iCloud extended until 2013

Just got an email from Apple stating they extended my 20GB of iCloud storage until 2013 because I was previously a MobileMe subscriber. This is really cool of Apple to extend this to their loyal customers. Little things like this are why I continue to purchase and support the Apple ecosystem. Not only do they make the best computing products in the world they also have the world's best customer service.

When you moved your MobileMe account to iCloud, we provided you with a complimentary storage upgrade beyond the standard 5GB that comes with an iCloud account to help you with the transition. Originally, this storage upgrade was set to expire on September 30, 2012.

As a thank you to our former MobileMe members, we will continue to provide you with this complimentary storage upgrade at no charge, for an additional year, until September 30, 2013.

Shared Photo Stream

With iOS 6 Apple introduced a new feature that not only works well in OS X but also terrific in iOS for the iPad and iPhone. On the iPad side of things shared Photo Stream works great in the Photos app that comes preinstalled on the iPad. Shared Photo Stream is a great way to share your photos with a private album for your family and friends. If you don’t want a private album you can also create a web album for public sharing, just remember it is public and anybody with the link can view the photos if you set it up as public.

Setting up a shared Photo Stream on the iPad is very easy to do. Oddly though you can only use the Photos app to actually create a new Photo Stream album. For some odd reason Apple decided not to add the functionality to iPhoto on the iPad which leaves me totally baffled. I can use iPhoto on the iPad to view my albums, I can also edit the photos in the album but I cannot add anything to the album from the app nor can I create a new shared Photo Stream album. I am not sure why Apple would cripple their most powerful photo app on the iPad? To add insult to injury you can actually create albums to share to Facebook and Flickr which really leaves me more baffled. Not sure what Apple is aiming to accomplish here but it is a head scratcher.

To set up a new shared album to share you will need to do the following:

• Open the Photos app


• In Photos view, tap the edit button on the top right


• Tap on each photo, you will see a blue checkmark appear on your photos


• After selecting each photo, tap the Share button on the top left


• Choose Photo stream


• Choose New Photo Stream


• Name your Photo Stream, Add email recipients, choose Public or not


• Tap Next


• Type a comment for your Photo Stream if you like, if not tap Post on the top right

That is it, you have now created a shared Photo Stream that is either available publicly or if private to those you have invited to view the photos. If you invite someone who is on iOS or OS X they will get a notification on their iPad, iPhone or Mac if they are using the latest versions of the OS (iOS 6 and Mountain Lion). Also others can leave comments or ‘Like’ the photo by tapping the smiley face icon.

Another cool aspect for OS X users is the fact that if you are using Photo Stream with either Aperture or iPhoto the updates to the albums shared by others happen seamlessly. You will get a nice notification in Mountain Lion that will open up either Aperture or iPhoto depending what you are using for Photo Stream. You can easily add new photos in the application to your own Photo Stream album.

A few downsides to Photo Stream are the fact you cannot add your own photos to a Photo Stream created by someone else. I am sure that feature will be added in the near future. As well as the ability to use iPhoto on the iPad and iPhone to create Photo Streams. Shared Photo Streams that are set to private can only be viewed in apps that have access to iCloud such as Photos app or iPhoto, private Photo Streams do not work on iCloud.com, they will also show up in Aperture or iPhoto on OS X depending which app you are using for Photo Stream.

This is probably my favorite feature of iOS 6 and I am glad to have something to finally replace my MobileMe Gallery. Check out my public Total iPad Photo Stream. Have you tried shared Photo Stream? Do you plan on using shared Photo Stream? If so please let me know via Twitter.

For more information about Photo Stream please visit Apple.com.

Episode 22 - Please Backup

In this weeks episode of Total iPad we talk about the recent issue with a journalist who was hacked via social engineering and had his entire iCloud data wiped. Rumors of a new iPad dock connector. YouTube will not longer ship with iOS. We also talk about Stitcher Smart Radio, Seven Poets, and of course our tips of the week.

Show Topic Links:
The Mat Honan Story
No more YouTube
New 9-pin dock connector (rumor)

App Pick:
Seven Poets Review
Seven Poets - Edmund Pevensey (Download)
Yelp - Yelp

iPad Tip:
Customize Spotlight Search

Listen to Total iPad on Stitcher Radio

The Easy Way to Get iOS Screenshots On Your Mac

This is a quick workaround that uses Photostream and sends your pictures to a folder which you can keep on your dock, now you do not have to email yourself nor open iPhoto or Aperture every time you want to move a photo from your iPad to your Mac, this automates everything.

Step by step instructions can be found here on iconmaster.com


Have a comment or question? Try me on Twitter @totalipad

Safari on the iPad

A quick little video showing you how to sync bookmarks between Safari on your iPad and Safari on the desktop. Also I will show you how to clear browsing data, what private browsing is and how you can tell if you are using it or not along with a few other tips about mobile Safari on your iPad.

Share your photos using iCloud

With MobileMe Gallery disappearing soon many people have wondered how they would be able to share albums in iCloud like they are able to do with MobileMe Gallery. With the iPhoto app for your iPad it is possible to share albums/journals with your family and friends, share links or email them a web link to view your album online.

You can download iPhoto for your iPad or iPhone, it is a $4.99 universal application in the app store: iPhoto - Apple

How to import your Gmail contacts into iCloud

If you are like me and want to use iCloud as your source for your email and contacts but you are currently using Gmail, you can easily import your contact data from Gmail into iCloud in a few easy steps. These instructions are for Mac users, sorry Windows users, I don't use Windows so I am unsure what you need to do. Bing the answer.

Step 1. Open Gmail, make sure you are logged in. Go to the top left of Gmail and you will see a drop down box, choose contacts.



Step 2. Select the contact group you want to export or choose All Contacts. Once you select your contact group you will see all your contacts in the middle of the screen. You need to tick the check mark box to "select all the contacts".
(sorry, I had to filter out my contact names)



Step 3. With all the contacts check marked that you are wanting to export you need to find the "More" button at the top, it is a drop down box, select export. You can export your contacts to anywhere on your computer, I would export them to the desktop for easy access.



Step 4. Now with your contacts exported > open your Address Book on your Mac > with the address book open > up in the top menu bar on your Mac > next to the Apple logo you will see "File" > Click on file and when the drop down menu opens select "Import".



Step 5. Now that your contacts are imported, if you want them to sync between your other devices using iCloud you need to make sure you have iCloud syncing turned on. Click the Apple logo icon in the upper left of your menu bar > System Preferences > Click on iCloud > Check mark "Contacts"



Step 6. Now if you want to sync another Mac computer just repeat Steps 5, if you want to sync contacts to an iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) you will need to navigate to the Settings App > iCloud > Contacts move the slider so it displays "ON".



As a side note you need to make sure you logged into the same iCloud account on all devices using the same Apple ID. If you are using a different Apple ID then the contacts will not sync.

If you need any help or have a question you can contact me via Twitter @totalipad

Share photos between iPad and iPhone

Last week I posted a video showing you how to beam photos in iPhoto, well everybody does not own the iPhoto app. Today I will show you how to share photos via iCloud and Photo Stream sync on your iPad and iPhone.



First you are going to need to turn on iCloud on your iPad and iPhone, open the Settings application on your device, once that opens on the left side you will see a list of Settings, tap on iCloud. If iCloud is turned off or you have not set up iCloud you will need to do so. iCloud is free to use on any iOS device that is running iOS 5 or later, Apple gives each free iCloud account 5GB of storage. You can also purchase additional storage if you feel you need more storage on your device.



With iCloud turned on you will need to tap on the Photo Stream tab and when it opens you will need to slide the button to the right to turn Photo Stream "ON".

After you have turned Photo Stream on, navigate to the Settings menu on the left and slide down a little bit until you see the Photos option, select that. With that open you will see another option to turn on Photo Stream. Slide that to the right so that it is "ON".




After you have your iPad set up you will now need to do the same on your other iOS device (iPhone/iPod Touch/another iPad).







Once you have this set up, photo you take will automatically appear in your Photo Stream tab section of your Photos app. You will also see this appear in other applications that have access to the photos on your device. A few things to note, Photo Stream only allows up to 1000 photos. After 1000 photos the oldest photos are replaced by the newest photos. This does not delete the photo off of the original device, they still will still appear in your Camera Roll on your iPhone or your Photos tab on your iPad.


Have an iPad question? Ask me anything on Twitter @totalipad

How to restore your iPad from a previous iCloud backup

If you have been backing up your iPad to iCloud and you need to restore from a previous backup, below you will find step by step instructions on how to do so.

First you will need to open the Settings app on your iPad, once inside the Settings app navigate to the General tab, with the General tab open you will need to scroll to the bottom where it says Reset and tap that.

Now you have several options to choose from, the option you are wanting to choose is Erase All Content and Setting. Once you select this you will be prompted to continue, basically asking you if you are sure you want to reset the iPad. Click okay. Once the iPad reboots you will see the screen go black with the white Apple logo, after that you will see the gray screen with iPad in big white letters, you will have to do the following:

* Pick Language
* Pick Country
* Enable or Disable Locations Services (either is fine)
* Connect to iTunes or Setup Wi-Fi Network (select Setup Wi-Fi Network). You will have to enter your SSID name for your network or you will be prompted to choose your Network if it is not hidden/private. Then enter your password if your network has password security enabled.
* Once you have connected to the network the iPad will now activate

After the iPad is activated, you will have several options:
* Setup as a new iPad
* Restore from iCloud (THIS IS THE OPTION WE WANT)
* Restore from an iTunes Backup

Choose restore from iCloud, you will now be prompted to login to iCloud using your Apple ID (your Apple ID is your email address registered with Apple) and your password. Now that you are signed in you will be prompted to Agree to the Terms and Conditions for using iCloud/iTunes, select agree and proceed.

After agreeing to the T&C you have a couple of options for restoring:

* Restore form the Latest Backup
* Other Backups, here you will find a list of older iCloud backups as well as iTunes backups.

Choose the iCloud backup you are wanting from the list, with that selected tap the blue Restore button on the top right. The restore will now start.


Okay, you have now successfully started to restore your iPad from a previous backup. A few things to note, since you are restoring wirelessly, it maybe take quite a while depending on:
* How many apps you have on your iPad
* If you have a lot of videos or music
* Pictures (these do not take that long but if you thousands of pictures it might)
* Data stored within the apps
* Some Games take quite a while, depends how large they are, example: Real Racing 2 HD is over 1GB in size
* Remember you are having to wait for every app on the iPad you had installed from that backup to re-install on the iPad


Be patient, it can take up to several hours, my last restore took about 2 hours, restoring from a backup from iCloud is slower than restoring from an iTunes backup connected to your computer with a cable.

If you have any problems or a question, feel free to send me a message on Twitter @iCrizzo

I previously posted this article on my personal blog.

How to extract a previous iCloud backup

Earlier today someone asked me on Twitter if it was possible to locally extract a previous iCloud backup? Well the answer is YES and NO, technically you can't because iCloud backups would be stored "in the cloud" but there is a work around for this, possibly.

@iCrizzo Hi, Is it possible to extract locally previous iCloud backup...

— Charles Bensoussan (@CharlesBens) April 12, 2012

You are able to access the iCloud folders that move data back to your Mac, such as Keynote or Pages documents, OSX Daily has a great write up on how to access that data. But the actual iCloud backup resides somewhere on Apple's servers and the only way to get that data is to restore your iPad/iPhone from a previous backup, I posted step by step instructions on how to do this a few day ago. So if you wanted to access data from a previous backup you would need to restore your iPad using that iCloud backup, once you restored the iPad using that backup you could then connect your iPad to your computer, open iTunes and backup your iPad to iTunes. This would then give you local copy of your backup.

 

To access that data you will need to open your Library folder, Click on an empty part of your desktop and use the keyboard combo = Command + Shift + G:



This will put you in the Library folder, now navigate to Application Support > MobileSync > Backup. If you know the exact date of the backup you are looking for you can right click on the folder and choose "Get Info", you will see the date the backup was created.
A few things to note about this:

* You should backup your iOS device to iCloud before starting this, that way you can restore it to its current state after you are finished.
* I am not sure if you can access every single iCloud backup that has ever been sent to iCloud, you will get a list of previous backups but from my experience it does not look like the complete list.
* This procedure will take quite a while depending how much data you have on your device that you are restoring, so be patient.
I understand this is not an ideal way of handling recovery of data, but if you are using iCloud instead of iTunes for your backup methods, this is the way it works. A couple of weeks ago on Total iPad, Patrick expressed his dismay at the way backup and recovery was handled. I guess until Apple comes up with a way to handle situations like this, work arounds are what we have to do.

 
If you need help or have a question, try me on Twitter @iCrizzo.

I originally wrote this post on my personal blog.