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Good to know. I have to figure out if iCloud is what I want to use or if there are other options better suited to my needs.

iCloud is tied to apps that know how to talk to it- namely iApps (for now). That requirement makes it "Just work", but as a back-up drive or a web server though- it is pretty much worthless.

DropBox, Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive are more like a "hard drive in the sky".

It would have just a simple thing for Apple to allow you to copy anything you already have stored on iDisk or anywhere in MobileMe to iCloud, and pro rate any charges based on your remaining time and space after they deducted the free 5K if you exceeded that amount of storage. An option to continue at the new rates would then be offered after a certain time. I for one am completely baffled by Apple's changes in this area; I think they are too or they would be more willing to explain and answer questions.

I can't figure out how I could possibly use 20 GB on iCloud. For MobileMe, I had a backup of my documents folder which took about 15 GB. With that, everything was available online. I used Transmit to sync up my HD and MobileMe occasionally to make sure that the latest of everything was backed up.

But with iCloud, there is no way to use the storage like that. I just can't imagine using even 5 GB given the current design much less 20 GB. All you can do is use applications to read/write to iCloud storage. Most applications I use currently don't do that.

I have a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad. I've created very few iWork docs, but I'm currently using nearly 3 GB of the available 5 GB that I was given when I switched from MobileMe (hey Apple, I'd like 20 GB for free also!). Why am I using nearly 3 GB even though I've created very few documents? Because in addition to the usual suspects being backed up and synced through iCloud (Mail and Notes, Contacts, Calendars and Bookmarks), I'm also having each iOS device auto-backup to iCloud. This way, if the device fails and I'm not near my Mac (or the Mac has failed as well), then I can restore directly from iCloud.

I'm sure that Apple will add additional functions to iCloud, and plus more third parties will build iCloud functions into their apps (document versioning, for example). They may even enable "disk in the sky" functionality, but I doubt it. Their goal appears to be to make Cloud integration invisible to the user.

MobileMe worked for me and iCloud is of no use to me. Apple made a mistake as far as I am concerned and they won't be getting money from me. MobileMe used to be iTools and apparently free for life referred to someone elses life and not mine. I will miss iDisk and the web space and the ease of seeing a folder in my finder and the amazing way you could email a large file from MobileMe by giving someone a link.

I agree with others that this is non-news. My experience of iCloud is that it's been all hype. If the storage is only available tied to apps I don't use, then it's not actually storage at all. It's great to have my Mac settings backed up in the cloud, and my iOS backups in the cloud, but what else is there? It's like the famous Gertrude Stein quote, "There's no there there."

For true cloud storage, I'm using DropBox and Google Drive. Apple needs to step it up and give its customers access to the space they're paying for.

I guess I'm the only one using IMAP with iCloud? I have several gigabytes of storage consumed by mail alone...

For people who need to sync their iDevices with their Macs (for calendars, address books, etc.) iCloud is easy enough to use. For those with more complex and demanding storage or syncing needs, iCloud is a poor choice, given the variety of options now available. Syncing your music and photos via iCloud may or may not be a useful feature, depending on how much data you have. iDevices still have very limited storage capacities, which can require a lot of work to customize your data for use with iCloud. From all reports it's not as easy as the commercials make it seem. For getting real work done I don't think most DropBox users will find iCloud a viable alternative. The same goes for users of other more robust cloud platforms.

iCloud's shortcomings are essentially the same as those for .Mac and Mobile Me - a limited number of services that are platform and application specific. Mobile Me never provided a complete web services package; if you wanted to use an app other than iWeb to serve your web site, Mobile Me was all but useless. Nor could you easily use a non-Apple domain name.

iCloud has dropped web hosting altogether, which will be no great loss to most people. Like other Apple hobbies, iWeb was a good idea that never got out of diapers. But now that there are so many brand name cloud services coming online, iCloud looks as parochial as Mobile Me ever did. Clearly Apple sees iCloud as servicing the Apple ecosystem and little else. This eco system will grow somewhat when Mountain Lion comes out, but it will still be far from a full featured cloud environment.

The loss of the albums feature in Mobile Me probably reflects the ascendency of social networking sites for photo and video sharing. Apple's services were an early contender but they failed to evolve to keep up with the competition. Apple's other forays into social networking have been equally tepid and underdeveloped. For all I know Apple may be wise not to try to be all things to all people. Why reinvent the wheel if you cannot improve on it? Still, it's hard not to imagine that iCloud could be more than a mere sync server for iDevices, especially given the huge server farms Apple has been building.

Like others Apple is feeling its way into cloud computing. And like others, a lot of their initiatives have fallen by the wayside. Certainly Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have had their share of false starts. It's just that we expect better from Apple. And, when it comes to the cloud, they have yet to deliver anything first rate. The simple fact may be that there is no way to deliver a full service cloud system that is at the same time simple and easy to use. Thus we may be left to use DropBox here, iCloud there, Google Drive and GoDaddy somewhere else. That, at the present time at least, is the state of the art.

For us older users with older Macs and not anxious to change and relearn how we handle our information this is good news. We have been incredibly loyal and supportive customers and have felt very left out and betrayed by having the rug pulled out from under us. It seemed loyalty was not a two way street. I will be forwarding this to my son, an original Mac user in the 1970's and one who has programmed his entire medical office record keeping system on Macs, to help me adjust to this news. As an 82 year old lady, it is a bit over my head, but I recognize this is good news. I have an iPad, iPod and Power Book G4. Still holding off on the iPhone. I do know I will have to upgrade soon on a new Mac, but I hate to lose this perfect machine.
Thank you Apple!