Apple's iCloud: What You Need to Know

What kind of music features does iCloud have?

iTunes in the Cloud offers manual downloading of all your previously purchased iTunes Store music, as well as automatic downloads of all new purchases, to any computer or iOS device authorized for your iTunes account. If you’ve purchased tracks from the iTunes Store in the old 128-kbps protected AAC format and re-download them, they’ll be delivered in that same format—they won’t be offered to you as unprotected 256-kbps AAC files (for that you’ll have to pay 30 cents a track to upgrade them through iTunes). If tracks that you’ve purchased are no longer available from the iTunes Store, you won’t be able to re-download them.

Browsing purchased music on an iPad.

Currently, streaming music from iCloud is not supported, which means in order to listen to a song or album, you’ll need to download it to the device or computer on which you want to listen to the music. For iOS devices especially, storage will be a limiting factor. There’s also a new feature called iTunes Match (as we’ll explain in the very next item).

What about music that isn’t from the iTunes Store (stuff I ripped from CDs myself, say)?

For $25 a year, Apple’s iTunes Match feature can scan your iTunes library and match up (if possible) any songs you have that you didn’t buy from iTunes with the same track in Apple’s Store—and then you can access those tracks from all your computers and iOS devices, just like tracks you bought through iTunes. This is in sharp contrast to the cloud-based musical offerings from Amazon and Google, which require you to actually upload your music to be able to access it (although those services allow you to stream your music, rather than just download it like Apple’s).

Even better, once iTunes Match has “matched” those tracks, it replaces low-bit rate versions with 256-kbps, DRM-free AAC versions. For the songs iTunes doesn’t offer (Apple says it currently has 19 million tracks) you can upload your own files instead. Apple says that you can store up to 25,000 matched and manually-uploaded tracks—iTunes-purchased tracks don’t count against this limit. For those with really big iTunes libraries, we don’t know how you’ll decide which tracks and albums you want access too. Also, it’s unclear what happens when you stop paying the annual subscription fee, but if it’s anything like other subscription music services, chances are that a portion of your iCloud experience will cease to function.

If I don’t renew iTunes Match after a year, do I lose all of those non-iTunes songs I downloaded to my devices?

We don’t know. If we had to guess, we’d say you probably get to keep those files forever, but when your subscription lapses, you will no longer have access to them on iCloud, so you won’t be able to download them to any device on demand. We’re guardedly optimistic that the music files themselves will remain intact and playable, but detached from the cloud.

Does it work with any other purchased files?

Setting automatic download options on the iPhone.Yes, you can set up your iOS devices to auto-download newly purchased apps and books as well.

What about other iTunes Store content, like movies and podcasts?

At this point, it looks like the iTunes in the Cloud features are limited to music/apps/books, so no TV shows, movies, podcasts, or iTunes U content downloaded from the iTunes Store. That could be due, in the case of movies and TV shows, to concerns about bandwidth and/or licensing agreements with studios. But we suspect Apple will extend iTunes in the Cloud to at least some other types of content at some point.

Can I use iCloud to back up my iOS device?

Another aspect of iCloud is automatic data backup. According to Apple, once a day—but only when your iOS device is connected to both a power source and a Wi-Fi network—iCloud will back up many types of user data to the cloud. It won’t back up everything, but it will handle purchased music, apps, and books; your Camera Roll (photos and videos); device settings; app data; Home-screen and app organization; text and MMS messages; and ringtones. If you ever get a new iOS device or need to restore from a backup, Apple said, you can just enter your Apple ID and password and everything will be automatically loaded onto that device.

Will I be able to use iCloud to sync settings and other data between my Macs?

Other than the types of data already mentioned—photos, media, and data in iCloud-enabled applications—Apple hasn’t said much. But we think it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be able to sync, say, your application and system settings, and perhaps even your login sessions, between your Macs.

I’ve got lots of Apple IDs. I’ve got an iTunes account with all my apps and music on it, we have family MobileMe accounts for e-mail… what does the advent of iCloud mean for me?

We’re not sure how Apple is going to handle multiple accounts. However, the iOS 5 beta features an iCloud settings item as well as a separate Store settings item. The iCloud item handles the syncing of mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks, notes, Photo Stream, and Find My iPad, as well as storage and backup. The Store setting seems to cover music and apps. So it’s possible you’ll be able to use one Apple ID for media purchases and syncing, and a separate ID for all the other data. In this way, if you have a single family account for media purchases, you can keep everyone on that while using a separate account for other data.

Will I be able to merge my iTunes and MobileMe accounts into a single account? Or change my Apple ID and retain my old apps and media?

Apple hasn’t said anything about how management of Apple IDs will be handled. Given their increasing importance, it would certainly be nice if Apple allowed users to change, merge, and even split accounts.

If I have an expired me.com e-mail address from a MobileMe trial, or a mac.com AIM account, will I be able to claim them when iCloud is released?

It seems likely that if you signed up at some point for a me.com or mac.com address, you may be able to re-activate that user name once iCloud launches. We won’t know for sure until that day gets closer.

Can I play music directly from iCloud, or do I have to first download them to a device?

You can listen to a preview of your purchased music to help you identify a track before downloading it (when browsing by album) but you can’t stream complete songs.

Can you use Mail with a custom domain, or does it have to be me.com?

Click to ZoomYou can use Mail with any mail account you want. But iCloud’s e-mail system is based solely on the me.com domain, so far as we can tell.

Will parts of iCloud be accessible with a browser?

We don’t know yet, but we’d assume that you’ll be able to at least view your mail, calendars, and contacts (as you can with MobileMe now). The stuff that requires iTunes (apps, music, books) probably won’t work in a browser, although photos might.

I have a few albums I copied from a friend. How will iTunes Match know which files are legal for me to upload?

The specifics of how iCloud does or doesn’t deal with pirated music will likely be a secret. We’d guess that if you try to match tracks purchased from someone else’s iTunes account, you’ll be told that you don’t have the right to use them. Those tracks are watermarked with another Apple ID and therefore easy to identify. As for tracks that have been downloaded from the Internet, it’s possible that Apple could look for identifying characteristics that indicate the music came from a dodgy source. For example, tags, watermarks, and sonic footprints. On the other hand, it’s possible that part of the $25 you pay each year buys you a measure of amnesty from the labels.

Next: Deleting Apps, Syncing, Data Plans