iCloud: Who Needs One?
And why...
iCloud, Apple IDs, usernames, passwords, etc. can be a jumble of nonsense until you understand their purpose. iCloud is almost universally misunderstood. Is it a backup? Yes, sometimes, but not by definition? Does it keep things on my Mac safe? Yes and no. Is it an Apple ID? Yes, it is.
An Apple ID is any email that identifies you to Apple where you can purchase stuff -- music, movies, content, storage, etc. iCloud is an Apple ID, although it may not be your only Apple ID, but it makes it much easier if it is. iCloud is a syncing service that allows your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to share mail, contacts, calendars, photos, music, and documents. You can even sync your keychain and do other fancy tidbits that we won't go into here.
If you have an iOS device (iPhone or iPad) then it is essential that you have an iCloud, but it needs to be your own iCloud. The iCloud defines your own personal ecosystem between your devices. Sharing an iCloud is bad. You don't want to get your kid's friends' texts while you are giving a presentation. You may share an Apple ID for purchasing, or better yet set up Family Sharing. If you have youngsters you can setup iCloud accounts for them and link it to your Family Share.
Bottom line in all this is that you need your own iCloud. It's personal. Don't share it. Sharing is fine for some things, but I can honestly say that in the case of iCloud, it would be oversharing.
For info on Family Share click: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201060
And for iCloud for the kiddies visit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201084
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Apple's World Wide Development Conference
iOS 11, High Sierra, and a Speaker
On June 5th Apple had their WWDC 2017 Keynote and announced all types of things from upgraded MacBook Pros, iMacs, a $5000 iMac Pro, iOS 11, a Speaker, and the latest iteration of the Mac operating system macOS High Sierra.
There's too much to go into here, but to view Tim Cook's Keynote visit: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2017/
For a brief summary, the Nerdist has you covered at: http://nerdist.com/apple-wwdc-2017-round-up-tech/
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A Quick Word on Solid State Drives
Say No to SATA or Fusion
We get a lot of questions about what type of machine to purchase. The biggest thing to note in 2017 is that Solid State Technology is king, and all the rest... meh. Do not purchase a Mac in 2017 with anything but a Solid State Drive. They come standard in all the laptops and in the Mac Pro, but the iMacs get these hybrid Fusion Drives set up as a (sort of) RAID that likes to unRAID itself and then [insert expletive here].
Now, just to contradict myself a bit, there are a few cases when a Hybrid Drive may be okay. A Hybrid Drive is a Solid State Drive (good) and an old style SATA drive (meh...) merged together. If you need storage above 2 TB, it can be an option. Just remember that if you have a Hybrid Drive you MUST be diligent with your backups. We have also seen cases where it is possible to "break" the RAID on purpose, turning it into two logical drives, which can help with reliability.
Solid States still are a much better option, always. In fact if you do need storage it is almost better to go with a smaller internal Solid State and then use an external drive for the larger data. With the new Thunderbolt 3 technology it's almost as good as a large internal drive.
The hard drive has always been the bottle neck of the computer. As file sizes increase more needs to be pulled from those drives. A Solid State with its lack of moving parts is a good investment.
Just remember that you will need to order your iMac or Mac Mini with a Solid State drive as an upgrade. They don't stock these in the Apple Stores.
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