The June 17 Mac411 article briefly described Apple’s iCloud services. I have more than 20 GB of songs in my iTunes library. How will iCloud affect me?
— J.C.
Naples
iCloud briefly
I’m going to use “iDevice” to cover the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch in this article and “Mac” to cover the iMac, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, etc.
The crux of Apple’s iCloud is that it is not an Internet-based computing center. Rather it is an Internet location to store information that your iDevices and Macs wish to share. Information is distributed to your Mac and iDevice painlessly via the Internet.
For example, you improve a photograph in your Mac computer or iDevice; the result is shared among all your computer devices and you can print / post / email the result from any source. Technically iCloud is a “store and forward” service; the data is used in your Mac or iDevice.
Apple has said iCloud will be released this fall. But some aspects of iCloud have been incorporated into iTunes 10.3.1 for your Mac and iOS 4.3.3 for your iDevice that specifically show some of how iCloud will improve your iTunes experience.
Song types
I’m not referring to the genre of your collection, rather to the lineage of the songs. The collection can be classified into four categories:
1. Songs purchased from the iTunes Store that are subject to Digital Rights Management restrictions; your early purchases.
2. Songs recently purchased from the iTunes Store that are NOT subject to DRM.
3. Songs in your collection that are also in the iTunes Store but you didn’t purchase from the iTunes Store. You digitized them from a CD or other source.
4. Songs that are NOT available from the iTunes Store. These could be digitized songs from Garage Band, or other non-CD sources or from artists that Apple has ignored.
Apple’s iCloud service treats each of these differently.
The iTunes connection
The advent of iCloud means that the cloud will know the content of your song collection and its distribution among your iDevices and your Macs. Until iTunes 10.3.1 you used a cable to connect an iDevice to your Mac, fired up iTunes and used iTunes’ sync feature to move a copy of chosen songs into your iDevice from the Mac. The iCloud addition in 10.3.1 removes the cable from the process and iCloud becomes the distribution point using Internet Wi-Fi for your iDevices and your Macs.
However, iPod devices, other than the Touch, will continue to use the USB connection cable to manage those iPod contents. Here are some things you should know about how your collection will transfer:
Type 1: DRM-restricted songs. DRM files are 128 kbps. They can be downloaded to your Macs and iDevices. You will have an option to upgrade to better quality DRM-free, 256 kbps at 30 cents per song or $3 per album.
Type 2: DRM-free songs. You will be able to download 256 kbps versions of your DRM free purchases.
Type 3: Your digitized songs in Apple’s iTunes inventory. The handshake between iTunes and iCloud will create a “match” list of those songs in both your iTunes Library and the iTunes Store. You will be able to download improved quality 256 kbps copies of Apple’s DRM free songs to your Macs and iDevices. Unlike Google’s and Amazon’s approach to song management, you do not have to upload a copy of these song to the cloud.
Type 4: Unique songs. These songs are not in the iTunes Store inventory covered on the three preceding options. You can pay Apple $25 per year and upload these types of songs to iCloud. Once there they are available to download to your iDevices or Macs. Apple can’t upgrade the quality of these unique songs.
Availability
All features of iCloud and iTunes are not yet available. But iTunes 10.3.1 and iOS 4.3.3 does let you enjoy the distribution features of Types 1 and 2. Start iTunes in your iDevice. Near the right edge of the iTunes window is a purchased icon. Click on the icon and select Purchased Items.
You have the option to select Purchased / Not Downloaded for the iDevice. You will see a number of songs with a cloud image next to the song. Touch the cloud icon to download the song to the iDevice.
Unknown items
There are remaining questions about iCloud. More will be revealed with Apple’s fall release. Future Mac 411 articles will cover what we learn of iCloud and iOS 5 at that time
AskJWK@Gmail.COM
An index of prior Mac 411 articles is available here: tinyurl.com/Mac411Index
Jerry King is President of the Naples MacFriends User Group , founded to help Macintosh users get the most out of their computers. NMUG is open to area residents and seasonal visitors.
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