Q: I’ve heard in the news that hackers were able to download private pictures from the iCloud accounts of celebrities. I use an iPhone, and I think it has iCloud. Are my photos safe?

A: We have bad news for you, Anna. Your photos probably are not safe – statistically speaking, at least.

If you’re like most people, you use the same password for multiple websites and accounts, including your iCloud account. It’s probably also a very simple password that is easy to remember. If so, then your photos and other data are at risk.

Image credit: Apple

iCloud is the online backup service that Apple provides for iPhones, iPods and iPads. When it is turned on, iCloud automatically backs up your photos, files and settings over the internet to Apple’s servers. The first thing you should do is look to see if you have iCloud turned on in the first place. We say this because you actually have to opt in to using iCloud, it is not on by default.

When you set up your device, you were given the option to leave iCloud off or turn it on. If you chose to turn it on, you can most definitely turn it off now. Just go to the Settings app, tap the iCloud logo, and you can either turn off the options under Photos or go to the bottom and tap Delete Account.

Unfortunately, the major problem here is not how secure the site is, but how secure your passwords are. iCloud is about as vulnerable to hackers as most websites and services are, especially if users do not use long, secure passwords. You want to make sure that your password contains at least 15 characters, and is complicated and unique. Also, make sure that you don’t use your iCloud password anywhere else.

The best thing to do to protect your account, though, is to turn on two-factor authentication. This makes it so that even if someone has your password, they would need to also have your phone to log in. When you turn two-factor authentication on, Apple will send you a text message with a special pin code in it when you try to sign in, and require you to enter that pin code to complete the process.

To active two-factor authentication, go to appleid.apple.com, select Manage Your Apple ID and sign in. Then select Password and Security. Under the heading Two-Step Verification, select Get Started and follow the instructions.

By choosing a long, complicated password and turning on two-factor authentication, you can help to protect your private pictures and information from hackers.

Q: I have a music collection of thousands of songs on my computer. It’s too big to all fit on my old iPod. What’s the best way for me to take my music with me when I’m in the car or out for a jog?

A: Well, Corey, we’re going to go out on a limb and suggest that what you don’t need is yet another device to transfer thousands of MP3s to. The fact is, the days of having your music collection attached to a single, physical device are over. This brings us to one of our favorite topics: the cloud.

Image credit: Daniel Paxton / Flickr

Remember, “the cloud” is just a fancy way of saying that you are going to store your MP3s in some location out on the Internet, instead of on your computer or mobile device. This can make accessing your music collection from anywhere really simple. There are several companies that offer free ways to do this, including Amazon, Apple and Google.

We’re big fans of Google’s Google Music service because it’s very easy to use. All you have to do is download a program called Google Music Manager onto the computer you have your music collection stored on. Then the program will start going through your entire collection, song by song, and uploading them to Google’s cloud. Depending on how many MP3s you have this can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a few days. Once you start it the process is automatic, so you don’t have to sit and wait for it.

Once a song is uploaded you can just point your web browser to play.google.com/music where you can play your music, create new playlists, search for songs and more. On your smartphone, the Google Music app will let you access the same thing. The music is streamed to your phone or computer, so it doesn’t take up any space on them.

Apple’s version of the cloud, called iCloud, works almost the same way. It automatically stores all of the music you have bought through iTunes, as well as all of the TV shows and movies that you bought from them. However, it doesn’t store any of the music that you bought outside of iTunes unless you buy their iTunes Match service for $24.99 a year.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the king of the cloud, Amazon.com. Their Amazon Cloud Player service works a lot like the other two, but it also automatically adds any MP3s or CDs you’ve purchased on Amazon to your cloud collection. The premium version of their service starts at $10 a year for 20 GB of storage.

So, if you have an Android phone, or if you really like the low price of free, check out Google Play Music. If you’ve got an iPhone, an iPad and a Macbook, iCloud is practically made for you. And if you buy a lot of music through Amazon, you should check out their premium Amazon Cloud Player service.

Caution: Be aware that streaming music does use data, so if you have a tight cap on your monthly data plan these cloud services might not be the right place for your music. But if you’ve got a decent data cap you probably don’t need to worry. Getting access to all of your music wherever you are is so convenient, you’ll never go back.

Q: You mentioned a few weeks ago that people could back up their information to “the Cloud.” I hear that term thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? What is “the Cloud”?

What Is The Cloud?

A: That’s actually a great question, Alex. The funny thing is, most of us have actually been using “the Cloud” for years now. Anyone who has ever used an email service like Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail has already used the Cloud. For a normal, non-technical user, “the Cloud” is just storing your data on the Internet instead of just on your home computer.

However, the actual technical definition of a cloud is a little more complicated than that. You see, the danger with storing documents, media or files on any single computer is that no matter how powerful they are, computers can (and do) break. But imagine if you could store your file on three different computers. Then if one or even two broke, you’ve still got your document. The only problem is, every time you updated your document, you would have to update it on all three computers. That’s a pain.

But now imagine that you could treat those three physical computers as one virtual computer that your file is stored on. The actual, physical computers would essentially become invisible. Take this setup and multiply it by hundreds of computers, and that’s basically what a cloud is.

Now, you may have noticed that we said “a cloud.” The reason is that there are actually multiple clouds. In fact, tons of different companies offer their own clouds. They may work differently from each other, but they are all similar in that they allow you to store your files on the Internet instead of your computer, and they allow you to access those files from anywhere.

So how does this affect you? For most of us, cloud services are a really great way to back up documents, pictures, music or whatever to the Internet. And once it’s out on the Internet, you can access it from other computers or devices you own. For example, we use Google Music to back up the MP3s on our computers. All we had to do is download the Google Music program, and it automatically started uploading everything we had in iTunes to the Google Music cloud. When we add a new song or playlist to iTunes on our computers, those get uploaded too, and we can then listen to them on our phones straight from the Internet.

Clouds aren’t just good for music, though. Google and Microsoft both offer ways to do word processing in the Cloud, from anywhere, without even having to install a program. Google has a web application called Google Drive (we use it for Deemable Tech and love it), and Microsoft has introduced Office 365 which you can access through your web browser as well.

For Apple users, there is iCloud, which automatically synchronizes your files across all of your Apple devices.

If you’re looking to backup and share your files, Alex, you should consider using Dropbox. We’ve mentioned it before, but Dropbox is a service that allows you to select a folder on your computer, and anything you put in that folder will be automatically uploaded to the Dropbox cloud. If you install Dropbox on another computer, it will automatically mirror the folders between the two computers. There are a lot of other excellent cloud services as well (like EverNote, SpringPad and SugarShare), and there are more out there every day.

In a nutshell, why should you care about “the Cloud”? Because the Cloud allows robust backups of any data that’s important to you, and it makes that data accessible not just on one computer, but on any computer or device that you authorize. You know, pretty much just like email.

This week Ray Hollister, Tom Braun and Aaron Edelson tackle the tough questions, like “What is the cloud?,” “How do I cancel an AOL account?,” “I’ve lost my copy of 50 Shades of Grey! What do I do?,” “How do I get my money back from a crappy app?,” and “Is breaking out of jail bad?” (Seriously, someone still has an AOL account??)

All that and more on this episode of Deemable Tech.

Deemable Tech – Episode 5

Links we mentioned in this episode:

• http://myaccount.aol.com/
• How do I cancel my paid AOL account?
• How do I cancel my free AOL account?
• http://amazon.com/kindlesupport
• iClickr PowerPoint Remote for Android
• StageFlow Keynote Remote
• Presenter

Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, triumphantly walked out to a standing ovation at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Taking place in San Francisco, the gaunt and seemingly frail Apple CEO managed to address the thousands of developers in attendance by revealing major developments in Apple software that will be coming soon to consumers throughout the world.

The latest Mac Operating System, called Lion, will add 250 new improvements – such as multi-touch gestures for controlling applications. As the eighth major release of Mac OS, Apple has taken a step in a different direction by making the new release emulate the mobile iOS platform. Jobs has stated in the past that the PC-era will soon pass by, and with over 50 million Mac users across the globe his vision is coming into fruition. The software update will be on sale next month exclusively in the Mac App Store, and unlike previous Mac updates that usually cost $129.99, the 4GB Lion update can be downloaded for a mere $29.

Read more about Lion in Apple’s Official Press Release.

After selling over 200 million iOS devices like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch,
the highly popular mobile Apple iOS software will receive a much-anticipated update in the fall. Over 200 new features will be added including Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, and built-in Twitter integration. Users will be sent the new update over-the-air after it was announced that iOS devices will no longer require syncing with a computer to be activated or receive updates.

Read more about iOS 5 here.

iCloud

The headliner of the WWDC was undoubtedly the unveiling of Apple’s iCloud, a free wireless storage and syncing system. Based on the idea of cloud computing, which allows users to store files and applications on the internet instead of on their own devices, the iCloud will help further integrate and synchronize Apple devices in an efficient and simple manner. Using Apple’s servers, new files that a user loads onto their device will be automatically pushed and available in “the cloud” without having to manually sync or transfer anything.

Several features set Apple’s cloud computing service apart from competing cloud systems launched by Amazon and Google. The largest competitive advantage that the iCloud holds is its iTunes integration. As rumored before its release, iTunes will automatically push a user’s purchased song to all other devices running iTunes at no charge. For an additional $25 a year, though, you can access up to 20,000 songs from your entire iTunes library through a new service known as iTunes Match, which scans the iTunes library and matches it to the millions of songs that the company acquired licensing rights to. Users can also upload additional songs that haven’t found a match using the new program. Besides the iTunes integration, iCloud will also integrate with applications, documents, and photos.

Apple iCloud is set to fully launch during the fall, but some features are available right now.

Additional information about the iCloud can be found at Apple’s web site.

Full WWDC keynote below:

Photo via Ology