iCloud for former MobileMe subscribers: Extension is now official

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Macintosh
October 9th, 2012 • 10:00 am

Last week, I wrote about the confusion induced by what happened on Oct. 1 when the deadline for former MobileMe subscribers and the free offer of 20 GB of extra storage on iCloud expired.

Well, Apple has now made things official by sending e-mails such as this one:

When you moved your MobileMe account to iCloud, we provided you with a complimentary storage upgrade beyond the standard 5GB that comes with an iCloud account to help you with the transition. Originally, this storage upgrade was set to expire on September 30, 2012.

As a thank you to our former MobileMe members, we will continue to provide you with this complimentary storage upgrade at no charge, for an additional year, until September 30, 2013. No action is required on your part. For complete details, please read this article.

Thank you again for using iCloud,

iCloud Team

And now when I look at my storage plan settings via the iCloud preference pane, the expiry date has changed from Sept. 30, 2050 to Sept. 30, 2013. So I guess everything is now clearer. It was still rather confusing on Apple’s part to send an explanatory e-mail to former MobileMe subscribers after the fact and to have temporarily used this Sept. 30, 2050 expiry date in people’s settings.

I am not sure how much the whole situation will encourage me to become a heavier user of iCloud… but I will readily admit that the strongest deterrent for me is the fact that the bandwidth of my Internet connection with Bell Aliant isn’t very good. Theoretically we’re getting 7 Mbps, but in reality we only ever reach such heights very late at night and early in the morning. For most of the afternoon and especially evenings and week-ends, the throughput is much lower, and sometimes even crawls down to near-dial-up speeds.

If this situation persists, I might have to explore the alternative (cable), although they don’t exactly have a stellar reputation either. I guess that’s what happens when you live in a small town with no hope of fiber optics in the near future.


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