New Course: The Guide to iCloud

So one of the topics I get asked about the most is iCloud. A lot of Apple users don't understand what iCloud is, why they should be using it, or how to use it. So in this course I go into detail starting with how cloud services work and then looking at all the different features of iCloud. Since this is a new course I've a special price on it right now and like all my courses you can get it now and then you can take it later. You can go back and review the lessons as much as you want. Here's an excerpt from the very first lesson where I talk about how cloud services work.

Most of us just had one computing device, perhaps a desktop computer. On that computer we had data. This could be documents, photos, we'll call them just files. So here we see a computer that has three files on it. A, B, and C. But then things got a little more complex when some of us got second computers. Maybe you had a desktop and a laptop like an iMac and a MacBook. Or maybe you had two computers. One at home and one at work. When you had files on one computer they were not on the other computer. If you wanted them to be on the other computer you had to manually transfer them. Maybe you used an external drive to do this. Maybe you connected both to a local network and copied the files from one to the other. Only then did you have the same files on both devices.

If you made a change to one you would have to manually copy it back else you would have two different versions. A new one and an old one.

Then things got even more complex. A lot of us got more devices like smart phones and tablets. So when that happened it was even harder to keep things in sync. If you had files on your computers they probably weren't available on the other devices unless you copied theml over there. So enter the solution which is iCloud. What iCloud does is it keeps files in sync between all your devices. 

So if you start off with files on your iMac and you want to have them on all your devices iCloud would take copies of those and automatically pull them from your iMac to iCloud. It would do this automatically. You don't have to do it manually. You don't have to tell it to sync. Just by signing into iCloud on your iMac data from your iMac that you selected to be part of iCloud would automatically go to iCloud. Then if you're signed into iCloud on your other devices that data would then be distributed to those as well.

So when you have this, not only does it copy all of your files across but it keeps them in sync. Let's say on our MacBook we're going to edit file A. We make a change to it. Now that's new. iCloud will automatically copy that to the iCloud server and then from there to your other devices. So just by saving the file on your MacBook iCloud takes care of the rest and everything is kept in sync. Then maybe we move to the desktop Mac and we change file A again there and it will sync that up and put it in iCloud and then put it on your other devices. So it keeps everything in sync.

It's useful to think of this as having four devices here that are yours and a fifth one that is iCloud. In fact it is a device. You could think of it as a computer just not one that you own. It's one owned by Apple. In fact it's a whole network of servers but you can think of it as one device.

So there's a look at how lesson one starts. It then goes on to talk about what if you're not connected to the internet or you don't have enough room for all your the files from iCloud drive or all your photos in your iCloud photo library. Lessons then go on to show you how to setup iCloud, not just on the Mac but also on the iPhone and the iPad as well. A lot of the lessons cover using both Mac and iOS devices. Then it will look at specific features like iCloud email, using the Productivity apps like Calendar, Reminders, Notes, and Contacts. Sharing things. Sharing photos, sharing files, collaborating in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. I look at all the different aspects of iCloud and try to help you get the most from using iCloud on your Apple devices.