Four Reasons Why You Should Consider Upgrading To iCloud+ Today
And why it left me speechless
I’ve always been a subscription-less guy all my life. Except for my cellular plan, I never made any recurring payment for online privileges on my iPhone.
My life went so. Happily.
However, my Google photos storage got full lately. As you know, Google slew the free storage facility in June 2020. Ever since, I’ve been carefully uploading my memories. But,
The time I buy storage has come yesterday. “And it’s time I reduce my reliance on Google too”, I thought. So I decided to give the highly advertised iCloud+ a try.
As far as I’ve used it, it isn’t repentable tho, unlike many. And here are all the features that make iCloud+ a productive subscription and a high recommend.
#1. The obvious, Extra Storage — 50GB base
I bought the base plan of iCloud+ for $0.99 recurring every month. My free tier of 5GB upgraded to 50GB. It’s the most basic thing you get out of iCloud upgradation.
It gives me lots of extra space for my university docs, media, messages, WhatsApp backups, full device backups, and many more.
Now I don’t have to keep checking my balance iCloud storage often. I could blindly keep feeding my iCloud with data until it screams, “Hey look! I’m full”.
#2. A silently useful feature — Private Relay 🛡
The picture probably gives you a brief idea of what Private Relay is. Let me explain you how it works in detail.
When they hear the name ‘Private Relay’, people misassume it to be a VPN, of course, it works the same, giving you anonymity in the web, but it isn’t exactly a VPN.
It’s something less and something more.
Here’s how it exactly works:
The Private Relay deploys the ‘dual-hop’ architecture, as Apple calls it.
Whenever you browse for something, your activity will be routed through two hops or relays, which exist virtually between you and the internet.
- At the first relay, that’s run by Apple, your IP address is visible, but the website you’re visiting isn’t.
- At the second relay, that’s run by Apple’s third-party partners, the website is visible, but your IP address isn’t (You’ll be assigned a new IP address here).
So, neither Apple and your ISP (Internet Service Provider) nor the CDN (Content Delivery Network) could see both “who you are” and “where you are going”.
Each relay is kept mutually private to protect your privacy. That’s what the term “Private Relay” means.
Also, you can choose between two IP address location settings:
- Maintain general location: Apple keeps your location info intact, so you can get accurate weather predictions, for example.
- Use country and time zone: Apple assigns you a broader range IP address in your country and time zone. This way, your exact location can’t be found by websites.
As you see, you can’t fake your location to other countries with Private Relay, unlike you do it in VPN.
Anyways, Private Relay is a silently useful feature. However, it’s in Beta now, so consider turning it off if you experience issues with browsing.
#3. My most favourite — Hide My Email ✉️ 🙈
Hats-off to you Apple. I didn’t know I needed this feature.
If you’ve ever felt icky to reveal your personal email to some unsure website, the Hide My Email feature could save you. It’s a seemingly simple feature with enormous uses.
With this, you can create as many unique random email addresses as you want, which act as a wall between your email and the internet.
And then, you can
- send prank emails to your friends,
- send mails to someone to whom you don’t to reveal your personal email,
- sign up for a newsletter, or
- use it while filling an online form or signing up for a website.
These random addresses forward all received mails to your personal inbox, so you don’t miss anything.
Anytime you feel like being spammed, or if you don’t need an address anymore, you can consider deactivating or deleting the random address. And you’re disappeared.
Bear in mind — if you delete it, Apple can’t recover that address back, and it won’t be assigned to any other individual ever.
#4. HomeKit Secure Video 🚨
The HomeKit — as we already know — is a framework built by Apple that lets you communicate and operate IoT-enabled devices in your home or office with your Apple device.
The iCloud+ allows you to store the last 10 days of your HomeKit security camera footage in your iCloud drive. And none of that footage will count towards your iCloud storage, it’s an allowance by Apple.
The number of cameras you can add to your iCloud+ account depends on your plan:
- 50 GB plan: Single camera
- 200 GB plan: Upto five cameras
- 2 TB plan: Unlimited number of cameras
“All great! But if don’t make use of the full storage, I get loss, na?”
Not a problem. If someone in your family or friends is already an iCloud+ member, you can join them with the ‘Family Sharing’ facility splitting the recurring iCloud bills.
Upto five members can stay as members of the “family”. And everyone will enjoy all the benefits of iCloud+.
The extra storage will be shared by all the members, and their data will be kept mutually private. So, no worries.
Another way to get iCloud+
— Get the Apple One subscription.
It’s an all-in-one subscription that gives you combined access to Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and iCloud+ for a relatively lower price.
Plans:
- Individual ($14.95 per month): You get Music, TV, Arcade, and 50 GB iCloud+ subscriptions.
- Family ($19.95 per month): You get Music, TV+, Arcade, and 200 GB iCloud+ subscriptions. This is be shared by upto five people.
Conclusion
So that’s all the features that just left me speechless and made me never cancel my iCloud+ subscription anytime.
While the 50 GB tier and HomeKit video storage features are things I’ve seen a lot many times earlier, the Hide My Email and Private Relay are the special and exclusive-to-Apple-users features I really liked playing with.
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