Tickboxes galore. Man, Microsoft sure does love those tickboxes. It's like the specification inspector. What's not mentioned is that you don't have to use one or the other. You can have them all.

If you find something hasn't been uploaded to iCloud, howcome? Usually, that it has too low a bitrate. (Incidental note: lots of pirated stuff is low bitrate.)

Been playing with iCloud? Had the message "This item was not added to iCloud because an error occurred"? This tells you how to remedy it (though not why it occurred).

"During a recent edition of TUAW TV Live, the question of how iCloud works in applications came up. After some internal consultation, we came to the conclusion that Apple has fully announced this feature and that its workings would not be considered confidential.

"In that spirit, here's an introduction to iCloud's internals summarized from material in my upcoming iOS 5 Developer's Cookbook expanded edition. In its simplest form, iCloud is merely a special folder."

A folder?? That's it??

"Essentially Apple sees iCloud as a consumer rather than a business service – and Apple have never really been interested in enterprises or business, despite the work they done to support policies and enterprise standards like Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on the iPhone.

"In addition to the closed, proprietary, non-interoperable system being likely to put off serious business users there are two other issues. It does not look like iCloud will not come with a substantial service level agreement, which guarantees iCloud uptime or quality of service, and they don’t seemed to have paid a huge amount of attention to security. CIOs aren’t going to entrust important data to a service that may or may not be available when needed.

"Still, even if it is a consumer service, Apple is a quality brand so one would have thought that security would be a priority, and these days consumers are increasingly aware of the need for keeping personal data safe, especially online."

Ian Fogg thinks iCloud is going to make it feasible for Apple to offer many more device features because of its hardware margins: "Apple still makes the vast bulk of its revenues from hardware sales despite having by far the most successful app store, music download store and various other services initiatives. Example: In the first three years after the launch of the Apple App Store Apple generated $8.3bn in revenue from iOS apps (1). But this figure is dwarfed by their iOS device revenues of over $100bn in the same period (2). Apple has great margins on those hardware revenues too.

"Because of that hardware model, Apple has enormous incentives to create new product features to drive device sales, even if that means offering those new features or services for free. Apple can be disruptive with “free” offerings too. The 'contagion of free' business models are not just the preserve of Google and Valley-based VC-funded startups."

"A little birdie says that about 50% of Apple Store customers who need to get their iPhones swapped have never plugged them into iTunes after the initial activation and sync. This is a big reason, according to this birdie, for why Apple Store Geniuses are excited about iCloud.<br />
"Backupophobes can get away with never touching iTunes after activating an iOS device. But folks obviously need to plug them into some kind of power source to recharge which, combined with a reachable WiFi network, is what triggers iCloud’s automatic backup feature. ..<br />
"I’m surprised to hear this number pegged at 50%. If true though, I find it interesting that it is still much lower than just about any statistic you will hear about how many traditional computers users backup."

"When you update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5, your favorite Apple apps become seamlessly integrated with iCloud. Just like that."<br />
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It's not clear from the illustration, but we're guessing that Macs have to be running OSX Lion. And Windows users? Sorry, no.