)
iCloud appears to narrow the focus to synchronization of personal data.
While I’ll miss the ability to easily share my “data” with others, I rarely made use of those tools. Facebook, YouTube, Flikr and other online sharing sites have replaced much of that functionality (though I liked the protected garden that MobileMe provided).
I still worry about the reliability of the synchronization model and how iCloud will manage those issues. I’ve had to reset “Sync Services” a few too many times and spend hours troubleshooting why I have duplicate contacts in my address book as a longtime MM subscriber.
“… and spend hours troubleshooting why I have duplicate contacts in my address book as a longtime MM subscriber.”
Okay. I’ve got zillions of duplicates in my address book, especially on my iPhone. I have no clean address book with all my contact info and have been afraid to sync the one with the major numbers of duplicates to MM. I’d certainly be excited to find out what can be done to handle this.
I’m sure WDN LOVES this, but WTF? They need to sync keychains and system preferences. Those and email are the main reasons I had Mobile Me. Who can remember all those passwords. Surely they have a plan to sync the keychain. And their sync of system preferences isn’t perfect, I do like it. I wish it were more granular. I want most of my system prefs to be consistent across my Macs and iOS devices. (Work, Home desktop, home media server, Laptop, iPhone, iPad). Mobile Me’s sync services keeps multiple device users sane. Well more sane than before.
Get 1password. Changed my life. Not affiliated… honest.
Totally second the 1Password recommendation. Fantastic program, syncs with Dropbox, integrates with most browsers, can generate super secure passwords. Versions for iPhone and iPad too. Can’t praise it enough.
Me Three. 1Password’s great.
Sign me up as a 1Password Fan as well.
Believe it or not… I got 1Password for iOS when it was free…. But paid the Full price for Mac version.
Been forever since it was free on app store.
Wow… just looked it up. November 2009 it was free…
http://appshopper.com/utilities/1password-pro
well, I currently have two accounts for purchasing iOS apps. One is personal and one OS for work. Am I correct that both will contne to sync using iCloud?
I am officially, certifiably pissed. Galleries is linked to both iPhone and Aperture currently. Doing away with Galleries reduces the value of these other Apple apps. I would gladly pay for Galleries rather than see it disappear.
Aperture…Are the long knives out to kill that app too? Did I mention that I am really pissed? Apple, please, PLEASE be more responsive to those of us who love the photography offerings including Galleries.
Anyone notice if Safari bookmarks will still sync in iCloud from device to device as they do in Mobile Me.
Yes, Bookmark syncing lives on.
No iDisk?
Buh-bye!
Free competition, here I come!
I’m seeing a replacement for iDisk… Documents in the cloud.
We don’t know all the details yet, I’m sure there will be a way to share a file.
When i saw SJ intro iCloud, i knew i’d need Dropbox still but iCloud will replace everything else i need. and for free..
iCloud + Dropbox = perfect setup for all my needs.
those two replace MM 100% for me.
I never used/needed iWeb or Gallery. I assume there will be either free alternatives, or ways to share out the pics once iCloud is live. (or added later, Didn’t SJ say iCloud will Launch with the core apps? not be limited to these..)
Well, whatdya know?! The world really is coming to an end on June 2012!
I bought into Apple Macs + iPhone + MobileMe for the broad feature set they (once) offered. True to Apple, it’s their (new) walled garden or the highway and I’ll be among the first to say “Buh-Bye”. Add to that their continued move away from supporting truly “pro level” software and hardware, while carving off features, and I’ll be among the first to drop their new consumer based Apple iFad devices come June 2012.
MDN: Excellent summary article. I’ll be sending people to it for info. Thanks!
:-Derek
Same, i bookmarked it just for the info it has.
Apple is totally blowing this in my estimation. iDisk is quite valuable to me and a primary reason for having ME account. Very disappointing. I hope they reconsider.
My question is I canceled my mm account this December so if igloos is now free is it possible to use my old .Mac email because canceling mm I lost my email as well which back then apple said you would still retain your email address even after canceling that didn’t happen o well.
iCloud*
What about Notes? I use it a lot.
not 100% sure.
but Notes is/was a part of Mail.. and mail transfers over to iCloud.
so maybe it’s just part of the Mail transition and is not changed.
Good question, I didn’t even think of notes till now…
As far as I’m concerned, it’s MobileMe Gallery, iDisk and iWeb publishing that are the heart and soul of MobileMe. Visitors to this forum love to rag on MobileMe, but I thought it was great compared to using hodgepodge of competing services.
The way I see it: it’s possible to create a nearly free replacement for the old mobile me using existing services:
1. iWeb hosting: zymic free web hosting with FTP.
2. Keychain sync: start using 1Password with dropbox to store your passwords and notes.
3. Notes synching: 1Password ($59 for a Mac windows bundle) or dropbox.
4. iDisk: dropbox free.
5. Gallery: Flikr or Facebook and YouTube.