[slider]

Yes. I know you need Lion to use iCloud.

I did a search yesterday to follow up on the 10.6.9 update for Snow Leopard, which was rumored to bring iCould support to that OS. All I pulled up was stuff from back in August/October, which I assume is around when the rumor started. My question is: Has anyone heard something more recent regarding this update?

My two sisters have Macs running Core Duo processors so they can't run Lion. Believe me, if they could pay the $30 and update to Lion they would. In fact, if Apple put out an update for SL and charged $30 they'd pay for that too. They'd even continue to pay an annual fee for continued use of the service.

In both cases, they've been longtime MobileMe users and have used the functionality of that service that will be replaced permanently by iCould this summer. They are not heavy computer users, using their machines for web, email, light MS Office, maybe some chat, iPhoto, iTunes, etc. Spending a grand for a new Mac just to retain a service they are already using (i.e. MobileMe) to replace a computer that continues to serve them both well is a bit excessive. I'm really not trilled about Apple's handling of this. I don't personally feel that Apple needs to, or should for that matter, include some of the unique features of iCloud to SL users, but email, contacts, and calendar syncing functionality should continue to work in SL - they are both on their second iPhones (4S) and will eventually purchase a new Mac.

Also, does anyone one know of work arounds, 3rd party apps, or other projects that are in the works to allow people not updating to Lion continue to use cloud based services from Apple? If Apple does not put out the 10.6.9 update as rumored, then I'd like to have a fall back.

Thanks in advance.

[P]

If it's just email, calendaring and contacts, can't they do that from the web interface to iCloud?

[slider]

Originally Posted by P 

If it's just email, calendaring and contacts, can't they do that from the web interface to iCloud?

Sure, if it came down to that I suppose, but it's not a very elegant solution, unless you're Go[og]ble . Apple must be following the same line of thinking as I don't see Apple getting rid of Mail, Contacts, and iCal in Lion or the upcoming 10.8.x.

I did a little more searching around and it looks like workarounds for getting Mail and iCal to sync with iCloud are available and appear to only require some setting changes in the respective apps.

Now just something for Contacts and we're good Although I suppose a manual sync would be an acceptable workaround. Neither of my sisters seem to be able to do some pretty basic setup things on their Macs, which seems to be more common than not, so setting their machines up is something I'll need to do for them.

[-Q-]

I've been able to get by just fine so far, with the exception of syncing contacts in the address book. Email and the calendar are syncing, but the address book refuses to do so. Not a big deal since the phone syncs fine but not sure you'll find a good solution for syncing contacts (there are some suggestions out there but I've yet to make them work).

[andi*pandi]

I happened to chat with an apple rep today about this. I thought I was just trolling a bot, but he gave me this workaround for mail, but did not guarantee it:

Setting up iCloud on 10.6.8 mail application:
If you are adding the account from mail preferences you will need these steps. Remove their previous account (after making sure anything important is backed up). Then click the ( + ) sign:

1) In the Add Account pane, enter in the full iCloud email address and password
2) Do not click 'Create' or it will try to automatically set up the account. Hold down Option and the 'Create' button will switch to 'Continue'. Click Continue
3) For Account Type, change the dropdown menu to IMAP
4) Change the Incoming Mail server to imap.mail.me.com
5) Enter the full email address for User Name
6) Hold down Option again and the 'Create' button will switch to 'Continue'. Click Continue
7) Check the box to use SSL and make sure Authentication is set to Password
8) Hold down Option again and the 'Create' button will switch to 'Continue'. Click Continue
9) Change the Outgoing Mail server to smtp.mail.me.com
10) Make sure the 'Use Authentication' box is checked
11) Enter the full email address for User Name and then enter the password
12) Hold down Option again and the 'Create' button will switch to 'Continue'. Click Continue
13) Check the box to use SSL and make sure Authentication is set to Password
14) Click Create, and then Click Create again on the final pane.

I've been holding off on converting to icloud because of this. Webmail is cumbersome. I've been using webmail for a week waiting for a new monitor, and it does not replace the desktop experience.