“Some people view Microsoft as The Evil Empire, while others give Apple that moniker. I’ve never thought either one was particularly evil but when I found iCloud installed on my PC after upgrading to iOS 5, I’m beginning to wonder. I discovered the iCloud icon in my Windows 7 system tray after a recent update/reboot exercise,” Ken Hess reports for ZDNet.

“OK, so I know I installed iCloud during the update but I thought it was just a way to manage my iOS device backups or to keep track of them. Little did I know that Apple is now willing to backup data and pictures from my PC,” Hess reports. “Apple wants me to use their Cloud-based storage on all of my devices not just Apple ones. Pretty darn sneaky, if you ask me. Smart too.”

“I don’t use Microsoft Outlook but, for now at least, you can only backup your Outlook contacts, calendars and tasks. You can also backup your Internet Explorer bookmarks. But, the most intriguing of all is the Photo Stream part of the iCloud application,” Hess reports. “iCloud is less expensive than Dropbox and it works on all of your iDevices, Macs and now your PC too. Awesome.”

Read more in the full article here.

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