iPad: The Missing Manual, 7th Edition

Chapter 15. iCloud & Continuity

Apple’s free iCloud service stems from Apple’s brainstorm that, since it controls both ends of the connection between a Mac and the Apple Web site, it should be able to create some pretty clever Internet-based features.

This chapter concerns what iCloud can do for you, the iPad owner.

Note

To get a free iCloud account if you don’t already have one, sign up in Settings→iCloud.

What iCloud Giveth

So what is iCloud? Mainly, it’s these things:

• A synchronizing service. It keeps your calendar, address book, and documents updated and identical on all your gadgets: Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Also your Web passwords and credit card numbers. That’s a huge convenience—almost magical.

• Find My iPhone pinpoints the current location of your iPad on a map (and iPhones, and Macs). In other words, it’s great for helping you find your iPad if it’s been stolen or lost.

  You can also make your lost gadget start making a loud pinging sound for a couple of minutes by remote control. That’s brilliantly effective when your iPad has slipped under the couch cushions.

• An email account. Handy, really: An iCloud account gives you a new email address. If you already have an email address, great! This new one can be a backup account, one you never enter on Web sites so that it never gets overrun with spam. Or vice versa: Let this be your junk account, the address you use for online forms. Either way, it’s great to have a second account.

• An online locker. Anything ...