Since I just passed through a huge waste of time with my Calendar Disaster and thinking about how grateful I am to members of Fine Tuned Mac for their help in recovering the lost data (see its thread in this Forum), I've been thinking about how I could have saved a lot of time if I had been using iCloud. I have not used iCloud while waiting to see if it passes muster with no problems for a few months and also because of my hesitancy to let my proprietary stuff out of my own possession ("possession" means my computer and backups and iPhone). Still, the question comes up: What if I lose my iPhone somewhere and have no idea where I lost it? It appears that all of the security features and convenience features I've mentioned here are dependent upon a functioning iCloud account.

With that lengthy intro, what do you recommend as the most in-depth set of instructions for iCloud and its functions? I suppose I could buy a Missing Manual from David Pogue's crew. Is there anything better available online?

A Google search on "how to use iCloud" will turn up a number of "how to" dialogs and videos for iCloud. Apple also has a number of how to articles and videos on their site.

Conceptually you can make iCloud a very exotic and mysterious thing or, as I prefer to think of it, iCloud is simply an invisible hard drive that happens to be connected to my Macs and iOS devices at the same time.

There are caveats however,

• Not all apps can access iCloud, and in fact only apps that have been purchased through App Store or the iTunes App Store
• not all apps purchased through those two sources can access iCloud.

Your security concern is well founded and Apple demands very strict requirements for any iCloud aware app. This irritates some developers who chafe at Apple's security oriented constraints. Personally it makes me feel safer. I look forward to a day when I no longer need Dropbox. Not that I have any objections to Dropbox, I don't, but it would be just one less network connection from my various devices and one more potential source of vulnerability.

> ...and one more less(?) potential source of vulnerability.

Does your comment mean that I can't produce a new Excel spreadsheet on my Mac Pro and store it on iCloud?

Apple is currently touting iWork for iCloud beta, which includes Numbers for iCloud beta: "You can upload Numbers ’09 or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to Numbers for iCloud beta from a Mac with OS X Lion (v10.7) or later installed."

I'm not sure that's of much use to you, though; if you're just looking for a safe online parking spot for any kind of files, something like Dropbox is more appropriate.

Well, that does it! I'll not waste any more time on iCloud. I would like its protections, but what am I protecting if I can't store some of my most important stuff in need of protection there? I'm just grateful to this forum for letting me know both pluses and minuses. No Excel on iCloud equals no iCloud as far as I'm concerned. Numbers just isn't Excel yet. I've tried numbers a few times and it is gradually improving, but I have complexity in my spreadsheets that numbers just can't handle. It has a lovely layout, but it's sort of like comparing Apple's Maps with Google Maps. I've tried them both and I'm still with Google on that. I really don't appreciate it when Apple tries to force me to do something I'm not ready to do.

Thanks for the caveats re iCloud. They are greatly appreciated.