Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Yosemite Edition

More iCloud Features

Not all of iCloud’s goodies are represented as checkboxes in System Preferences→iCloud. Don’t forget that iCloud’s online hub is waiting for you—available from any computer, tablet, or phone—at iCloud.com (Figure 10-15).

Figure 10-15. Top: Here’s the iCloud home screen, showing the major online features of this service. All of this stuff, of course, is an online mirror of what’s on your Mac. Bottom: Once you’re in one of the modules—Mail, Calendar, Notes, or whatever—you can switch among iCloud features using the that always appears in the upper-left corner.

And even that’s not all there is to iCloud. For example:

Automatic backup

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, iCloud can back it up, automatically and wirelessly (over WiFi, not over cellular connections). It’s a quick backup, since iCloud backs up only the changed data.

Continuity

If you have an iPhone, and it’s running iOS 8.1 or later, you’re in for a treat. The set of features Apple calls Continuity turn the iPhone into a part of the Mac. They let you make calls from your Mac as though it were a speakerphone. They let you send and receive text messages from your Mac—to any cellphone on earth. They let you AirDrop files between computer and phone, wirelessly. And more.

Continuity gets its own chapter ( ...