Feel so stupid but what, exactly is Icloud?

[lacherlawny]

Nice. And I don't blame you for taking the safer, if longer route.

Be sure to go into Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and change your default account and calendar to iCloud. That way you'll be less likely to accidentally enter your stuff in the wrong place. It is also where apps, like Mail, will add new contacts or events if/when you receive them that way.

That is also where you choose how far back reminders sync. I forgot that, or I'd have mentioned it sooner.

So here is my serious problem with iCloud and indeed the entire iPhone/iPad operating system: the search function in contacts is practically useless. As far as I can tell, it covers only the contact name and company name. No city, no other location information, no phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and most egregiously, no notes. This is ridiculous. If one remembered the name or company name, one could go directly to the contact. One would not need to search for a name that you don't remember just then, but for whom you made a point of entering a note (such as where you met the person) that would help you find the individual.

The Palm operating system got this right more than 10 years ago. How can it not be obvious in the Apple world? Am I missing something?

Now we leave all our contacts to the iCloud and delete the duplicate entries from Outlook, which does search across all fields, including cities and notes. What is the point of having a notes function if they are not searchable?

Any assistance would be most welcome. But I have not been able to solve this.

 

[twerppoet]

So why are you taking them out of Outlook?

Unless you are stuck on Windows XP you can download the iCloud control panel and sync with Outlook. BTW, search works pretty good on iCloud.com.

Apple - iCloud - Learn how to set up iCloud on all your devices.

Or just use Google for you contacts. You lose groups on the iPad, but they can be synced with Outlook, and you can sync them and on the iPad using the Exchange setup. Setting up Google Sync with your iOS device - Google Mobile Help

And if none of this is acceptable, use one of the many third party contact apps that will sync with Google or another online service. Since the Contacts app and third party apps do not share a database, you can actually use both, synced to the same service (probably Google). That way your contacts would still work with all the apps that depend on Contacts, but you would have a way of searching and modifying them with better tools.

You'd probably have to open the Contacts app once after each modifications (so that it updates) but it shouldn't be too big a deal.

 

[lacherlawny]

Thanks for the quick reply. My office is a Windows 7 shop, with Outlook as the main client for mail, contacts, calendars, notes and tasks. When I used To sync first my iPhone and then both my iPhone and iPad with the laptop, everything was there. But I still never could search anything on the phone or iPad except contact names and company. Had to save all my searches for when I was in front of the computer and could use Outlook.

I believe I have done all the proper setups of iCloud on my Windows computers. I have the iCloud's calendar as my default, and iCloud's contacts as well - though that default does not seem to work when I add new contacts. I thought Outlook would be able to search through iCloud co tacts as it always searched its own contacts. It cannot.

Am I missing a way to search through my notes on the iPhone and iPad? This is a critical loss for me, and it just seems so fundamental that I don't understand why it is not a core functionality.

 

[yellowhorse]

So what happened to iDisk on iCloud? Do I have to download everything off my iDisk when they shut MobileMe down?

 

[thewitt]

So what happened to iDisk on iCloud? Do I have to download everything off my iDisk when they shut MobileMe down?

Yes. iDisk is going away. Apple has not announced a replacement service.

 

[yellowhorse]

I cant believe they convinced me to pay for mobile me just for them to dismantle after the first time they did it to us. 99$ was a hope they wouldn't be repeat offenders. Gallery, iDisk are all integrated into iWeb pages. Some people hosted through it. Doesn't seem fair since we financed the cloud.

 

[twerppoet]

On the other hand, most of us with MobileMe got free upgrades to our iCloud service. I've got the same 20GB available that I did with MobileMe.

Sadly, I never used that space to begin with, and without iWeb, iDisk, and Gallery I don't know how I ever will. Well, at least I don't worry about my backups.

As third party developers start taking advantage of iCloud, we may see space become more of a concern.

 

[yellowhorse]

Okay so your right lol. But we really used it in iWeb. I mean I can't imagine they are gonna dump those picture widgets.

 

[twerppoet]

I am going to miss iWeb, no doubt about it. The other services I can easily replace, but there is nothing out there that is as easy to use and as well integrated as iWeb; at least not with the same pretty results.

I'm looking at Sandvox now, but am not thrilled to be paying that much for it, and I need to pick a host server. That is not to say Sandvox isn't worth what they are asking, I'm just spoiled.

 

[yellowhorse]

Yah I really don't want to godaddy. They creep me out.