Apple continues to slowly release information about iCloud as developers gain access to more and more features during the beta testing period. It now appears that, as part of the migration to iCloud, paid MobileMe subscribers will get an extra 20GB of storage at no charge for the first year. However, in the process of migrating, users will lose some useful data syncing features.
Apple made the unusual step of releasing a new beta of iOS 5 to developers over the weekend—such updates are typically released during the week when both Apple's engineers and most developers are actively working. In addition to the iOS update, Apple also enabled the ability for registered developers to migrate an existing MobileMe account to iCloud to test the account migration features.
There's plenty of good news for those migrating from MobileMe. According to screenshots posted by 9to5Mac, your existing me.com e-mail address will be moved over to the new servers, as will contacts and calendars. MobileMe users can use existing Gallery, iDisk, and iWeb publishing features until MobileMe is shut down on June 30, 2012, even after migrating an account. And since paid MobileMe accounts originally came with 20GB of storage, Apple will automatically add 20GB to the free 5GB of iCloud storage space.
The transition won't be problem-free, however. As Apple previously warned, Dashboard widgets, Dock items, Keychains, Mail accounts—including rules, signatures, and Smart Mailboxes—and System Preferences will no longer sync between Macs. Also, shared calendars are affected somewhat in the transition process—a source told Ars that private calendars are only viewable by other iCloud users, while public calendars have to be re-published after moving to iCloud. As MacRumors noted, users migrating from MobileMe will be set up to automatically renew the extra 20GB of storage on June 30, 2012 for $40 per year. You can downgrade to the free 5GB before next year and avoid the automatic billing, though.
It's unfortunate that iCloud will lose useful features like Keychain and Preference syncing. However, some features could eventually reappear if Apple updates apps like Mail or Keychain Access to use the new iCloud data storage APIs available in Lion.
iCloud is currently in beta and only accessible to registered developers, though it is expected to launch this fall around the same time as iOS 5. In addition to e-mail, contact, and calendar data, iCloud will also enable users to sync photos, videos, and other data among computers and mobile devices. It will also allow iTunes Store users to access previously purchased music, videos, and apps, with additional iTunes library syncing available separately as iTunes Match.
Listing image by Photograph by dl.dropbox.com
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