Simple Steps To Prepare For A New iPad Upgrade

So you have an original iPad or iPad 2 which is about to be put out to pasture.... What steps will get you from A to B, or one to three, without risking your data or your sanity? The process can be reasonably painless with just a bit of pre-planning. Even if you aren't joining the legions of upgraders this Friday, most of these housekeeping steps are still worth adding to your iPad to do list......

Make searching for Apps easy!

Do some housecleaning! If  you are like me, you download lots of Apps and live by the 80/20 rule (you use 20% of your Apps 80% of the time). Organize your most used Apps on your primary Home Screen for easy access. Place specialty Apps into folders for easier access. Tip: If you occasionally  have trouble finding a particular App which may be buried in a folder, go to Settings | General | Spotlight Search and be sure Applications are checked. From now on, tapping the first few letters of the App will bring it to the top of your search window!

Get up to date! If you aren't currently running the most current version if iOS, update now! If you are on a recent iOS  release, you should have had the most recent  update pushed to you wirelessly in the past few weeks. (Your iPad must be on AC current AND on a wireless network for the update to be applied.)


If you are unsure, tap Settings | General | Software Update. If you are behind the curve, follow the update prompts to iOS 5.1.

With this step accomplished, backup! Wireless backup was one of the under the hood improvements to iOS 5 which is so welcome. Still, most users backup at irregular intervals, and all users (hopefully) backup many more times to than restore! When it comes to data, I am a worrier and huge believer in the three backup principle of safe data preservation. The iPad's design makes this rule easy to follow if you are willing to take an extra step or two.


First backup to iCloud! If you aren't already backing up regularly, now is the time! Head over to General | iCloud | Storage and Backup. If iCloud Backup isn't "On" flip the switch! Complete the backup and Phase 1 is complete. Apple provides 5 Gigabytes of online space at no charge. If you have multiple iDevices, an iPad overflowing with irreplaceable data, or both, you may need to purchase incremental data from Apple to complete this step....

Now head over to General | iTunes Wi-Fi Synch ( this step assumes your iPad shares a wi-fi network with a Mac or PC running iTunes). Once again, be sure your iPad is on AC Current and has wi-fi enabled. At this point you can "force" a wireless sync creating a LOCAL backup. Step 2 complete. If you don't have a wireless network, you can easily sync and backup with iTunes by simply tethering your iPad to your computer using an Apple USB connecting cable.

With these steps completed, you have a three level backup-- 1.) Actual data on the iPad, 2.) Local data copied to your computer's hard drive via iTunes and 3.) An off site copy of your data "in the iCloud." Many will rely on either a local backup or iCloud backup, not both. This can be a serious mistake. I believe in data redundancy and you will too the first time you need to restore a file and discover it missing or corrupt from your only backup! I insist all Music Row Tech clients rely on data redundancy  with tested local backups and off-site backups (this is non negotiable). So, do not pass go, do not turn on your new iPad, until you are 100% confident your data is safe! In fact, if you have certain types of data, iCloud backup and restore isn't a good option for the upgrade process (keep reading for specifics).

This next step is missed by many, but will make the upgrade a smoother process. Get a collection of user names and passwords. You should be using RoboForm, LogMein, or another password manager. If you aren't using such a program, this is the perfect time to begin. If you are, you are all set. Restores don't retain user account data (for obvious security reasons). You will have to authenticate with web sites, wi-fi networks, and more. Using a password manager which works across devices such as the two mentioned nearby makes this a reasonably painless experience and allows for much more secure password protection in the process.


Turn on that new iPad and sign in with the SAME Apple Account you used to do your online backup. Once logged into a local Wi-Fi network you should now be able to restore from either your local or iCloud based backup files. There are some items NOT backed up using the iCloud service. If you have movies, TV Shows, podcasts or audiobooks which were NOT purchased through iTunes, the iCloud backup and restore will not include these items. This is also true of photographs originally synchronized via your computer. If you have one or more of these types of data, you should backup and restore via direct cable using iTunes.

If your new iPad has cellular access via AT&T or Verizon, you will need to either transfer your current plan to the new device or sign up for one of several tiers of service. Head to Settings | Cellular Data  to complete the needed steps to activate your 4G service.

Master Reset!

After you have satisfied yourself that all of your Apps and data have made the journey from old iPad to new,  you may want to prepare your old iPad for sale or lucky friend or family member. When you are ready to take this step open up Settings | General | Reset | Reset All Settings.

If you are looking to sell your old iPad with a minimum of hassle, Amazon's Trade In Program is currently offering the best pricing. There is one caveat, your old iPad will earn you an Amazon Gift Certificate not a cash check. The trade off is highly competitive valuation for your old iPad. (My iPad 2; AT&T; 64 Gigabyte was worth $406 in Acceptable Condition.)  Your iPad's trade in value will be determined by several factors including condition, type and timing. If, like me, you frequent Amazon on a regular basis anyway, this program has no downside. If not, this may be a great excuse to try out this retailing giant. Amazon provides free shipping too so head there now using the nearby link and see what your current hardware is worth. (The company's trade-in program isn't limited to iPads, or even electronics, so take a look around your house and/or office. Paying for your new toy may be easier than you think!)

Even if you aren't planning on trading up to the new iPad in the next few weeks, doing some housecleaning and ensuring your data is regularly back up is worthwhile. Take a few minutes now to do some iPad spring housecleaning will pay dividends.



Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments  below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).




I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, I appreciate your support.

Companies:   Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Verizon,

I have a long position in $AAPL, $AMZN

This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice.  If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments. 

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties. 

All rights reserved @2012, Music Row Tech (MRT). Any reproduction without the author's consent is prohibited.

Another Way to Sync..... If iCloud Rains On Your Day, Google Has An Umbrella....

Apple's Cloud syncing service has been decidedly problematic in my three month evaluation period. My Windows and iDevice environment apparently represents a challenge for Apple. Mirroring a typical, "mixed use," environment, using a mixture of iDevices and Windows PCs, ostensibly, makes me the exact type of user this iCloud service is intended to help. In my evaluation, Apple's link between Windows based Outlook clients and iDevices seems particularly prone to errors. At times these syncing issues can be quite serious creating circumstances where a user's data can be at risk. At its most destructive, your data can be deleted without warning!

While calendar sync seems slightly more stable than contact synchronization, even this service presents some perplexing issues. When setting up Apple's iCloud with Microsoft's Outlook calendar, the install insists on creating a unique copy of your primary calendar information. This iCloud calendar must  become your primary Outlook calendar view, but it has limitations. Reminders and repeating events either do not work or throw up error messages. Worse, in my tests, repeating events such as birthdays, anniversaries and the monthly recycle pickup, either do not get copied to this new "iCloud" copy or seem to randomly get copied multiple times between  your various "synched" calendars, creating multiple events across your Outlook file and iDevices. The end result of this process is you can (and in my case would) miss future events if you don't check both your primary Outlook calendar and its iCloud counterpart (which of course completely dispels any motivation you may have for transferring critical details of your life to Apple's Cloud Service).

The requirement to duplicate your entire calendar in order to place it in the "iCloud," with all its attendant limitations (such as repeating events ONLY being able to be posted to your primary calendar which cannot be your iCloud calendar!), is particularly perplexing because Google's sync process doesn't require this duplication and therefore circumvents these limitations! What's more, Google has very servicable, free, sync tools which work with your current Outlook profile.

Contact information seems more complex and even more prone to error. Apple's service took hours to sync the first time with my admittedly large 1,000 plus contact database which spans 25 years. The result?  Massive duplications! In many cases, contacts with only Company Name (e.g. "American Airlines") were duplicated a dozen or more times; contacts with a first name (e.g. "Randy") get similar duplicative treatment. Other, seemingly even more random, duplications swelled my Outlook Contact database from 1,000+ database to well over 4,000!

Worse, as this iterative process unfolded, one seemingly logical step I took was to sign out of iCloud services. (If you are unfamiliar, to get iCloud on a contemporary Windows box  requires a `separate "app" in your Task Bar in order to keep synchronization "current.") When I signed out of the iCloud Windows application, without any warning!, my 25 years of contacts were deleted from my local Outlook PST file!!!

So two bits of advise before moving forward!:

• If you are going to experiment with Apple Cloud Sync, or any other sync service, BACK UP YOUR OUTLOOK DATA before proceeding! Often this admonition is a boilerplate precaution you may, or may not, even read before proceeding. In this case, you should follow the "recommendation" very literally, your data is at risk!

• Take a second to export your calendar and contact data separately. Multiple backups are always good, when working with cloud based services and with sensitive data, multiple backups are a must! If you are unclear about how to back up your Outlook data there are many great online "how to" articles on the subject including this post.

So what is my conclusion? Whether you are an Apple fanboy, a Microsoft afficianado, a diehard Googler, or just someone ready to enjoy the benefit of having your data available on any device, anywhere, always current, iCloud is not a stable alternative at this point. Google is a better partner to this dance....

Google has managed to remain device agnostic, providing solid iOS Apps for iPhone and iPad users, unsurprisingly, has great Android apps,  while at the same time providing rock solid Google Calendar and Google Contact applications which run in any modern browser. The company also provides synchronization tools such as Google Calendar Sync which allows one way and two way  syncing using Outlook's default calendar. For many, these free tools will be more than sufficient. This landing page offers step by step instructions and tools for synchronizing your mail, calendar and contacts with a variety of devices.

If you want greater control, or want to expand your synchronization options to  include Evernote, Dropbox, Nozbe and more, the Gsyncit Utility is superb. This application is not free. Currently, the developer is charging $19.99 (or $4.99 for a major update from an earlier release). I have used Gsyncit for several years and have found the developer extremely responsive. (There have been points in time when the number of updates pushed out has almost been overwhelming, but behind the scene changes in Google's databases has made the updates necessary and it is admirable that issues are promptly addressed.)

Gsyncit can be tried for free before purchase. It is simply the most robust synchronization tool I have found. Highly recommended. Here's a partial list of its features:

• ONE and TWO WAY syncing of Outlook calendars, contacts, notes and tasks. 
• Sync with Google, Dropbox, Simplenote, Toodledo and Evernote
• MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS: Sync with multiple Google, Toodledo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Simplenote accounts and works with multiple Outlook profiles
• SYNC MULTIPLE COMPUTERS: Sync multiple computers using Outlook with a single Google account (gSyncit license required for each computer)
• MATCHING LOGIC: Automatically matches entries to prevent duplicate items when syncing.
• AUTOMATIC SYNC: Automatically sync items on a regular interval, between certain hours of the day, and/or when Outlook starts/exits.  
• DETAILED CONFIG: Detailed sync options to control how and what you want to sync.
• FILTERING: Keyword and category filters to control the Outlook content you want to sync.
• CATEGORY SYNC: Advanced options to sync Outlook categorized items with Google, Toodledo, Evernote and Simplenote. 

How are you synchronizing your critical mail, contact and calendar data? What is your experience with iCloud and Microsoft Outlook? Please share your thoughts through the comment section below.


If you find this article of interest, I invite you to share it through Google+, FaceBook, and Twitter!

I currently participate in the Amazon Associates Program and certain item links included within this post may tie to this affiliate program.

I have a long position in $GOOG

Companies:  Apple, Google, Gsyncit

This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice.  If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments. 

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties. 

All rights reserved @2012, Music Row Tech (MRT). Any reproduction without the author's consent is prohibited.

Chab's Friday Nightl How Hard Should It Be To Transfer a 90 Second Video?

Update and Amplification: Dropbox Technical Support responded to my inquiry. Their comments are noted below. It appears that Dropbox's FAQ Page doesn't fully describe the program's current limitations.

Also, wi-fi sync, even when enabled, does not transfer video files between iDevices and your computer. It appears the only traditional way of transferring these files is via a USB cable and synchronization. (Beware, even this transfer process can cause corruption of the MOV file(s)! A story for another post....


With all the talk of Apple's new streaming (PhotoStream) and syncing (iCloud and Music Match) how hard do you think it should be to transfer a quick, corny, home video lasting less than 100 seconds? Easy? So you might think, but not so fast! My Friday night consisted of an intermittently exciting football game (the Cotton Bowl), a cup of hot chocolate (I know, big night!), and some quality time with my best buddy, Chablis.


We retired to watch the second half in bed and clearly the game held no allure whatsoever for Chab. To amuse herself, Chab rooted around and found one of her Christmas toys. Next thing I knew, I had a seventy pound dog and a helpless panda toy sharing my bed and putting on a more entertaining show than the commercial filled halftime shenanigans on my Panasonic flat screen. Innocently, I thought I would preserve the moment using my iPhone 4S's vaunted video capabilities, perhaps do some quick editing using the surprising good iMovie App on my iPad 2 (which was also doubling as my eReader du jour of the evening and yes, I do multi-task very happily thank you) and then share this cutesy moment with a couple of friends and family members. Since I take almost no video (but I am an avid, lifetime, amateur photographer), I thought this might be a fun little sideline exercise between replays, timeouts and endless Bowl commercials. Well, it has turned into a still unfinished "little project," a blog post, and a great learning experience.


Please read on and spare yourself some of the frustrations I discovered for you....







Apple isn't even consistent across platforms and operating systems. The disconnect is even worse for those working with iDevices and Windows based computer systems (or some hybrid). One would might logically think that:

• iTunes equates to music
• Photos equates to.... Photos
• Videos equates to.... Videos (including commercial grade movies)

This is not the case! There is no one to one correlation anywhere in the Apple universe even among its own products and platforms! Steve Jobs you must be looking down wanting to shake some engineers silly! How did this happen? 


Now if you own a iPhone 4S (which reputedly has one of the best 'phone cameras/video recorders available), chances are you want to use it to capture your memories rather than the generally sub-par, some may same abysmal, cameras available on the iPad2. However, even simple edits are far more easily accomplished using the iPad's bigger form factor. Archival storing of these moments ultimately should be on a PC or networked hard drive (and backed up elsewhere if you think this is one of your dog's finest moments!). So this is why moving video between devices is really necessary and important (and why simplicity wins the day especially if you (Apple) really think your market is going to expand to my Mother, or Grandmother's, generations)!


So PhotoStream sounds perfect but isn't the solution. Ok.... Strike one.



PhotoStream means what it says! Apple's new PhotoStream feature is designed to effortlessly copy photos taken on an iDevice to other iDevices and computers. For the most part, this functionality works as advertised. But PhotoStream does not synch videos regardless of whether or not you are on a 3G network or Wi-Fi (and regardless of the video's file size). Well, you may argue that PhotoStream isn't Videostream. Ok. But where do you find and view videos on your iDevice? Under Photos.... Where do you find the Videostream App? You don't....




Still watching football out of the corner of one eye, I think, Dropbox! If you aren't using this tool you probably should, if you are, I don't have to say more. In fact, I recommended this as a "Top 5" App just days ago! What easier way to scoot Chab's victory over the panda between iDevices and my server backup? Well, I was promptly greeted with an error message that Dropbox cannot upload files over 180 Megabytes! Really? Wow! Remember, I am on my own SOHO network, not AT&Ts 3G which limits file transferring regardless of your account's user cap. I confess I shot the moment used Hi Def on my iPhone as an experiment, but we're talking 100 seconds here, not Spielberg's next hit or even a Chris Pirillo ten minute video podcast! So how big is a 97 second hi-def file of your dog chewing the stuffing out of a Christmas toy? Well, in this instance it is 181 Megabytes (rounded)!


For the record here's Dropbox's official position: The FAQ on this reads in part, Files uploaded through the website (by pressing the upload button) have a 300 MB cap. In other words, each file you upload through the website must be 300 MB or less. So, according to DropBox's own support section, even if you are on wi-fi and have available space in your Dropbox account, Dropbox won't let you add any file over 300 MB! 


But what is going on? My Dropbox account has over 1.9 Gigabytes free so account space limitations aren't  the issue. The actual file size is, 181 Megabytes (rounded). This is an astonishing amount of space for such a short piece of HD footage! Any would be videographers might well regret not buying the 64 Gig iPhone 4S! And any of you over the age of forty or so who remember true floppy drives with 128 Megabyte capacity (and we wondered what to do with all that space!) may well be flabbergasted by these numbers. A single floppy disk contained volumes, entire programs!, multiple document files, entire operating systems fit on a disk.


So why did Dropbox balk at an admittedly big file that nevertheless fell under its 300 Megabyte limitation? And why does Dropbox (via the iPhone) give an error message saying, "Dropbox cannot upload files greater than 180 Megabytes?" 


To further complicate the answer to this question, Dropbox does have video (and photo) settings which allows for varying degrees of compression, or no compression at all. My app's setting is, Medium. I am not one hundred percent certain, but I don't believe I ever adjusted this setting and I believe this is the default. This adds another layer to the question since any compression should further reduce the video's file size from its native 181 megabytes and presumably fall under even that cap..... At times video and other file types require temporary space requirements during transfer or encoding which is then released when the process completes. I don't know if this also plays a part in the issue (and even if it does, I would think the temporary file space would be needed on the local (i.e. iPhone) hard drive and not on DropBox's servers, but I can't answer this question yet). All of these "what  ifs" are far to technical for the average user to concern themselves with and, for most, this becomes a head another head scratching, roadblock to accomplishing the task at hand.....


I asked DropBox Tech Support about this issue and apparent discrepancy two days ago. When I receive a response, I will update this post with their reply. 


The solution?  You Tube!  Your iPhone's Photo roll, which is also home to your videos, has a convenient upload to You Tube option. I was able to move my family moment to You Tube and send an invitation link to the couple of friends and family who actually might get a kick out of this ninety seconds. You Tube even offers some rudimentary editing tools (which I didn't avail myself of after all of this) and serves as something of a timeless, free, off site "back-up" as well. I am not of the You Tube generation, but a solution is a solution and You Tube fits the bill.


Wireless synching over wi-fi which is baked into iOS5 is of course a better solution. However, like so much of the new synching and integration functionality in this new operating system, my experience with this feature is at best erratic and at worse, frustratingly flaky. Even when you don't have to reboot iTunes, your iDevice, and/or your PC, you can't "simply" move your video or other media without running the complete sync process which can take quite a while and this process still doesn't get the video onto another iDevice without more syncing, more work (more hoops). As I write, I am making a second effort to download "Part 2" of Chablis Meet's  The Costco Panda" via wi-fi. The progress wheel is still spinning thirty odd minutes into this second attempt.... 


I am not an evangelist of Google or Apple (or Microsoft, or any tech company for that matter). I am a believer in finding and using solutions, technologies that actually "really work" with a minimum of  tweaking and fussing to real world problems. In short, I am seeking answers that "average" clients, friends, and readers of these posts can implement. 


The "cloud" vision, and by extension "seamless" synchronization of your data across multiple devices, began to get a phenomenal amount of popular press buzz in 2011. Rightly so. This is a real life problem in need of a solution for both businesses and individuals. Apple realizes this and they have very publicly offered their first round (but not beta!!) of technologies-- which is what the ecosystem of iDevices, computers, and software actually is-- a group of tools and platforms intended to work together to solve a problem.  At the same time as this solution is intended to assist you, it is further enticing you to entrusting your life, your irreplaceable data, and your pocketbook, to  Apple's "walled garden" ..... My experience with photo and video sharing, as well as other iCloud related problems,  which have now included actual data loss, are very serious issues indeed (and which I will cover further in upcoming articles), suggest you should think twice, and probably three times, before committing yourself and your precious memories!, to Apple's solutions in their current state of development. 


Google has a wealth of products, many of which you may not even be very familiar with if you aren't faithfully following technology trends. And why should you? Reading this blog and others is your shortcut to the answers.... You have lives and businesses to run! After thirty days of real world experimentation with iCloud, Music Match, PhotoStream and more, I have to say Google's less touted solutions are generally more stable, robust, and yes, less elegantly designed (they "just work" which is more important than how nicely an icon looks on a screen especially when it comes to your life and personal data!). I will be comparing these alternatives side-by-side later this week. Am I ready to scrap my iPad, iPhone, and iTvs for Google's alternatives? No! There is still lots to love in Apple's world, but the answer isn't to tie yourself to any one company or solution; you must  use tools which work in the real world, and sometimes that requires looking beyond a single company's vision. 




The progress ball is still spinning! If I can ever get the second part of this video transferred (without using You Tube as an intermediary), I will let you know. Meanwhile, even if you don't ever see a viral video unless it is featured on The Today Show, or plan on creating one for yourself, you may want to get Grandma to click on a link to watch her grandchildren, or her favorite "adopted" pet, in glorious HD.


Have you found a different solution? Are you still using a USB cable to move these files between your iDevice(s) and your PC? I invite your comments....

Dropbox's Response:

Kevin - Dropbox Support, Jan-13 02:17 pm (PST):

Hi Randy,
The website's limit is 300MB and mobile devices are 180MB. There is no limit from a desktop computer.
We are working on increasing the mobile upload limit.
Please contact us if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Kevin

---

Randy Wachs, Jan-08 08:46 am (PST):

I attempted to upload a 183 Meg (appx.), 100 second, video from my iPhone 4S to my Dropbox Account (which has over 1.8 Gig of free space). I attempted this "upload" while on my SOHO wi fi network. I received the error, "Dropbox cannot upload files greater than 180 Megabytes." Your FAQ states a limitation of 300 Megabytes. Which is correct and what are the limitations of video transfer. (Also, I checked the iPhone App settings and it appears my video compression is set to "Medium.") Thanks in advance for your assistance.


I currently hold a long position in Google ($GOOG) stock. 


Companies: Apple, Dropbox, Google


This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice.  If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments. 

You may also contact me directly.  

All rights reserved @2012, Music Row Tech (MRT). Any reproduction without the author's consent is prohibited.

Is Apple Losing Its Mojo? The iCloud Has At Least A Few Raindrops....

Apple’s once seamless experience, the “it just works”  mojo which every fanboy has waved in front of Windows centric guys like me for years like a red cape in front of a bull,  is being bloodied of late. In many ways, it pains me to write about these missteps. You see after decades performing network support, coding for, and proselytizing the merits of the Wintel ecosystem (particularly for mainstream businesses of all sizes), I have embraced the Apple Kool Aid. For the past six years, I have advocated that Apple’s walled garden approach is a “better mousetrap” for many, especially for individual users and smaller businesses.  The  lack of mainstream malware issues alone more than offsets the TCO (total cost of ownership) equation for virtually this entire, massive, user community despite the premium you pay for that stylish Apple packaging and logo  on the front end.

The tipping point for me, and many others, has been the undeniably joyous mobile experience of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.   I have used every iteration of iPhone and iPad on a daily basis and have been accused of working for Apple, or at the very least being a shareholder (which sadly I am not, then or now!). I have happily related the personal and professional productivity these tools have added to my life on hundreds of occasions since the earliest days of the iPhone’s debut.  My tales and ad hoc demonstrations are responsible for “selling” dozens and dozens of iProducts to family, clients, and even passing strangers.

So why do I sense the winds may be changing…? Let me cite this recent, “unApplelike” experience:

Authentication!  With the addition of iCloud and its at times confusing subsets—Photo Stream; iCloud Music/Match—Home Sharing and of course the Apple Store, log in issues are surfacing with great frequency and causing (real losses of productivity, not to mention frustration). Ironically, in many instances, it is the long term Apple faithful, experiencing the most frustrations.

If you happen to be beginning your trip into Apple’s garden today, authentication can be administered in a straightforward manner. Sign up following Apple’s rules for user name and passwords when you register your first Apple Product. When you purchase your second (and Apple hopes your third, fourth, ….) use the same user name/password log in combination. When you add a new service to your personal ecosystem such as iCloud, iCloud Music (and yes they are different), Photo Sharing, Home Sharing, use the same authentication!  Adhere to a few more caveats which are known issues but aren’t highlighted in Apple’s many getting started videos and tutorials.

 For instance, don’t try to share your devices and content libraries with your family members.  Think you and your daughter should be able to listen to each other’s music while sitting around the house through your family iPad or through the family iTV? After all, you (Dad) in all likelihood paid for all that great “99 Cent” song content no matter what Apple ID your kid was signed on as when s/he hit that all so easy, “Buy Now” button! No way, Pops! Not if you (very rationally)  gave your kid their own Apple ID to say keep track of  their online spending (after all what Dad wants to give their kid unrestricted “Buy Now” rights to their Apple tied AMEX card at age eight???) or for any of number of other valid reasons. Multiply this several fold if your nuclear family (and number of Apple Accounts) is  larger than my little two person household (discounting the dog who to date hasn’t gotten into this circus beyond chewing on an Apple charging cord several years ago). Or how about reading an eBook and wanting to share it with your family member? Not likely (this one you can assign blame to the print publishing world who is even further behind the twenty-first century curve and the folks down the street from me on Music Row  many of whom still are living in denial of the “new” digital music world in which they live. But this is a topic for another post.)

Don’t travel internationally (you can’t use the same credentials in Apple’s Japan iStore, as well as several other countries,  and in America). Again, certain legal issues make this separation necessary, but we expect Apple to solve these logistical hurdles for us, or at the very least make them well known "potholes," and not let us fall into these problems unwittingly!

You think everything you buy from Apple is yours to use on any device? You have to understand, it is your authentication, now really a verified email address, not your AMEX number, not even your Social Security Number, which is the glue holding your iCloud world together (or will tear it apart).

Problems, some severe, arise if you have multiple Apple IDs; happen to have an Apple ID which is not a fully qualified email address (such as “rwachs”) or have at one time accepted an Apple email account tied to the soon to be jettisoned, Mobile Me experience….?  If any of these situations applies to you, the promise of putting your life in Apple’s hands and servers can be filled with stormy iClouds….

Reports of “losing” access to at times years of paid content; improperly or non-synching of important, critical, calendar and contact information, and more have resulted from these issues. Add imposed DRM (digital rights management) constraints imposed by book and music content providers (and yes there are still plenty of hoops to jump through!) and the problems simply multiply! Even after sorting through the various user name/passwords governing:

•          Apple Store
•          iCloud Data (Contacts/Calendar/Bookmarks/etc.)
•          iCloud Music/Match
•          Home Sharing

across multiple devices including iPhones; iTvs; iPads; iPods and computer systems (including a Windows box running  the now aging iTunes software which remains the chief local “meteorologist” for this new iCloud  vision of your digital life), and I have vexing problems. After more than thirty days of “experimentation” with these services My iPad2 still insists that, “This Device is Already Associated With an Apple ID…. You can use iTunes Match on this device with just one Apple ID every 90 days. This device can be used with another Apple ID in XX days.”

Of course my iPad is associated with an Apple ID! Ironically, until very recently, you couldn’t even use an iPad2 without tethering it to an iTunes enabled computer and “phoning home” with an Apple approved account! I don’t even know which ID my iPad2 is unhappily tied to (when I purchased this unit the first day it was available almost a year ago I only had one Apple Account to associate)...  Frankly, I stand a very real chance of typing the “wrong” ID again when my 90 Day penalty box finally expires (which will put me into the summer of 2012 before I can play music or  synch a book or app, off this device again)! By the way, the iCloud process kindly erased all my existing music on this device before telling me it “isn’t eligible” for the newly purchased iCloud Music Account or other iCloud synching benefits!

To be fair, authentication issues aren’t “easy” to fix and merging accounts on the backend of complex databases can be a challenge. Google (I am currently  hold a long equity position in this company) struggled to get Google Docs users onto Google+ for several months (during this product’s beta period which is the time to explore these problems!) But Apple certainly has the engineering resources to resolve these issues and should have every motivation to do so as it is its most loyal base of long term users that are bearing the brunt of these problems.

I spent several hours sorting through these problems. I resorted to creating simple spreadsheets to identify and isolate which devices and log ins might be causing the problems I was experiencing. I even contacted Apple Support in an effort to “merge” my user name with the verified, primary, email address tied to this account, thinking this would solve some of the issues. After an hour’s conversation and some internal discussion I wasn’t privy to, I was able to make my primary email, rwachs@musicrowtech.com my default Apple ID—my ten plus year, “rwachs” user name was not accepted by one or more new Apple services which require a fully qualified email address. This did resolve some, but not all, of my connectivity/synching issues.

All told, I spent about eight hours troubleshooting, researching, and contacting tech support on these issues alone. The $25 annual iCloud Music charge, bandwidth, upload time, and other costs are strictly incidental to my time and yes, “frustration.”  If these inconsistencies between new Apple products  prove vexing to someone with nearly thirty years of IT experience, I can only imagine what some of the less computer savvy—including  many of those I have encouraged to move  to Apple’s ecosystem through the years!—must be experiencing. Judging by Google searches and support forum posts I have read in an effort to understand my problems, I am far from alone.

Apple, with Steve Jobs at the helm over the past couple of decades, has built what is arguably the premiere technology company, not to mention the most highly valued worldwide corporation, by building wonderful products which “just work.” Whether it is reaching for the next new thing (e.g. cloud computing), pushing a product out the door prematurely (with the exception of Siri, Apple is not known for releasing products into “the wild” in beta), or simply striving to appeal to an ever growing audience beyond its core constituency Apple fan base, iCloud seems to be the first major endeavor in quite some time to leave Infinity Loop not quite ready for prime time…. Stay tuned for more.

How has iCloud impacted your life?  Have you had a smooth transition? Can you not live without the cloud in your life? Not live with it!? Please share your thoughts….

This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice.  If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments. 

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