What's this iCloud thing and should I care?

[Blue_In_AK]

Mostly I use my computer for internet surfing and working on my photos -- I'm currently transferring all my pics to external hard drives and trying to get some sort of organization going on. is this Cloud anything that I need to be using for some reason?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. it is where you can put your files

and have access to them from anywhere you can get an internet connection with sufficient speed. there are several 'cloud' based storage services out there... iCloud is just the Apple variant. The problem is succinctly put : Do you trust them with your data?

sP

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I probably don't have anything that anyone would care about,

but I'm thinking the external hard drives will continue to work for saving my pics. The pictures I really care about are on my SmugMug site, so I'm probably covered.

So basically these clouds are just online backup systems?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. pretty much, yes.

i keep some pics and music in a cloud based system so I can get to them when I want... but you're right... no one would find them interesting and i have copies if my cloud drive decides to go belly-up!

it really is convenient. i use one of the free services because i am not particular. one of the nice things about the service i use (and probably most allow this) is that i can post a link to anything in my cloud drive to my mom (or anyone really) and they can quickly access it. it has been a great way to share stuff...

sP